You, Grace are the quintessential American. A true melting pot of the cultures, struggles, and peoples making USA. America is more of an idea & an ideal, not only a place. We share the ideal of shared work, sacrifice, respect for the land and each other. Capitalism, especially vulture capitalism that puts profits over people is greed not america.

The white European immigrants who 1st came here also worked hard but stole the land and enslaved the Native indians and mexicans they found here. Some of them were our ancestors, who’ve conveniently forgotten these truths. Sadly, vulture capitalism, then & now, got most of its profits from cheap labor, slave or immigrant, and from freely raping mother earth, stealing her resources belonging to all.

Real immigration reform must take this history into account, and make reparations for the plundering of America & its people. The inconvenient truth is our government supported the overthrow of many Latin governments, including Nicaragua, San Salvador, Chile, etc, while it burdened Mexico and the rest with so called free trade agreements so capital could flow more freely than people. People are not illegal; such pirates actions are. That is why our immigration must factor these inequities in, and repair the damage they have done. We must not fine our hard working people who have been driven here largely by our policies and greed. They deserve honorable and quick paths to permanent residency, unless all they seek is temporary status, and a clear, fair path to citizenship. In the future, as we graying Americans compete with the rest of the world for good workers and tax payers to pay into our social programs, we may well have to offer them good housing & education, in addition to living wages, in order to compete. Or the whiners will feel the pain.

It kills me, when I hear people talking about how undocumented immigrants are taking jobs, not paying taxes, taking from the system, etc. I have news for those people. Most undocumented immigrants pay taxes, they are doing work that American or documented immigrants will not do, and they cannot take anything from the system. I believe there is a double standard because while we waste a lot of money in one border, we are ignoring the Canadian border. There are limits as to how many people can come from certain countries. Yet most Europeans countries have no limits. I want to make it clear that I am not prejudice. It is just that I see so much unfairness that it hurts my heart. We are all human beings and should all have the same rights. I for one hate labels. You know those labels regarding your race have to go. My parents came from one of the Island, Dominican Republic therefore, I have all kinds of mixes in me. My grandmother is from Spain, my grandfather is and Islander looks like an Indian, that is on my father side of the family. My grandmother is a Mexican, my grandfather is a mixed Islander, that is on my mother side. In the world of labels I am Latino/Hispanic/White. LOL, see what I mean about labels? My question is now, who is an American? If you live in this country, this is the only home you know, you love this country, you are an American to me. The “DREAMERS” are all Americans to me. There has to be a way to fix our BROKEN immigration system. It is time for everyone to be able to come out of hiding. I know I am jumping from one subject to another but there are so many things to discuss. For instance “ICE” is making a lot of mistakes taking in documented immigrants and sometimes American citizens because of profiling. My respect to all of and apologies for writing so much.

Paco, I agree with you 100%, most immigrants have already paid dearly. Perfect examples are the farm workers not only they do not get paid enough, no benefits, abused in all kinds of ways, yet they work longer hours than anybody, the work that they do is back breaking. Show me see the lines of Americans willing to do that kind of work. I am not sure, I believe it was in California that they tried to replace immigrant farm workers with prisoners, can you guess what happen? After a couple of hours in the fields they all sat down and refused to do the work. They could not handle it. In order to prove a point, we need to somehow organize a national take two days off work, campaign for every immigrant documented and undocumented who is not from a European Country. I can assure you this country would come to a halt.

With all due respect, I know u mean well, Ray, but fines are a crazy republican idea, and a non starter, just like they would have been after the civil war to fine blacks. When the real thieves & pirates of
Wall Street are fined and prep walked for stealing our home values, crashing the economy, getting fat bonuses & bailouts, then see me.

Well, with regard to fairness and justice I agree with you Paco. But the reality is fines are the only way reform with a path to citizenship will have a chance of passing.

“the line or back of the line” is pure fiction for most immigrants (with exceptions of highly skilled or diplomats). As far as fines: why? they have already paid & paid dearly w/lack of services & respect. If we don’t fine the Banksters & Wall Street who STEAL our wealth, why fine the poor workers who CREATE our wealth? Until we do, No way jose!

Ray, I second your comment about different lines for different groups of people.

Well said Paco.

Without a reasonable, short path to permanent residency and to citizenship, immigration is modern day slavery. No one is penalizing or jailing Banksters or Wall Street pirates! States that are allowed to
shortcut immigration through “border committees” would be taking over the Federal role of Immigration ILLEGALLY. It is they who are illegals! Immigration benefits our country, our economy, our jobs.
Detaining and deportation benefits the corporate prison & related industries & politicians. Basta! Take back our country; we are one!

Big Ag is taking a huge bite out of our food budget. We pay a lot more for much less nutritious – in fact, poisonous – food because of the bite big ag takes, but they tell us we’d have to pay a whole lot more for food if farmers had to pay minimum wage to agricultural workers. I say, smash big ag and feed the people!

Immortal Technique:

“…there has been a vicious mischaracterization of people of indigenous background in this country…if we’re basing the legitimacy of our conquest of the Southwest on the fact that we won a war and then took a bunch of people’s land then what’s to stop someone someday from saying ‘hey, we’re gonna carve a piece out of America, and if we can win a few victories, then we can call every red-blooded American here an illegal human being…there needs to be a lot more understanding of what actually is legal and what’s not legal and who made things legal and not legal…”

Brilliant.

When there is a job to fill and Americans will not or can not fill the position, then an" illegal resident" should get a chance before a Non- resident untill everyone here is LEGAL and has employment. This is not Low Wage Jobs but Good middle class jobs. We do not need an “Underclass” but an American Class". Imigrants appreciate being here and work harder than many natural Born Citizens. Birthright does not make good people, hard work and gratitude does. Service in our military should be a ticket to citizenship as well as hard work and loyalty to our Constitution. The question is how do you take 11 millon people and chose who will make good citizens and who will not? Being willing to sacrifice, with a penalty fee, and paying their fair share is all we should ask. Their response will be hard work or getting out. It is a big job but America has faced bigger chalenges. AFTER ALL, WE ARE A NATION OF IMIGRANTS.

Very good discussion. I would like to point out though that the immigration process is only insanely long for some. The “long line” myth is mentioned here a couple of times. The truth is there is no single line, some lines are quite short for wealthy, famous or well-educated people. Then there is a line for people with immediate family members who are citizens (which can be up to 50 years long), and a line for people with employer sponsors. For most undocumented immigrants there is no line they could have or could wait in.

I believe the solution lies in charging a flat fee for those who do not otherwise qualify for a Permanent Resident visa. I would suggest $3,500 based on current human-smuggler rates.

And where are the JOBS?