America is a nation of immigrants. Many of our leaders in science, industry, and entrepreneurship have been new Americans or first generation Americans. I believe in immigration. I believe in legal immigration. I also believe that our current immigration laws need to be looked at carefully and updated to reflect the world in which we currently live.
Today, The Hill reports that Harry Reid wants to tackle immigration reform this year. The political pundits in Nevada point out that mobilizing Hispanic voters could mean an election victory for Reid in November. I guess I'm just cynical, but I don't have enough confidence in the wisdom of Harry Reid to want to see another 2,000 page bill that no one has read passed this year. The article at The Hill points out that conservative Democrats do not want to deal with this issue right now.
At some point we have to reevaluate our immigration rules. The idea of immigration is that you want people to immigrate who will contribute something to the country. Many of our ancestors were dirt poor when they arrived here, but they were willing to work, and in doing so contributed greatly to the country. I am willing to let anyone come here who is willing to work and wants to be an American (learn the language, assimilate, etc.).
On a personal note, through a series of events a number of years ago, I found myself in a church service with a group of Russian worshipers. Very few of them spoke English. As we mingled after the service, through some of the bi-lingual people there, I learned that some of these people had been scientists, engineers and highly skilled workers in Russia. Now they were doing factory or assembly jobs. Because they had not (for whatever reason) learned English, they were not able to use their gifts fully in the American economy. Forcing someone who is in America to learn English is not mean--it will open doors of opportunity for them that nothing else will. We need an immigration policy that draws people who want to work and want to be part of this country. Seeing a pro-immigration protester flying a Mexican flag does not encourage me.
According to the website Gene Expression, in 2002 the population replacement rate in the USA was 2.1. Unless we want to be a nation of old people (not that there is anything wrong with old people), we need to consider how to change our immigration policy so that it meets both our needs and the needs of the people who want to come here.
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