Immigrant = scum and why I hate that mindset

Sure, but can't this be done legally? 

Parenthetically, my mom has worked as a migrant picking fruit when times got tough, and she has one of the biggest senses of entitlement you're likely to run across.  I have read the stories of how Americans refuse to do manual labour, but I bet there are some who will, and do.  You just don't read about them in the paper. 

There certainly are Americans who are willing to do that sort of manual labor but there aren't enough. I would actually probably propose increasing the green card lottery numbers and allow anyone from any country to apply, not just those underrepresented in other immigration streams. I would maybe also make more green cards available to the young--say, under 30--proportional to the total pool.

I could support something like that, provided the kids are fully part of society and the parents don't get a free ride.  It's not that I want to see the kids punished, I just don't think the mere existence of children should exempt their parents from consequences of illegal behaviour. 

That's not what the DREAM Act proposes at all. If a child who was brought to the US before the age of 16 graduates from high school and then attends at least 2 years of college or spends 2 years in the military, they would become eligible for a green card.

... we also need people to mow the lawn and clean the houses and pick the produce and most Americans don't want those unskilled, low-paying jobs.

I think it's more the case that most Americans are unwilling (and unable) to pay the prices they would need to in order to support the fair (or even legal) wages that citizens/documented migrants should be able to expect.

We'll pay extra for "Fair Trade" products from all over the world, but very few people consider the conditions that people right there in the U.S. work under.

Sure, but can't this be done legally?  

It's not that I want to see the kids punished, I just don't think the mere existence of children should exempt their parents from consequences of illegal behaviour.  

Sure, it can be done legally and by American workers, but at what cost? I agree with aimlesstraveler and with the research I've done, Brits and Americans (not all but many) are too snobbish for hard manual jobs. If you want to make jobs more attractive for native workers, you'll have to increase wages. However, to cut costs, the workforce will be smaller and fewer workers will be hired. Like much of what Phillipe LeGrain says, if childcare costs $20 per hour, only mothers with higher paying jobs will get to go back to work. However, if childcare costs $10 per hour, more mothers can go back to work and more nannies can be hired. If it costs more to pay fruit pickers, prices will go up. If it costs more to pay for waiters, the restaurant will hire fewer people, service prices will go up and quality of service will decline.

I work in a major clothing shop part time. Recently, I realized that maybe 5% of the workers there are British--not that I care, but I found it interesting. I asked one of the office workers who deals with hiring and she says that Brits just aren't applying. She said, "we would hire them if they applied."

I think that if someone is willing to do a low-skilled job, they should be allowed to be hired. I know that Canada and Australia, now the UK, are obsessing over bringing over only highly skilled or highly qualified workers. Which sounds like a good idea on paper but it creates a lot of brain waste. Many of these highly skilled workers are unable to find work in their field and end up working in low skilled jobs. There's a saying in London that the tube drivers are more intelligent than the tube riders   Also, I don't think it should be the UKBA who decides how an individual's skills will be useful to the country. How many of you did a degree but ended up with an unexpected job?

Also, what do you mean by their parents getting a free ride? The only welfare that undocumented workers are entitled to is based off of their American born children (which isn't even their welfare, but their children's).

Undocumented parents do get deported despite their American children (and without their children). It's not about the law, it's what's right and wrong as human beings. I would rather, a million times, have an undocumented worker get amnesty and get to stay with their American children. While some will definitely disagree, I would rather keep the family in the country that the child knows. Is it fair to get deported to a country that you haven't been to, speak the language or know the culture? I don't think so. I think as Americans we get spoiled with the mentality that because we can immigrate to another country legally (quite easily in comparison), then others absolutely can and should. To be honest, it reminds of me of the health care debate, "we're rich, we can pay for our own care, the poor definitely can and should!" It's not that simple. People don't break immigration law because they have some undying ambition to undermine American law, it's because they have no other choice.

I don't understand why so many people wholeheartedly support globalization and have no problem with the porous movement of goods but not the movement of people.

I'm rambling now... I'm gonna go get some sleep  

My son's proposal to solve the immigrant problem in part is to round up all the homeless in the major cities and ship them to the parts of the country needing cheap labor. Sort of like the CCC in the 1930's. We've got the potential workers -- they just need a nudge in the right direction.  They could be housed and paid the same wages as the immigrants -- which would be better than how they live now.  I don't know if it would really work but you'd think someone would have tried it by now.

I know that Canada and Australia, now the UK, are obsessing over bringing over only highly skilled or highly qualified workers. Which sounds like a good idea on paper but it creates a lot of brain waste. Many of these highly skilled workers are unable to find work in their field and end up working in low skilled jobs.

Currently, bringing in highly skilled workers into the UK is pointless, as we have so many skilled workers and recent graduates who are struggling to find work. We have many people from other countries in the EU coming in to do the "low skilled jobs", but in the US, there isn't that same type of workforce coming in legally, which is why the US workforce is filled with illegal immigrants.

The last thing we need right now is MORE skilled workers coming in, because those that are already here are struggling.