The illegality is a very obvious and very sufficient basis on which to object to the current invasion.It must be our first order of business.
However, I urge everyone not to be fearful about expressing a concern with an excessively high level of immigration whether it is legal or illegal.
The open borders crowd wants America to have no cultural, religious, ethnic, or linguistic identity. They want it to be like NYC, a muliticultural swirl totally detached from the Norman Rockwell America of our red state childhoods.
Immigration is a matter of national policy (as in every country), and it is regulated in the political process. That policy determines how many newcomers we will accept in a given period and how they will be selected. It is an absolutely fair topic of conversation at all times. The open borders/RINO/neocon crowd has us real conservatives so cowed that some of us feel that it is automatically racist to have any concern over immigration other than illegal immigration. (Actually, they tried to identity even illegal immigration as a racist concern, but, happily, that blew up in their faces.)
We have -- right now -- far too many newly arrived immigrants in the country, most of whom seem likely to stay, regardless of whether they got here legally or illegally (although we must keep up the pressure for the illegal ones to leave).
Right now, I agree with Pat that we need a moratorium on all immigration, although I would make some exceptions for hardships and critical skills. While we are taking a breather to let the country try to assimilate those new arrivals who are to remain, we need to consider our policy toward future legal immigration: How many/from where/selected by what criteria. For example, I would strongly urge that "chain migration" be ended and that economic skills rather than family connections become the major criteria. And, I would want to act strongly to insure that our immigrants comprise a diverse group, not an invasion from a single culture that intends to setup a competing culture within our borders, if not actually break apart our country.
Opposition to illegal immigration is a no-brainer. But an interest and concern with how we regulate our legal immigration is just as legitimate. I urge everyone not to be cowed by the old canards: racist, xenophobe, nativist, bigot, etc. They are slanders from the anti-American left intended to induce such shame in the American people that we are embarrassed to regulate our immigration according to our national interests as almost every other country on earth does.
Thank you, Sergei for your interesting take on immigration. I must confess that I am concerned about a friend who married a Chinese woman he met on the Internet. She taught English at the upper level in China. Now that she is here, she is teaching Chinese to American Chinese children.
I take exception only with your “to let the country try to assimilate those new arrivals who are to remain”. Whether they are Korean, Mexican, or Russian, the people must assimilate into our society, adopt our customs to become Americans. The people who do not cannot be assimilated by outside forces, thus we become multi-cultural, which is so destructive.
Assimilation must be made clearly a compulsory condition of becoming a citizen, or of a prolonged stay in the U.S. with rights of any benefit.
Your point is well taken.
Then the boomers didn't have enough kids and we had to import labor ending the Norman Rockwell America....