I am an African American and this issue is making me more conservative and the basic issues is the breaking of the law. I have never known the law to consider personal feelings or life stories in rendering judgements on those who have broken the law and continual to do so. Once again I am against any form of amnesty, dream act, what ever you call it. I just want my government to folle the law and deport. No more welfare, no more special eduational instructions, no more printing government documents in foreign languages, and they should not be entitled to social security.

The illigals in this country may be contributing to the social Secutity coffers but they are bankrupting the MediCal system in California! And Im sure if they could figure out a way to tap into SSI, they would be sucking that fund dry too!

I keep hearing how hard they work and for so little pay. If it's so bad, why did you risk coming here in the first place?

Being undocumented is not being a criminal. Immigration is not part of Criminal law!!!

What about the working man? I work a low paying job and minimum wage is going up and inflation is outrageous. I believe america needs to concentrate on america and stop letting illegal people come in and work for so cheap. Business' mainly in oklahoma and texas and arizona need to be investigated and we need to increase border patrol, and have all the illegals go through the proccess freely. If they pass great if not too bad for them. I'm not going to be replaced by an illegal immigrant. I'm very sorry to those who are illegal but im born and raised american, and i dont get the american dream why should you? Find your own way, its how the indians did it, its how the europeans did it. It's why we fought the revolutionary war. We found and fought for what we have. Why can't you?

why do i get a headache when i watch this crap??

Why can't people say "illegal"? I guess undocumented sounds better, but it's the illegal part that has people angry.

Why is this show so one sided? Of course those people from Nebraska didn't want to be on the show. The former agent has the best solutions, but I'm surprised he agreed to be on the show.

Please do not use the word Slave. They are hard working people who are paid

pennies for their job. Any other American would not like to work for that little money.

So you have to accept the undocumented workers. All the food businesses will be in big trouble without the workers.

Do something for America, ask Mr. Obama to finish all wars with Afghanistan and

Iraq. He promised that he would do just that, but he forgot about the promise.

Latino are good for economy, keep them here. But finish all wars.

The show is total biased nonsense. Mike Cutler is the only one making any sense. The host, his guest and the audience, even though they overwhelmingly outnumber Culter, have nothing of substance to say - they are just drowing him out. I am through with MSNBC. You have lost me and a few million others. You sealed the deal tonight.

why is it the unions aren't around for these workers. why aren't they signing them up? aren't the unions suppose to be representing the american worker, man and women??

I can tell you that racism in labor unions has displaced many non-whites throughout history. I also know that your union has many Latino members in the large cities such as NY, LA, etc.

the professor is right, i really belive that the problem is to educate the epople here and realize that if we're gone bye-bye americans fro sure this would be chaos we the president knows it

marcelo stop speaking in past tense and in fairy tale talk. people comming to elis island were being asked to come so we could establish the county. Our country is here now. The discussion being presented here is ilegal imigration not legal imigration in which people are asked to become part of our society and not try to change it to what they have fled from. No one is saying to forget your heritage but respect and except ours. althought it has had it's short comings in the past it has established the becon that all others look too.

This is not a town hall meeting...half the room is empty. This is a speak-easy for pro-illegal immigration. If you allow the INS agent to actually finish his sentence without cutting him off, then you might have a healthy debate. Many medical institutions have closed their doors in San Diego county in the last 10 years do to emergency room bills that were racked up by illegal immigrants...and that's OK? If we are going to talk about balancing budgets in California and all options are on the table, then sending illegals to college on the back of the taxpayers should be considered...oh but discussing such things makes you a "racist".

Lawrence,you are disgracing yourself,you are asinine in the extreme asking sarcastically how we will deport 12 million illegals.

You are an a__hole panderer.

It is about deterrence by enforcing existing law,and going after the law breaking EMPLOYERS.

The millions of illegals will go home on their own,IF employers start going to jail for hiring them.

AND YOU KNOW THIS BUT YOU PRETEND IGNORANCE AND WAX CYNICAL AND DIVERT,DIVERT,DIVERT.

All you care about is recruiting Latino votes for Democrats.

Republicans want slave labor.Democrats want votes..."To hell with everything else,like the fatal consequences for the economy and people getting along."

WHEN unemployment creeps past 10% then 15% among those pesky Americans,enter the riots.

Real cool,O'Donnell.Right?..FU2 nihilist...That is exactly where this is going,and you know.You know it.That is what you really want.Deep down.Hidden from view.

You are no liberal man of the people,O'Donnell...You don't care about the little people.You just want to see them tare each other apart en mass.

The "Irish" now...12:44am

No parallels whatsoever between Irish immigration and this modern day slavery today...You want everyone to be a slave,that is where this is going...In order for Americans to find work,they will have to accept far less than the fair wage,or even the min. wage that you've claimed to support,lying thru your teeth.Americans will have too accept the new prevailing very low wages driven down by this growing slave labor force,overseas AND right here at home.

SLAVE NATION...THAT is the REAL near future IN AMERICA.

SLAVE NATION.

The above is not fear talk. The above is the real agenda for America. The return of slavery for ALL the little people.Anglo,African,Latino,everyone...but the elitists.

