I understand that it might be personal to you, but that does not make it legal. We know many illegal immigrants also living in southern California and most are good people who simply want what everyone else wants including the millions of people who are patiently waiting their turn to come to America. The problem is illegal immigration is unfair to all those patiently waiting to come here. There is no inherent right to jump the line because you broke the law.
To the extent illegal immigrants are filling jobs and contributing that does not change the argument instead it shifts the argument to whether we should have more legal immigration. An argument worth having.
But I don't think you are saying all 150 million people that are estimated to want to come to our country should be let in? If not how should we decide... a legal immigration process or let them bull rush the border and whoever makes it across the "finish" line gets in?
Your suggestion that we "cull" the bad and expel them, I don't think anyone disagrees with that... but what about the other 150 million people who are not committing crimes and want to come here. Historically, massive waves of immigration have always led to massive abuses towards immigrants and it is happening today among illegal immigrants. So what might appear to be compassionate is far less compassionate when you dig below the surface.
Even more interesting is the fact that as a result of the slow down in illegal immigration under Trump's presidency wages grew substantially faster for low wage workers than high wage workers as competition for low wage jobs dried up. More evidence that to many low wage workers especially people of color. Of all the demographic groups Hispanic wages grew the fastest during Trump's presidency since Hispanics and African Americans are most likely to find they are competing with an illegal immigrant for work.
A path to citizenship is only a real option once you have secured the border... again are you really prepared to create a "path to citizenship" for 150 million people and how will you support them for the 15+ years it would take to create the jobs they need. Historically, in recent years we add 2 million jobs annually plus or minus... so what are these 150 million people going to do.
Then there is the host of other issues a surge of illegal immigration would cause... at a time we are trying to make America sustainable environmentally. Biden just said he wants to reduce America's carbon footprint by 50%, how do you achieve that with 50% more people? In California we have a major housing initiative to provide housing for the millions we have that are homeless... we also are struggling with water shortages and a host of other issues... so if we can't build enough houses for people already here then where is the housing going to come from for another 150 million people.
As for the "browning of America", that simply is not something I worry about... in fact it is something I am contributing to... I have seven grandchildren and five are African American. My two children that have not yet begun families are Asian American... and only daughter who married a white man is done having children (she had two). So don't even go there with this "race nonsense". It is falls on deaf ears with me.
Trump was quite successful at slowing illegal immigration. Securing the border does not quite equate to "stopping" illegal immigration, but it reduces it to a level that our country can absorb those that slip through the system. ICE under Trump did not really target illegal immigrants who had no criminal history... many got caught up because they were living with others that did, but they were not the targets.
You can't fix the countries that are broken, no matter how much you want to, unless America is willing to deploy its military in those countries to act as a law and order entity and those governments are prepared to let us do so... neither is likely. It is naïve to think investment by American countries will matter... without a way to stop corruption any money sent to those countries end up in some powerful cartel or politician's bank account.
At a small level, my church was involved in trying to build a business in Haiti that would help to provide jobs for people in a poor community (it was a "fish farm"). The concept was not only to provide jobs but also "protein" for the poor of the village that did not get enough protein. One of the Haitian gangs seized the operation and "milked it" till it went broke. America poor billions into Haiti after the earthquake... how did that work out...
