Let me be absolutely clear. I am all for legal immigration. I welcome it, and I embrace those who come to these shores trying to make a better life for themselves and their families.
I am for the expansion of legal immigration, including the expansion of guest worker programs.
What I will never tolerate is providing a path to citizenship, the ultimate prize, to those who either are smuggled into this country by their parents, pay to have themselves smuggled in, or come into this country under the pretext of a tourist or student visa and then disappear into the shadows.
Those people knowingly flaunt our laws, our sovereignty, and are not the sort of citizens we need to move our country forward.
Being a realist, I understand that we cannot round up and mass deport the millions who are here illegally. We can through programs such as as eVerify dry up the incentives to stay in this country causing self-deportation. We can also stop providing government assistance and government documentation to these law breakers. Applying to a university without proof of citizenship or lawful permission to be in this country should result in arrest and deportation, not the granting of in-state tuition rates.
Failing that, I will reluctantly accept an amnesty program that grants permanent residency to those here illegally who have committed no crimes other than their immigration status, but I will never support ANY PATH TO CITIZENSHIP for these people.
I am not. We do not need these people. We need to retool our education system, stop subsidizing connected businesses, and stop spending money we don't have and enforce all of our immigration laws fully.