Reply #45: It's not just the media. There's the issue of simple fairness.

[pnwmom]

Some of the legal immigrants I know here have siblings, etc., who are waiting for years on long waiting lists to come here legally. How do you think they feel about other people who arrive here illegally and then demand their "rights" to be given amnesty? The legal immigrants played by the rules, their relatives on the waiting lists are playing by the rules -- many in situations even more desperate than Mexicans who come here. Why shouldn't everybody?

Also, the impact of immigration is experienced very differently in different parts of the country. My sister's children had no immigrants in their classes, as far as my sister knows. But over the fifteen years that my three attended elementary school here, the changes have been profound, and the schools have really had to scramble to keep up. Just walking through the shopping mall is a whole different experience. If you live in my area, you certainly don't need to media to tell you that we have a large and growing immigrant population, and somehow we have to plan for it.