While a spicing of different cultures is enriching, people do not like feeling like strangers in their own land. There is no doubt that United States must control its borders and limit illegal immigration. America has enormous capacity to absorb and enrich itself with new immigrants. However, the real problem with illegal immigration is not that these immigrants will not be absorbed. The real problem is that bitterness about illegal immigration will mitigate the real cultural and social benefits of legal immigration.
Legal immigrants choose to come here.
They generally want to become Americans, learn the English language, raise their families in the American culture. In exchange for this privilege, new immigrants teach lessons that many sons and daughters of immigrants have forgotten. The commitment of new immigrants to the education of the children remind the rest of us of the importance of family and building a future for those who come after us. The willingness to use meager resources to begin new businesses, the capacity to work hard, and perhaps the unreasonable faith in the future that comes with immigrants serves to renew and reinvigorate the American elan. Tan, the barber, immigrated from Vietnam 13 years ago, not knowing English.