Writes Mark Steyn:
One of the reasons America has an illegal immigration problem is because it has a legal immigration problem. If, like that hapless British Army wallah, you do things by the book, go to a US consulate in a foreign city and get issued with an “Advance Parole”, you lay yourself open — for years to come — to being suddenly plunged, entirely arbitrarily, into a bureaucratic nightmare that destroys your life. Compare that to the courtesies extended to illegal aliens….if you slip across the border, rent an apartment, get a job and a driver’s license courtesy of outgoing California Governor Gray Davis, the entire Democratic Party and a good half of the Republican Party will bend over backwards to respect you as a fine upstanding member of the Undocumented-American community and facilitate your access to all the benefits the state has to offer. Entering America illegally is a rational choice.
If a non-criminal foreigner wishes to immigrate into America–and an American is willing to hire him–the process of immigrating should be little more than a matter of “rubber stamp” paperwork, as opposed to a sometimes decade-long process. Immigrants should not be permitted to enter if they simply intend to be future members of the welfare state.