Immigration reform means what it means in the eye of the beholder. I’m with you. The way it is now is okay if the current law is enforced; that is, the petitioning process, waiting for a green card, waiting for elgibility to apply for citizenship status. Since the normal time span of this process requires from 15 to 20 years, the time span can be reduced under special circumstances by act of congress for those needed occupations, like engineers, nurses, medical personnel, and farm workers.

This is my opinion; however, we are living in a global economy, which is becoming more global as time passes. Many people are already looking to the day when borders become irrelevant, when people move freely across borders in search of jobs and career opportunities. I’m sure that those people who support the global economy take the view that almost all immigration restrictions should be rescinded.

Immigration reform, like all reform, is a controversal subject; but, as long as the current trend towards globalism continues, I’ m sure that the trend will be towards fewer and fewer restriction to immigration. That’s just the way it is. The Monroe Doctrine did not work very well in the age of President Monroe. It certainly will not work now. Building a wall around our country to keep out so-called undesirables, keeping blue-blooded Americans in, will no longer work, and it probably is not desirable. Whomever you ask, you will get a different opinion. Each opinion will depend on how much interest that individual has in immigration reform. The farmer wants (and needs) cheap labor. the union laborer wants restrictions to protect their wages.

Personally, I feel that, if the global economy is here to stay (and I don’t see the current trend changing any time soon), immigration restrictions should gradually be rescinded over time. Time is the key word. For example, we certainly do not want to rescind them completely on our southern border all at once. If we did, we may be flooded with immigrants overnight, even more than the number who manage to come illegally. Consequently, I favor the current system with a caveat. In the face of increasing globalism, including global markets, a global labor pool, as well as the increasing use of essentially one currency in business transactions, and one language in making those transactions, immigration reform will mean fewer and fewer immigration restrictions. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there very rapidly.

I am with you; but, even if a majority thinks like you and me, it may happen anyway. The wealthy industrialist wants to maximize his profits by manufacturing his product where he can do it most cheaply (where labor is cheap, where natural resources are abundant, and where environmental regulations are less). These industrialists will seek to cross borders to build their factories and to advocate free trade so they can bring their manufactured products back to the country where they can be sold at higher prices. Since most of our food and fiber will increasingly be raised by corporate farms, this same trend applies to farmers as well. The corporate board rooms that have the money and the power control our government; therefore, the politicians merely give lip service and legality to the realities of the global economy.

Perhaps the only way to reverse the consequences of globalism in manufacturing and trade is to accept the government controled socialism of Barack Obama and have the government control all manufacturing and trade as well as religion, thought, and public concienceness. This idea did not work in Hitler’s Germany, the USSR of Stalin, nor Castro’s Cuba. Why should we think it will work here or anywhere else for that matter. For the sake of freedom loving people everywhere, I vote for the right of people to invest their private capital for the purpose of manufacturing goods and services whereever they can do so to make a decent profit and to sale their products whereever they can sale them. The only role of government is to keep the peace internationally and to make sure that the the process is done fairly both to the manufacturer as well as the consumer. Other than its functions of peace keeping, arbitration, the establishment of suitable weights, measures, and system of justice, the government has no legitimate function at all in the lives of ordinary human beings who excercise their ingenuity to build a better widget and to sale it for a profit.