Yes of course many have been living here or several generations. My Grandmothers family owned and operated a Ranch near El Paso for years. Also in the Western United States Spanish and Mexican people lived here longer than Americans. Of course Mafoo, is making a good point by pointing out that generilizations about race do not make sense at all.
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i think most people would do it depending on their own situation.

It's hard to make a comparison unless we can state that roughly that illegal immigrants have generally the same economic and social makeup as those who have legally come here or have put in requests to do so.

It could be that a lot of the ones who come here illegally are just poorer.

It's really up in the air.

I don't know have the exact numbers.   Interestingly a lot of people who sneak it do have advanced qualfications but I don't have exact numbers.  Some of these people are like... electrical engineers.

Whether the group is as large as the legal ones coming from mexico and other south american countries... i'm unsure.

Some would argue that the American aquisition of Texas was illegal and therefore the Mexicans are entering what should rightfully be their country.

You could really only make that case if you applied international laws backwords through time.  Which would cause soo many problems.

That's funny!!  Great analogy....I'm glad you are not a judge or an attorney.

Have you ever seen the film (or read the book) Les Miserables?  Basically, the guy is starving and steals a loaf of bread.  He is locked up in jail for that...most poeple think that is unfair.  US Law, State Law think is unfair.  That is why there is a defense called "necessity".

Stealin a car: taking other person's property with intent to permanently deprive him/her of the property is a crime both legally and moraly.  Crossing the US Border without a visa is a crime agaist US Immigration Law, but not necessarily a moral crime.  The intent is not to violate the law to "hurt" the US, the intent of most people in that situation is to work in order to provide for their families and so that their children can have a better future.

Now having said that, it is still illegal thus penalties are in fact in order.  But I wouldn;t called them people predisposed to committing crimes.

To entertain you analogy though...US Immigration laws are more like "Wait in line to get to the bus, but the people with money get in first, then the people with high skill second, third goes the people who promise to return to their countries in 6 months, and everyone else wait for 10 years and we'll see if we have any need for you".

So... you find it wrong that countries want to make sure the people who immigrate will be useful contributors to society.  I would think that would be common sense.   Why would you want a lot of people to immigrate legally if all they are going to have no savings to fall on if they don't get a job immeditaly... for which, they have no qualifications.

Also, your ignoring the fact there are immigration slots open via lottery.

Whether or not the typical illegal immigrant is more likely to commit crime or not, the fact that so many people are crossing the border unchecked is a serious problem. The overall effect of this is that the United States is importing many problems that are expensive and difficult to deal with. The most obvious of these are the trade of illegal drugs and sex trafficking, but these are far from the only issues.

The core of the rest of the problems lies in the question "Who would choose to deal with dangerous people, to cross the border illegally, in order to be in the United States without any status?" ... The answer to this is people who have no opportunities in Mexico; and this would be individuals who would be the poorest and worst educated people in Mexico. This becomes such a problem because you’re importing individuals who’s prospects within the country are worse than most of the poorest individuals within your country; and these people are not entitled to any form of aid to improve their opportunities.

To put it into perspective, most legal immigrants will have an excellent education and some material wealth and when they enter a country (potentially with some language help) they can meet or exceed the standard of living of the typical individual within the country.

You could argue that its their country by right of conquest, since they are better at sneaking in than America is at keeping/kicking them out. Theres your precedent, and that predates international law.

None of that remotely made any sense...

I mean...

A) International Law exists now.

B) There is no precident before international laws existed on the subject... because there was literally no international law.

I wholeheartedly agree with you Mafoo. First of all, the USA is not obliged to relief economic problems of people from other countries caused by their bad government.

Second, there are a lot of mexicans crossing the border that pay, literally, thousands of dollars to enter the US illegally. Sometimes I ask myself "damn, that's a lot of money... why didn't they pay for the visa or whatever and worked hard to prove that they're a good addition to the country? They are gonna work very hard anyway..."