Going by gut instinct alone can be a mistake

the job of being in charge of the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service.

When Chapman took over in 1972, the Mexico/ US border was porous; it took almost nothing to get across. Young Mexican men regularly simply waded the Rio Grande near major cities carrying a bag on their head and illegally entered into the US.

This was seen as a huge problem, was against the law and Chapman was seen as the guy to fix it. He worked incredibly hard.

Another thing I like about this guy is that, when he started the job, he vowed to visit every Immigration and Naturalisation Service office under his command. There were several hundred of them all across the country, some with only one staff member, but he went out and visited the lot of them. His predecessor had never left Washington DC.

Some jobs just can’t be done properly from behind a desk; being mayor is certainly one of them. Chapman managed to have the INS budget increased to 1000 per cent more than when he started by the time he left and he closed the gaps at the borders to a huge extent.

So, the ‘‘problem’’ of Mexican immigration was solved. But here is where the law of unintended consequences kicks in; a law elected members must always keep in the back of their minds.

When the border was porous, young men from Mexico would cross the border easily, but they would do it both ways. They would travel to the US, work for a while, get some money and go home.

Once crossing the border became far harder, they stopped going back home. Once they had paid the money and/or taken the huge risks to make the now far-harder crossing, there was no way they were going to go back to Mexico.

Then the desire for family came into effect and the young men started bringing or sending for their wives and children.

So instead of young men wading a river, children were crossing, and sometimes dying in, freezing deserts at night.

Instead of young men coming and going; whole families came and stayed.

The end result, according to the podcast anyway, is that the number of Mexicans living illegally in America has risen greatly since the borders were closed.

Who would have thought?

As I say; this is a great lesson in how making decisions based on gut instincts, without consulting, looking at it from all angles, and thinking through what all the outcomes of that decision could be can lead to unintended and unwanted consequences.

Tim Cadogan is the Central Otago district mayor.