“What we need to do is caution against reinforcing the false impression that conservatives are against immigrants and immigration”
Your point is well taken, however, this discussion has to also include...HOW MANY....How many ‘legal’ immigrants should we allow?
Over a million take the oath of citizenship every year.
There are dozens of different visas..student, work, hardship..
Then there are the refugees not counted by ICE, but handed out by the State Dept.
We are allowing about 4 million a year in, with virtually no screening.
A Day in the Life of USCIS”
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/04/day-in-life-of-uscis-is-this-any-way.html
[snip]http://uscis.gov/graphics/publicaffairs/DayinLife_050629.pdf (click here to see orignial document)
Some of the DAILY work of USIS according to their own document:
* Conduct 135,000 national security background checks
* process 30,000 applications for immigrant benefits
* Issue 7,000 permanent resident cards (green cards -PER DAY)
* Welcome 2100 new citizens.
* Welcome 3500 new permanent residents.
Does this look like we are not allowing enough “Legal” entries?
That includes immigrants from Poland, Russia, India, and 100 other foreign countries that are not in Latin America.
You're painting with a really broad brush, AuntB.
My issue is not with the quantity of legal immigration, but the quality.
We should make it easy for skilled people to immigrate, not preferentially allow immigration from third world countries, which is what we seem to do.