Absolutely!!! Immigrants work hard and give back to their communities. Most are law abiding, kind people. The United States was founded by immigrants!! Did some of these angry anti immigrants not go to school?

OPTIMA: This is a ‘simple minded’ statement about a very serious, complex reality.

NO one I have ever known thinks that there should be an “open border” between the USA and Mexico or Canada. It’s just a ‘political screaming point”. A controlled and managed border is essential.

A 1,500 mile secure “fence” is also a “simple” proposition. It is not realistic. Immensely expensive to build, maintain and operate. It will be breached.

NO one has any objection to regularly apprehending, trying and deporting immigrants who violate US laws. Of course, every Country should protect itself from criminals.

The greater issue is the economies of the World are all feather fragile and vulnerable. There are vital issues of supply lines, trade and the ability to engage in commerce and manufacturing, The US Unemployment rate is very low, there is a high demand for labor / workers and a rather low supply. It is very hard to imagine that in this economic world the USA would apprehend, try and deport perhaps as high as 25% of its active workforce. Restaurants would close everywhere, vital construction including new housing would essentially stop and the cost of labor would soar. Get it? The USA does not have enough citizen workers who can or will do many essential jobs. We would be inviting calamity in our economy which is doing very well by all metrics. It would be like shooting ourselves in the knee caps.

Despite your “pride” and setting your insults aside this ain’t some simple matter cured by waving a magic wand. It is NOT as simple as “Jail or prison……the law is the law or ‘stop breaking the immigration laws’

DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT MR OPTIMA (whoever you are?).

WHO will harvest our hand crops? WHO will install the sheet rock and do the hard road construction ? WHO will take care of patients and do the hard, difficult and dirty work? WHO will do any of that and much more for the ‘minimum wage’ where their wages cannot cover rents or food and the hard workers need to live 6 or 7 to a crowded ratty apartment so they can send some of their money home for their families.

And, it does not help this complex situation to offend anyone by calling them “….dumb, stupid Politicians and Mexicans”. Why the hell are you so rude? We have a complicated economic equation to balance and we need laborers. The Mexican people are bright, practical and certainly are not ‘lazy’. This is all adult shit and you are acting like a frustrated 8 year old. Grow up, try some critical thinking and become part of finding solutions instead of making inane statements. Good luck to you. Cordially……..

Your comments leave me speechless. I’m going to guess you voted for Trump

Optima expresses both the rage and ignorance of the reality of immigration into the US. Go to any city, small or large, and observe how the immigrants are actually living and acting. Of course, if there are great surges it causes problems. Of course. But where the migration is steady, they are normally welcomed, even in communities that have to add capacity in schools to accommodate them.

That’s the reality. It has not changed since the founding of the Republic. “Give me your tired, your oppressed” says the Statue of Liberty. What the statue doesn’t say, but should, is that “I will make of them instruments of freedom and prosperity and patriotism.”

I recommend that Optima crawl out of his bomb shelter and talk with an immigrant who has become a citizen. Hear the pride. Feel the smile. And then, like all the rest of us, he will tell you what could be a lot better. That’s what we citizens want.