By some amazing coincidence, the US started accumulating a huge number of illegal immigrants right after Congress changed the immigration laws to drastically decrease the number of LEGAL immigrants permitted each year.
The arguments that the country needs immigrants are substantially correct. However, we need to combine a greater openness to LEGAL immigrants with a systematic and effective crackdown on illegals and those who abet them. (Starting with “sanctuary cities” that flout US immigration law – they are criminals, not governments, and only governments are permitted to collect taxes.)
There is precisely one group of illegal immigrants I have any sympathy at all for. They are people who did not really COME here, but rather, WERE BROUGHT here as children – and have since grown up here and become productive law-abiding (aside from an inherited immigration problem) adults. They never had a foothold in adult society anywhere other than here. If we can construct a reasonable and reasonably-enforceable definition, I’d say give these people an exemption.
Other than that probably-small group, any process for legalizing illegals MUST involve at least one of two components: (1) They pay a quite substantial penalty, and/or (2) they leave the country, wait their turn, and STAY OUT of the country until their turn comes up.
