Immigration is a major issue in the current political landscape. Some want to open US borders for a free flow of immigrants, whoever will may come. Others say there needs to be some kind of organized, vetting process, and that certainly there should be a clear, legal path to citizenship that arriving internationals may elect to pursue. But reaching back at least to the second Bush Administration, immigration law or reform has been a partisan political football with both Democrats and Republicans posturing to gain electoral advantage. Meanwhile, immigrants suffer, the US population suffers, the citizenship process is mired in bureaucracy, and DACA individuals are kept in limbo.
The US offers immigrants freedom, opportunity, security, a future for families, and hope. Immigrants, properly reviewed and legally engaged, offer America strength, talent, energy, work productivity, and hope. The US is and should proudly be a "nation of immigrants" where ideals mean more than demography. What's needed now, desperately, are political leaders with statesman-like values and vision, and the moral courage to enact proper laws offering citizenship to those who would seek to earn it.
