re: #174 lostlakehiker

They’re ALL engaged in at least one illegal activity: border crossing without permission. This is not a triviality. The United States, like every other nation, has a perfect right to limit who may live here. People wishing to come and live in our country are not entitled to do so just because that’s what they want.

Some prospective immigrants have a lot to offer. When they do get in, they win and we win. Other prospective immigrants have less to offer. At some point, the balance tips into negative territory. We have our own poor, who must find work in the low-skill sector of the economy or turn to public assistance. What can be the point of making these, our own poor, face ever stiffer competition for those jobs?

Mixed in among immigrants who just want a job [and at that, a job that some of our own people could use] are those with other motives and with a dangerous skill set. The larger the flow of relatively innocent, but unhelpful, illegal immigrants, the more difficult it becomes to detect and capture the truly dangerous ones.

We are a desirable destination. We are in a position to pick and choose who we admit. Why not put however much it takes into border enforcement, and admit, instead of illegal immigrants who may or may not bring us any real benefit, legal immigrants whose skill set fits our needs?

You’ve made a well thought out post on Immigration, but there are a couple of things that are significant that need to be pointed out.

first, entering the country illegally and overstaying a visa are both civil torts. As such are not prosecuted via the legal system. and are instead handled in a totally different manner.

Second, generally people who come to the US are going to be the best, the brightest and the most determined people. I’m sorry, but the stereotyping of lazy immigrants coming here to suck on the Teat of government welfare is a very bad one. I mean, think about it, you’re willing to travel literally thousands of miles, risk robbery and death from exposure or other maladies both man made and environmental. And come to try to scratch out a living. Do you think that someone who isn’t willing to work their ass off would put that much effort into getting to the US.

And in general we’re on the same page. I’m not disagreeing that we need to restrict illegal immigration. I’m saying if we want to restrict it more, we need to expand our immigration program so the best and the brightest and the hardest working people do have a chance to come to the US.

That’s a win win, because not only do you have the best coming over, you have people who feel welcome in the US, and you reduce the workload on the border patrols and increase the odds that they’ll be able to track drug smugglers or other people trying to enter the US to cause mischief and harm.

:)