Originally posted by Lokrian:
I start thinking about "what about child labor in India?", and things of this nature, or what minimum work standards you do believe are actually valid.
That has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not we should allow people to live and work in the US who actually want to WORK and make something of themselves. The existence of child labor in India sure doesn't mean we are going to re-legalize it here in the United States. These examples you keep bringing up are non-sequiturs. They do not seem connected whatsoever to the discussion we are having.

The fact that someone comes from a crappy country and is therefore willing to work for less should not be held AGAINST them. If anything it should be even more reason to let them come here.

The Statue of Liberty does not read:

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.... Unless they are going to make our American workers work harder, value their job more, or have to actually COMPETE."

Frankly, if we hope to have any chance of competing against countries like India and China in the future, we desperately NEED to benefit from the historic Brain Drain effect we have on the rest of the world. We need smart, motivated, driven, hard working, industrious people to flee other countries and add their productivity to our nation instead. We clearly aren't capable of sustaining our position with home grown recruits (our education system is abysmal). We need free agents. We need to lure these free agents from oppressive countries with the promise of freedom and opportunity.

It sounds to me like you are saying that since some people come from crappy countries with horrible conditions, when they show up here they'll take just about anything. Therefore, we should not let anyone come here and work. Is that what you are saying? If not, tell me EXACTLY what you mean rather than just tossing up these apparently random bits of information about bad working conditions in foreign countries.

Please keep in mind, if they were at least able to work here LEGALLY instead of illegally, the people employing them would have to comply with the laws of the United States. What makes the illegal immigrant worker impossible to compete against is the fact that on top of their willingness to work harder than local workers, the employer can totally screw them over in pay, overtime, and no benefits at all (since any complaint is met with deportation). If they were working here legally, it would be BETTER for the local workers since they wouldn't have such an impossible standard to compete against for work.

Originally posted by Lokrian:
I'd be interested to know what policy you'd favor for border policy and work visas.
I am pretty sure I already made this pretty clear. I'm for open borders as far as people being allowed to come here, work, and pay taxes. You can't just come here, and get on the government dole. Frankly, we do too much in the free money department already, but that is another issue.

It is unamerican, in my view, to deny anyone the opportunity to come to America, work, and thrive in the bosom of freedom. Just because they are a few decades or centuries late doesn't mean they shouldn't have the same chance to be an American that the rest of us got.

Most likely, these immigrants are willing to fight and work a lot harder for the privilege of calling themselves Americans than most of our native born citizenry.

Immigrants are what made America great. If we shut them out now, we will fade and decline until we are nothing more than a chapter in the history books.