re: #31 chunkymonkey

What’s the LGF position on illegal immigration in the USA?

There’s a lot of people here. Who are you talking to?

Obviously you’re not for deporting illegal immigrants, at least not those who have children born in the country, or in which their families would otherwise potentially be split up.

Are you?

Should we not expel any illegal immigrants?

The criminal ones, definitely.

Should citizens of any country be able to simply show up and live in the USA?

What do you mean by ‘live’? Right now, illegal immigrants pay into social security and a lot of other programs they’re not eligible for, while working for below-legal wages a lot of the time or otherwise getting exploited. I’d rather have a guest worker program, an expanded green-card program.

My knee jerk response is to kick out all illegal immigrants, but I have illegal immigrant friends with families in the country, and I don’t want to kick them out.

What about the enormous cost of kicking everyone out, the devastation to the economy, and the fact that they’ll just come back? Aren’t those also good reasons not to do it?

So what’s the solution?

Expanded guest worker programs and a path to citizenship that isn’t based on a lottery. The DREAM act is a good start.