Should illegal immigrants be given a pathway to citizenship as part of immigration reform?

If there parents are illegal not sure, But if there children where born here they a legal citizens. I believe Americans did not care because we where all working, but alot are comeing over but there are no jobs at this time.

There is an established path to US citizenship, the same one used by legal immigrants, why should law breaking criminals be given special treatment? Illegal aliens are criminals, every one of them. To take advantage of the existing path, they can return voluntarily to thier country of origin and apply at the US Consulate like any law abiding citizen would do.

Unless you are 100% Native American...You re an Illegal Immigrant to a certain degree!. Or at least your family may have been in the past. We live in a (free) country based on lies, tyranny, religious persecution, slavery, bigotry, etc...Everything we wished to escape by settling here .In reality we wiped out a continent of peaceful and indigenous folk..Yet Christopher Columbus has and still is hailed as the (patron saint) of the free world, while Hitler literally created less atrocities! How much more hypocritical can we get!?!?..

No, those alive today wiped out no continent of people. The same goes for the slavery issue, no one alive today in the US is a slave owner, nor have they been.

If you feel you wiped out a people, turn yourself in as a mass murderer. How many Native Americans did you kill? When it comes to setting records in the mass murder category, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and abortion lead the pack; not necessarily in that order.

First of all what was in this country we had British, we had the french at in other parts, oh by the we had spain here, Yes, there where wars, at that all people got together and defended this country. The question is will we defend this country?

They should go home

I agree and they should take all of their relatives with them.

It's highly unlikely that many of them won't do due to certain facts that some people don't know. They will have to pay fines in the thousands of dollars, there will be extensive background checks on all idividuals that came in illegally, they will also have to pay thousands of dollars in application fees and it will be 15 years wait since there are millions of others ahead of them who have filed about 5 years or more ahead of them. Then comes the other ones waiting outside of the U.S. for their immigration status to go thru from those family members who have now become U.S. citizens.
It is also unlikely that any of them will want to pay taxes .......They likely to stay illegal and dodge the gov't while we continue to support their little anchors.

I saw this movie before back in 1986...... Why has nothing changed???? Answer..... Liberals that refuse to secure our borders.....

Therefore, no amnesty unless we "close the back door" once and for all. Legal immigration has a defined process.

Respect the country, respect the laws...... I am not interested in making citizens out of people that start out disrespecting our laws.....

illegal immigrants already had a legal pathway to become legal citizens of the USA.

There are many foreigners (from many Countries) that are doing it 'by filling out the paperwork and/or paying the fees' that are waiting for their turn for the process to go forward. In other words, 'they're in line.' That's the solution for Illegals that are wanting to get U.S. Citizenship. Get in the back of the line and let them wait their turn. There are foreigners that are in the process that are ahead of them that done it legally. They (Illegal Aliens) shouldn't be given preferential treatment (for Political reasons) just to satisfy Political ambitions of some U.S. Congressperson, U.S. Senators, and/or U.S. President. That's what the entire Immigration debate is about. Politics! People (i.e. Americans) don't have a problem with someone becoming an American Citizen as long as it's done "LEGALLY." For ILLEGAL Aliens to be granted Citizenship by "an Act of Congress" is an injustice to those that are doing it LEGALLY. People sit here and lecture Republicans and/or Conservatives about "better get on board with fixing this issue?" Man, the ones advocating "Breaking The Law" are the ones that need to "better get on board with fixing this issue!"

No!

I came to America as student why cant they?

ONLY!!! by going to their own country and doing it legally.

"illegal immigrants" I must always laugh when I hear this term, reminds me of "a little pregnant", either one is illegal or an immigrant.

It is a slap in the face of every immigrant who has ever come to our country legally and gone through the expense and heartache of doing it right.

You're saying pretty much the same thing that all other decent, law abiding, American Citizens are thinking. ...and you're right! ...ever wonder why 'Lefties' [Left-Wing Liberals] are called 'Lefties'? They ALWAYS turn away from what is right (correct!) plain and simple. It doesn't take a genius to see this!

and no, it is not that simple. They should be required to register and get in line behind those that have not broken the laws!!!

They're illegal, ship' em back or imprison them, there already is a path to citizenship.

No!
Rewarding a criminal activity (invading a country illegally) is not a solution.

We need to pressure Mexico to fix thier problems before they become...oh wait..they already HAVE become ours!!
Well folks...if you want to know what socialism looks like...just look to the south....and give it a few years.

There is nothing Socialist about Mexico. The term, "Socialist," is so badly misused that it's useless. It has to be constantly explained to people who carelessly throw it out.

That said, Mexico is a narco-capitalist state. The extreme disparity in wealth is the result of private capital cartels that rule the country. Mexico is what the U.S. would look like if FDR hadn't kept the banksters in check with the New Deal. America's Golden Age of the 1950's and 1960's was the New Deal after it had a chance to mature. LBJ's Great Society disrupted the fine balance of the New Deal architecture and it ran aground in the 70's.

