Tell ya what, Catherine.

Concentrate upon the legal immigration process versus the illegal immigration process, and stop pretending that they are one in the same, OK?

What matters, bottom line, is assimilation, that is, those that wish to assimilate unto our Nations values and laws, and those that do not.

Assimilation means not only believing within this Nation, but defending its own ideology.

It does NOT mean flying the flag of their own country of origin, or the ideology of the country of origin all the whilst taking advantage of the freedoms and benefits that this Nation has to offer them.

The "ladder", as you call it, Catherine, shall always be there, should the individual that climbs it, wishes that upon the top rung, they shall be called, and represented, as an American, not a hyphenated version of it, not as an expatriate from any other location, but as an American.

Period.

You, Catherine, accentuate the "hyphen" before American.

I accentuate the "American" aspect of it.