Best Immigration Summary I've seen.

From Real Clear Politics:

"To ordinary Americans, the definition of "immigration" is very specific: You come here with absolutely nothing except a burning desire to be an American. You start off at some miserable, low-paying job that at least puts a roof over your family's head and food on the table. You put your kids in school, tell them how lucky they are to be here - and make darn sure they do well even if that means hiring a tutor and taking a second, or third, job to pay for it. You learn English, even if you've got to take classes at night when you're dead tired. You play by the rules--which means you pay your taxes, get a driver's license and insure your car so that if yours hits mine, I can recover the cost of the damages. And you file for citizenship the first day you're eligible."

Damn straight. In my grandparents' house, my Great-great-grandfather's (yes, I'm fifth generation minimum) citizenship papers are PROMINENTLY displayed on a wall. And the frame and the document is big. My grandmother's family came to the New World on the Duke of York's expedition -- against New Amsterdam, now known as New York. That man married a Dutch girl who was already here.

"But the millions of Hispanics who have come to our country in the last several decades - and it's the Hispanics we're talking about in this debate, not those from other cultures--are, in fact, two distinct groups. The first group is comprised of "immigrants" just like all the others, who have put the old country behind them and want only to be Americans."...........The problem is the second group of Hispanics. They aren't immigrants - which is what neither the Democratic or Republican leadership seems to understand, or wants to acknowledge. They have come here solely for jobs, which isn't the same thing at all. (And many of them have come here illegally.) Whether they remain in the U.S. for one year, or ten years - or for the rest of their lives - they don't conduct themselves like immigrants. Yes, they work hard to put roofs above their heads and food on their tables - and for this we respect them. But they have little interest in learning English themselves, and instead demand that we make it possible for them to function here in Spanish. They put their children in our schools, but don't always demand as much from them as previous groups demanded of their kids. They don't always pay their taxes - or insure their cars."

As I've said, rewarding bad behavior is not only counter-productive, it's damaging. To our communities. To our schools. To our healthcare facilities. And especially damaging to those people that just might take those low-paying jobs, if they paid a little more. It's also damaging to Mexico -- it prevents them from having to address the real issues of poverty and economic malaise there. Reform real substance in that country is being delayed by exporting its poor citizens here. And their government not only recognizes it, it encourages it. Our politicians have to put real pressure on theirs to get their house in order.