Worker Mismatch Along America's Southern Border

We need better enforcement of the labor laws, and better information on which jobs are newly available after these arrests. Those on welfare need to be given information and transportation to fill these jobs.

Publicizing the illegal activity and labor arrests would send a clear signal: There are jobs available, and the States can move those on welfare to where there are respectable jobs.

The President claims that there are Americans who do not want to work, and that illegal aliens have to fill those jobs.

The President has proposed sending the National Guard to do support jobs and paperwork. That's not what the National Guard is supposed to do. They need to be ready for a a future emergency, not a current labor problem.

There are summer fires coming. The last thing we need is to have what we had during Katrina -- the troops far away in Iraq while they were needed elsewhere. With the summer fires, the last thing we need is to have the forces making political hay, when they need to be well rested, ready to making fire lines.

After Katrina, people lost their lives, homes, and jobs. Thousands if not millions of lives were disrupted. After the San Francisco Earthquake there were thousands if not millions of troops repositioned to address the issue.

Yes, Katrina has been devastating, but there are also solutions. The way forward is to ensure when there are arrests, those job vacancies are publicized, and those who are on welfare are given the support to fill these newly vacant jobs: Travel arrangements, hotel accommodations, and local area assistance to quickly move them into respectable shelter, and ready to fully work in the new location.

Those who lost their jobs during Katrina must have priority for these new jobs on the border. Those on welfare in the affected states – Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California -- need to be given the privilege of having a meaningful job in the state-level border and employment issue.

There could be a matching system. For every dollar that the states save by moving personnel off the welfare system into these important border-support jobs, the states should be rewarded with some sort of financial matching program. The goal here isn’t to create another welfare system, but to encourage the state to transfer the available labor to the available requirement.

If there were arrests -- thereby opening positions -- perhaps those who are on welfare could be given a plane ticket to take these positions.