http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24409765/
So I thought I'd post for the first time...it's exactly what I should be doing the night before a final. The story I've linked to is about the declining levels of illegal immigration from Mexico and the associated decline in agricultural worker availability. It (briefly) raises a point that I think gets lost in the rhetoric surrounding illegal immigration - illegal immigrants do serve a legitimate function in the American economy. It's high time that Congress dealt with the comprehensive immigration reform legislation that's been buried during the election season. Immigrants have been bolstering our economy for decades - my great-grandparents were seasonal migrant workers from Mexico pre-WWII for example - and it's high time we face that fact. Benefiting from immigration that we force into illegal channels and then railing against it is just hypocritical. More later...
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LINA (yeah, we know who you are)- you know how I feel about immigrants, but for the sake of discussion: what do you think about the argument that allowing illegal immigration undermines the force of law? And what about the idea that illegal immigration might have negative consequences on legal immigration and how Americans view immigrants in general?
I'm not actually advocating allowing illegal immigration. I do believe it is a problem - both for the U.S. and for those who are trying to cross illegally. What I was trying to say is that we need to deal with the fact that immigration is essential to this country and we need to find a better legal way for immigration to occur. Our current system is clearly not working, and we need to do something to fix it. We seem to have this bias in our immigration system for those with higher skill sets, but most people in this country are not engineers and I think our immigration system should be reflective of that. We need to get away from the idea that immigrants from a lower socioeconomic level are somehow going to "steal" our jobs. That argument is very overused and, I believe, incorrect.
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