People like me oppose granting amnesty to illegals for the same reasons that the people of the U.S. rose up twice during George W. Bush’s presidency and defeated two congressional efforts to create amnesty and a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 to 20 million illegal aliens.

We think it is simply wrong to reward illegal conduct by those who crossed the borders without permission or overstayed their visas. If more permanent immigrants are needed — I think we need more — they should come from those waiting in line or willing to join the existing line. Our immigration quotas should be increased, doubled or tripled if necessary. We now take in 750,000 permanent immigrants and 250,000 asylees annually. On the other hand, I do not believe in open borders. Mexico doesn’t have them, evidenced by the following exchange between CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and President Calderon:

Newsmax:

America’s porous southern border is an entry point for more than Mexican cartels and their illegal drugs – the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah has been smuggling drugs and people into the U.S. as well.

Hezbollah has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America, and is now using the same routes into the U.S. that the Mexican cartels use for smuggling, according to an exclusive report in The Washington Times.

The group relies on “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers, and transportation experts as the drug cartels,” said Michael Braun, who recently retired as assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“They work together. They rely on the same shadow facilitators. One way or another, they are all connected,” he said.

Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006, funds its operations in part from a large Lebanese Muslim diaspora, and some of that funding comes from criminal enterprises.