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From an economic perspective, the arrival of migrant workers is only the natural correction of a market inefficiency.
If people are able to enter the country and find work, their doing so enriches us as a country - although it's true that those workers competing directly with the newcomers will be worse off.
The problems attendant to 'illegal immigration' can be much better addressed by adapting the legal mechanisms we use to deal with these moving labor flows. Providing an easier route to citizenship would be one way to handle it; another way might be to offer working and residence permits while preserving citizenship as a more difficult status to achieve. This would make both Americans and incoming workers better off, while minimizing potential concerns about the eventual impact of changing demographics on our electoral politics.
I truly have a hard time comprehending the 'keep them out' attitude that one sometimes encounters in this debate. The appeal to law and order is another way of framing it that, frankly, does more to obfuscate than illuminate. In the context of debating our own laws, it is meaningless to simply refer back to the very same law that is under scrutiny.
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