Illegal immigration

Thanks for bringing this important subject to debate. If we don't solve this crisis soon, our country will be on the line. I think the best start to this problem is to get rid of the benefits for illegals staying in this country. Unfortunately, some people want to increase these benefits, even going so far as to pay for subsidized college education for illegal immigrants. This will only motivate them to stay illegally. I found a petition which tells Congress to stop this atrocity. Also, as we get signatures, money is donated to help the Border Patrol secure America. http://petitionearth.com/viewpetition.php?id=63 We must stay strong and united in this cause. America's future depends on it.

I think that you're absolutely right. Remember that not enforcing border security when millions have wanted to cross ilegally over the past decade or two is tantamount to telling the illegals that we don't really care whether they come into the U.S. Which, of course, given the intensity of their desire to immigrate, is a de facto welcome sign. It is not fair now to tell them that we were just kidding and that what we really meant when we weren't enforcing the borders and allowing them to work here with no penalty is that they shouldn't have come. Many millions have rearranged their lives and become long-term residents of this country, with our implicit consent, since we did nothing to stop it. On the other hand, because we did something that might not have been overly wise in the past doesn't mean that we need to continue the same policy now. We are perfectly capable of closing the border and of telling those who wish to immigrate that times have chaged and that we no longer have an open border. Our doing so is entirely legitimate: indeed, a nation nowadays would be very ill-advised to have an open border. But that doesn't mean that we need to deport those who have lived here peacefully and been constuctive residents. (By all means deport those who came illegally and refused to be civil guests after they arrived.) I don't think that it would be fair to those who have never been able to immigrate because they play by the rules if we grant citizenship to those who came illegally: I don't think that such a promise was part of the de facto bargain we struck when we did nothing to keep such people out. The penalty they pay is no citizenship for them and no chain migration. But we should let them stay. We should also close the borders and stop this insane policy of open immigration. Still, we don't send back those whom we essentially agreed to let into the country. But we don't need to make them citizens, either. --Stephen