As Congress tackles immigration reform and resentment of laborers from Mexico swells, few are facing the real nature of the crisis.

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The TRUE Enforcement and Security Act, introduced by Southern California Republican Duncan Hunter in November, would restrict the flow of undocumented migrants via a “security fence” along the entire 2,000 miles of the US-Mexican border in the name of homeland safety.

The fence is estimated to cost anywhere between $2 billion and $5 billion and is opposed by environmentalists, Democrats and the Mexican government.

In addition to erecting a transcontinental fence, Hunter’s bill would empower states and cities to enforce immigration laws. Nowhere does it acknowledge the role of illegal immigrant labor in the country’s economy. Instead, it sees immigration through the lens of the war on terrorism.

“We need to begin discussing this issue with the intent of reforming what I consider to be one of America’s greatest vulnerabilities,” Hunter says.

“Unfortunately, illegal aliens continue to funnel directly into many of our local communities and adversely impact our way of life by overwhelming our schools, inundating our healthcare system and, most concerning, threatening our safety.”

Many ridicule Hunter’s plan because—even if it were possible to build the thing—the fence would do little to stem the tide of illegal immigration, and would do much to stimulate immigrant smugglers’ creativity.

Rep. Steve Pierce, R-New Mexico, says the fence would “be subject to the same problems we are experiencing today, such as people tunneling under the [existing] fence or finding other ways to breach unpatrolled expanses of the proposed barrier.”

Others point out that half of the country’s 10 million undocumented people arrived legally through some sort of visa, and then stayed to work and live. A wall wouldn’t do much to stop them.

Even if the 2,000-mile border wall is not built—or only portions of it are—most members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, favor placing more guards, unmanned planes and infrared sensors at the country’s borders to prevent people from arriving illegally.

The trend to fortify the US-Mexican border isn’t new.

Since 1993, the money spent by the federal government annually on border security has quintupled from $740 million to $3.8 billion last year.

A large chunk of those dollars went to pay for Operation Guardian. Launched in 1994 under President Bill Clinton, Operation Guardian beefed up the busiest portions of the US-Mexican border. This had the effect of pushing the flow of undocumented migrants to desolate stretches of deserts. Since then, more than 3,000 migrants have perished—mostly of dehydration—en route north in the unforgiving desert lands.

The irony is that in the six years after the launching of Operation Guardian—from 1994 to 2000—the US witnessed the greatest wave of illegal border crossings in history. More than 3 million undocumented immigrants came to the US during that period.

Most of these immigrants provided labor that helped fuel the economic boom of the 1990s. During that time—with illegal immigration booming—the national unemployment rate actually fell from 5.6 percent in 1990 to 4 percent in 2000.

But their newfound visibility on the streets of America also sparked a strong immigrant backlash, especially in states where their numbers were highest and budget shortfalls were most acute. An early anti-immigrant response came in 1993, when the California Legislature barred illegal aliens from obtaining drivers’ licenses.

Then, in 1994, California voters approved Prop. 187, which would have denied public services to undocumented people—including tossing hordes of children out of public schools.

Prop. 187 was eventually deemed unconstitutional. But following California’s lead, Congress passed new laws in 1996 that limited public services to illegal immigrants.

More recently, Arizona and Virginia voters approved Prop. 187-type legislation, all part of a strategy by hard-line anti-immigration activists to maximize the social and economic marginalization of undocumented immigrants.

Now, California Republican lawmakers are circulating a proposal by state Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Riverside, to create a state border patrol whose primary responsibility would be to round up illegal residents and help deport them.

“Illegal immigrants cost the state Treasury between $5 billion and $10 billion a year,” says state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, who backed Prop. 187 and supports the state border patrol idea. “That figure is just for education, health and Department of Corrections costs to the state.”

That’s only half of the equation, according to some analysts who claim that undocumented immigrants’ contribution to the economy in labor, taxes and buying power is equal or greater than what they cost governments in public services.

But anti-immigrant legislators like Sen. Bob Dutton, R-San Bernardino, insist that legislation targeting illegal immigrants is in the best interest of US workers.

“We do believe [illegal immigrants] are taking jobs from people who can be working,” says Larry Venus, Dutton’s spokesman.

In the farm fields, at least, that argument doesn’t hold up.

“That’s absolutely false,” says Urquidez in Soledad, echoing what scores of growers, elected officials and farmworkers interviewed for this story said.

“I’ve looked for [legal] workers in the past, and they don’t last. They can’t handle it. Be they black, Filipino or white, they’ll quit after three, maybe five days, and complain that the work is too hard and the pay is too low.”

Farmworkers generally earn just over $6.75 an hour, the state’s minimum wage. And, because their work is only seasonal, about half of them earn less than $10,000 a year. Few have health insurance.

Timothy Chelling, spokesman for Western Growers, is succinct on the issue.

“If we didn’t need them, we wouldn’t be hiring them.”

Chelling says it’s impossible to guess what a head of lettuce might cost at the grocery store if all of agriculture’s illegal workers were deported overnight.

“It wouldn’t cost you anything,” he says, “because there wouldn’t be a head of lettuce to buy.”