Land of (legal) immigrants?

The United States is a nation of immigrants. Be it St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo, Yom Kippur, or Thanksgiving, every politico worth his/her legislative seat makes it a point while addressing the respective audiences to emphasize on this factor. You hear it probably every second week on TV from crappy social "experts" when discussing a social problem. But slowly and steadily, illegal immigration is starting to be an election issue in many states. Apparently, some senator from Arizona, is proposing a legislation to force illegal immigrants to go back to their country of origin after 5 years of being in the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of these "illegal" immigrants have taken to the streets to protest the proposed legislation. I don't know if it is true, but I heard somewhere that a lot of the people who did not attend work on Friday in protest, got their inspiration from an HBO movie called "Walkout" that was telecast sometime this week.

Having lived in California for 4 years, I know that it would be well nigh impossible for the state to function properly without these illegal immigrants. I haven't seen as many in Iowa / Illinois, but I hear from the locals here that it is soon rising. In short, illegal immigration is rising everywhere. Since it is illegal by definition, the authorities have to do something about it. But personally, I don't see this legislation being the solution.

For one, why wait for 5 years? Are they somehow legal for 4 years and 364 days, and turn illegal overnight? To me, this is an admission that the immigration will not stop, and so any illegal immigrant who works for dirt cheap can easily be replaced by another who will work for dirt cheap. Big Business (who needs the cheap labour) can therefore maintain their bottom line, the politician can get credit for doing something about the immigration issue , people who vote are happy that somebody did something and things will go on as usual. So basically, the problem will not be solved but will give the illusion of being so.

Truthiness at its legislative best.

While we are on this topic, can I suggest that the first puritans on the Mayflower also came to this country illegally? What about the first Italians or the Irish? I doubt they came here with due papers. What about the Chinese who created the various Chinatowns in the US? You think all those trafficked humans were all legal? Why pick on the poor Hispanics? Come to think of it, the only people who came here "legally" were the African-Americans. Slavery was legal then.