why do we need immigration reform?

Democrats need new voters to replace all the ones they've alienated with Obama's presidency.

Both please

Because the democrats lost an election.

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Would you like the moral or economic reason?

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Both

Moral is simple really. One of America's core tenets has always been -- or people say it is -- that if you are willing to work, you have a place here. It follows that the process of citizenship should not be onerous. It currently is.

Economics are bit more complicated, but the simplified version is this:

We spend billions of dollars each year to police an act which is inherently not criminal, harmful or immoral. In the process, we create an underground economy where it is impossible to not only collect taxes but encourages money to leave the United States in the form of wire transfers to family members outside the US that would have otherwise accompanied the worker.

Prohibition created a similar situation and we quickly realized the negative effects of that amendment and acted to repeal it.

I don't deny it's a complicated problem, and there is no easy or painless fix, but I can see no inherent "goodness" or benefit to the current system.

Corporations want the cheap labor so they can replace the expensive unions. It's about money; it's always about money. Soon these immigrant workers will be unionized to make money for the unions.

Moral: holding or manifesting high principles for proper conduct.

I believe that giving people -- regardless of their current status -- the opportunity to improve their situations is a moral imperative. If you do not, that is your choice, but I do believe it is a core tenet of the American way of life and character.

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Economically, it would be a disaster to simply open up the border as you seem to suggest.

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Yes, I believe in open borders. That is my belief, but we were not discussing that. We were discussing reform which means fixing our current system to be more in line with current mores and reality.

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It IS criminal in every country to enter without permission.

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The United States has never been just like every country. Some would say that is what once made us great.

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It IS harmful to allow such a large, instant influx of primarily poor people.

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They're already here. What is the potential harm of removing 13 million people from the economy? I'm sure there are studies dealing with this eventuality.

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And it IS immoral to reward those criminal harmful acts.

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"When large numbers of otherwise decent people routinely violate a law, the law itself is probably the problem. To argue that illegal immigration is bad merely because it is illegal avoids the threshold question of whether we should prohibit this kind of immigration in the first place."

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Because you can't deport them and you should know this.

Reform means identifying them and taxing them in my mind. Some want to give welfare, free medical care and voting rights.

I am more into practical solutions

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I agree. You could spend (waste) billions of dollars trying to deport people that have been here for years, or you could gain billions of dollars by offering a path to citizenship if they are willing to follow it (likely to include paying fines, back taxes and even probation for the criminal offense of overstaying their visa). Offering this opportunity removes the incentive to stay in their racially segregated enclaves and encourages integration.

I also believe that people should have that opportunity but not at the expense of others or as a reward for breaking laws in place to protect the citizenship which they wish to join.

The U.S. wasn't like every other country. Wasn't being the key word since they all made reforms to be like us. Now we are diverting from what made us great and which created the first world.

Yes. They are here. And the majority of them have to use ERs, government assistance, and work for cash without paying taxes. Imagine removing them and the free ride they have.

That quote is out of context. People are violating a law of a country they don't belong to but want inforced when they get here. (many legal and even illegals don't want more illegals here becuase they know it makes it harder for them to find jobs)

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Democrats need new voters to replace all the ones they've alienated with Obama's presidency.

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The shorter answer is the progressives need more dependency to overload the system to implement the crash. Problem is this won't matter, it's going to crash anyway. Hopefully the useful idiots will realize that all the lies they bought from the progressives/pop culture/media/academia were just that ? I don't hold out too much hope though.