Good Immigration Editorial (NYT)

We are heading down this road again. The country needs to have a working immigration policy, one that corresponds to economic realities and is based on good sense and fairness.

I agree with that statement even while violently disagreeing with the implied solution. I do not believe that the best solution is to legitimize and incentivize illegal immigration. I am sick of being called racist, anti-immigrant, or 'nativist' because I think that a sovereign nation should enforce its immigration laws. I am tired of my empathy being questioned because I feel that a factory paying criminally low wages to illegal immigrants (living nine to an apartment) because it's cheaper than paying citizens a livable wage might not be the best situation for everyone. I don't think American taxpayers should be the safety net for the Mexican government's corruption and negligence, and I can think of better uses for taxes than rewarding illegal immigrants with in-state tuition (while a military family stationed in many states still pays non-resident tuition).

I don't hate brown people and I don't hate immigrants. I don't live in fear of a thunderous invasion of Mexicans takin' our jobs and havin' their way with our wimmenfolk. I am, however, sick unto death of politicians blatantly and proudly circumventing the laws of the United States and offering bonuses to people who break them. There's no reason to bother following the rules and becoming a naturalized citizen if the President and Congress just gave a better deal to someone who just walked over the border.

I think that a sovereign nation should enforce its immigration laws.

If by that you mean that the 12 million undocumented immigrants should be deported, then you are advocating a plan that cannot succeed.

Of course, you're not actually advocating anything in your comment, but just spouting heated rhetoric.

The reason why companies can pay criminally low wages is because of the workers status as illegals (so perhaps are you proposing enforcing penalties on companies that hire illegals?)

Illegal immigrants pay taxes (including social security taxes which they will never be able to collect on), and so having them pay the in-state tuition rates makes sense (since the in-state tuition is supported by taxes). What military families do or do not have to pay is a separate issue.

No one has suggested offering bonuses to illegals, but as a practical matter we cannot (and do not actually want to) deport the 12 million mostly law-abiding, tax-paying, hard-working illegal immigrants, so there needs to be another solution. The proposed solutions have included some sort of guest worker program (ie, some way to keep the immigrants in a status that allows them to be exploited) and/or some path to legal status (usually including fines). All of the proposed paths to legal status only applied to people who had been in the country for a number of years (usually 5).