I'm sick of wasting - as in "throwing away" - money the way we're wasting it here, thinking that we just need enforcement, or the military or walls or some such thing.

Or all of the above?

I don't write in code.  If I were anti-immigrant, I would make that crystal clear by just saying so.

I am not anti-immigrant.  Did you get that?  "not" means just that: not.  "Anti" - it means "against."  An "immigrant" is a person from another country, who comes to this country.  Some come legally - that means they follow the law - and some come illegally, which means they break the law in order to come into this country.  Taken all together that means "not against people from other countries coming here."  

The problem I have is not - remember what that means, now - with those coming here illegally.  Okay, here it comes; are you ready?  The problem is NOT the people who are coming here, but the countries from which they come which cannot and do not provide a sustainable economic environment that would eliminate - or at least mitigate - the reasons why people come here.

Okay, let's break that down.  A "sustainable economic environment" means an economy that provides jobs at living wages, so that people do not have to live in poverty, and can feed, clothe house and educate themselves and their families.  

Pretty basic stuff.

What I would like is for this government to get to the causes of illegal immigration, to have a policy that works for all involved, that does not involve the National Guard on the borders, does not involve building walls, does not involve state laws that target and profile people who live in border states - or any other state.

Did you get that?  I think our immigration policy is about as backwards as it is possible to be, but every day, it seems, someone proposes something that tells me the backward movement isn't over.

And why do I think this?  Why do I feel this way?  Because I don't see illegal immigrants, or any other kind of immigrant, as the enemy.  I don't see them as people looking to lower our quality of life, but to improve their own.  I don't see them as draining our resources, but trying to find some place, some way, to obtain basic necessities for themselves.  Which all peoples deserve.

So, let's review:  I am not a small-minded, prejudiced, anti-immigrant person.  I am not a send-'em-all-back-where-they-came-from person.  I am not a throw-them-all-in-the-can person.

Short-term focus on quarterly profits (and bogus "globalization" and "free" trade "agreements" in service of this stunted vision); environmental destruction as a standard way of doing "business"; the degradation of our public education system; the destruction of family farms; the decimation and corruption of the labor unions; and of course our so-called government, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street and the big banks--all these and many other issues are at the root of the problems we're discussing here.