Immigration "amnesty" bothers me, however...

[cthulu2016]

(I apologize for the loaded term amnesty. I honestly don't know what the preferable term would be. Also, I recognize that as a practical matter there's not much 'amnesty' in anything being proposed. But I am writing about the very concept of fairness in immigration policy, so these comments would apply to a hypothetical bill that really was an amnesty.)

Most people see an unfairness in rewarding people, in any way, for violating the rules.

It doesn't sit well.

But you know what? Our government has no obligation to be fair to people in other countries. It sucks to be one of the hypothetical people patiently waiting in line but we have no obligation to fairness in immigration.

Someone in Suriname who feels they are being slighted while someone from Mexico is allowed to live here because they're here can... what?

Sue? Nope. On what basis? Everyone in the USA is entitled to due process and equal protection, but not everyone in the world is.

Since we have the very practical problem of a lot of undocumented non-citizens living here, and have no Constitutional obligation to be even handed toward everyone in the world in immigration policy, it's a straightforward matter.

We do what makes the most practical sense. So I'm okay with it.

And in terms of fairness, the least fair thing in the world is that I was born in the USA. I didn't earn that. I got lucky. Somebody else was born elsewhere... who do they sue? God?

Immigration is never going to be fair.

[el_bryanto]

1. We should just conquer the planet and make it all the USA

Solve a lot of problems. But then again I suppose it might create a few too.

Bryant

[cthulu2016]

3. "And every city the whole world 'round will just be another American town..."

"Oh how peaceful it'll be. We'll set everybody free..."

[TBF]

2. Open borders for people, closed borders for bananas. nt

[JDPriestly]

4. We should require all American citizens to volunteer for the armed forces or for public service for

one to two years prior to the age of 25 or, if citizenship is acquired after the age of 25, prior to citizenship. If we did that, many fewer people would want to move here.

[Scootaloo]

5. Humans migrate. Simple fact of our species.

When conditions in one place are no longer to our liking, we move to a different place. If a government or nation is not in our interests, we seek another one. We split, we travel, we settle, we split again. The trouble comes when that migration is halted by weird border regulations based on race, or wealth, or who-knows-what.

The US should have open borders. Documentation and processing should still be done of course, but without the astronomical fees, the labyrinthine regulations, the counterintuitive national preferences, etc.

Then again we should also be avoiding economic policies that make people want to ditch the countries we're exploiting, to follow their wealth back to us.

[amandabeech]

6. It bothers me, too.

It also bothers me that we have a very high actual unemployment rate and a very high underemployment rate.

It seems like many people here do not know current U.S. citizen who would take a job in construction, a factory or packing plant, or in landscaping.

Friends of friends in my home town, people who I went to school with, would do those jobs in an instant even at a low wage because there are no other jobs available.

Why can't they get first dibs on jobs over people who are now undocumented immigrants?

Why would that be so bad?