America's history of immigration is a history of illegal immigration.

Irish? Illegal immigrants, many fleeing famine.

Italians? Illegal immigrants; the slur "wop" is for With-Out Papers.

Chinese? Illegal immigrants, many aided and abetted by railroads and mining interests operating in the western frontiers.

Polish and post-Soviet? Lots of illegals there too.

The truth is that part of what makes America so vital is that it is a multi-ethnic society where people who are truly hungry for a better life have a shot, paperwork or not. These are the sorts of folks who are driven, who are risk-takers, who are in a very real sense entrepreneurs.

Which isn't to say there aren't differences in 21st Centiry immigration patterns. Refugees aside, it's usually an economic thing, and these days you really have to look at it within the context of a globalized economy: as capital moves more freely, labor wants to do the same.

Conservatives who rail against the erosion of the nation (language, culture and borders all becoming more muddled) are reactionary, yes, but not completely paranoid either. Especially where physical geography connects nations, tighter economic integration means more human immigration and eventually closer legal coordination. I for one see this as sort of inevitable, and something we aught to embrace and try to manage rather than ignore or leave up to the whimsical providence of "market forces."

I say let's accept the natural end of post-cold-war Pax Americana -- it wasn't going to last, even without Iraq -- and let more global security fall to the broader G8/UN-Security Council folks. At the same time we should be working towards a more robust and energy-independent economy, and looking to improving things in our own hemisphere for a spell. Let the Empire expire; long live the Republic!