Should we stop (ALTO) illegal immigration?  If so how?  Or should we allow people to freely enter the country and take jobs?  Currently the US has a long waiting line for legal immigrants.

It’s extremely difficult to get an H-1b work visa, they are filled by May of the previous year!  Often times people will wait 18 months to be able to work the US, and the time between getting an H-1b and green card can be extended. 

Currently our neighbors applied for a green card in 2002 and are still waiting.  They work great jobs, upstanding members of the community, and contribute to the US.  And yet if they lose their jobs they’ll be forced to leave within 30 days.  So many times people will stick with a job they hate in hopes of getting a green card and being able to pick a different job. 

On the flip side there are illegal immigrants here who do not pay US taxes, yet it’s suggested they do jobs “regular” Americans refuse.  They work for cheap wages, no health insurance, and often poor conditions.  So should we crack down on these illegal workers when they are here to work?

Yesterday I read an article about an illegal immigrant who succeded in the US.  Amazing story about going from migrant worker to doctor.  So when you see such success does it make illegal immigration okay?  Should we just lift our heavy restrictions and allow people to enter and work because they obviously want to be working?

I am not sure where I stand on it.  Partly because living in CA, I went to a state school with a surprising number of illegal aliens.  Yep.  They had lived in CA a LONG time, their parents had all done well over the 10 or 15 years they had come over from Mexico.  And now they were going to college, getting good jobs coming out, and being productive members of society with green cards in hand! 

So having been given a face to so many of these illegals, can’t turn around in Southern CA without seeing them, I think perhaps we should start just documenting them and letting them work here legally.  Why are we cracking down so hard on people who want to work here?

Bill Gates a few years ago plead with Congress to allow more programmers from China and India.  Why? Because the US isn’t producing enough students.  You might argue they are, but having graduated from a top engineering undergrad I can tell you majority of the students in engineering are foreign or American born Chinese or Indians who have lived here not more than 1 generation.  So who is there to hire?

And realize that being an immigrant, even legal immigrant has A LOT of hassles.  I’ll document it here later in depth, what you can and cannot do without credit!  So what should we do about the illegal immigration problem and the legal immigration problem?