U.S. teen: 'I felt like there were no dreams for me'

Julie Quiroz clutches her teddy bear crying. "Mommy," she says softly, as her mother wraps her arms around her and rubs her back. One of her brothers tries to console her. "You're going to come back," he says.

1 of 3 The 13-year-old Quiroz begins to walk away to catch an airplane from Mexico to the United States. Within moments, she rushes back to her mother's arms. "Mommy," she says again, tears streaming down her face.

Quiroz is one of an estimated 3 million American children who have at least one parent who entered the United States illegally, according to the Urban Institute, which researches and evaluates U.S. social and economic issues.

In Quiroz's case, she was born in Washington state, lived there her entire life and went to school there. But her mother, Ana Reyes, entered the United States illegally before Quiroz was born and U.S. immigration officials caught up with her last year on her birthday.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/10/citizen.children/index.html

What a hateful nation we've become. Actually, it's just out in the open now.

There needs to be a middle way between blanket amnesty and the cruelty of separating good families like this one.

My suggestion is to take it on a case by case basis, with a streamlined path to a green card for people who have been good undocumented citizens and put down roots.

Short timers and anyone who breaks a law should just be sent back.

However, people like Mrs. Quiroz who have become assets to this country should be allowed a pathway to remain as resident aliens. Yes, she broke the law to get here, so full citizenship should be out. However, punishing her whole family should also be out.

What we have now isn't working for anyone. We need to rethink it.

Then everyone could be kept together.

The citizenship clause in the Constitution was massively racist - it gave citizenship to anyone born here ...as long as they were White. You're Black? Get back. You're Brown. Get outa town. Only if you're White are you all right (maybe!). Even aboriginal people didn't get citizenship til 19 friggin 24!

Don't forget that one parent is often here legally.

My way keeps good citizens here. Your way throws babies out with their bathwater.

Unless we want to regard the parent as bathwater.

The current system is a mess. I think we can both agree about that.

My objection to your scheme is that it rewards wrongdoing more than right. It makes it nice for the undocumented people and their kids, but it also rewards increasing the load on the environment, the cheap-labor elites, those who are most sly, the coyotes, and the crooked. And at the same time, it penalizes US citizens and legal residents by reducing the number of available jobs and lowering wages. It just doesn't seem like a good or sensible tradeoff.