Sweden is Socialist. The fairly even distribution of wealth, emphasis on domestic production, and superior quality of public space and public service is evidence of that. Yes, their taxes are very high but, that money is recirculated back to positive effect.

Interesting! thank you...

Blame Wilson for turning the bankers loose upon America and in effect, the world.

Absolutely! I'm currently striving to educate some troglodytes about the infamies of Woodrow Wilson and why it matters, even after a hundred years! Thanx.

Come here LEGALLY, ;ike my Grandparents did:

At least not a new one. There is a way to citizenship already set up, they should be made to follow it.

As much as there is a vocal minority out here that would have no problem with the sight of black buses loading rounded up and interred immigrants for deportation, that fantasy isn't going to happen. Ronald Reagan saw that and now Obie and this Congress are going to have to accept it. The problem is not the illegals it is the lack of enforcement of the laws preventing them in the first place.
No administration since Reagan has pushed and No Congressman has insisted that the current stack of immigration law be enforced. Another stack of laws means nothing if they are not enforced. Rounding up all the illegals is as much a knee jerk response by the right as is the rounding up of guns by those on the left. It's stupid and not gong to happen. Lets deal with the realities and secure the borders.

Reagan did it as a compromise with a Democrat congress for, in part, the Simpson-Mazzoli bill with restricted the number of immigrants from each ethnic group and locale. They also increased the number of temporary work visas for migrant farm laborers because of Caser Chavez and the Migrant Farm Workers Union demand that illegals be sent back to their country of origin. You need to look up some facts before you use claims of knee jerk reactions. For fifty years we have been promised that the influx of illegals over the southern borders would stop and it has done nothing but increase for those fifty years. EVEN the liberal lioness Teddy Kennedy agreed the influx needed to be "curbed".

I am well aware of the facts and thought I pretty much laid them out without the little intricacies. Reagan compromised with the Democrats in Congress and Republicans are going to have to compromise with a Democrat President or this issue will continue to fester. The knee jerk reaction I refer to is the continued hue and cry for mass deportations and an unwillingness by the vocal minority to compromise on that issue.
We all know that over the last fifty years as I pointed to, no Democrat nor Republican administration or Congress has been willing to enforce federal law and has gone as far as to take State law enforcement to court when they uphold federal law.
There will be no mass deportations and temporary residency will be granted for those already here illegally.

American immigration policy is a nightmare and needs complete overhauling

Need I remind people of a couple of things?



1) Current US citizens occasionally fail the citizenship tests. What does that mean for possibly illiterate third-worlders?

2) Since when does knowing US trivia have to do with loyalty to our nation? A terrorist can know national officials and dates in history yet still want to blow us up.

3) Many illegal immigrants do jobs that common citizens turn down, because they don't like cleaning public restrooms, or doing room service at shady motels for minimum wage.



Honestly, illegal immigrants do put plenty into our country to make up for the tax-free money they're earning. I know this post was kind of off-topic but I wanted to answer yes to the question, while also pointing out necessary reforms to the citizenship policy in general.

The fact is that many immigrants that are here broke the law in how they came here. This puts several questions that need to be answered to the situation. Like; "Did the government allow this to help them toward tyranny? O course they wouldn't call it that, Communism or Socialism sounds a lot better, but ends up the same as tryanny.

"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation... One is by sword... The other is by debt." ~ John Adams

There are many things that needs fixed in this country, and illegals in the Welfare system is one of them. With holding this would cause them to seek citizenship in the formal way, but then again, what are the government's aims.

Illegal "immigrants"(aliens) should leave or die.

The difference is US citizens are legally in this country. I doubt most of the children graduating from high school could pass a citizenship test due to the liberal's having had control of the educational systems in this country for decades.

The only pathway they should be given is a ride home and told to follow proper channels or be shot on site next time

Without closing the border, there should be no immigration reform. I am a naturalized citizen and I went through very stringent background checks, first when applying for a green card then another even more stringent when applying for citizenship. The Homeland Security demanded a stack of papers/documents with the application form, together with the last three years of clean tax return, no criminal record, multiple finger printing, etc., etc., the whole process can take years between having a green card and being sworn in as citizens. Obama and Congress must not allowed these invaders to jump the line ahead of those already legally here and applying for citizenship. I am not sure what "pathway" to citizenship means is it fast tracking them to citizenship? The truth of the matter is, if there is no green card, there will be no citizenship, there's no other way to do it. People with criminal records will never get their application for citizenship approved.

They should be sent back to their country of origin and they try it the legal way.

The legal way needs some reform to include people who have difficulty with the current process. Knowing random US trivia does not weed out terrorists, and only reduces opportunity to those who need it more. The background check policy is fine, but the citizenship test is BS. it is the one thing that holds back many immigrants, forcing them to try the illegal route.

The citizenship "test" is rooted in establishing the US as the new country of citizenship rather than a background check for weeding out terrorists. I believe the data regarding known terrorists can be checked for history of ANY terrorist activity against the US and can be used as the basis for refusing citizenship. I agree on general principle that tightening the existing law would be beneficial.