Illegal immigration questions.

Justin's question:
How do they know Americans will want to take over the jobs that the illegal immigrants had?
In my opinion, I don't think that there are a lot of Americans who will want to take over the jobs that were held by illegal immigrants. Most if not all of them held jobs that involved a lot of physical labour, such as crop picking. Jobs that were a lot of work but did not require any specialised training. I think that it's a pipe dream of politicians to want to kick all the "illegals" out and put "hard-working Americans" in the jobs the immigrants once held. There are fewer and fewer "hard-working Americans" with every genereation. This country is riding on the back of menial labour performed by mostly illegal immigrants.

Tristan's question:
Is there underlying racism (or xenophobia) in this immigration debate?
Unfortunately, yes there is a certain amount of xenophobia in this debate, depending on the stance and personal biases of the people arguing. There will always be people who are xenophobic, afraid to integrate with people that aren't completely like them. I don't know if you could call it racism in this instance, but xenophobic is definitely the proper term. Because there are people who reject other nationalities and ethnicities blending into their white societies, there are of course going to be politicians who have these unfortunate views. But the sad truth is that the debate will never be able to occur without the underlying tones of xenophobia and fear of integration.

Liam's question:
Wouldn't it be a better move to help illegals go through the process to gain citizenship.. or do we not want them in our country at all, even if they were legal citizens?
Personally, I believe that immigrating into a country illegally is probably more dangerous and more trouble than it's worth. If a person has been in the country long enough to have had a fmaily and secure a job, they should not b a bale to live here without having to pay taxes or becoming a citizen. They should not immediately deproted, but merely assissted in the process of becoming a legal citizen. Maybe if the immigration laws were less strict and xenophobic and the process of becoming a US citizen was less intimidating and ridiculous, then immigrants who would have otherwise entered illegally would go through the process.

And another thing, I hate the argument that people make about how the process to become a US citizen should be grueling and and xenophobic, just because "our ancestors had to cross an ocean in horrible conditions and go throught the ordeal at Ellis Island to become a citizen." There's a reason it's not longer the late 1800s or the early 1900s. It's called progess, people. No one should be objected to such terrible conditions and such fear. Or should we also force all immigrants to live in filthy ghettos where their children die of disease and starvation? There's a reason why people want to emmigrate out of their awful conditions and come to America, we've got this great reputation. But ironically, the way we treat the people who seek a better life in America seriously downplays the reasons people want to live here.