but so many people just focus on the border itself and worry about building a big enough/good enough fence and patrolling it constantly in its entirety. So few people focus on the bigger issues in regards to illegal immigration that can proactively decrease it, such as process reform and drug reform.

Just for some rough numbers, I have a friend (a wotmaniac-friend) who's husband is from Australia. Our good old friend Australia, yes? To come to the States, he had to wait a full year and pay thousands of dollars. He yearly has to pay a good chunk of money (I believe it's around 1k dollars) to stay on his particular visa/green card. This is exacerbated a bit, as they are not pursuing citizenship (When she finishes school, they plan to move back to Aus).

My main point in this is that it requires a great deal of time and money to come to the US legally, even for someone from a country like Australia, and who is working in a relatively desired field (he's a techie). Is it really a surprise that impoverished Mexicans without a hope in their own country look at the finances and time required for proper immigration, and choose to chance a border jump instead? This isn't to say we should just let them all in or not remove them, but people in desperate circumstances will find away around a fence. An entire shark-infested sea doesn't stop the Cubans.