LITTLE THINGS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

It's true for NFL running backs rushing toward a first down, young
couples saving for a first house and grandfathers trying to lower
their cholesterol. You'll never see them turn down an extra six
inches, an extra few dollars or a cholesterol reading a point lower
than last month.

Since little differences matter, they do the little things that bring
success alongside the big things.

Running backs know speed and strength are key, but the best ones
correct imperfect vision with laser surgery and drink a mixture of
Gatorade and water perfectly suited to their metabolism.

Young couples understand that salary and investments build the wealth
needed to buy a home, but they cut coupons and skip popcorn at the
movies to hasten things.

The heart-sick grandfathers take medicine, cut out red meat and
increase exercise, but if the evening news hints that red wine lowers
cholesterol, they'll sip a glass each night.

That's how you behave when the stakes are high. Ask a pregnant woman,
or an architect who designs bridges.

But don't ask a member of Congress working on immigration reform.

Everyone seems to agree illegal immigration is an important topic,
and we discuss the big things: border security, workplace enforcement
and the best way to admit immigrants legally.

In this column, however, I want to focus on the little things for
once. There are plenty of policies nowhere near as important to
immigration reform as the things I've just mentioned, but worthwhile
items to think about nonetheless. If you think ending illegal
immigration is important, every little bit helps.

Let's start with overstaying student, work and tourist visas.

A partial solution is to hold the diplomas of foreign students, a
portion of workers' wages and a deposit for vacationers. Those border
security deposits could be returned upon timely departure and
forfeited otherwise.

Another problem: farm subsidies.

Western Europe and the United States use tariffs and subsidies to
keep domestic farmers competitive on the world market. Third World
farmers see their prices undercut and their market share diminished.
Because agriculture is one of the few things that Third World
countries can do well, their failing farm sectors cause a great many
Africans and Latin Americans to flee for economic reasons. Many end
up harvesting agriculture in California or Bordeaux, France.

Another enemy is the war on drugs.

Afghans who grow poppies and Colombians who grow cocaine don't head
north for better jobs. Drug smugglers don't spend millions developing
ways around border security, from rural routes to bribed
border-patrol officers, unless a black market inflates the value of
their goods. Customs officials preoccupied with marijuana shipments
don't detect human cargo or weapons of mass destruction as well as
they would without the distraction.

Since the war on drugs is an abject failure anyway, why not redirect
its resources toward improving border security, meanwhile eliminating
the biggest incentive for breaching it (not to mention the life blood
of illegal immigrant gangs)?

Finally, let's look at uninformed optimism.

A great many immigrants going north understand the hardships they'll
face, but a minority underestimate the difficulty of the path they've
chosen. The United States should launch an informational campaign
meant to inform illegal immigrants about the dangers they'll face and
the opportunities they'll lack due to their illegal status, even if
they make it to America.

Such a campaign would be particularly effective informing women who
unwittingly indenture themselves into sexual servitude about the
reality of the job they are being offered to pay for their passage.

Any single policy I've mentioned is insignificant as a means to
lessen illegal immigration compared to border security, workplace
enforcement and the legal system of immigration. But we face an
enormous problem rooted in a bunch of little factors as well as a few big ones.

And every little bit helps.