You see, the USA is a country of immigrants. Of course, the Native Americans were here first, but our insensitive forefathers took care of that
So, with this simple axiom understood, that the vast majority of Americans are descendants of immigrants (although some - such as African Americans - were forced to immigrate), we can begin to address the issue of illegal immigration.

What happened is this...somewhere between the settlement of Jamestown and other early American settlements and the present day some bureaucratic minds got together and decided that America was American enough - no more room for any more new American citizens...

To enforce this decisions laws were made...laws that made it very, very difficult to legally come to America - Laws that FORCE people who are pursuing the American dream to pursue that dream illegally...

Essentially: the problem is not with the immigrants, but with our closed borders and closed minds and fear of change...

So, my fellow citizens, this is my proposal:Lets go back to our roots, open our borders to everyone, and let all who choose to pursue the American dream, whether they be Mexican, Chinese, or Arab, a chance.

yeah! thats a great way to f up our country!

jackass...

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The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.-Adolf Hitler

Well apparently it didn't end all the bickering.
No solution will.

I think we should heavily reduce immigration requirements but we still need border security for the sake of national defense.
And I think we'd be better served by aiding the development of third world countries... Unfortunately the racists find an unlikely ally against this in socialists and... ordinary Americans... who don't like the idea of corporations investing overseas.
But improving lives elsewhere is the only way to keep everyone from thinking they have to move here to have a better life. Our life won't better if the population swells too much... and without development, the poorest countries will continue to overbreed and never educate their populations.
But in the meantime, what do we do with the illegal immigrants already here? Whether forgivable or not, they did break our law and unfairly cut ahead of other immigrants.

You'll never please everyone.

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"Conservatives say if you don't give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they've lost all incentive because we've given them too much money."

-George Carlin

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"Pay me, pay me, pay me my money now. Pay me or go to jail, pay me my money now!"

The illegal immigrants already here have an ally in Senator John McCain, who proposed a brilliant plan to give them all amnesty.

See his opinion here: http://mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?f...ontent_id=1686

An excerpt: While I disagree with the idea of paying back taxes and a heavy fine the rest of his argument is beautiful. De facto amnesty is already afforded illegal immigrants - lets just go ahead and make it official.

Sure they "broke the law" but only because the law they broke, is in fact, broken itself. At worst the "illegal immigrants" in this country practiced civil disobedience by ignoring a law that is inherently racist, egocentric, and selfish.

Mr. Java Black, you mentioned, Lets look at this realistically, for the sake of simplicity lets just compare China, Europe, and the USA.

Conveniently they all have a land mass of just under 10 million sq. kilometers -so, China, the US, and Europe (all 47 countries) are about the same size.

However:
America's population: 300 million
Europe's population: 730 million
China's population: 1.3 billion

I have lived both in Europe (Germany) and China, - and of course the US, since I am a US citizen...the quality of life is very similar between the three - certainly you could say "no, China can't compare to the U.S." - I say to that "Have you ever been to West Virginia!?"

Digressions aside, the point I'm making is - we have PLENTY of room in the USA - SO WHY IN THE WORLD ARE OUR BORDERS CLOSED???

Europe has over double the population, and they are doing fine - China has over 4 times the population, and people are living and loving their lives there.

Essentially, we could double the population of America without it making a significant impact on the quality of life of the average American...

What I'm saying is, fears of "swelling population" are unfounded...Have you been to Texas? Oklahoma? Montana? We won't run out of land anytime soon.

Border control for national security - what a joke...What are we afraid of? The Canadians invading? Mexico annexing the USA as their 32nd state? Lets use our heads and Stop Living in Fear!!!

The trouble is that in the long run, without any immigration barriers, our population will swell exponentially because the simplest way to improve lives in third world countries is to leave.
Third world countries already have a terrible problem with brain-drain. That is, the educated leave, the people who could help the nation most.
And due to underdevelopment, those countries continue to overpopulate.

In the long run it is best for everyone if these third world nations are politically and economically modernized... which the people in many of those countries would like... but corrupt governments get in the way and resources and investment from outside are necessary.
But we must get away from simply throwing money at the problem and into actual investment so that the people of those nations can work for themselves and so that the investors can legitimately take a profit in return.

Economic development helps boost social development and will lead to a decrease in the incentives to overbreed. Also people will be able to make a good living without leaving.
Only when all nations are worth living in can we truly open society and the world economy by removing all non-security barriers to entry.

In the meantime, I will say that the requirements of Western nations are part of the problem. By allowing in only the most skilled and educated we both contribute to braindrain and leave the poor without a mode for voting with their feet against corrupt governments.

But you see, now we have two different problems that the solution to each complicates the other.

But investment... Corporate investment along with aids and incentives from developed nations could give the educated the motivation they need to stay in their countries (like in India) and build over time a potential for better life for all.
It takes time however, and in the meantime our policy must be designed for short-term with the long-term in mind.

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"Conservatives say if you don't give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they've lost all incentive because we've given them too much money."

-George Carlin