Posted on 10/19/2007 1:25:01 PM PDT by BillCompton
I am one of the Republicans who was shouted down in the Bush-backed immigration debate. Actually, the words were so hot here, I didn't even bother. I respect those here that feel strongly about the mass of illegals entering the country and I won't go into the reasons I thought the Bush approach was to some degree constructive. The will of the people has been heard.
Now the issue is very different for me. I am heartbroken. My wife teaches high school here in Live Oak, FL. She is relatively new, so she gets lower level students. Every semester, a few "projects" enter her radar screen. She impacts lives and has turned some around. She has lost some. Today we found out we really lost one. Salvador Mendoza is 19 year old and a former student. Until a few days ago, we had no idea he was an illegal alien. He is a fine young man. He pays taxes. makes 35k a year, which is extraordinary for a kid his ages. His job takes a lot of skill and great effort (he cleans out industrial incinerators).
This young man has done yard work for us and has kept our children. He visits every few months and ate dinner with our family last Christmas eve. He always _appreciated_ that my wife had helped him and encouraged him and even fussed at him. We all know that gratitude is the least deeply felt emotion, but his kid has character and class. He graduated on time. When he was 17, he got a ticket for driving without a license. He got a license, did community service instead of paying the fine (big mistake!), and got on with his life. Four nights ago, he was in a small car accident. He has insurance and only his car was involved (he rolled the car on its side, but he and his friend were able to right it with a push.) Before they could carry on, the police arrived. There was an outstanding warrant for not paying the traffic ticket. It was a mistake made by the system at some point, and so he was arrested. When they got him to jail, they ran his id and determined that he was illegal.
Salvador has attend school in our community since he was in the second grade. He speaks without an accent and is as American as I am. He is honest, productive and an absolute asset to our country. Now he is going to be sent to Mexico. He barely remembers the place and his Spanish is not good. He has some family there, because he has been sending them money.
Okay, throw his Mom and Dad out. But he is innocent, isn't he? By what morality can he be considered guilty of anything? Was he suppose to talk his parents out of coming to America? I tell you this is indecent. The sins-of-the-father ethos is more alien to this country than he has ever been.
So instead of having a young tax payer who will raise a family, support his community and (God willing) vote Republican, he is going to a country he doesn't know facing a future we would never wish on our children.
So flame away. But at least have the moral fiber to explain in what moral universe this boy deserves this mess. If you can answer by 8:30 PM tonight, I would appreciate it. You see, that is when he is calling our home from jail to find out what the lawyer told us before he refused to accept the $7,500 retainer. Well Salvador, you are Mexican, so you are screwed.
Well, then, why don't you send your daughters to YALE?
/very bitter sarc.
First, I'm not calling you a liar.
But, how do you know he actually showed up for either his court date or the community service?
Did you attend either/both when he did?
Or, are you taking his word for it?
“stolen SSN” Hmmm. How do you steal a number. It was a fake number. I don’t know the details.”
By “a fake number” you mean it belonged to someone else, then you are truly a moron.
Property that belongs to another is not fake it is real.
If I take your car without permission it does not become fake, it becomes STOLEN!
Bill, I do not hate immigrants, not even illegal ones. They are just people. I have to say though, if they break the rules, and get caught, just like any of us, they have to pay the consequences.
I don’t think it is all bad. Is it such a bad thing to go to Mexico? Can he not be a great asset to his country? Can he not help build that up into a strong and stable nation? A nation where people want to live and work? Why should we get all the “best” Mexicans?
Should Mexico just be a terrible thing to him, he can certainly apply for citizenship legally. He can visit. He can get temporary work visas. It is not impossible to work within the system. I hope he makes it.
You've been around a good while, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here as to your emotions clouding your logic. I have said nothing hateful.
The prisons are full of criminals whose children are deprived of a parent and suffering through no fault of their own. Parents need to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions upon their children. Tell your illegal friend, his parents should have gone about it the right way to begin with; he'd be a legal resident on his way to citizenship by now and well on his way to the American dream.
It's not his fault his parents couldn't be bothered to play by the rules, but it's nobody else's fault either. Tell him that, if you want to be honest. If you want to be morally bankrupt and dishonest, go share a crying towel and tell him how awful it all is.
