I don't know if some third party writes the lines and talking points that illegal immigration supporters use, but sometimes it certainly seems that way.

For instance, here are four quotes from Marco Rubio, George W Bush, Barack Obama, and Dick Armey of FreedomWorks all explaining away the inevitability of illegal immigration. Try to guess who said which (answers below):

1.

"Many people who come here illegally are doing exactly what we would do if we lived in a country where we couldn’t feed our families. If my kids went to sleep hungry every night and my country didn’t give me an opportunity to feed them, there isn’t a law, no matter how restrictive, that would prevent me from coming here."

2.

"I don’t like illegal immigration, but I’ll tell you something: I don’t run stop lights. But you put me out on the road at two o’clock in the morning on the way to the all-night drugstore to get medicine for my babies, and you give me a stop light that is stuck on red, and no traffic in sight, and I’m gonna go through that red light."

3.

"If you can make fifty cents in the interior of Mexico and five dollars in the interior of the United States, you're comin' for the five bucks"

4.

"I mean, we can try to build as many fences as we want at the border, but the fact is if folks are making $2 a day back home, and they can make $10 an hour here, they’re going to come here -- unless we make sure that employers are doing what’s lawful."

Give up?

Quote 1 is from Tea Parties darling Rubio in his recent "An American Son" book (link).

Quote 2 is from Teaparty leader Dick Armey in 2007.

Quote 3 is from George Bush in 2004.

Quote 4 is from Barack Obama (ibid) in 2010 (apparently he factored in inflation).

The first two and the last two are highly similar; the only significant difference between the two sets is that the first engages in shameless baby-waving.

But, all support bad policies: there are five billion people poorer than Mexicans. We can't let all of them in, and letting large numbers of them in has a deleterious impact on those remaining in those countries. Instead of building up their own countries and pressing for reforms, those countries become dependent on remittances.