No doubt our immigration system needs reform or even that we need more "legal" immigrants than the current quota provides. But the impact of illegal immigration on the poor many of them legal immigrants has been catastrophic.
In California where I live, illegal immigrants have suppressed wages for low wage workers not high wage workers. They compete for low-income housing. And they strain social services.
They have also contributed to increased sex and human trafficking in my county (by providing traffickers an additional source of victims) and they have contributed to property crimes as they seek ways to survive in a country that simply does not have as much need for unskilled workers as they thought.
The lack of jobs means young men are easily recruited into gangs. Adding another layer of crime and danger to our existing problems in this area.
Lastly, Biden's FBI (not some conservative group) has issued a warning that the perpetrators of our next 9/11 event have most likely entered this country illegally. Not screening immigrants for criminal backgrounds and health issues are serious threats to our country safety.
America is running huge deficits at the federal level, cities and states are rapidly running out of funds or already have to implement many of your proposals.
Your suggestions are well intentioned, but deeply flawed based on reality. America does have the capacity to absorb more legal immigrants than most countries. We also have a need for immigrants. But like every country we have limits to how many immigrants we can deploy without adding to existing social problems.
A major problem with progressive liberal ideology with respect to immigrants is that while they oppose using "merit" (skills) to screen immigrants for acceptance, the more skilled immigrants are, the more immigrants our country can absorb.
Bill Clinton said it best when he said America is a nation of immigrants governed by laws. His comments were echoed by a Fellow at the Hoover Institute, who said, immigrants come to this country most of the time for one of two reasons. They seek economic opportunity or are searching for a country where the rule of law is practiced.
Opportunity is linked to skills and the rule of law is linked to process. Let's not lose sight of what it is that has causes people to "want" to come here and make sure our immigration policy does not undermine those things.
