Yes I do think we should tighten the laws on immigration. Im sorry to who ever is a illegal immigrant but it is affecting the rest of us who are here in a negative way. One reason would be the lack of jobs. There has been less and less jobs because people who come to America are willing to do the same jobs we once did for less money. Thus we take the pay cut or the job is given to someone who can do it for less.
Recently they were trying to pass a bill that would allow illegal immigrants to pay in state tutuion for school. I don't agree with this and think it is unfair. That they wouldn't be paying the taxes we are and they would be able to goto school for the same as us. Also our taxes would go up to pay for it.
So yes I think they should tighten immigration laws.

The immigration laws we have are quite clear and strict. The problem is that the laws are difficult to enforce perfectly without turning our country into a police state like Nazi Germany.

One of the problems we have is that we have not figured out a way to provide farm labor at low wages without ignoring the illegal aliens who come here. We do not have a legal guest worker program. The uneducated people from our own country are allowed to go on welfare or disability, so they don't want to labor for low wages in the hot sun. Some of our citizens would rather be criminals than perform honest, but hard physical labor.

Until we decide as a nation exactly who among our citizens should work in menial jobs caring for hogs, picking strawberries, or washing cars, we will continue to have non-citizens who are willing to risk their lives to take these jobs. That's the real problem.

TIghtening immigration laws will not reduce crime or help unemployment.

This supposes the only criminals are immigrants, which is totally false. White collar crime among people who have lived in one place all their lives is high and immigration has nothing to do with it. Crime exists equally in all levels of society and people.

As for unemployement, this is high for many reasons, one of which is people who are buying things made in other countries and thus are sending jobs out of the country. There are many low paying job openings that for some reason people think they are too good to fill, and these jobs are taken quick by immigrants.

As such tightening immigration laws will not lower crime, nor reduce unemployment, if anything having more people here might just increase employment as they will consume things and hopefully keep others at work.

I agree with Deborah-Dian. We do not lack adequate immigration laws.
We do, however, lack adequate enforcement of immigration laws, (as well as many other laws). We should not constitute laws unless we are prepared to enforce them. It takes strength of conviction to enforce laws. If our society is not able and willing to enforce our laws, then perhaps many of our laws should be abolished.
Thousands of our parents, great grandparents, etc., entered this country legally. They sacrificed as much, if not more, worked as hard, if not harder, and studied harder to become American citizens than most 'born here' Americans would even consider. If they could do it, then so can anyone else who wants to move to America.
As far as farm labor goes, I say "bull-doody!". There are many Americans who would take those jobs. Thanks to our never-ending recession, we have degree holding, college graduates who are taking jobs at McDonald's today. Thousands of people show up for fifty jobs at Walmart! I have talked with many people who would take farm labor jobs, as opposed to no job! Put the jobs in the classifieds, and see what happens.

Everyone in the world was or have ancestors who were immigrants at some point in time in history. The fact that the media has focused solely upon the immigrants who have turned to a life of crime or portrayed immigrants as people who come here and take "Americans" jobs is ridiculous.

No one should have the rights to say where a person should be able to live. If you or your family were stuck in another country without food or work would you want to find a way to help them? I myself would indeed want to provide a better life for my family and if that meant moving to another country then so be it.

Everyone should be treated equally regardless of where they were born. People should get to know "immigrants" before they judge them and their intentions. Many of them are the most giving, hard-working, loving people I have ever met in my life. They work very hard and they pay taxes. They are REAL PEOPLE. They should not be shunned because they were unfortunate enough to be born some place other than the U.S.

Americans should want to help immigrants and make it easier for them (the non criminals) to come to the U.S. We should be looking for a way to embrace them and utilize the population growth. An opportunity to provide more jobs (an increase in population equals increase demand for supplies). The more in demand supplies are the more people are needed to produce them and that equals MORE jobs.

People are just so quick to focus on the negative because it is easier to just say "get out," and find all the reasons why the U.S. shouldn't allow immigrants. But what about finding some reason to allow REAL PEOPLE into the United States?

Yes, I think that tightening immigration loopholes and rigorously enforcing existing immigration laws would definitely assist efforts to combat crime and reduce unemployment.

Although people who enter the country illegally are certainly not all criminals, they often have fewer incentives to abide by the law that legal immigrants and citizens. They have already broken the law by entering without permission or by overstaying visa authorizations. Some studies suggest that illegal entrance contributes significantly to identity theft and identity theft crimes. Since there is no record of entry, it is also sometimes more difficult for the police to apprehend suspects in serious crimes if those people are foreign nationals and they have not entered the country by legal means and reported their place of residence and their vital statistical data to the immigration authorities.

