The reason we had to open Ellis Island was because of all of the immigrants who came here without papers (if you're Irish this means you!) before the Civil War. If your family is of any descent BUT English your family benefited from a free public education. No one had health care but there were no antibiotics either. There are not enough babies born in the U.S. every year to support Social Security so if we don't have immigration (legal or otherwise) we will not be able to sustain growth which is the big engine of Capitalism. Currently legal immigrants must jump through lots of hoops and be practically high skilled or wealthy to come here; which means that legal immigrants come here to compete for middle class jobs.... It also means that our country is still seen as desirable by someone. If you wish to pick Walnuts for .30 cents a pound then you too can experience one of the jobs being stolen from you by an illegal immigrant. If you left home because of the terrible outcomes of US foreign policy or just because your country is terrible and you wish to have a good life and dreams then please come here. We need big dreamers and hard workers to build the 21st Century America of our dreams. I invite all the nimbys on this page to refer to both the Declaration of Independence and the FULL inscription on the Statue of Liberty and "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie and really think about what it means to be an American and ask yourself what you DO to make this country a better place.

For everyone that struggles to remember our recent past: google President Bush and signing statements. All presidents choose which laws to enforce. No one even knows how many laws there are in the U.S.; many are probably unfunded mandates. Although I wouldn't hold GW personally responsible for these: the secret illegal meetings Cheney held with energy companies and the outing of Valerie Plame are two instances which immediately come to mind as cases where the law was not respected; GW believed in amnesty for law-abiding young people too.

By the way, nothing Americanizes children like public school. We should want all children in this country to go.

+Daniel Golightly I have two children (in teens now) and Alimony $800+ also. I feel you man. What I was addressing is illegal immigrants misusing those benefits and taking away from people how honestly could benefit from it.

Trust me, I'm on the upward turn through a lot of hard work and time away from my family. I was at absolute rock bottom about two years ago and almost lost my family and everything.

It frustrates me to see good, honest, law abiding people getting screwed when I see illegals abusing the system. I am trying to pay it forward where I can but I'm not quite to that point yet.