Oh, man--I live in Texas and I think I'm already tired of hearing about this on the news. I think this is the only place I've seen anyone mention how complex this whole mess really is.

I don't oppose immigration. My great-grandparents came from Germany and England--if you aren't Native American (in the formerly-known-as-an-Indian sense), somebody in your family was a fairly recent immigrant. "Recent" meaning "within written history". OK. No problem. However, I do agree that something has to happen in terms of illegal immigration. I totally understand WHY people want to come here for jobs--I'd emigrate, too, if the next country over had that much more to offer me (wait--Canada has a health plan? Woo-hoo! Here I come, Ontario! Just kidding).

I sort-of agree that these are jobs "Americans won't do". These are jobs Americans won't do because they don't pay enough. These are jobs Americans effectively CAN'T do because they cannot legally make a living at them. LIVING WAGE in my area for one person in a bare-bones studio apartment is $12 an hour, and I'll bet that's lower than in most places. It's more than twice the legal minimum wage. I'm averaging about a dollar more than that on a salaried job that, thank goodness, has full benefits but I would have a hard time making it if I had any family or other financial obligations.

Part of my beef with Americans--and I'm one of them--is that they aren't used to paying the actual costs of things (example: Wal-Mart foisting its health-care costs off on government programs to keep its prices cutthroat low). So, cheap stuff and cheap labor is good if you're poor, but it's also one of the reasons that you're poor. Figure that one out.

On the other hand, they pay probably too much for other things. Healthcare, at least if you're healthy and not indigent, is a big one. Mine was $200/month for a healthy, 27-year-old nonsmoker. When I finally needed a doctor for something it took them twenty minutes to figure out which company listed on the card was actually my insurance company--apparently my money was supporting three different middlemen along the way. Absurd.

So, I think they need to enforce--strongly and consistently--laws about hiring illegals but at the same time make it possible for companies to hire and pay benefits to legal immigrants and citizens so that they can and will take the jobs. Right now, we have a system that plays to big businesses.

Yeah, I noticed the American flags, too. I don't know what I think of that. I don't expect people to give up their cultural identities once they get here, but, frankly, I think it's a bit unfair to want to take advantage of the economic opportunities and social support but keep one foot out the door. I'm proud of my German/English/Irish/Welsh/Swiss/French/possibly Jewish background but I'm American. If I moved to, say, Italy, I would expect to have to learn Italian and play by their rules. That's what you get when you emigrate.