The real crisis is the one that immigration partially solves: low birth rates in the developed world. Without enough young workers to support social services t

The real crisis is the one that immigration partially solves: low birth rates in the developed world. Without enough young workers to support social services to the elderly - who have paid into the system their whole lives, mind - our elder care safety net would collapse. Without immigrants, what would you do? Nobody's gonna shoot grandma, and she needs to be cared for, which acts as a drag on productivity for the fewer younger workers. Not to mention mom and pop ain't getting any younger. You could crank the birth rate up somehow, but that assumes you have 10-20 years to burn till Junior's ready for the workforce. Sadly, Japan is trying this option and having little success getting their youth - among which a startling proportion are virgins - to have more children, let alone any children at all. Personally, I love immigrants, particularly Hispanics. Their ancestral history largely reflects my own: immigrants from (mostly) Europe who wanted a better life than they could get at home. They work hard and - contrary to a race-baiting conservative press and a blindly multicultural liberal press - genuinely do want to be American and adopt American customs. My Irish and Italian ancestors went through the very same thing, and all of them are as American as apple pie.