Guess I need to do a little bit more reading!

We have that situation, but the US Health system (or lack of) prevents that anyway so a moot point.

Elderly parents would no doubt get a B2 so could do 6 months instead of 6 weeks, but Travel Insurance maybe another issue, on another board somebody in their 80's was quoted GBP100 - a day.

Or even the same country, not everybody has the capability to move from say the East Coast to the West Coast.

Just life.

When you CHOSE to emigrate to the US, that should have been factored in.
If you are indeed saying that this is your duty, then YES you should move back.

No-one is FORCED to move to the USA (as far as I know), so when you weigh up the pros and cons, this is something you have to factor in.
What gets to me, is the assumption that the US is in some way OBLIGATED to you merely because you married a US citizen!

The USA owes me nothing and I moved to the USA because my disabled husband could not move to the UK.... if and when my parents join us here it will be at their own expense and they will pay for all their costs involved with living here so no they wont be a burden on the USA...

And at the time I made my decision to move here there was no limit on Parents wanting to immigrate so I made my decision based on that information....

Kez

Like rebeccajo, I'd like to see some evidence that allowing family migration as we do now leads to chain migration of immigrants that end up being a drain on public resources. I think I'm against restricting it for the following reason. If there aren't a large number of family chains, then there's no particular reason to bother restricting it.

If there are a large number, I would offer this reason for not restricting immigration. If I understand the process correctly, you have to be a citizen to apply for non-spousal family members. This is a powerful incentive to become a citizen if you want to take care of your family back home. If it's a large number, then that would suggest there's a lot of people who view that as a benefit of citizenship.

Now take away that benefit. Now we have intelligent, point-system approved green card holders, who now have no interest in obtaining citizenship. In fact, their option, if they're the one in the U.S., is pretty much to leave and go home to take care of family. Wouldn't we be better off encouraging legal immigrants with education to assimilate rather than keeping them on as permanent residents with one foot here, one foot in their ow country?

Assimilation has nothing to do with Citizenship. Its just a piece of paper. You are still who you are.

There are many benefits to Citizenship, tax and the dangers of PR status (losing/deportation) come to mind.

Interesting that USCIS consider chain migration as number 1 reason to obtain Citizenship.

My parents, brother and sister, even friends would not like to live in the US. They are not rich, but are happy and satisfied where they are. Especially my parents, I can't see them here! They like to visit once in a while, but at their age they would never be able to adjust! It would be too much of a culture shock. We travelled quite a bit and lived in different places though, throughout my childhood, but it was a different situation then, and French was spoken in most of the places where we stayed (my father had to move around a lot because of his work in construction). Another thing is that they live in Western Europe (France), thus have less economic reasons to want to come and live in America, as compared to people from poorer nations.

I also wanted to add that, no doubt that this is a tough, almost insoluble issue. I am clearly pro-immigrant, always have been. On the other hand, when you see that the "law is an ###", as in this case, surely more humanity is needed? The US is one of the few developed nations in the world (Switzerland would be another example) that offers no merit-based opportunity for immigration. The only way to get in is either to be related to someone already there, or to get a job with a US employer ahead of time (and even this offers only a temporary right to remain, maxed at 7 years). Therefore, the only solution is to stop overloading immigration through family channels, AND provide some type of rationalization, both for the ones already here and those who would like to come in future. This must be objective and merit-based, and hopefully show some humanity i.e. not make them all second-class citizens. Anything else just smacks of "I'm in, now shut the gates!"

US citizens who scaremonger that "everyone wants to come here" are simply misled. All developed countries are dealing with major immigration headaches, this is just the result of globalization (favoring the already-strong) and wealth disparities. They all need to find a way to deal with it, and locking the gates for all will not work.

Locking the gates?

6 to 10,000 a night according to an interview with a Border Patrol Officer I head this morning on the radio.

Merit base GC's are there but the numbers seeking them are so great that most go the temporary route and adjust from that.

Many Mexicans would prefer to live in their home states and work seasonally in the US but we don't have an easy mechanism to make this happen. These Mexicans tend to come from a cluster of states some way from the border on the eastern side of MX, and they're people who have traditionally been migrant workers. Not all illegal immigrants are Mexicans and not all Mexicans are illegal immigrants. Mexicans are a special case because, like Canadians, they're neighbors, so there's a need for some kind of expedited border crossing permit. Many Mexicans would be happy to flow back and cross the border working seasonally and then returning home with a little jingle in their pockets, and any immigration policies should reflect that reality.

Any thoughts of busing or flying illegals back to wherever they came from is logistically ludicrous - assuming 12,000,000 illegals, and buses capable of holding 60 people, it would take 200,000 bus loads to get them to the Mexican border and then to El Salvador, Guatemala, etc. - assuming Mexico would allow them to cross its territory legally (illegally, heading north, is OK from the Mexican standpoint, but south, legally, is a different matter!!). Assuming you could even locate the illegals, and had enough law enforcement officers to actuall put them all on the buses.

And why would any USA citizen want to change our lack of immigration, when he or she has a part-time gardener and maid he or she could never afford if they were legal. It seems to me that the country is (almost) hopelessly messed up. Considering what kind of people we have had running the government, that shouldn't be surprising. It isn't likely to change soon. The United States will continue to be a pain to itself and a plague on the rest of the world until we see the next American president. I have spoken.

I disagree. It is not about immigrant's family's needs. My family and country is under no obligation whatsoever financially, emotionally, or otherwise to worry about extended family members of a person who has been allowed to immigrate here. How much do you expect?!

Old, widowed, and ill often have to be taken care of by the government. My grandmother is old widowed and ill and my grandfather and family have payed into the system for years to ensure that she would be taken care of. She has cancer and cannot even afford the health care she needs because too many people are taking out of it. One person can't put in and have 10 people take out. That's not right but still it happens.