I have no problems with immigrants coming here legally within a controlled LEGAL immigration system. By controlled, I mean that the numbers and types of immigrants allowed in are thought out instead of the floodgates being thrown wide open. It was Ted Kennedy's immigration reform bill in the 60's that put immigration at over 1 million per year and ended the quota system of the nations from which we were allowing immigrants. Immigrants need to be assessed upon the number that have already come annually from their country, the skills and education level that they bring, and their viability to become a productive member and asset to society. As it is now, our LEGAL immigration system lacks any sort of intelligent control (thanks to Ted Kennedy and a Democrat-controlled Congress) and our ILLEGAL immigration is totally OUT OF CONTROL.
Any form of amnesty is unfair to the LEGAL immigrants who worked so hard, waited so long, and paid so much to come here LEGALLY. I would rather pay $20 per head of lettuce then to screw a single LEGAL immigrant in such a manner.
I agree that conditions in some countries leads their citizens to look at the opportunities in the United States and want to come here. There is a LEGAL way to do it. However, we can't let every one of them in. It isn't possible or practical. The majority of immigration comes from Mexico - a nation that has the 9th largest economy in the world. Almost every other nation in the world is worse off than Mexico. Why should we let immigrants from Mexico go to the front of the line? 5 billion people in the world are worse off than most citizens Mexico Why should Mexican immigrants get special treatment?
Even if we doubled our current LEGAL immigration rate to 2 million or so, we still would not even put a dent in the 5 billion that would be better off in the U.S. In fact, that 5 billion produces more new population (births-deaths=new population) than that 2 million. There's no way we can keep up with that. How many would you let in?
It is obvious that an intelligent immigration system would let in the best and the brightest and leave out those who would be a burden on our resources and society. But if we only let in the best and the brightest, and the brain drain continues from their origin nations, then conditions will WORSEN there and MORE immigrants will want to come, not less. Shouldn't we leave the best and the brightest home to improve conditions in their origin nations?
The bottom line is that we need to absolutely control immigration. All illegal immigrants lost their chance when the first thing they did when they touched US soil was to violate our laws. Bye-bye, thanks for playing. Next, we need to put a moratorium on any more legal immigration until we can again enact a logical, intelligent immigration program. In the meantime, we need to lock down our borders to prevent any further illegal immigration and to enhance our national security. Then, we need to re-open LEGAL immigration and enact a system which is somewhat similar to what Bush is proposing (matching willing workers with employers) but that system must not reward lawbreakers, displace American workers, depress wages, or do anything but put AMERICANS FIRST. Bush's proposal is doing things in the WRONG order. Did we not learn a thing from Reagan's unfortunate amnesty?
I agree with you and think that, far short of receiving special treatment, that Mexico should be punished for their contempt towards US immigration law and American citizens (i.e. a moratorium on Mexican immigration, both legal and illegal).
Having said that, I think Bush wants to prop up Mexico because Mexico is an embarrassment to the USA. Our message to the world is about the benefits of democracy, free trade, and capitalism, yet our closest neighbor, which has all of these things, is an abject failure and would absolutely be in ruin without our help (80-90% of Mexican exports are to US, American tourist dollars, illegal remittances back to Mexico, bailouts, etc.). Bush, therefore, says we must take the hit for their incompetence and corruption. We will be required by our politicians to accept the excess Mexican population that Mexico cannot provide for, and that flow will never end.