Myrtle Beach, SC Correspondent-The ONLY thing it should include is a path to citizenship. There is absolutely no reason to offer amnesty. I don’t want to sound heartless, but it’s not fair to grant amnesty for the sheer fact that their parents brought them over illegally. It’s NOT difficult to become an American citizen. There isn’t much else to say on the subject…become a citizen or leave like everyone else. I have a friend who wanted to come to America at a young age from Germany. So, she joined the American Army as a translator in Germany and went through the legal process to become an American citizen. I don’t know why all of the sudden it’s ok to allow “illegals” to stay. Did they change the definition of illegal without me knowing?

Owatonna, MN Correspondent-The controversy over DACA is one of the hottest political footballs of 2017. Former-president Obama acted with compassion when he issued the executive order creating DACA. Unfortunately, the controversy that ensued after Trump’s election only highlights how screwed up our immigration laws and policies have become.

No one should be penalized for actions over which they had no control. Most DACA children never knew they were brought to the U.S. illegally until they applied for jobs, Social Security numbers, or driver’s licenses. Penalizing children for the actions of their parents is not the American way of offering “. . . justice for all.”

The solution is complicated, but the first step is to estimate the real cost of enforcing all our immigration laws. This country is great at passing laws that sound good and address a real problem, but then our government proceeds to either ignore those laws or selectively enforce them for political expediency. Once we know the cost of our immigration policy, we can have a debate on whether the laws are reasonable, cost-effective, and control immigration so we let in the “good immigrants” and keep out the “bad immigrants.”

The next step to getting a handle on our immigration laws is to streamline the legal immigration process so no one will opt for illegal immigration because it’s faster, cheaper, and more convenient than jumping through the legal hoops. Reducing illegal immigration will lessen the burden of the enforcement system, which will save money and lives in the long run.

Finally, we should allow DACA individuals to stay in the U.S. under the Obama administration program and give those people priority to apply for citizenship. Don’t grant a blanket amnesty, but if a DACA individual has followed the rules, submitted the required forms and documentation, and has not committed a serious crime, he or she should be given temporary amnesty and a chance to apply for citizenship. By all metrics, most DACA individuals are law-abiding, educated, hard-working young people. It would be ludicrous to expel some 800,000 desirable potential citizens from this country merely to score some points with the administration’s political base.

Sheffield, Jamaica Correspondent-Let’s get something straight, politicians have been deliberating over what to do with the DREAMers for almost 15 years. That’s even older than the DACA program itself.

Obama installed that act in place to protect these illegal immigrants who came to America without a choice. At this point in time, the program Trump is looking to cut down protects over 800,000 immigrants who know nothing else but America and the culture.

To cut the cords on the DACA program means dislocating these ones and leaving them at a hefty disadvantage. It’s like starting over from the sand. What will they have to build on?

To fix these bills and right the wrongs that these DREAMers didn’t commit, the bill Trump is requesting should not only include amnesty, but also allow these ones to apply for citizenship. These ones have at least earned that and should be given a fair chance to live in peace and security.

I’ve always thought that Trump lacks decency and humanity. If this program was to be repealed and discontinued, he would have validated my emotions toward him. Then again, who am I or the DREAMers that Trump should care? If that program goes poof, America would be a sad place.

Gastonia, NC Correspondent-Our xenophobic attitude toward immigration must change, or we risk stagnating as a society. Trump, with his prattle about building walls and waves of felons and tot-touchers flooding across the border, whipped up a misguided frenzy that risks closing our borders to the very sorts of people who made this country great in the first place. The only difference between today’s Latino immigrants and the Irish who faced similar discrimination over a century ago is the color of their skin and their mother tongue.

We need a path to citizenship for those already here, and a quick one. I see the GOP’s resistance to this as a naked attempt to keep recent immigrants, who tend to vote Democrat, from making it onto the voting rolls. I don’t think they actually fear these people, they’re simply trying to cling to their notion of a white majority as long as possible. It’s ridiculous, and doomed to fail. Making children born to illegal immigrant parents wait years for citizenship when they’ve proven themselves productive members of society is senselessly punitive.

And while I’m at it, those who may have come here illegally in the past, but who have spent their time here engaged in lawful pursuits and raising their children to be good Americans should get their own path to citizenship. Yes, their method for getting here wasn’t legal, but the conditions they were fleeing by and large would have prompted the same response from any family in suburban America. But for the grace of the God you claim to worship, even if you don’t follow what Jesus said about welcoming those in need.

Cartwright-I think whatever the Congress comes up with it will involve some type of pathway to citizenship. We’re not going to hunt these people down and round them up to deport them back to their home countries. That just isn’t going to happen. I wouldn’t support something like that, and I don’t think that most reasonable people would support that. Now, if these people have committed crimes while they’ve been here, they do get tracked down, put in chains and shackles, and sent back to wherever they came from.

I think that President Trump has the high card in this issue. He wants to build the wall along the US border with Mexico, and I think he can and will tie that to any type of deal on DACA. Personally, I’d offer to give all of the dreamers an expedited pathway to citizenship in exchange for comprehensive immigration reform to include an end to chain immigration and funds to build the wall. I’d say that their pathway to citizenship would take a couple or three years. While they are waiting they have guest worker status and no fear of being deported as long as they are obeying the laws of this country and they are assimilating into our country.

I would also add one important piece of legislation to the deal: we make English the official language of the United States. No more printing all government documents in other languages to accommodate everyone else. If you come here, be proficient in English and be prepared to speak English.