[cobookman]

Immigrants or illegal immigrants?

To become a legal immigrant in America takes a lot of effort. It's almost like saying people of new money are less likely to go to jail.

As for illegal immigrants I've got no idea as to how many bad actors there are.

However I'll give a stat that many liberals in Europe failed to realize. Their are many people in this world that do not like Western culture. E.g take Muslims around the world wanting sharia law (http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religi...). We shouldn't block immigrants from coming to the us. But we should only allow immigrants who will "melt" and become part of the American melting pot.

[scholia]

> To become a legal immigrant in America takes a lot of effort.

I wish someone would explain this to Donald Trump. He is currently lying his head off about immigrants "pouring in" as though Homeland Security didn't even exist. Just visiting the USA is a huge pain for many people.

I've been hassled entering the USA on a 5-year visitor's visa (in fact, on 25 years of 5-year visitor's visas) with hotels booked, return tickets booked, and a well-paying job, house, wife and pension in my country of origin.

Many people have been handcuffed imprisoned and deported for entering on the wrong visa, including one woman who had an American husband, an American-born child, and several years of living as a permanent resident in the USA.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jun/05/usa.weekend7

[scholia]

> Immigrants or illegal immigrants?

Both. Illegal immigrants are generally keen to avoid any contact with a legal system that might deport them.

Either way, the USA has almost no illegal immigrants who are Muslims. Almost all Mexicans are Christians (88% Catholics). Most Cubans are Catholics as well (60%).

Indeed, the USA has very few legal immigrants who are Muslim either. "According to a new estimate in 2016, there are 3.3 million Muslims living in the United States, about 1% of the total U.S. population." At least a quarter of those are US-born Americans like Mohammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaq O'Neal, Mos Def, Busta Rhymes, Yusef Lateef etc.

"According to a 2004 telephone survey of a sample of 1,846 Muslims conducted by the polling organization Zogby, the respondents were more educated and affluent than the national average, with 59% of them holding at least an undergraduate college degree."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_United_States