No one really knows how many people enter our country illegally. Estimates of the number of illegals here range from about 11 million to as many as 20 million!
We feel sorry for some illegals. Most are people who enter our country illegally to get jobs and better lives. Some of them still live in poverty. But some resort to crime. And millions of illegals take U.S. jobs, while millions of American citizens are unemployed. The work of some illegals is needed because many Americans don’t want some of the kinds of work illegals do. There are lots of big problems.
What about illegals’ children born here? They become citizens at birth.
But Senate Democrats recently tried to use a defense bill, of all things, to legalize illegals who came here before age 16 and are now younger than 35, have been here five years, complete high school or equivalency certificates, and complete two years of college or serve two years in U.S. military service. The effort failed – but there are vows to bring it up again.
Don’t such citizenship provisions actually “invite” more illegal immigration? Great efforts are involved in trying to guard our porous borders and limit illegal entry. But the efforts obviously are not very effective.
We certainly should not invite more illegal immigration through misguided legislation.