What should be done about illegal immigration?

Some kids can overcome bigotry in their family. But unfortunately a parents idiotcy is usually passed on to their children in all its forms.

Does it have to be pointed out to you that a bigot would naturally think bigotry made good sense?

leveling standards

bigotry has been established because it has through history made good sense. it is not clear that it no longer makes good sense.

Does it have to be pointed out to you that a bigot would naturally think bigotry made good sense?

perhaps they are correct, I have never heard a sound argument here or any where else rubbing out social groups and leveling standards is good for humanity in the long run.

those who say that we must take in everybody as equals regardless of the reality.

Republicans have finally stumbled upon Democrats’ dirty secret on immigration. As long as the GOP is willing to concede a path to citizenship for immigrants residing here illegally, Democrats will meet any demand on border security—no matter how arbitrary and misguided.

It took them long enough. Pro-reform Republicans had urged their colleagues for months to treat the bill as an opportunity to boost enforcement through the roof. This week, Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota took them up on the offer, crafting an amendment to the bipartisan Gang of Eight bill with Democrats’ blessing that would roughly double the border patrol from 21,000 agents to 40,000 and build 700 miles of fence, among other reported features. According to The New York Times, the new border agents alone will cost $30 billion. If Republicans want to add an orbiting Death Star or hire every defensive line in the NFL to stand along the border, Democrats would be hard pressed to refuse.

“For people who are concerned about security, once they see what is in this bill, it’s almost overkill,” Corker said on MSNBC Thursday.

Doubling the border patrol hands Republicans a friendly talking point to bring back home to their conservative constituents, regardless of the policy merits. In fact it’s so friendly that they’ve done the same thing several times already. The United States employed about 4,000 border patrol agents in 1993; over 8,000 in 1999; and finally 21,394 in 2012. The government spent $18 billion last year on immigration enforcement, which activists note is more than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined. And the results look pretty good for border hawks: net illegal immigration from Mexico has plunged to zero in recent years, though a slowed economy helped as well.

The biggest concern going forward may not even come from the border, but from people who overstay legitimate visas: an estimated 40% of all people living in the United States illegally. According to a Congressional Budget Office report this week, the pre-Corker Senate bill is expected to reduce overall illegal immigration by 25% but cut border crossings by an even higher percentage. Those gains would be offset by an increase in other unauthorized residents, “in particular, people overstaying their visas issued under the new programs for temporary workers.” The Corker amendment builds on existing measures in the Senate bill to track visa overstays more aggressively, but the emotional issue lawmakers want to counter with dazzlingly expensive goodies is the border’s integrity.

Immigrant advocacy groups are decrying the amendment as expensive and ineffective. Many are already upset with the current level of security, which they complain leads to human rights abuses and diverts migrants to more remote desert crossings where hundreds die every year.

“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense outside of political calculation,” Christian Ramirez, Human Rights director at the Southern Border Communities Coalition, said in an interview. “The number of border apprehensions is down, net illegal immigration has plateaued, San Diego and El Paso are the safest cities in the United States and we have the largest law enforcement agency in the U.S. already in place at the border.”

The contentious bipartisan effort to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws achieved a decisive victory Thursday when the Senate approved legislation that would allow millions of illegal immigrants the chance to live legally in the United States and to eventually become U.S. citizens.

The 1,200-page bill, which now faces a stern test in the Republican-controlled House, carries a $50 billion price tag. It would double the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents along the southern border and require the construction of 700 miles of fencing there. It also would place new burdens on employers, who would be required to check the legal status of all job applicants using the government’s E-Verify system.