Subject: Re: Mayor Adams Is Panicking
"Rhetorical question....

If comprehensive immigration reform was implemented just as you envision it should be, would the number of immigrants coming into the USA every year go up or go down from what it is now?"

Like everything surrounding immigration, that is a depends type of question.

Some things to consider.
1. It should be noted that in your rhetorical question you said "number of immigrants", not number of illegal immigrants. In any sane, realistic comprehensive immigration reform, it is quite likely that the number of legal immigrants will generally rise from where it is now. Decent comprehensive reform should generally drop illegal immigration though.

2. The biggest driver of immigration (both legal and illegal) is economic opportunity. People migrate to the USA because of economic opportunity. As long as there is economic imbalances between the US and its hemispheric neighbors, there are going to be people trying to migrate here (both legally and illegally). With that said, the President, or congress, or anyone in the US, can control what happens in our neighboring countries, so they cannot completely control the economic imbalances. Sure the President and congress can try and influence the economies of our neighbors, but it is generally out of anyone in this countries control.

3. Most of the nutty, Fox news viewership doesn't realize that in general, people immigrating to the USA is a long-term economic benefit. The nutty Fox news crowd is fed the racist propaganda that immigrants are here to sponge off society and are on welfare so they are a net negative. That is simply not true. Immigrating to a new country (legally or illegally) is something that people do not undertake lightly. It requires a lot effort and persistence. As a result, most immigrants are younger and generally more driven to succeed. They are looking for economic opportunities to succeed. Those are the type of people we should want in this country.

In general I think if there was rational comprehensive immigration reform, the number of legal immigrations coming into the country would go way up. The number of illegal immigrants entering would go way down because there would be less economic opportunity for an illegal immigrant versus doing so legally. Plus the penalties would be harsher and process of removing illegals faster.