Obama wants Immigration reform NOW!

That is a common myth as well, saying that anyone who becomes a citizen is going to automatically become a Democrat. Perhaps you are unaware of the demographics of Hispanic. They tend to be more conservative then other immigrant groups due to their religious ties to the Catholic church. So calm your fear or concerns because there isn't going to suddenly be "an army of new Democrats" to ruin society.

I'm all for reform, but I can't help but feel like Mr. President just want's more democrats. It's the whole, look-what-we-did-for-you-now-what-will-you-do-for-us thing. Yes, we are all immigrants, but times have changed people. It's not the same today as it was 150 years ago.

In my view, it's always been true that America has failed to fully embrace the potential strength of an international "immigrant" population that could be and should always have been connected to a set of unassailably attractive ideas--life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--without the distractions of limp Anglophilic hypocrisy and a sophomoric tribalism, both animated, ultimately, by hate and perpetuated through the encouragement of self-hatred.

A multi-cultural society, beyond being progressive, compassionate and beautiful, should also aim to be economically and morally powerful. A multi-cultural society should display a durable "network" strength. By that I mean that a plurality of cultures and ideas can be analogized to nodes in a distributed network that is highly adaptive.

And, in the midsts of the current economic crisis, adaptiveness is going to be critically important.

A new immigration policy needs to be integrated into an overarching industrial, energy and environmental policy for America in the 21st century. Rather than simply finding a way to address the problem of 11 million American residents living in legal limbo (contributing to the economy but without legal status) immigration policy needs to provide a long-term solution to prevent this situation from ever arising again.

A regulatory framework that permits such imbalances to arise every decade or so is bound to be a failure. Permitting an economy to meander along relying even partially on an underground and "black market" labour force is a recipe for disaster, a fuse waiting to be lit. There are enough powder kegs of the apocalypse out there already--peak oil, terrorism, calamitous weather patterns sometimes dosed with crude oil--without manufacturing one through an ill-conceived immigration policy. Legalizing foreign-source labour isn't a one shot problem. A consistent and reliable policy must be devised.

America needs to RE-INDUSTRIALIZE. The hub and spoke global industrial model in which goods are designed in America, manufactured in China and other frontier markets, then expensively distributed in America, Europe and the OECD countries in Asia is antiquated. It is inefficient. Manufacturing needs to be rejiggered so that the heavy lifting occurs nearer to its consumers. Hauling those goods through a global maze is carbon intensive and otherwise economically unwise.

Some form of guest worker program could be effective. A program of that sort would be legally, politically and constitutionally difficult, but the benefits could be enormous. For instance, a more localized form of agriculture will require more labour. We should legitimize those uses of labour if it will help in breaking down centralized and carbon intensive agribusiness.

Also, I believe that the build out of a sophisticated system of distributed light manufacturing and assembly will present new opportunities, not only for immigrants, but for everyone. Building and managing a distributed energy network could be both labour and management intensive. The same is true for managing water resources.

A distributed and more localized system for managing food, water and energy is really a collection of small and medium sized business. It should be welcomed by entrepreneurs and other smart people everywhere.

An immigration policy needs to fit within an industrial policy that intends to promote a wide array of small and medium sized enterprises in light manufacturing, local agriculture, distributed energy and the management of water. Also, it might be well to realize that labour intensiveness and carbon intensiveness are NEGATIVELY correlated.

America's immigrant genealogy presents unique opportunities for the re-invention of the economy and, perhaps, in the process, a hybridized capitalism prepared to truly address the challenges of the 21st century. A smart immigration policy could serve as the primary impetus for a New World Order that actually makes sense rather than serving as fodder for dystopian angst.

This piece (&^%%$ wants to legalize 12 Million Felons for the Votes.
How's the New World Order gig going for you Comrad Obama

I say we just annex mexico as the 51st state. If we are going to give their citizens citizenship in the US we might as well get something out of it.

We certainly need the beaches for this winter, as all of ours are getting covered in oil. The only trick is going to be getting them to get rid of that whole spanish thing. Can't we just agree on a new universal language already?

Hay, we are all immigrants and aliens. People that try to hurt immigrants will only be hurting themselves, and it will be a wonderful day when they realize this truth. Repugnants... oh, that's right, they are those people. Repugnants complaining about immigrants is like the pot calling the kettle black. Who decided that undocumented immigrants should be called illegal, anyway? I sure didn't. The only people who have a legitimate gripe about immigrants are Indigenous Americans, and they were apparently America's first immigrants.

About time!

Being kinder to immigrants is a good thing.

Still this is most likely come at the expense of the working poor that are already here.

...I vote that up...

back to shit that matters

It's way overdue. I'm tired of hearing people scapegoat immigrants when the entire nation is composed of immigrants.

The Dems are reading a new bill for the lame duck session prior to the November elections.

Yes we can.