There is a lively debate going on within MemeStreams on Illegal Immigration. First, thank you. One of the oft criticisms of MemeStreams is that its dominated by liberal perspectives. There is no architechtural reason for this. MemeStreams is supposed to be a place where people from different perspectives debate issues. Its not supposed to be dominated by one side of the fence. I'm glad to see an array of perspectives being offered in this debate, on an issue that is most near and dear to conservative hearts.

Having said all of that, I'm going to weigh in, and I'm going to say a bunch of stuff that is apt to make some of you angry. This is a touchy issue. Be prepared.

I'm a legal immigrant and a naturalized citizen of the U.S.. Most legal immigrants hate illegal immigrants. I don't. There are three things that separate my perspective on this from most people.

1. I think the Berlin wall was a great scar across the face of Europe, and a symbol of our collective primitiveness. I don't like governments drawing lines in the sand and shooting people who try to cross them. I don't like other walls for similar reasons. I think the wall in Isreal represents a great failure to communicate. I think a wall in the southern states would reflect poorly on America. Its an authoritarian reaction rooted in fear. To me it represents weakness rather than strength.

2. I think many Americans feel a sense of entitlement to the greatness of America. They wrap up our country's accomplishments, sprinkle on a bunch of stuff we didn't accomplish, pin it on their chest, and claim personal responsibility for it. They beleive that they are personally great because they are Americans and America is great. They don't want to share their oyster with others.

My grandfathers faught in World War II. I'm simultaneously proud of their accomplishments, grateful for their sacrifices, and in awe of their bravery. But I didn't do this, and I don't deserve any of their glory. The freedom they helped secure was not just for Canadians, but for the entire world. Its a freedom I still get to experience living now in America, and a freedom that my present countrymen's grandparents also faught for. But that freedom is not a privledge or an entitlement. It is not a property that we may own or that we may deny to others. It is a debt we owe to them, which we can only repay through our own accomplishments.

I don't feel personally responsible for anything that I didn't personally accomplish. The idea that other people can become Americans or live in America doesn't bother me. I don't think it makes them any better than if they weren't Americans. In part, perhaps, because I don't think Americans are inherently better than anyone else. Americans aren't great because America is a great country. It works the other way around. America is a great country because there are many great Americans. I tend to judge other people on their own merit rather than on the color of their passport.

3. As a corollary to my second point, I'm an American because, frankly, I'm most at home here in terms of the culture and the political system. If the culture or the political system changed in some way that altered that, I would leave. I'm not wedded to the place for its own sake. I want to live around people who are free, smart, just, and hardworking, because thats who I try to be. Right now those people are here. If they were somewhere else, I'd be there too. Part of being able to do that is the fundamental idea that I have a right to do so.

I realize that these ideas are controversial. I'm not convinced that this makes them wrong-headed.

The article I'm linking here provides what I think think is a reasonable perspective on the issue. The current system is stupid. We should not have 12 million people living illegally in the U.S. The correct answer is to legalize them.

Opponents of immigration often bristle when you call them "anti-immigrant." They’ll insist that they’re "anti-illegal immigrant." A good way to test them is to ask if they’d support such a temporary work visa program for a large number of unskilled laborers. My guess is that most would say "no."

I agree with this sentiment. This is not a discussion about illegal immigration. We get to decide whether or not these people are immigrating legally or illegally. We have a system which makes absolutely no provision for working class immigration, which creates all kinds of economic opportunity for working class immigrants, and then turns a blind eye to them when they show up. The result obviously follows from the setup.

We have three choices:
1. Change the economics. Frankly, this would be impossible without seriously undermining the (correct) notions we have about free markets. An America that doesn't offer opportunities to people is not the America we know.

2. Change the policy so that these people come across in a documented and manageble fashion, simultaneously improving their safety, the tax problems, and our security concerns.

3. Crack down without fixing the economic issue. Uproot 12 million people from their homes and jobs, screwing up the associated economies. Create expensive border security systems and their associated strife. Increase the prices of goods and services, thereby causing the kind of economic contraction that pushes people back into those immigrant jobs who wouldn't take them today. And, keep our oyster to ourselves.

If we were simply concerned with the legal issue, we'd just choose option 2. Its simple, its cheap, and it fixes all of the problems. Or does it?

People argue that once an illegal always an illegal. I think its a cop out that they use to avoid addressing the real underlying concern that they won't admit to themselves that they have. If we're planning to legalize it anyway then whats the big problem with people who ignored a law we didn't really enforce, we don't care about, and we're doing away with? There usually isn't a problem with that.

Consider this current issue with computer forensics. Its always been illegal to perform computer forensics without a PI license in Georgia. The rule change turns a misdemeanor into a felony. This is exactly analgous to the proposed rule change with respect to immigration. And yet we seem to have no problem with a number of computer forensics people who have been illegal computer forensics people for years protesting this rule change. Why aren't we arguing once an illegal computer forensics person always an illegal computer forensics person? Should we not expect criminal investigators to uphold the law?

The difference is that we don't agree with the original law in the first place. As it wasn't enforced we just ignored it. Most of us weren't even aware of it.

So lets cast away the talk about "illegal" immigrants and acknowledge that the problem is that we don't want legal working class imigrants from Mexico. Lets talk about that problem. Why? We obviously have a market for them. I only see two possible explanations:

Is this because we are concerned about economic competition from them for bottom barrel jobs? I don't think so. If that was a big problem it would have gotten to a boiling point long before there were 12 million of them here. Furthermore, this is America. If they are better suited to do the job, then shouldn't they get the job? Since when have we been all about protectionism for labor jobs? We're busy exporting that stuff to Asia as fast as we can. No one complains about making plastic trinkets in China, and certainly no one associated with the anti-immigrant movement pickets Walmart on the weekends for not buying American products. That arguement was over in the 80s. Walmart won. The conservatives won.

So whats the problem?

I only see one thing left... They're Mexican.

We don't like them because they are Mexican, and everything else is this dialog is rationalization that we've constructed so we can hold this point of view without feeling bad about doing so.

I've got news for you. As the population of this country ages over the next few decades, our economy will become unsustainable because we'll have far too many retired people and not enough working aged people to support them and keep the coal burning. We need more young people. This is a demographic reality. We're not going reproduce enough. Our society is too mature. Those young people are going to come here from societies that have too many young people. They're going to be brown and third world. Most of them are going to be Mexican. We don't have a choice in this. Its nessecary for our survival as a nation.

The choice we have is to bring them in as illegals and hold them as a permanent underclass with no rights, always running from the law. Or we can bring them in as legal immigrants, and give them a naturalization path. And then they won't be Mexican. They'll be every bit as American as I am.

Ultimately, the later will be the only choice that makes sense. If we allow our post 9/11 phobia to consume us and we pick door number 3, we'll be torpedoing our future.

FOXNews.com - Immigrants Stage a Patriotic Protest