With respect to assisting the unemployed, enforcing existing immigration and hiring jobs would reduce competition faced by legal workers. Some sources estimate that approximately 8,000,000 jobs are currently filled illegally by foreign nationals who are not even authorized to be in the country. Many of those workers are exploited and are not even paid minimum wage-- this situation exerts a downward pressure on wages and salaries in general. If the existing laws were enforced, many of the positions now held by foreign nationals would be available for citizens and permanent legal immigrants.

I believe what you are referring to are the latest ads that have been on television suggesting to reduce the number of allowed immigrants into the country, annually.

My way of thinking is that the immigration laws are so outdated that everything needs to be addressed. This would be one of the issues that either needs to be addressed or changed, so yes.

Not only do the laws need to be updated, but the entire department, too. There needs to be a massive revamping of the immigration system.

However, if you are suggesting that legal immigration increases crime rates, this is not the case and is ignorant to believe.

As far as legal immigration reducing employment for "Americans", I don't believe this to be the case, either. What I do believe to be a problem is that we have people who come here on student visas, we teach them, and then we send them on their way back to their country, being productive and sought-after citizens of their country instead of investing the knowledge and education into our own country. This is the way it works currently. So although I do not agree with immigrants taking "our" jobs, I might agree that legal immigrants take away from educational opportunities for people who have every intention of staying in the country and being productive.

We need to enforce the immigration laws that we already have. I am not against immigration, because this country was built by immigrants. My grandfather came to America from Scotland in 1933, but he did it the legal way. If a person sneaks into the country then they have broken the law.

As a taxpayer I don't like the idea that people who sneak into this country illegally can get benefits that me and my family are not able to get. I welcome all to America, but do it legally. We need to know who is arriving.

Since when is America cowardly? We have the Statue of Liberty, which means we're tough enough and strong enough to tolerate the onslaught of immigrants from all over the world and let them be assimilated into our society, to mix and form a strength stronger than steel.

It goes without saying that we have face tightening immigration laws together with strict enforcement or face a 40-50% unemployment rate in the U.S. So I agree with kegster86 that for instance, Governor of Texas, Perry's giving lowered tuition is grossly unfair to legal Americans and immigrants who have to pay double to go to college if they aren't State residents, agree with GLA that Americans are indeed desperate for jobs and would do farm labor, and especially agree with Catalpatrees that illegal (undocumented) workers do much toward increasing job competition and contribute even more than outsourcing in other countries to downward pressure in the job market in terms of salaries. Need proof? Take a quick look at Nevada, the number one US State for unemployment at almost 14%, where the Las Vegas Sun in 2009, reported that there were 170,000 illegals working there. Job Connect, Nevada's State employment service lists jobs daily for which only bilingual (Spanish) applicants need apply. These jobs are not just in construction, as proferred by Nevada politicians, but in multiple office (as in medical), public service (as in Welfare), as well as many other job designations which our humanitarian government sees 'grassroots' small business-type jobs. This example repeated in smaller forms in multiple States, illegal entry points all over the country, in additon to the fact that several of the 9-11 highjackers had expired visas etc. should tell us that something needs to done now....like actively discouraging/stopping all illegal immigration (not encouraging everybody to claim they were brought here against their will) and strictly enforcing existing federal law because every time a State tries to do anything, it backfires with civil liberty infringement claims in favor of criminals who come to give birth or enjoy American entitilement programs.

Thank You All for the constructive opinions.

Alicia Marie2 has quite a good view.
My immediate response is that we have too many immigrants....BUT who are we to stop people living wherever they want to in this world.
HOWEVER - if people come 'barging' in to a country they MUST contribute. They should have NO entitlements until they have earned them.
Local citizens should NOT be responsible for providing houses and benefits for them.

This view should not upset any of the bona-fide hard working immigrants who arrive to better themselves....it may upset those who come for a free meal ticket.

Further, any trouble they cause should lead to IMMEDIATE deportation. This is very effective in keeping huge immigrant populations crime-free in Middle Estern countries. One false move and you are OUT!

One last thing - they should abide by OUR laws and use OUR language. There should be no demands for minority 'rights'. They choose to be the minority! If they want to be a majority they should go home!

I do realise that immigrants (by choice)and refugees (fleeing fear) should have different status.