So you say:
illegal immigrants OUT
legal immigrants WELCOME
?? ??
So why you make it more and more difficult to gain the citizenship?
Otherwise many illegal immigrants whould be legaly there, get less problems and probably whould be assimilated by the american "way of life" and don't have to work in fear and cruel conditions.
You miss one key point, I think. All the moves are not to make gaining citizenship more difficult -- most of them are simply to make gaining entry (crossing the border legally) more difficult.
For Europeans, I think one thing needs to be made clear: the U.S. retains many remnants of a true Federal Union. There is no
"National Identity" document other than the "Passport" for international travel -- and it must be applied for, i.e. it is not automatically issued to all citizens. Identity documents remain under the exclusive control of the States. At the same time, internal migration is totally uncontrolled (except for freed sex offenders). Meanwhile birth and death certificates are also state matters and some semblance of order has come about only since the national Social Security law. Still most ordinary citizens are bewildered about their birth certificate because if one was issued, it was given to their parents.
With that background, perhaps it easier to understand why once someone crosses the border - even legally - it becomes almost impossible for the government to keep track of them. How do you sort the fish in your pound, eh?
Then go on to examine the crazy, patchwork quilt of national origin quotas, special skills, donations to the government, lottery, and other methods of gaining legal entry directly leading to citizenship. Then there are the ways to be a permitted legal resident alien, such as your employer certifying that he can't find a citizen of the U.S. who has your unique skills which are absolutely essential to his business.
Now layer on to all that a bureaucracy which has the tradition of insuring that every immigant is at least 110% Americanized from the start, and human feeling is prohibited by the regulations.
You will be able to see that the heap of hypocrisy dwarfs the Statue of Liberty.