The difference between someone being legal or illegal immigrant is a passage of a law declaring them such, nothing more. So it doesn't really imply anything else about them (in particular, their capacity to integrate or innovate).

To remind, until 1950s or so, it was basically impossible to legally get US citizenship if you weren't white.

Why does it matter?

Because most of the anger at Trump and his admin has been around their plan for deportation of criminal illegal aliens

And yet people all across the country protested at airports a few weeks ago...

Well sure, because that travel ban was ridiculous. I'm just saying most of the time "Trump" and "immigration" are mentioned together it's regarding the southern border, not ME immigration.

It shouldn't be.

Unauthorized immigrants face the most immediate danger due to the law but the Trump administration is hostile to legal immigration as well. They're seeking to decrease legal immigration and considerimg an executive order to deport legal immigrants for using welfare.

They are trying to ban by executive order legal immigration from arbitrary Muslim majority countries and all refugees (possibly temporarily but I expect them to try to extend it).

Steve Bannon sees the number of asian CEOs (which he greatly overestimates) as a bad thing.

> They are trying to ban by executive order legal immigration from arbitrary Muslim majority countries and all refugees (possibly temporarily but I expect them to try to extend it).

Arbitrary? This is blatantly false and disingenuous.

There are some 50 majority muslim countries and these were not pulled out of a hat.