At last, the U.S. Congress has passed an immigration bill. And I think that’s great. But, as I thought on the issue, I realized that the impetus to make most of this happen was in reaction to the battle over the Mexican border.

When the news was announced of the passage, the networks showed all of the Latino Americans cheering. But, what about all the other immigrants? Here are the statistics:

40 million immigrants in the USA represent 13% of the population; 11 million are illegal.
29% of immigrants are from Mexico; 58% are undocumented. So there are 29 million LEGAL immigrants. Great. But, clearly, they’re not the problem…

According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, in 2005, 56% of illegal immigrants were from Mexico; 22% were from other Latin American countries, primarily from Central America; 13% were from Asia; 6% were from Europe and Canada; and 3% were from Africa and the rest of the world. Homeland Security’s more recent numbers are about the same with slight increases.

That means, of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the USA, 78% or three-fourths are from Latin American countries. That’s an astounding number. That only leaves 1.65 million or 15% from non-Latin countries. It’s not much in comparison, but, it still counts…
Immigration is happening at ALL of our borders. VIOLENCE is happening at the Mexican-US border. Is it the most critical immigration issue – YES – but, I was curious about the other nationalities of immigrants. Even Canadians are affected by this. It’s not just about the children of Mexican migrant workers. Canadians have children who end up being undocumented too.

The Urban Institute estimates between 65,000 and 75,000 undocumented Canadians currently live in the United States in comparison to 6.65 million illegal Mexicans. I found that interesting. Those numbers don’t even compare. But, they do confirm why the Mexican border issue gets so much more attention.

Fact is, the rules for immigrations are exactly the same whether you arrive from Canada, Mexico, Europe or Asia. The proportion of cases ends up being higher and the incidents of illegal entries ends up being higher for Mexico and Canada because both can be land-bound travel. But, Mexico is just out of control…

So, the statistics are crazy. It just seems that as the super-power that we are, we shouldn’t be having a debate about who get to stay and who doesn’t. If you’re in the USA illegally and you’re a criminal, you should get deported – immediately.

If you were born here to illegal parents, you should be given a window to achieve citizenship and if you don’t take advantage of the opportunity, you should get deported. The Dream Act is great.

Even if you’ve been in the USA for 30 years as an illegal alien… you’ve shown yourself to be a productive member of society, but, are facing deportation, you too should be given a window to reach citizenship. And again, if you don’t take advantage of the opportunity, you should get deported.

A path to citizenship shouldn’t be a bad thing. Our leaders who are making this process more difficult should be careful not to reveal too much of what they really think. Bigotry can seep out when and where you least expect it. Hitler wanted one race and the others be damned… I’m just saying…

In the end, some part of this issue is about tolerance, open-mindedness and charity. As Americans, we sometimes tend to forget that people around the world live very differently than we do. Instead of using our superiority against them, maybe we should use it to help them. But don’t get me wrong, criminals be damned. Get them the hell out of here…

So, let’s celebrate our latest victory – The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act – All 844 pages of it. Read it if you dare. It’s a path to citizenship that’s reaching across the political divides. It may not fix the problem completely or immediately, but, at least we’re making progress…