A column by someone called Lili Gil shows the author is confused

Someone called Lili Gil writes Romneys 'Self-Deportation' Solution at GOP Debate Shows a Candidate Out of Touch.

Reading the article shows that Ms. Gill is confused:

After a basic requirement of being over 18 years of age, the U.S. government requires you to be a green card holder for five years! So, how do you get a green card if you want to get in the line? Three or four clicks later and the USCIS website then takes you to a long list of green-card application forms that basically can be summarized as the following: A. be the child of a U.S. citizen, B. marry a citizen, C. be a refuge and/or D. qualify for the limited and convoluted job, entrepreneur or investor options.

Did you know that someone who comes into this country legally with a student visa has virtually no clear path or option to become legal after graduating from his college, masters or PhD? Note, these are not DREAMers (DREAMAct candidates), but legal immigrants who are stuck in limbo …

This is non-sense on many levels.

First someone who comes to the U.S. as a student is not an immigrant. In fact, a precondition to being able to get a student visa is not to have immigration intent.

Second, students who graduate from U.S. institutions are not in legal limbo. If they want to stay in the U.S. while looking for a job, students in F-1 status can apply for a practical training work permit. If they line up an employer ahead of graduation, they can be sponsored for an H1B visa. The nice thing about the H1B is that it does not preclude immigration intent which means, if your employer is willing, one's green card application can be sponsored by his/her employer during the six year H1B period.

So, clearly a graduate of an undergrad or grad program is not without options if she decides she would like to become a permanent U.S. resident and eventually a citizen.

Now, the system is convoluted, difficult to navigate at times. You deal with a lot of U.S. citizens who have no clue what it takes to keep one's status. You watch people with no skills live in sanctuary cities, get rent subsidies, health subsidies, education subsidies, cheap mortgages, and keep juggling piles and piles of paperwork to comply with the laws designed to protect protectionist white-collar workers, but there clearly is a path for those graduates Ms. Gil seems to be so worried about.

Indeed, enforcement of laws and thereby providing an incentive to those who break laws to leave on their own accord is a solution to the illegal immigration problem.

Once that is under way, one must recognize that the world is full of people who would love the chance to make it in the United States of America and have not already broken our laws. To make sure we attract the best and the brightest in everything from rocket science to lettuce picking, we need real immigration reform now.

There is no reason to appease people who flaunted the laws and regulations of the United States while everyone else spent time and treasure and had to forgo a lot to stay in compliance.