> It is the people of the United States that defend our borders, and it is therefore the right of those people to decide who gets in those borders and who does

> It is the people of the United States that defend our borders, and it is therefore the right of those people to decide who gets in those borders and who does not. The people are entitled to decide for themselves what kind of trade-offs they want to make re: immigration, based on what benefits them the most. One can make a credible case that the U.S. is in danger of losing it's place as an attractive place to start a technology company if we don't allow more skilled immigrants. One can also make a credible case, without any xenophobia necessary, that we already do a lot to create a large supply of engineers in this country, and that the U.S. is not in any danger of losing it's attractiveness at the moment, and that we'd rather enjoy the higher wages that come from limiting the labor pool. Although, I agree with your general point, I want to point out that the way the American system works, it is not exactly designed to figure out what the people want. Immigration is an interesting point where both Democrats and Republicans are under intense pressure by lobbyists to make sure high end immigration keeps flowing in (which cynical me agrees with you is for wage depression.). On the other hand, they completely ignore the fact that a huge swathe of the population has falled into the cracks with both border security broken and the fact that illegal immigrants have made a life for themselves here but have none of the benefits of a citizen.