I understand both sides of this issue. My wife’s parents are 1st generation Mexican-Americans. My Father-in-law worked his butt off until he was in his late 60’s and was pushed into mandatory retirement, learned enough English to communicate effectively and is proud to be a U.S. citizen . My Mother-in-law was a stay at home Mom who also worked hard to keep a nice house, care for her family and volunteered at the church where the family were members. They never “milked” the system for anything that they didn’t earn. They lived a simple, spartan lifestyle and were very proud of the house that my Father-in-law built by hand, they still live there to this day. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that come here, never attempt to learn the language, only work when they have no other option and manipulate the system in any way possible in order to get as many benefits as possible while never contributing anything.
What a lot of anti-immigration zealots forget is the large number of “non-immigrants” that do exactly the same thing, minus the language barrier.
My problem is not with immigrants, unless you have Native American in your DNA, you are an immigrant. My problem is with anyone who takes anything and everything that they can get without working or contributing to society in any manner. That, in my opinion, is the problem with modern society. Lazy, worthless people who think that society owes them something. A lot of people who immigrate here work their butts off to try and provide for their families. These folks should be welcomed with open arms, not vilified because they are not “real” U.S. citizens. A track record of employment should be required as part of the permanent citizenship process.