As the linked article from E Magazine relates, 700K people become US citizens and half a mil get work visas each year.
While the MSM, especially the cantankerous Lou Dobbs, focuses exclusively on illegal immigration, I've tended to think that the US needs to become significantly more stringent on how many legal immigrants are admitted each year. While it's somewhat "taboo" to state this, at least according to the article, I feel there needs to be a strong cap on how many people can be admitted as US citizens each year.
A cap coupled by laws such as Arizona's recent one that is holding business owners responsible for hiring illegal immigrants will make us focus more squarely on the people we have in this country now. My motivation behind this is not out of fear that some folks have that the US is changing into a totally different country than it used to be, one where Euro-Americans dominated the population numbers. That time is gone.
People tend to argue from nostalgia and idealism about immigration--that the US has always be open to everyone and the typical anecdotes of "my grandparents" or "my great grandparents came over from" fill-in-the-blank country "back then," so why would we limit immigration now?
Well, the US is a different country than the late 19th century or the early 20th century. And our immigration policies--both legal and illegal--need to reflect that fact that we need to take care of the citizens we have in this country now.
I've heard people (liberals and conservatives) say that Canada has a sensible and more stringent immigration policy than ours. Anyone know much about theirs?
Anyway, here's a link to an article in E Magazine that berates environmentalists for ducking the immigration issue, especially since more people living American-style "throw-away" and overly consumptive lifestyles doesn't benefit the environment.
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