No limits? Is that the sole criterion to allow people to enter this country? Immigration to America is a privilege, not a right. And our immimgration policy should promote US national interests. There are literally billions of people who want to come here. We take in 1.1 million legal permanent immigrants a year, more than the rest of the world combined. We need to drastically reduce legal immigration. In 1970 we had 9.7 million foreign-born; today it is approximately 45 million.
No one is saying we should close the door, but our immigration numbers need to correlate to our needs. We decide who comes in, not the intending immigrant. We shouldn't be importing poverty and hundreds of thousands of high school dropouts annually.
And until you are a citizen, you are on your own. No welfare, no Social Security, no government freebies or benefits of any kind. If you need help, there are many mutual aid societies organized by religion, culture, or nationality.
No Social Security? Do you expect them to pay into the system and not receive benefits? Or if you make them exempt from paying in social security, you make them more attractive to employers than the native born. Their American-born children are automatically citizens thru birthright citizenship. They are entitled immediately to all the benefits any other American citizen is.
I don't think I wrote "no limits". I don't think we have had "no limits" in modern history, and I'm not proposing to change that. I just think that people should have the opportunity to apply, and expect to be considered -- rather than feeling like they are last in line, behind all the illegal immigrants.
Without the freebies, legal immigration would either drop significantly, or shift immigration to more productive people. And those are who I welcome: the ones that are willing to work.
In 1970 we had 9.7 million foreign-born; today it is approximately 45 million.
In 1970, we had 200 million people in the US. If you subtract out the estimated 20 million illegals, 25 million in 2014 is only about 66% more than the 15 million foreign-born that would be expected after a 50% increase in population.
No Social Security? Do you expect them to pay into the system and not receive benefits?
If they don't become citizens before retiring, yes. We can use those excess taxes to help dig Social Security out of the hole.
Their American-born children are automatically citizens thru birthright citizenship. They are entitled immediately to all the benefits any other American citizen is.
I agree, this is an issue. The US is unique in this respect, and I've read arguments that it was never the intent of the 14th Amendment. But, it would take another Constitutional Amendment or a Supreme Court decision to address it.