This story and all the stories like it hit me the same way.The question is do you approve of the mothers who take thier kids into stores to steal for them. Do you believe that this is teaching the kids wrong. It is all the same two wrongs do not make a right. His parents knew what they were doing bringing him here. Can you tell me he does not know that he is here illegally? I bet you cannot.
Check again. I think he can.
I don't have to check it again. I know it for a fact having served 8 years in the military and 28 years in the State Department.
I smell bovine excrement.”
I’m not in agreement with the sentiment of the person you’re responding to either, but don’t think for one minute that it’s impossible for a high school kid to make that sort of money.
In fact, my eldest son made over $35K a year through high school...much more in his junior and senior years. He started a small lawn service company when he was 12 and was making more than most of his teachers and had two part-time employees by the time he was 16. He didn’t devote all his time to his business either. He was a straight “A” student throughout his four years of high school, captain of his football team, all-state football player, and got a full academic scholarship.
"Hard" or "Easy" is not really the criteria. If making the law easy was the end goal, lots of things would be different. I don't think they would be better, though.
Sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes equal application of the law leads to injustice. But the fact that that happens is no reason to support abandoning the rule of law.
Even if the law were tailored exactly to your liking, an injustice would be done to somebody else, perhaps completely unknown to you. That is the way it is.
In cases of extreme injustice their is executive clemency in almost every law. But I don't think this care rises to that level.
You allowed someone to take care of your children and you didn’t even know enough about him to know if he was an illegal? I sure hope your children have a more highly developed self-protection mechanism than you do.
Wow...my “idiot light” is flashing.
Lots of things have changed in the military in the last 28 years.
I notice that you don’t mention all the MS-13 gang-bangers, the disease and parasite infestations, the degradation of our public schools due to the infestation of non-english speaking students (illegals and anchor babies), the American skilled by illegal drunk drivers, the massive levels of violent crime, and the rest of the “warts” that come with your self-serving sensitivity.
The only survivor of the New Jersey murders that had her face literally chopped off with a machete...the only one who the illegals didn’t kill...why don’t you discuss this in your “argument” for illegal aliens.
Zampell Refractories. First glance suggests someone aligned with the same folks who want to keep hiring illegal aliens.
www.zampellrefractories.com
Zampell is proud to be a member and partner with the following associations:
- Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC)
- Associated General Contractors ( AGC)
- Association of National Government Contractors (ANGC)
- Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE)
Imagine what 30 million deportees would do to Mexican politics. They would force a change pronto. Deporting these people would be doing their own country a favor, helping to precipitate the reforms needed.
Here’s my standard post. We can do something about this.
RICO —Citizen Recourse
Private persons and entities may initiate civil suits to obtain injunctions and treble damages against enterprises that conspire to or actually violate federal alien smuggling, harboring, or document fraud statutes, under the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO). The pattern of racketeering activity is defined as commission of two or more of the listed crimes. A RICO enterprise can be any individual legal entity, or a group of individuals who are not a legal entity but are associated in fact, and can include nonprofit associations.
Here’s what I’ve been pushing: it’s time to file Racketeering, Influencing, and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) lawsuits.
RICO lawyers could turn it around in a few years and MAKE MONEY at the same time. I’m surprised they haven’t done it already.
In the absence of enforcement, we can get the word out in the meantime that there is money to be made in filing RICO lawsuits against employers who hire illegal aliens.
Employers would have no trouble shutting down the border if they could get sued by someone under the RICO statutes for hiring these people in the first place. The next time an illegal alien kills someone in a drunk driving accident or somesuch thing, I’m going to point out that the victim’s family might be able to seek compensation from the employer under these statutes in the hopes that it would catch on. If this did catch on, would see such a swift backlash against illegal immigration that no employer would go near these people and they’ll all simply want to go back home.
I understand why the rules were put into place with the green card for service.
Historically look at that all-Japanese unit in WW2 that fought the germans, while the rest of their kin were in those camps. However with them none of them were aware that if they did this they would be honored like this. They did so out of a love for their home.
I would prefer that people like Salvador enlist for a love of their new home rather than an instant green card.
Even though I am quite young I learned something, that apples don’t fall far from the tree. Although I would love to be wrong about that in this instance.
In fact I was just thinking how strangely quiet this story seemed to be....I don't ever see any updates.
It would seem even MS-13 gangs get preferential treatment.
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