Probably belongs in the "favorite movie quotes" thread, but anyway . . .

What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?... There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity... You can smell it. It smells like death."

 
This one isn't about the "establishment" point; that will come later — I hope.  I wanted to say a few things about your foundation point regarding our borders and sovereignty, and recognizing and enforcing the distinction between illegal and legal immigrants. My central point here is that I believe you are not recognizing all the complexities of the issues relating to illegal immigration (there, see, I have used the term! But, frankly, I do not see how using that term instead of undocumented aliens or some other phrase does much to solve any of the issues, anymore than using the term "Islamic terrorism" solves any of the issues pertaining to terrorism. It may make you and others feel better, but the hard issues remain to be solved; I view it as more symbolic than anything concrete, not that far afield from demanding that folk say "Merry Christmas" instead of "happy holidays."  All this kind of stuff seems to fall in the minds of some under the increasingly popular umbrella term of "political correctness" that is being posited as some kind of plague and pox on all of our lives that must be defeated at all costs, lest our way of life perish. Well, that was a longer parenthetical than I intended. :) ).

You seem to want to frame the issue as one either believes in the sanctity of our borders or one does not, and I believe that is entirely too black-and-white.  Illegal immigration across the U.S./Mexican border has been going on for decades; unclear why it is viewed more of a problem now than in the past, but that is another debate (as I said In a previous post, I believe that the urgency of taking action now is primarily due to there being a blurring of security issues posed by terrorism and illegal immigration across the Mexican border).  But one thing we do know, and should be able to agree upon, is that there are millions, of illegal immigrants residing in the United States, and many of them have been here for many years; decades in the cases of a significant amount. Quite a few of them have raised families here, and are integral parts of their communities .  None of that erases the fact that they came here illegally, but it does raise questions as to what should be done about them — and what can be done.  There is the practical side of it, which is that there is no realistic way that our government is going to be able to find and deport them all.  We should be able to agree upon that.   

You have railed against "Sanctuary Cities," but those, too, come in shades of gray. Under the Constitution, protecting our borders, and combatting illegal immigration, is the responsibility of the federal government.  The states and local jurisdictions are not permitted to create and enforce their own immigration laws; we saw that underscored a few years ago when Arizona was enacting its own immigration enforcement laws. Additionally, and importantly for this discussion, the feds cannot force the states and local jurisdictions to enforce immigration laws. That is the legal end of things, stated rather simply.  Why would jurisdictions not voluntarily cooperate with ICE more in identifying and turning over illegal immigrants for deportation?  There are a number of reasons. I will offer up a couple main ones.  Frist and foremost, many illegal immigrants are integral parts of communities, and have been residing within them for a long time.  I can tell you that a jurisdiction would rather have those "residents" not be fearful of engaging with the local government, most especially local law enforcement, because of fear of being deported. We need their cooperation on a number of fronts.   It builds a stronger community. So, yes, we may be looking the other way on whether a resident is an illegal immigrant or not, but there are reasons for that.  You should be able to agree that there are competing concerns here.  Think of it this way:  We have statutes of limitation on most crimes; when the SOL has expired, a person can no longer be prosecuted for whatever offense he or she may have committed. Does not make them innocent; and one could certainly say that person got away with that crime. But there are reasons why we have SOLs.   There are competing concerns.  So, someone who came here illegally 20 years ago, and, by all accounts has been otherwise living an exemplary life here in America, is discovered to have come here illegally and never established legal status.  Should there be any weighing process involved in determining whether that person should be permitted to stay?  Or is the only thing that matters is whether he or she came illegally?  

That is rather rambling.  Let me say this.  I believe most people would have an aversion to turning in their neighbors, especially longtime and respected neighbors, upon discovering or suspecting they came to this country illegally.  One step further:  I believe most people would rather not live in communities where everyone is encouraged to do so.

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Now, that's funny; no matter your political bent.