GREAT POST...and of course you are very correct.
My husband's best friend is from Mexico...and he was in Vietnam, the same time as my husband was...he has two grown children...
He has never become a citizen...has his "green card"...but, he just says he never got around to it...his children are Americans...he speaks perfect English, talking to him on the phone, one wouldn't even know he was Mexican.
I am sure there are a LOT of immigrants just like him.
There are, millions of them in addition to the 12 million illegal. Many are no less an American than I am.