California Love!

Many of the laws do need to be fixed because our legal immigration process has been bastardized into a plethora of special favors that do not constitute a lucid policy. But first, I reject the premise that illegal immigrants were, are or will ever be needed for the economy; now they may have been desired, by some, for the false economies that have been constructed and expanded (and destroyed) over the last two decades, but they were not necessary for steady appropriate growth. Our existing immigration process, with modifications, if appropriately staffed and enforced would easily accommodate any of our economic or general societal needs, if necessary. Now, since I don't trust our government to follow through on anything they say (other than invading sovereign countries under false pretenses), I will not accept any sort of comprehensive immigration reform proposal until the legal immigration system is reformed in a manner that clearly indicates to immigrants and citizens that the United States is serious about immigration standards and penalties for noncompliance. Twenty years ago, despite the problems related to illegal immigration, I came to love California, particularly Belmont Shores in Long Beach (despite the gang signs flashed at me by a supermarket worker because I drove around the block twice and made eye contact), because of the diversity (a term I don't use to describe anywhere today because of how it has been co-opted by namby-pamby multi-culturists). During my most recent visit (to Oakland of all places), that same feeling of contentment swept over me as I renewed my love affair because of my interactions with the diverse peoples of California. But I would submit that California's pluses are due to legal immigration and its many minuses are mainly due to illegal immigration. Illegal immigration creates economic mercenaries who are only here for the money and not for the love of the U.S. and what it represents. If we do allow people to flood into our country as economic mercenaries, we will reap what we sow.