" In tough times, Americans look for... scapegoats. We don't want to blame ourselves, of course (but who voted for Bush/Cheney, not once but TWICE!). In a democracy, we get the kind of government - and economy - that we deserve. But no, we can't own up to our own mistakes, can we?

So, after eight years of absolutely disastrous Republican rule, as America seems to be crashing down around us, we've got serious problems everywhere - the economy, two unending wars (one against a completely innocent country), inflation, record-breaking budget and trade deficits, the torture of prisoners, and on and on and on. So,... on what do right-wing Nebraskans focus? Yeah, way down at the very end of the list, this tiny little problem called 'illegal immigration,' which we've lived with for hundreds of years. Does that make any sense at all? No, not unless you're a Republican trying to change the subject from who caused the SERIOUS problems we've got. Not unless you're looking for a scapegoat to avoid confronting your own errors. Not unless you're ignorant, bigoted, and dumb as a stump. "

" The councilman is right. No one in this country wants to discuss illegal immigration mainly because we need immigrants and their cheap labor to keep our economy going. Our economy is already bad enough. At least illegal immigrants are willing to work. I think we should find a way to make them legal immigrants and make their employers pay higher wages and make legal immigrants pay taxes. Problem is, that when you do that you raise the price of everything at restaurants and grocery stores. What employers are doing is no less than slavery. "

" Ah...the root of all evil..."illegal immigration"....WCG you have hit it right on the nose.....thanks for your comment. "

" It's about time someone brings up the issue of illegal immigrants and occupancy rates in Columbus. 30+ people living in a single family house should not and cannot be tolerated, and whether it's the landlord, police, or city council, someone need to step up to the plate to stop this problem. "

" The problem now days, is that American's have become lazy. We will no longer do manual labor as that is beneath us. We would rather have someone else do it, therefore the void is filled with illegal workers. When the economy gets tough, then Americans might not have any choices, they actually might have to work (or wait for a new government entitlement plan).

I just hate the fact that no one can talk about issues any more without it becoming a partisan issue. If something is broken either you can fix the problem or you can stand around and argue how to fix it. Once again American's have become lazy and now even our arguments have become lazy. I don't care if you're from the left side, right side or if you're round, illegal immigration is a problem. It's not going to be easy to fix, but for the sake of the country, have the courage to talk about it. I, for one, applaud anyone that will discuss this issue with an open mind and come away with ideas how to fix the system. Those ideas might not be perfect in the beginning, but they are a start. No one has a solid fool proof system, but unfortunately without trying different ideas (or even talk about ideas), we can't even come up with a flawed one. "