Tancredo is attempting to emerge as a major figure in the Republican Party by advocating zero-tolerance for illegal immigration. Certainly our government has an obligation to protect our borders against external threats, but we also have to understand that there is a reason why people are drawn to the United States. It doesn't matter whether or not you build a Chinese wall across our borders; people are going to find a way to get in, because they see a chance in this country to better their lives. It's just a natural urge. The key question then is how to deal with the people already here: booting out 11 million illegals doesn't make practical sense, so the best way to take care of it is through amnesty. People wouldn't come here if there wasn't a demand for them, and clearly there's a demand for their talents and labor: it's just simple economics. Recently Tancredo declared that Miami is a "third world country", citing its high amount of immigrants as part of the cause. As a resident of Miami, certainly I can say that there are plenty of social problems here, including poverty, but not as much as Tancredo would have you believe. Here's a city which is a rapidly becoming a center for finance, trade, research and the fine arts. Miami is a city whose unemployment rate currently is at lowest in its history, whose real estate market continues to move along while the rest of the country is beginning to slow down. This is a city which is becoming one of the most cosmopolitan in the world, ranking up there with London and Singapore. Who should we thank for such growth? Immigrants, more than any other group, is responsible for transforming this city, which in 1955 was no more than a swampy outpost at the end of the Eastern Seaboard, into a large, diverse metropolis. It is true that when immigrants reach our shores, they bring their own fair share of challenges with them, but our country gets so much more out of it in return. Diversity spawns new ideas; which dynamic, forward-moving societies. Immigrants give us their culture, fuse it with our own ideas about liberty and freedom and create something far greater than the sum of all its parts. Many immigrants living here in Miami came fleeing repression; those have a unique drive to succeed, to provide for themselves, and to raise their families honorably. They start business, work hard, and as a result end up raising their own standard of living, along with the rest of our own. Immigration renews societies; it keeps them energetic and prosperous. As I see it, its great that people want to come here, it should tell us that we're still a beacon of hope for the world to look upon.

Is fighting hard for better border controls and no amnesty towards illegal aliens. He also wants to place lower limits on the number of immigrants in the U.S. per year. I'm very much for that. While some immigrants make a valuable contribution to the U.S. we do not want to be overwhelmed with the social costs of having too many immigrants come in such a short period of time.