Legal Immigration - What We Need Now

When my Italian grandparents came to America legally in the early 1900's, the country needed blue collar workers to grow our economy.  They worked in factories, farms, built roads and rail roads, bridges, buildings etc.  My one grandfather who never did speak English worked in a steel mill his entire life until he was forced to retire at 65.  My other grandfather was more entrepreneurial.  He started out with a horse and wagon selling fruit door to door.  Eventually that evolved into neighborhood grocery stores, which he maintained until he retired.  His family followed the same path.  

Today, we are at a different time.  We need doctors, engineers, computer nerds, mathematicians, teachers, nurses and skilled workers like carpenters, plumbers and electricians really from any country in the world so that means any race or religion.  And, provided they speak English, which is our national language allowing them to assimilate more quickly, these legal immigrants should be given an automatic Green Card with a path to citizenship within 5 years.  Certainly, any foreign exchange students that graduate from our colleges and universities should also be given Green Cards with the same path to citizenship.  Why send them back to another country to compete with us.   

At the same time, while we really don't need many factory workers any more because of robotics, we do need unskilled labor to work farms, hotels, restaurants and elder care facilities.  Many countries refer to these people as guest workers.  They should be allowed into our country with perhaps a Blue Card, which only leads to citizenship after 10 years provided they learn English and develop other skills that are needed in our country.  Their children should not automatically become American citizens as long as they are in Blue Card status. They should be permitted to attend our colleges, universities and trade schools while in the United States.  Those that graduate should be welcomed to stay as American Citizens.  At that point, they could be permitted Green Cards to being the citizenship path

What we don't need are more people on Welfare and Food Stamps than we already have.  Currently, we have 59 million people in the United States living in poverty supported by the 50% of residents who pay all the taxes in our country.  We don't need more Takers that the Makers must support.  We need people who can contribute to the growth of our economy and help us compete with other countries in the world.  If we work smart we can use legal immigration to our advantage.  Right now our immigration system is completely broken.  While some illegal aliens are coming for work, others coming across our border illegally will end up on Welfare and Food Stamps.  And many are criminals and potential Terrorists, which at all cost we must keep out of our country.  

It is time for smart immigration policy.  The problem is that the National Socialist Fascists that support illegal immigration are not acting in the best interest of our nation because they think they are adding eventual voters through some sort of amnesty that they can addict to government entitlements, which will be good for them.  We can't let that happen.