Jorge Ramos vs. Donald Trump - No Subtlety Where Subtlety is Most Needed

I am not a fan of how Jorge Ramos acted at Trump's question and answer session.  Would Ramos have treated the current president this way?  Probably not.  However, Trump is not the president yet, and he has to subject himself to the full onslaught of the press - some of which are actively (but covertly) agitating to end his run for the presidency.  

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Since I am not a Spanish speaker, I do not watch Univision. I am told that Ramos has the reputation in the Spanish speaking communities that Walter Cronkite had in mine a generation or two ago.  With this being said, I had to wonder - why was he cutting in front of other journalists to pose his questions to Trump?  Why couldn't he wait his turn, like other journalists there?

There was only one easy to come up with answer to these questions - Trump's campaign people may have been avoiding Ramos's request for an interview with Trump, so that he could explain his positions on immigration to Ramos in detail.  Trump is a bombastic demagogue whose message is more of style than of substance. He attracts angry old white men who feel that their nation has been ruined by newcomers. Yet, reality proves Trump otherwise.  First world nations that actively accept immigrants usually outperform their peers.

Ramos is not innocent here. From what I understand, he has had a bug up his ass in regard to the issue of immigration for a while. The idea that a nation has a right to reject (and send home) uninvited, illegal immigrants may be abhorrent to him - which is the opposite of where Trump stands. But the people who watch Ramos' news reports have much to benefit from uncontrolled borders. So he can not have an objective viewpoint on this issue.

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What is really happening here?  The average Trump Supporter has no clue about the real nature of illegal immigration.  Mexican immigration to the USA (illegal and legal) has fallen, now that there are greater legal opportunities to provide well for their families. Mexico is also helping the USA keep other foreigners from crossing the border to illegally work here. (Many of these people are illegally being denied asylum here because of the civil unrest in their home countries.  Of course, the combined issue of the narcotics trade, illegal immigration, and American demand for both illegal drugs and workers never gets mentioned for the cause of their countries' unrest.)  But the real problem is that the vast number of illegal immigrants simply overstay their visas and absorbed into the cash economy.

Trump supporters actually believe that a 40 foot wall and mandatory deportations for all illegal immigrants will keep unwanted foreigners out of the USA and keep them from taking jobs from Americans.  This is complete B.S.!  But what would happen if we were to develop a realistic plan to deal with the illegal immigrants already here?  What would it look like?

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One of the complaints that many "conservatives" have with allowing the illegals to stay here is that they jump in the line for citizenship, and that this benefits the "liberals".  This is not as true as it sounds, as most illegals prefer to stay out of sight of the government, and choose to avoid things like voting fraud - simply to keep as low a social profile as possible and avoid detection from the INS.
So I pose the question: "Why not give these people only 'American National' status, but not ever let the illegal immigrants gain full American citizenship?"  The nationals would have the following rights:

• The right to work anywhere in the USA (and pay taxes)
• Eligible for a US Passport (in the same way as residents of American Samoa and Swains Island).

But they would have the following restrictions:

• No right to vote or hold public office.
• (In this case) permanently ineligible for American citizenship.

This way, they could not affect American voting patterns, nor do they gain much from jumping ahead of the immigration queue.  But by being legal participants in the labor market, they can actively negotiate higher market rate prices for their labor, pushing labor prices up, not down as they currently are doing....

What about their children, you may ask? To me, this is a simple question.  If the child came over the border before the age of consent, they could immediately become American Nationals.  But after serving in the military or performing other appropriate community service, they could apply for citizenship at the age of consent.

Doesn't this reward people for breaking our laws?

Sadly, our economy has already done that - these people have often created their own jobs in the cash economy, and we have already been rewarded by lower priced goods and services they provided us for our cash.  

My question is: "Why don't we bring their labor efforts into the open where we can tax their income?"  Conservative types have no answer for this.  They think that an Albanian operating a food cart on 6th Avenue in NYC is taking work away from Americans.  But what kind of native born American is willing to do this kind of work?  We already know that much of the back breaking harvest time farm work is done by immigrants (legal and illegal). Would we see a rush of Americans to do this back breaking labor?  I doubt it!

What will likely happen if we keep these immigrants in an "illegal" status?

As I see it, they will lose respect for more of our laws over time, and flow into the "illegal" economies - drugs, gambling, prostitution, etc. - where their experience of working in the cash economy is an asset instead of being a liability.  Can we afford to risk this?  I doubt it.

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So I have a question - when will the United States become serious in what needs to be done in regard to illegal immigration?  Hopefully, it will be sooner instead of later....