First of all, I have not seen any xenophobic comments on this thread whatsoever. Not everybody who believes in tighter border controls is white, or racist.
Second, if you truly believe in erecting a fence and enforcing immigration laws, why do you constantly attack people who argue for that very thing?
Thirdly, you can argue that millions of illegals is a good thing for this country, but you would be in the minority. This is a democracy, and in theory our policy should be detremined based on the will of the majority, not the beliefs of the elites.
What is a "pitchforker"? From what I can tell, a "pitchforker" is a patriot who will not compromise his/her principles, and one who believes in tough border security.
You probably do have a point that foreign workers do provide benefits to our economy. That is why I support a TEMPORARY guestworker program. If the President supports or puts forth a TEMPORARY worker program with with no path citizenship, for that would really defeat the point of a TEMPORARY program, I and many others would support it. However, I would only support it if it came with a real attempt at enforcement. That means build the fence, hire more BP agents, and start enforcing employer sanctions.
You are correct. No one here has been. To my knowledge, I have never seen you post in that manner in any thread. Let's just leave it there, if we could.
Second, if you truly believe in erecting a fence and enforcing immigration laws, why do you constantly attack people who argue for that very thing?
Because they are assholes. No other way to say it. I make it a point to say that I am pro fence. The big difference is that I want a fence to CONTROL who we let in, not to stop them from coming. Anyone who is on free republic immigration threads more than 10 minutes can see that there is a huge difference between 1) Those who are against immigrants 2) Those who are ambivalent..., that is, they may be pro immigrant in other circumstances, but the loopy out of control border situation has made them say STOP IT ALL, at least for right now, and 3) very small group, including me, who wants a fence more for registering who comes in than shutting down the flow. Although most freepers are, I believe, in category #2, there are many even there who make the most asinine charges against those in group 3. I don't know if they are truly too stupid to understand what we say or deliberately choose to misrepresent it.
Thirdly, you can argue that millions of illegals is a good thing for this country, but you would be in the minority.
Of course not! The question is not "is it good that they are here illegally?" People who put words in my mouth that way should not be surprised when they are mocked and ridiculed. The questions are: 1)"Is it good that they are HERE?" and THEN 2)"if it is good," (you can see my prejudice in the question) " should we allow them to become legal?"
I believe that they should be punished for jumping the border, but that the only punishment is NOT expulsion, but rather a heavy fine, and some type of further penalties to get on the road to citizenship.
I can say after reading your post a little up that I could definitely live with your proposals, even if we might not agree on everything. I can also say that the idea of a guest worker program is not well received on FR at all.