Just so you guys know. There's always been a silent consensus among both parties of keeping illegal immigrants illegal. It's easier to exploit cheap labor when you have a population group with fewer rights.
Legal immigration? That's designed for people like my parents who always had the means. When you're escaping violence and persecution you don't have the time to fill out 7 forms, provide 200 pages of evidence, and wait in your home country for 5 years until they let you in.
A lot of these people just don't have any other choice, and many of them have pending asylum cases, which can take years to process. I understand the desire to have a secure border and for people to come in here the legal route. But we also have to be pragmatic and try to understand why we have this immigration problem in the first place.
That's why we need comprehensive immigration reform and also legalize and regulate some drugs. That way, we prevent a lot of people from Central America from fleeing their countries due to gang violence, since these criminal organizations make most of their money through the illegal drug trade in the first place.