Notice in most media coverage that Nicaragua and Costa Rica are not mentioned as significant sources of illegal immigrants. Neither gets significant military aid or training from the US. The source countries mentioned, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador do. The relationship with Mexico is even more complex and militarized via the war on drugs. And it has been a real war in that country. The US relationship with these countries has fostered in them the same extremes of inequality and unemployment of the lower classes we see developing in the United States. They also have very insecure environments for the majority of their populations. When we deport criminals back to those countries many of them join gangs that make the situation there even worse. There are more people that want to escape those conditions than there are legal immigration visas available to them. Telling them to wait in line is pointless. One part of the answer is to save American taxpayer money by ending military aid to the source country government. American interests there will protest. Intense diplomatic work would be needed to avert violent revolution and refugee flows and build new, more self-sustaining societies that don't need to export citizens for pressure relief. The long term answer also involves taking a hard look at the nature of Nicaragua and Costa Rica and supporting the best of their policies in the sending countries. But the American elite generally do not favor such policies because they are too "socialist". And socialism does have its problems, but exporting the numbers we are seeing from the sending countries does not occur even in the cases of Cubans (who do get a free pass to stay here, however they get here) and Venezuelans (who may start getting a free pass). It is not at all popular to crack down on the American employers who hire illegal immigrants. The Republican party talks about "controlling the border", not disrupting businesses with wide scale ICE raids. Rather than protecting its own citizens, American policy effectively works to underemploy, impoverish, and disenfranchise them. It does this while holding out opportunity to the young through military service on a global scale, and student debt to those who choose other than the military path. Given current policies, immigration problems, like abortion problems, are not going to go away. These problems are effective in garnering sufficient votes to maintain the elite agenda under a veneer of democracy. Isn't it fascinating how a nation that can go the moon and field the world's most sophisticated military never seems able to even mitigate these domestic problems into minor issues? These issues are part of maintaining the status quo. If working Americans actually understood and voted on their interests in job opportunities and better wages rather than these wedge issues, they would have to be prepared to challenge an elite that may no longer see much utility in the veneer of democracy. The steady militarization of domestic police forces is a testament to elite calculations and preparations for such a contingency. Fortunately the recent election has given us a temporary reprieve from that outcome, providing sufficient victories on the right to calm the various militias who too easily dub policies such as those of Nicaragua and Costa Rica as too Marxist leaning, however truly mixed their economies are and the few immigrants they thereby send us. Folks, this has been going on for decades, and I fear it will take a genuine Depression to sway enough voters back to supporting candidates with a sense of noblesse oblige such as FDR and John F. Kennedy, if elections will still be conducted in such a "state of emergency." America saw and still sees hatred of FDR (and he welcomed their hatred) internally. And we're not sure of the whole story around the demise of John F. Kennedy. These were elite men (and so was Eisenhower) who had a heart for the average American, and an appreciation for the sacrifice of the American soldier for their families, democracy and human decency. One shudders at the dark values gaining ever greater power and control over our lives and the desperate lives in neighboring countries. Working people need to consider the formation of a new political party that will promote everyone's survival with some more reasonable mixture of incentive and civility.

The logic of prioritizing the well being of a nations own citizens first. Look, I'm a Democrat, and my parents were 1st gen Americans, but I also recognize (and am experiencing firsthand) the disastrous effects of no immigration policy. Unlimited inflow into the U.S with a world population of over 7 billion is simply inconsistent with having any hope of reducing unemployment here or returning our standard of living to what it was in decades past. Nations still have a right to protect their own borders. Unfortunately, the Native Americans could not, and that is and was an even deeper tragedy.

Drveruju, your logic is clear. The clearest I've yet seen. Awesome. Our leaders should have this!

What logic? Just more delusional non-thinking with plenty of traditional right wing hatred of the other-the people not "American" enough.

"Much of the argument for immigration reform — and, in particular, the
president’s proposed executive orders — revolves around the imperative
of compassion for immigrant families"......Which is of course utter and complete nonsense....where did the United States pick up this mandate that rightfully belongs with the immigrants respective foreign governments.

The imperative of compassion of the US government is with the plight of it's own citizens, 18 plus million* of whom are unemployed and with an almost equal number who are either under-employed or who have given up looking for work altogether.

No the immigration argument is wrongly framed in this article and in the mainstream media as a whole.

The first responsibility of any government is the well being of its own regular citizens, a mandate that all governments in this immigration debate have shirked.

The problems of increasing poverty, unemployment, stagnant wages, income inequality and environmental degradation are but a few of the problems the US is suffering from that can be squarely placed at the door of massively excessive immigration levels.

I support numbersusa and fair in their fight to bring common decency and correct prioritization to our immigration system.

