Rights for Illegal Immigrants

[Jennihul]

I think governments toy with the idea of giving rights to illegals because, even though they may not come right out and say so publically, they know our already somewhat sick economy would collapse without them.

They are realists. Most of the people in this thread are unfortunately fantasy thinkers. Utopians.

Jennifer

[Brutha]

Poltical realities aside, their are two sensible things: Giving the emigrants that are good for the economy a legal status and keeping others away and reducing the incentives to come over by punishing employers is the most effective way to do it.

The problem is that both of those options are unpopular in the US, that leaves you with a problem of a huge number of illegals.
Solving the problem would be hugly unpopular and governments don't want to make unpopular choices.
On the other hand it would be the right thing to do.

[PianoManGidley]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Poltical realities aside, their are two sensible things: Giving the emigrants that are good for the economy a legal status and keeping others away and reducing the incentives to come over by punishing employers is the most effective way to do it.

The problem is that both of those options are unpopular in the US, that leaves you with a problem of a huge number of illegals.
Solving the problem would be hugly unpopular and governments don't want to make unpopular choices.
On the other hand it would be the right thing to do.

If it's the right thing to do, why is it so unpopular? I don't understand my fellow man...

[escapee]

I think governments toy with the idea of giving rights to illegals because, even though they may not come right out and say so publically, they know our already somewhat sick economy would collapse without them.

Well, business owners would probably like the idea of taking the risk to hire the cheaper "illegal" aliens more so than US citizens. However, I don't see how it's going to be good for the US economy in the "long run" because they are taking the jobs away from the citizens and also sending portion of the money back to nation where they belong. Granting the "easy" legal status to all the illegals, you encourage the next exodus of illegal immigrants coming over which will lead you to a much larger problem ( Devaluation of US job market, but the business owners love it i can tell you that). When the economy really do crash and unemployment % shoots up to roof. The native born/legal citizens, without much choice in job market, will face stiff competition at jobs like meatpacking or burger flipping jobs with their cheaper counterparts ( who are largely illegals ? ). So you have them sending money back to their nations, devaluing the job market with cheaper wages, and the native born/legal citizens too broke to spend. A vicious cycle of creating net deficit for the nation further. I personally think the solution to the immigration crisis must not come from McCain but I might be wrong.

The second richest man in the world is from Mexico ( Carlos Slim ). I'm pretty sure Mexico and Carlos Slim can do alot more to improve the standard of living of the nation.

[Brutha]

If it's the right thing to do, why is it so unpopular? I don't understand my fellow man...

First, why is having more legal immigrants unpopular? There are certain very powerful people in American society who are xenophobic.
Xenophobia isn't based on a rational explanation but on emotions.

Regulating business which profit from illegal labor on the other hand is unpopular because business have money to lobby politically and a lot of people don't like regulation from the government.

On the other hand building fences on the border harms no one who has a strong political lobby.
No one is emotional about not spending money on border security. It seems like an easy solution that doesn't have a strong opposition from any lobby. You even have the firms who could get money building border security lobbying for it.

In general most people don't think critically long term about the issue and the media certainly doesn't encourage critical long term in the huge majority of the voting population.