“Think about the millions of children who will be born in coming years to the 11 million illegal immigrants already living on American soil.These young people will know no other home, many will never learn the language of their parents, and if what has happened in Europe is any guide, very few will even consider going back to the Old Country.

The overwhelming majority would finish out their lives here in the U.S. as second-class noncitizens with no hope of full participation in our society and little incentive to try in school or to aspire to mainstream success.”

While the proposal doesn’t carry much political potential, the underlying sentiment that it reveals is disturbing. While academics might use a big word like xenophobia to discribe this sort of thing, I would venture to catagorize this in the age-old “who is my neighbor?” debate. With millions of undocumented Latino immigrants in this country, I think that we need to stop asking - “how do we get rid of them” and start addressing recognizing addressing the reasons - both positively & negatively - that the have consistently made the US is such an immigration-open country throughout our history.

If I remember my personal history right, my family - the Whitneys - immigrated on the Elizabeth to this land 30-40 years after the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. Good thing the Minute Men weren’t around for another century when they came.