Moral change in the US and Canada, and a cessation of the lust for illegal drugs which hugely disrupt Latin American countries would improve the situation immensely and take away the lucrative trade of drug dealers in places like Mexico. If one's family is being threatened in Mexico, the instinct of many ppl is to flee. So who are the ultimate "illegals"? the threatened families? the drug dealers? how about the illegal users of drugs in North America?
And how about the Hispanic young people for whom the US is all that they have ever known? condemned to be a document-less underclass, while many of them not having known any other country. Maybe those in the US and Canada who lust for illegal drugs are more culpably "illegal" than they are: than they, who have never known anything but an underclass existence in the US and are not morally responsible for it, their crime being to be alive and breathing.
Moral change in America and Canada are not really pre-requisites to stop illegal immigration. This is a nation of laws and, like any other nation, has borders that should not be violated. We could talk about the drug problems in America, but we'd also have to include the fact that much of that illegal drug traffic comes from Mexico -- and much of it comes straight across our border.
It is unfortunate that Hispanic children are caught up in the mess created by their parents who come here illegally. Many of these kids are known as "anchor babies" because their parents enter the USA illegally and manage to have a baby over here. It is unwise for the law to consider these foreign babies to be American citizens because, in reality, they were born to illegals in the first place -- which should subsequently classify them as illegals also. In this case, they should be citizens of Mexico as their parents are.
As for America being the only place they've ever known? That is not your fault. It is not my fault. It is not America's fault. It was their parents' fault. And, if/when the parents are deported, their kids should accompany them back to Mexico. It is a hardline stance -- but truly is the only logical choice. When the "anchor baby" scheme is rendered kaput, Mexican men and women will lose part of the incentive to sneak into our country and get pregnant in order to shame us into letting them stay here.
it is a tough situation, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. These people are welcome to apply for re-entry to the USA if they should be deported -- but they should also have to go to the end of the line and allow preference to those Mexicans who are trying to immigrate the decent and legal way -- through our front door instead of sneaking in the back.