Tom Gardner wrote:

Immigration is our second original sin after slavery. The whole concept of pretending to control border crossings is a total joke...

Immigration can be controlled to a much greater degree by enforcing
existing laws. Meaningful fines for any employer who allows an illegal
alien on a job site would be a good start.

America wants the cheap labor, just like we did in the days of slavery, but has yet to come up with a workable protocol...

I don't know that America wants or needs "cheap labor", but those
business that pay bottom wages for unskilled labor - especially
construction, agribusiness and restaurants/hotels are addicted to the
concept.

I think we should just open the borders and document anyone that wants
to come here but stipulate that there is no free lunch, they must work...

Any job an illegal alien holds is a job lost to an American citizen.
The
standard argument presented by big business is that Americans won't do
the jobs done by illegal aliens, but such arguments are transparently
self serving and laughably specious.

and learn English...

No puede hablar la lengua de la raza?

In return for contributing to our society they can enjoy the benefits.

Illegal aliens already enjoy many of the benefits of our society,
including free emergency medical care and free education as well as many
of the rights of the citizenry.

I'm not an advocate of set minimum wages but I don't like people being
taken advantage of because of situation...

The situation is that illegal aliens work for substandard wages doing
jobs that could be done by American citizens. As I see it, if an
employer can't make a profit hiring American labor, he's in the wrong
business.

Somewhere in the past, my ancestors came here for opportunity not
oppression...

Opportunity is where you find it, but the field ain't level if some
folks are playing by the rules while others are flaunting the rules.

Why can't our government go back to fostering our creation of real wealth within our borders?...

We can't create wealth because we don't make stuff anymore. Corporate
greed and the willingness or our political leaders from both sides of
the aisle to suck up to stateless multinationals will be our undoing.

The deindustrialization of our country is just the start, this situation
is unsustainable. I often think that this whole industrial revolution
thing was a big mistake!...

We can certainly agree that sending industry and jobs offshore is a big
mistake! It will enrich big business in the short term and devastate us
blue collar types in the long run.
--
Tom Stovall, CJF
Farrier & Blacksmith

http://www.katyforge.com

"I ride a big blue roan, I carry all I own,
In the pouches of my saddlebag, with my bedroll tied behind..."
Mary McCaslin, "Prairie in the Sky"