*numbersusa

Obviously, your family were never immigrants to the
USA?! My family immigrated from Northern Italy decades ago. However, at one time they were considered to be Italians first, and Americans last. The level of discrimination leveled against them took many years to overcome.
The entire point of immigrating to another country is the pursuit of a better life. America is still a nation of immigrants, you just don't happen to like their skin color or the "foreign" sounding language they might be speaking. Many of the immigrants from South America are children. If you cannot produce some kind of compassion for their situation, then you are not understanding WHY this country is still a nation of immigrants. I guess the Statue of Liberty is now just so much ancient nonsense.
The right wing's refusal to do anything about immigration is so they can continue to obfuscate any real progress and slander Obama simultaneously. That is their intention regardless of how one feels about him.
What is "wrongly framed," is your refusal to put the onus where it belongs-problems with immigration are specifically the responsibility of the supposedly "Christian" ultra right wing politicians. Either America continues to accept it's responsibility to embrace those who seek asylum, or it is just another nation of meaningless propaganda.
Immigrants are NOT creating the lack of income equality, etc. That is a preposterous statement. All one has to do is look no further than the corporate whores sitting on their collective asses in Washington.

I do not give a hoot about the skin color of anyone.
But the idea that foreigners should be allowed to fulfill their American dreams at the direct expense of the existing US citizenry as you seem to espouse is utterly absurd.

As far as the immigrants creating income inequality it is cause and effect as per economics 101. The immigrants are being cynically used by corporate America to undermine wages by creating a vast over supply of workers.
The United States is not as you seem to think a nation of immigrants, it is a nation of citizens.

My parents were legal immigrants to the USA, I was born here.

No. Jobs are being offshored to create a vast undersupply of jobs so as to exploit economic desperation and lower wages and eliminate benefits.. Supply side Reagoonomics 101.

Clearly you do have the perspicacity to continue a meaningful dialog on this subject matter.

Oh, but there is an agreement on the environmental degradation in the U.S.. It's all those immigrunts from Texass fracking up everybody else's air and water that's poisoning the well. And as we also all know, "Bein' a Texan' and a drivin' is dangerous."

Drveruju is correct and taking care of our own must be our priority. With the expected 20 trillion dollar debt at the end of 2016, have the progressives considered from where all the money will come to care for those that do come and don't work?

Raising the minimum wage to a living wage should help with the poverty and stagnant wages. Closing the tax loopholes for corporations and the excessively wealthy should help with the income inequality. Penalizing instead of incentivizing the offshoring of jobs should help with the unemployment. And increasing, strengthening and enforcing EPA regulations will definitely help with the environmental degradation. Blaming the alien boogie man for all of the above problems instead of Cancervative Capitalism is squarely the result of massively excessive ignoramity levels. "Stupid is as stupid does." mama used to say.

Wages would have gone up, the environment would be better, etc, had the US immigration system not been gamed by big corporations so they could lower their wage bills by flooding the US with unneeded foreign workers.
It's called supply and demand as in economics 101.
I do not blame the immigrants for wanting to have a better life but the system that uses that very desire to undermine the current population of US citizens, some of whom have had to train their foreign replacements so they could collect their severance check.

In fact:

CIS: ALL JOB GAINS SINCE 2000 HAVE GONE TO IMMIGRANTS

All net job gains since 2000 in the United States have gone to immigrant workers, according to a new study from the Center for Immigration Studies. Using government data, the study found that the number of working immigrants (both legal and illegal) has increased by 5.7 million since 2000, but the number of working native-born Americans has decreased by 127,000 over the same period.

The study also found that native-born Americans accounted for two-thirds of all population growth since 2000, causing the number of working-age Americans not in the labor force to increase by 17 million from 2000 to 2014.

The findings confirm that high levels of immigration do have a negative impact on employment levels for native-born Americans. It also contradicts arguments made by open-border groups that increased immigration creates jobs for American workers.

CIS issued the study to coincide with the one-year anniversary of S.744 passing in the Senate.

Gallup released a new survey finding that the plurality of Americans support lower immigration levels. In fact, the survey found that across all three political groups -- Republicans, Independents, and Democrats -- more Americans support lowering immigration levels than increasing them.
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US citizens need to be the priority of the US government not foreign nationals.

CIS? Don't watch that television melodrama. Too much fiction. Not enough Fact. Nice fuzzy math try at squirming your way out of your own words though. But blaming the raped for your having to rape them doesn't make you any less a rapist. Reality 101.

Reality 101...I live it and see it everyday....do you?

Yes. And it does get saddening to watch those like you gang rape reality over and over again.

Exactly correct.

Once again the Obama Administration falls way short on explaining another policy to the American People. President Obama must explain HOW his executive actions on immigration will work beyond speaking in generalities. Voters need accurate descriptions beyond generalities if Barack expects to build support for his actions and counter Republican attacks.

The 11/4/14 Electoral massacre come from failing to remind voters of the many White House and Congressional successes that came from Democrats. Let's learn and educate voters instead of empty speeches from a bloody pulpit.

it used to be easy to tell racist -- they wore white sheets /// now you have to ask 2 questions 1] are you for school voucher ? 2] are you for open borders ? the racist will answer no to #. 1 because the racist will want to keep American black from having jobs skills and yes to #2 because the racist want to flood the low end of job market to prevent American black from getting paid well

The Republicans will never ever impeach Obama because (a) they plan to run an anti-Obama campaign in 2016 even though he's retiring then, and (b) he already does what their and his masters want.

The only reason they'd really want to impeach him is if he actually stood for something or the Democratic party actually made some moves to end the wars or close the bases or rebuild American industry and restore jobs. And there's no chance of that from Obama, Hillary, or any of the Bushes lining up to run in 2016.