An Unspoken Truth: It's the Immigration Enforcement System that Is Broken

The immigration policy of an moderate, democratic, relatively wealthy country like the United States that is the preferred destination of tens of millions of potential immigrants and the actual destination of over a million new legal immigrants every year is likely to be complex and therefore difficult.

Underlying all the issues and vocal debates about American immigration law are two fundamental facts:

• Many more people would like to immigrate here than the country could reasonably absorb. A recent worldwide Gallup poll put that number at 150 million adults.

• The country has not had a real discussion or debate regarding how many immigrants ought to be offered legal status and what factors — education, skills, family relationships, and so on should be considered...

The first of these two elements — the gap between the numbers who want to live here and the numbers that are legally able to do so — is a core, foundation issue.

The reason is that, unless this country becomes a very undesirable place to live and work, there will always be more people wishing to come here than there will be available legal immigration slots. That means that country has no other choice than to think seriously about immigration enforcement....

...The basic truth is that most illegal aliens come here for a better life..

Yet, the United States is also a country that takes "playing by the rules" seriously. We don't generally reward or support cheating, taking unfair advantage, breaking rules and laws for your own benefit, or engaging in self-interested behavior at the expense of the communities of which you are, or want to become, a part.

Illegal aliens do all of these things and more...

That illegal aliens are unaware of the collective consequences of those millions of decisions is understandable, but Americans cannot afford to be.