The Queen, although just a figure head, only has constitutional powers over Canada. Canada has had sovereignty as an independent country since the Canada Act of 1982. But we're still pretty tight with the British, no argument there. She is afterall, on all our coins and the 20 dollar bill.
I like the USA. And I like Canada. As much as the two sides might not want to admit it, we're all pretty interdependent over here on the North American Continent and hopefully we can all agree to that.
I say, bring the illegal immigrants to Canada. We actually have more space than people (at least thats what I remember from geography, maybe it has changed). We have a shit ton of space for people, especially in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
Edit:
I just wanted to add something about the illegal immigrants clogging up the school system, etc post.
Seeing as we're a little bit harder to illegally enter, most of our immigrants are legal. However, they also clog up our schools with their English As Second Language crap. We have tons of schools in major cities dealing with this problem. It's not a matter of whether an immigrant is illegal or not. Of course, Canada approaches things completely different. We bend our backs for immigrants. We have a lot of older generations coming over and they can't speak a lick of English, but they refuse to learn it, and our country CATERS to it. We have a ton of signs that are not only in English and French, the two official languages, but Chinese characters. People get hired if they can speak English, French and Punjab. Ask anyone who lives in the GTA (Hit..Cheebs.. Been to the zoo lately? lol)
I don't think immigration is a bad thing, and you're going to get this sort of thing no matter what. It just sucks that Canada would rather accomate new Canadians instead of having them learn the official languages. I agree with what Firestreak said - if you choose to leave your home country for a new one, you better lean the language, laws, etc. If yout home nation was so bad, then why would you want to hold onto it so badly? A new life is a new life, ya dig?
I suppose legal immigration and illegal immigration have a lot of the same associated problems. I'd say at least the legal immigrants are going to be paying some taxes into the system which, even if it's just pocket change, means something to me.
I'll also say on the flip side, to me it's not personal at all. I've known and still know illegal immigrants. I went to school with one and helped him move. He was a great guy. In fact I'd say on average, I find them easier to get along with than most people who are just too fucking wrapped up with themselves.
The language thing, to clarify... well, I have to say. I can't learn any foreign language and I've tried pretty hard. So I can sympathize. The language thing is going to keep the immigrants together though since they need people they can communicate with. It's the latinos today, but it was the same with every other race of people that settled here since this country was formed. The kids born here or young enough to learn English fluently get ahead in life. The others don't. It's not a racist thing, it's just reality. We should not really be focusing so hard on these English as a 2nd language people because of it. Their priority should be learning English, and on that vein, they should not be attending regular classes.
It's a pointless waste of time for them,(for some classes, not others) and it's going to slow down the other students. They'd be much better off in intensive English classes designed for immigrants than in a class discussing a book they're unable to read. They'll come out of school better for it.
On how I feel about them being in this country in the first place. It changes a lot. If I think about what's best for America economically, it's not great the illegals are here. Of course I can also consider the fact we're all just human beings. Some of us happened to be born in the US, some in Canada, some in Japan and some in Brazil. Trying to analyze it morally almost emphasizes to me the logical flaws in morality itself I've become aware of more and more recently.
Things just are. What's right and wrong is irrelevant.
Which ties back to the original point of this thread. Is it racist? Sure a little. Is that immoral? Does morality even exist?
People just do what they want. We usually don't murder each other because we usually don't WANT to murder each other. What we perceive as immoral is simply people with different wants than ourselves, with some logical rules sprinkled around to justify all of it in such a way that we can pretend the rules are consistant, though they're not under close examination.
So if we think the costume is racist, and that's immoral, than it's immoral. If we don't, than it's not. Having a general consensus that it's not moral doesn't make it a universal law.
The question is interesting.
The answer is mundane.