[RU88]

Excellent post. By concentrating almost entirely on illegal immigration we as a country have taken our eyes off the ball which has been rolling down the proverbial hill since Kennedy's immigration reform in the 60’s, that being legal immigration and the subsequent chain migration which follows it. The notion that we can assimilate this many people, many who have no intentions on assimilating in the first place, is preposterous. This is further compounded by the fact that the majority of immigrants, both legal and illegal, come from a third world nation that borders us to the south, making assimilation all the more difficult. It's not very hard at all to envision the American Southwest being majority Hispanic in a very short period of time. In my mind its not a question about race its more of a question of culture. You have by and large a vast majority of immigrants coming from a culture which in many respects is different from our own with little desire to assimilate. What we need to do is to take a step back, look at the policies that are currently in effect and decide what changes need to be made for the good of the country, not the good of the next politician who needs their votes.

[kabar]

Agree wholeheartedly. Professor Huntington of Harvard understood this problem more than 6 years ago.

The Hispanic Challenge By Samuel P. Huntington--The persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages. Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves—from Los Angeles to Miami—and rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream. The United States ignores this challenge at its peril.