How is the US immigration policy inconsistent with American ideals?

Answer 1

Wow. You can come at this from SO MANY different angles. First, I don't think the written policy/laws are inconsistent with American ideals. The US is a nation of immigrants and will remain so; every US citizen at the moment of our founding was an immigrant in the sense that not one of them was born in "The United States". This fact is a vital part of our history and identity. However, it does not mean that we are or should be a nation without borders. If nothing else, the Constitution is our foundation as a nation built on law and the rule of law. Some provisions of the Constitution were in place to recognize that no one in the world was a natural born citizen at the inception of the Constitution. Some provisions were put in place to account for our uneven and cowardly handling of slavery issues. But now there are legal steps to attaining citizenship here as in almost all other nations, and our limits are reasonably generous.

The US Immigration system is currently not 'broken' as many put it, but ineffectively implemented. Immigration is the responsibility of the federal government, and regarding this the federal government has catastrophically failed in it duty. There was an 'amnesty' under President Reagan, and after that time immigration laws were supposed to be upheld. Every president since Reagan has failed miserably in his responsibility to enforce this law. And now that utter incompetence has brought us to another immigration crisis, some are advocating an 'amnesty', after which, of course, we will 'enforce the law'. Contact me about a bridge in New York City that I'm selling.

I am a second generation 'immigrant citizen' on my mother's side, and a sixth generation 'immigrant citizen' on my father's side. I am proud of my heritage and of my US citizenship. But I do not agree that people should have the right to demand citizenship in my country just because they had the opportunity to cross the border. While many wait years to go through the proper legal steps, others successfully evade the law and demand rights and services. This is extremely painful and conflicting to many, because we understand the extreme conditions that many wish to escape. But the US is not under any legal or moral obligation to simply take in without question anyone who arrives, or to be the savior for everyone in the world who is oppressed. What other sovereign nation does that? In some countries, an attempt to do this will result in prison time or worse.