Illegal immigrants provide cheap labor for jobs most of us wouldn't even consider working. They tend to be poor, so they can be expected to contribute to the economy by spending a large percentage of their income, and it's very difficult for them to escape poverty due to the difficulty of getting a job that pays well without education and legal status. That's not "more benefits and opportunity" than natural-born citizens. The border crossing is also dangerous, and many illegal immigrants die of dehydration and heat exhaustion crossing the desert. I wouldn't call that "letting them in."
But the real problem--one that I haven't heard a single major candidate discuss--is the root cause of illegal immigration: shitty conditions in other countries. There's a reason we aren't worried about illegal Canadian immigrants. They either don't exist or are exceedingly rare because there's really no incentive for Canadians to move to the US illegally. Trying to stop illegal immigration at the border is like trying to deal with a brain tumor by popping some Ibuprofen for the pain. The symptoms might feel less severe, but the problem won't go away until we deal with the issues that cause it. Trump is just one more candidate who won't discuss or deal with the true issues behind illegal immigration, but at least the others haven't put their feet in their mouths so much.
This is why every conversation about illegal immigration in this country is doomed to failure. The elephant in the room is that when you stick a wealthy nation full of privilege next to a much poorer nation with many fewer opportunities for its citizens, the ones from the poor side of the line are always going to want to be on the not-poor side of the line.
Why on Earth wouldn't they?
So it has always seemed incredibly tone deaf to me to decry and vilify people wanting to come here and make a better life for their families. If the roles were reversed, there would be plenty of people on our side trying to do the same. Of course they want what we have. Honestly, we didn't do anything special to get what we have. We were just born on the fortunate side of an invisible arbitrary line between two pieces of land.
Illegal immigrants provide cheap labor for jobs most of us wouldn't even consider working. They tend to be poor, so they can be expected to contribute to the economy by spending a large percentage of their income, and it's very difficult for them to escape poverty due to the difficulty of getting a job that pays well without education and legal status. That's not "more benefits and opportunity" than natural-born citizens. The border crossing is also dangerous, and many illegal immigrants die of dehydration and heat exhaustion crossing the desert. I wouldn't call that "letting them in."
But the real problem--one that I haven't heard a single major candidate discuss--is the root cause of illegal immigration: shitty conditions in other countries. There's a reason we aren't worried about illegal Canadian immigrants. They either don't exist or are exceedingly rare because there's really no incentive for Canadians to move to the US illegally. Trying to stop illegal immigration at the border is like trying to deal with a brain tumor by popping some Ibuprofen for the pain. The symptoms might feel less severe, but the problem won't go away until we deal with the issues that cause it. Trump is just one more candidate who won't discuss or deal with the true issues behind illegal immigration, but at least the others haven't put their feet in their mouths so much.
This is why every conversation about illegal immigration in this country is doomed to failure. The elephant in the room is that when you stick a wealthy nation full of privilege next to a much poorer nation with many fewer opportunities for its citizens, the ones from the poor side of the line are always going to want to be on the not-poor side of the line.
Why on Earth wouldn't they?
So it has always seemed incredibly tone deaf to me to decry and vilify people wanting to come here and make a better life for their families. If the roles were reversed, there would be plenty of people on our side trying to do the same. Of course they want what we have. Honestly, we didn't do anything special to get what we have. We were just born on the fortunate side of an invisible arbitrary line between two pieces of land.