It's not just about illegal Mexicans anymore. Americans are effected just as personally as the illegal Mexicans are. I am an American, married to a Mexican. My life is just as negatively effected by these issues as my husband is. I personally am struggling with the same persecution, and I am "full blooded" American. This country needs to wake up and realize that this not an issue that is just going to solve itself. These people are not just a group of people complaining because they feel slighted. This is life or death for many of these immigrants.

I would like to know why employers simply get a slap on the hand for hiring illegal workers? People go where they get work, and if work is no longer available , most will go home.

If we issued electronic work visas, they'd be easier traceable and could inform law enforcement if someone had overstayed their stay.

Apply the Dream act. It is unrealistic to think that we can "round" up all illegals and send them back home, splitting up families in the process. Then reduce the number of work and immigration visas at least temporarily.

Before 1990 a socialology professor commented that American slavery of the twenty-first century would be undocumented workers.  It appears he called it correctly, and so long as employers are allowed to hire them at slave wages, it will not change. A bunch of hard work for a little money.  At the present time there is no capital with which to grow new businesses, it has all being held in the pockets of our financial industry and invested in the "emerging" markets in India, China, Brazil and anywhere a financial business can double their money 

I'm disappointed. I am an MSNBC fan. However, after just having watched the Immigration discussion, I feel disappointed. That was not an open debate on immigration. It was a thinly veiled attempt to warm people up to illegal immigration.

One guest and one segment talked about the price paid by legitimate citizens at the hand of these criminals. The other 80% of the content was pro-illegals - painted in the stripes of "immigration" - merely a euphemism for the real problem.

I am from a place like Fremont. Mexicans have ruined my community. Gangs, wages, poverty, etc. 66.5% of our school district is Mexican. They have way more children than we do, so basically, we have no chance. This is now a Mexican community. My family has been here for 3 generations - all legal. And I am going to have to move my family. Sad face here.

Thank you for a great show from my home town. I wanted to hear more ideas about how to fix the broken immigration system we currently have. I don't think many people know that "standing at the end of the line" can mean a wait of twenty-two years - and that is for the people immigrating from an friendly nation. Dolores Huerta is a National Treasure. She hit the nail on the head that the problem starts with our trade policies. We can't fix immigration without more just and equitable trade treaties that provide opportunity where people already live.

If feel that some of the most important issues surrounding illegal immigration were only lightly touched on. The common thread is that illegal immigrants only take on jobs that American citizens won't do. That is not true. There are many illegal immigrants who are taking jobs from American citizens in the various building trades, retail jobs, restaurants, factory/assembly work and other service jobs to name just a few. There are plenty of Americans who would take these jobs. As a union member, I'm concerned about the undermining of jobs that cost union members their jobs and only serve to undermine the power of unions to fight for people. Groups like the Chamber of Commerce are only too glad to see this occur and are even happier when we union members fall prey to just blaming the illegal immigrants and not see the power behind the movement.

The role of corporations and the Chamber of Commerce were only lightly touched upon here as those who are enticing illegal immigrants. And also only lightly touched on are the terrible circumstances created in latin countries due to NAFTA. Somewhere along the line, we can't just reduce it as a problem of getting along. We need to deal with the core issues and work together to stop the onslaught of corporate power that is calling the shots and in many cases also works to continue to pit American citizens against each other as well as legal and illegal immigrants.

The issues of jobs being lost, tax and health care money going to illegal immigrants when the companies who hire them should be held responsible and be taking care of them. Until we can directly deal with these issues, we will continue to circle the airport on the issues surrounding the impact and causes of illegal immigration.

Also there is way to much assuming that people who are not for illegal immigration are prejudiced. It is not true. I'm concerned about the issues named above which not only address the needs of Americans but the reasons behind the forcing of our latino neighbors to have to leave their homes and come here to survive.

I understood the comments about new immigrants always being abused. Very true. And in many cases the same corruption and abuse of using these immigrants took place to pay lower wages to new immigrants, thereby displacing those who worked for higher wages. Again we need to address this and not just say, well that is the way its always been. We need to think and stop the continued long-term effort of big business's efforts to make the most money regardless of what it does to working people here and abroad.

my letter to Lawrence.

Lawrence,
I first fell in love with MSNBC because of Keith Olbermann, and also Kieth's initiation of Rachell Maddow. I respect you Lawrence as an intellectual and a person with a kind heart, however intellectuals seem to have let their heart felt sympathies for the underdog over shadow their reasoning when it comes to illegal aliens. Not immigrants, they cannot be both. Tonight watching the "Town Hall on Immigration", was as fair and balanced as watching Glenn Beck on Fox. I was very disappointed, and I feel that it was far to one-sided to be called a "Town Hall", especially one that is supposed to highlight and discuss all opinions on the issue. I will have to reevaluate the use of my time going forward, when it comes to watching these types of programs. However I am hopeful that this show was just a start and that in the future the discussion will be much more balanced, not just a PRO (which this show was) or Con discussion on immigration, but a real discussion on how all US CITIZENS feel. I do not normally write into the shows, but I felt very strongly about the lack of balance. Thank you for your time. Feel free to read this on the air. If you have questions about what I had an issue with, feel free to ask.

Good Night,

Lawrence.