Nice thread! Tagging, will write some thoughts later.

It is very hard to become a US citizen. Gaining US citizenship is not a problem that needs to be dealt with, even gaining a green card is not a problem that needs to be addressed. Even illegal immigration is only a localised problem not a national problem. And it's not that big of a problem. It's just a great political weapon.

But even assuming illegal immigration is a problem, how do you deal with it? You deal with it by improving the social and economic condition of the countries from which the illegals are coming. Because people will always try to escape desperation. Doesn't matter how big of a wall Donald Trump builds desperate people will take desperate measures and illegals will come in the faintest hope that they can improve their lives. People are so desperate that they will sell themselves or take on huge amounts of debt to climb on board an overcrowded  unseaworthy boat and drown at sea when the boat sinks. You think walls and fences and armed border guards with shoot on sight instructions are going to stop those desperate people from taking that chance? Help make Mexico and Central America more properous and socially stable and there won't be desperate people looking to escape their hopeless situations. Then all the immigrants that do come are people you want because they make your country even better. Let the world fall into chaos and ruin and all those problems will eventually arrive on your doorstep and your door won't be strong enough to keep them out. 

This.

America is awesome... the government is pure and utter garbage. We don't HAVE a functional government anymore. What we have is a bunch of corporate owned actors running our country into the ground for the sake of greed and power.

Also, if you're poor or even middle class? You'd better learn how to suffer because in America, the poor are bitches and slaves to the rich. There's no sympathy. That saying on the statue of liberty? You know, the one about us taking the poor masses? That's dead. It's been erased and whipped clean away with the blood of the elite businessman.

So if you're poor, fuck off... and get back to dying in your third world country.

Well, my opinion about America was different at different times, just as any Russian I think!
1. In 80s USA was everybody's dream. With a start of Gorbachev and Perestroika in 85 it was a massive propaganda thru all communist/USSR media about how good American Way is. You great movies of 80-s was also helping. We were happy to be friends with USA at last and to live together in a better world. Even destroying our own country for this.
2. In the start of 90-s smth started to bother. We destroyed USSR by ourselves. Let East Germany go. Let East Europe go. Our lifelevel falled down. A lot of production stopped. No work for people, salaries down. We were filled by western food. Cheap, in great colorful packing. But worse quality than we had in USSR.
3. Middle of 90-s. USA and EU start financing and supporting muslim terrorists in Chechnia. People start asking whats going on? If we are friends, why you supporting and training terrorists on our territory?
4. End of 90-s. Yugoslavia. USA and EU bombed a slavic country for no real reason. (Even now this results with a muslim refugees from Kosovo). That I think was a final signal to stop and think - are USA is a real friend or you were cheating and betrayed us?
5. Then Putin came and start gathering country back. Building productions, starting agriculture almost from scratch. And the better we live - the worse things we heard about us in Western media. Which is just ridiculous.

Saying about people. I don't have a lot of Americans to talk. But those we speak in a real world was all very good and nice persons. Just like any simple people around the world, I think.

And on USA culture (mostly movies as we see it from Russia). It had its golden times in 80-s/90-s. Then... I have a feeling that smth had broken inside. Its hard to explain.
You know, in the old movies I saw Americans who are happy. Who can overcome problems. Who are sure that they are living right way and doing right things.
And in modern ones - its a bunch of worried people, buried under life/psychological problems and having no real purpose to live.

Still too much racism,police brutality,unjust court system especially for minorities,garbage divorce laws,outsourcing taking all the jobs,not enough job opportunities even for college graduates,cost of living is too high for certain places,bs healthcare,corrupt government,the propaganda of the war on terror (when they gave them the weapons),too many gun nuts who think they need Rambo's arsenal,random shootings,unbalanced social class and not enough resources to help the poor actually get jobs and better education and still a lot of sexism and homophobia with too many Christians.If you are a white male,then your chances of benefiting in this country is far greater.

