Reply #143: I agree with most of what you said

[fujiyama]

and I am tired of race baiting xenophobia. I am especially appauled when I hear things like "kick 'em out". What is that supposed to mean? Practically, how do you go about kicking out millions of people, many of whom have children that are American citizens being raised here now? Hell, I heard one particularly nasty comment espousing putting people on box cars if need be.

However, illegal immigration is not a good idea. The US needs to have better border security and I definetely think undocumented immigration is a threat in several ways. There's the obvious security threat for one. Then there is also the problem of exploitation and people not being paid the prevailing wage or even the minimum wage. This of course has the potential to drive down wages, though I haven't seen it being conclusively proven.

The keys are to make sure no one is being exploited (increase labor standards here and this shouldn't be so difficult in a wealthier nation if it weren't for such awful pols in congress - better wages, increase penalties for corporations that hire illegal workers), and encourage Mexico to fix the situation there as well - don't let multinational corporations exploit workers there, fight corruption, etc. The Mexican government has to know the US has finite resources and cannot indefinetely support all those impovershed there.

Ultimately, it's worth considering just increasing the caps of those in Mexico that wish to enter to more realistic levels, though I would rather not give preference to those that entered illegally.

A fair trade treaty needs to be written up replacing the alphabet soup of "free trade" treaties we have now. As it stands, everyone but a small and already wealthy elite is profitting.