Teddy said it best
And I don't mean Teddy Kennedy.
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." Theodore Roosevelt 1907
This goes to the very heart of the immigration debate. These illegal immigrants have no want or need to become American citizens. They will, however accept amnesty, as it means that they (and their extended families) can stay in the United States, where working at dirt poor wages beats living in Mexico.
We do not need amnesty, we need to regain control of our border with Mexico. We need to stop this influx of people who by and large provide a drain on our society. Don't give me any bull about "we're all descendants of immigrants." My family came over legally, not over the border in the middle of the night.