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There are social effects of immigration that are, in my opinion, best dealt with as social phenomena. Crime, stress on the health care infrastructure, etc. Those things are a function of population density and economic distribution, not of the racial makeup of a society. Washington DC didn't need immigration to become the murder capital, for instance--other forces were at work that caused that. Saying that Mexicans or Chinese are inherently more criminal or gang-inclined is flat-out racist.
Immigrants don't come to American in order to "undermine our sovereignty", whatever the hell that means. That explanation requires taking the immigration situation personally, as an affront to you and your precious notion of America. That reaction has very little to do with reality. That IS the reaction that's largely being pumped by conservative talking-heads.
To understand immigration, you have to understand the immigrant. Why do they come to America? Because their situation at home is economically unworkable, and they see the hope of a new future in the US. For many of them, coming to the US, working their asses off, and sending as much money home as they can is the only way to keep their families alive.
Joining a gang doesn't help with that. All they really want is to work and be left alone. You might think, well a crime where they steal a bunch of money would be attractive to them--but they know if they're caught, they're gone, and they're smart enough not to risk that. Notice how we're not all "oh, those damn immigrants... always robbing banks!" Mostly they want to live quietly, and under the radar.
My suspicion (and I say this the way I say it very deliberately) is that the reason Most White Americans have a problem with immigration is the same reason they would have a problem with cockroaches living under their sink. It's the same reason Most White Americans aren't completely horrified at the Iraqi casualty count. I assert that in the eyes of Most White Americans, brown people's lives simply aren't worth as much as pink people's lives. It's institutionalized racism that goes unchallenged and unquestioned. I accuse us all (including myself) of that.
Now: I'm not in favor of blanket amnesties. But I think it would serve everyone to have our immigration policy looked at from the view of what works best for the most people, and a REALISTIC view of the benefit that the current level of illegal immigration does for our economy (which is HUGE).
My question for the immigration foes of the world (and of TFP, for that matter): if immigration in general was open, free, and legal (like it probably was when your ancestors came over, by the way), would you have a problem with the current level of immigration?
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