If she left America permenently I think it's safe to say she is not American. Unamerican? lol why not just call her wherever she is a citezen of now and drop the drama. Also, if she doesn't feel the need to identify as anything that is fine too. No one needs to force their affiliations. Lables only encourage ignorance in the first place. 

If you became as Isolationist as you wanted to you'd eventually morph into North Korea? Nah, some of the nicest people in America I have worked with have never left the country. Chanting for isolationism? First explain how America is isolationist and where you get the idea our goal it is to become more isolationist. Our country may have an oversized ego wanting to lead the rest of the world, but that hardly is an isolationist ambition. 

I have a feeling you are one of those us vs them type people in your thought system.

Achieving permenet residency in the United States is difficult, but getting into the country via Visa really is not. However, when you look at other factors like the cost of living and tax codes for immigrants it really is not. If I wanted to move to Italy it would cost a fortune, but an Italian moving to the US would need much less to afford a reasonable home. Also, you praised Switzerland for being neutral and nonisolationist earlier, but they are a country even more strict than the USA on citenship. 

I believe Illegal immigration is a huge problem, but one that is too far gone. There isn't dedication to find a good solution because we have divide on if it's a problem in the first place. The stuck in mud hispanic culture is what annoys me most. I have worked with illegal immigrants (before I went back to college) for reference. The whole push on chaotic culture is what bothers me about America. The idea that I must to learn Spanish just to communicate with people. I live in an area with many Russian immigrants who also stick to speaking Russian. It's very hard to trust people when they are going out of their way to ignore your common language. The liberals in America think it's bad if we like America, but it's okay if you show European or Hispanic pride. To me that mentality is anti American and a falsified version of multiculturalism. I am also mixed racially so my opinion has nothing to do with being some sort of white nationalist. 

And I am sure there are people in our government dedicated around the clock to solving Mexico's problems. It's just a very hard problem to solve. It also relies on cooperation with the Mexican government.

The United States is massive both in terms of its physical size and its population. More importantly, there are lots of concentrations of people all along that giant land mass. So, as an American, it's really hard to generalize us as a single group. Sure, New Yorkers really aren't that different from Bostonians and Philadelphians in the grand scheme of things, but they're certainly different from Texans and people from LA. America is huge with lots of different cultures centered around lots of different institutions.

As someone who grew up really close to both New York and Philly, I unabashedly love both those cities. But small-town USA which is often depicted, idyllically, as the heart of the USA is mind-numbingly boring.

I'm not going to get into the specifics of US government and its shocking inability to pass any substantive, because either I would just be confirming what everyone else has said (it sucks) or I would be getting into such small, trivial details that I am sure I would bore everyone to tears.

I love travelling and seeing other countries, but America has a lot of great cities, too. Except LA. I hate LA.

The USA ( I don't like to use the term america since there are other nations on the continent, too) are at it's core, a fine nation. Too bad that core got enveloped over the years with so many bad things you can barely see it.

You already pointed out some of the most poignant flaws in the USA, which I bolded. As an outsider who knows a few americans, I would add some more things, which are an totally outdated political voting system (primaries, winner takes all, PACs, minimum age for the president...), "racial" questions and profiling (we're all homo sapiens sapiens no matter the skin tone), social security and healtcare (Obamacare is a step in the right direction, but so watered down it barely matters), prison system (ex-prisoners have barely any rights, pushing them back into crime instead of using the sentence to rehabilitate them and make them useful for the society once more, death penalty), high inequality (the american dream is but a dream anymore) and poor basic education (even worse, these tend to be quite vocal, too).

Now, there are good things too, like much innovations in the different fields of technology and research, a generally very friendly population; supportive and helpful to their friends and neighbours, good universities to balance out the poor basic eduction and it's fundamental sense of freedom

That said, I think Winston Churchill summed it up almost perfectly: "You can always count on the United Stated to do the right thing - after they have tried everything else".

No, it's not. I would choose UK over US anytime. That said, I have nothing against your country. I just wish Americans were a little bit less arrogant.