"Not many of the sons of those laborers will qualify for a degree in science, engineering or medicine."
Nor law, accounting, any of the professions, or most white collar jobs. Your point is well taken. Our immigration policy is upside down: we are overwhelmingly letting in people with little education, unskilled laborers, and often the lower rung of society. As a consequence, they will be highly likely to be a huge drain on our social "safety net". Until our immigration policies are dramatically altered--ending all illegal immigration and allowing in only those legal immigrants who are highly intelligent or highly educated--we and our children will pay a high cost.
Yes. And it used to be the other way around. And at one time I would have agreed with you.
But does it really help us in the long run if we import the cognitive elite of the world? It helps us but it hurts other countries, makes them susceptible to tyrants and revolutionaries that we will have to deal with farther down the road.
I'm thinking we should be more independent of the rest of world.