ROGER KIMBALL: A Lesson From DownUnder:

I write from an idyllic spot on the Great Ocean Road, a couple hours outside Melbourne on the way way to Adelaide. A vast expanse of spotless ocean opens out below me, and there’s nary a ship or illegal-immigrant-bearing boat in sight. That been happening mostly up by Christmas Island, an Australia territory in the Indian Ocean. Hordes of indigents from Sri Lanka, India, and elsewhere had been crowding on to something that floats and making their way to Christmas Island, if not the Australian mainland itself, and, one ashore, sought out the nearest welfare agency for their first check. It was not dissimilar to what’s been happening on the Southern border of the United States, except, alas, there is no great body of water to impede the eager welfare seekers.

The Aussies, under the enlightened leadership of Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, seem to be well on the way to solving the problem. The key is way they call “off shore processing.” They is nabbing the chaps before they set foot onto your sovereign territory. Do not, I heard Prime Minister Abbott say on television last night, do not get on a boat and try to come here illegally. It won’t work. Just like President Obama, right? Strong leadership from a man who has his own country’s vital interests at heart . . . (just kidding).

If people know it won’t work, they won’t try. If they expect amnesty, they will.