Did someone say purge?
Posted on 02/11/2005 10:55:36 AM PST by Jim Robinson
The shot heard around the Internet has been fired on FreeRepublic.com The owner Jim Robinson and his moderators have launched a sniper style purge against members that disagree with the President’s ‘guest worker’ amnesty or support more control of illegal immigration. Free Republic is an amazing tool for those looking for a good debate and news from around the country.
The problem for the administration of the site is that their creation is allowing the participants to learn that the Bush immigration record and plans are shockingly out of line with the views of most conservatives. The management’s answer to this conflict between the majority of conservatives and the influence of the White House on their Web site has become electronic executions and censorship.
Members and readers of Free Republic would be surprised to know that many members of their community have fallen silent on the discussions about illegal immigration lately because free speech is an illusion on FR.com. They are silent because they have been banned from the Web site without warning, cause, or explanation in most cases. For weeks the moderators have been suspending and banning new members that chimed in quickly on the immigration debates.
Now this trend has broadened as the first groups of long-term users were suspended or banned this past week. Although Robinson and his staff removed many members of the Free Republic community in the first few days of the purge, those that religiously support President Bush’s immigration plan, open borders and approve of public benefits for illegal aliens remain on the forum. Those that were banned were the members that wanted more done to control illegal immigration and a strict observance to the President’s Oath of Office.
I thought you were refering to 1783. You might want to read 1783.
Anyway, if you read the whole thread, you will find many posters (not just me) who say the anit immigrationist do have a few racists on their side. Further, the existance of stormfront.org also indicates that some and definitely not all and not even very many people on the anti immigration side are racists or lean that way.
I was merely trying to explain why only the strong advocates of anit immigration were banned. The moderates generally use facts. The stonger anti immigrants also mostly use facts. And then there are a few racists who are mostly from the stronly anti immigrant wing. It is the few racists who are banned and that is going to be from the stongly anti immigrant wing.
Sorry I thought you were commenting on 1783 and not 1789. I hope that clears things up.
Please read the rules on posting. This stuff is not very appropriate Just state the facts, personal insults are not necessary.
Open borders is allowing one individual of their own free will to work for another individual of their own free willing to hire that person. I would think that maximizing individual liberty was conservative.
I will add that in today's world, this is not a practical situation.
Each state in the US has "open borders" with the other states. And this has been good for everyone. The EU is trying to duplicate this with the United States of Europe. I think we could have open borders with Japan, Sweeden, Ireland, Australia, Singapore and a few other countries. And this would be a good thing.
Border control and tariffs are imperfect responses to an imperfect world, but it is the best we can do.
Illegal immigration as a crime is different from other crimes in that one person who crosses the border may be legal and another may be illegal. With armed robbery, speeding, tax evasion, etc., everyone who does it is illegal
Further for most crimes except murder, have a statute of limitations where if you are not charged with a crime, after so many years, you can not be charged at all.
BTW, I'm often on the anti-illegal immigration threads and the most genuinely racist posts are those made by the pro-amnesty types.
Did someone say purge?
Many people live on the border, and see trouble everyday. The fact that he is a former border patrol agent lends some credibility to his fallacious statements, but who knows if he was any good at his job. Being a former BPA does not make him an expert on economic, sociological, logistical or geopolitical implications of 15 million illegals. It only makes him an expert in America's failure to catch illegals at the border. His credentials do not match the authoritative claims he made. He may be able to quantify why the border patrol is failing to do its job, but little beyond that. I love our soldiers but they ain't all qualified to make war strategy. You are free to believe what ever you want, but I am also free to disagree.
Being anti-illegal immigration does not mean being anti-Hispanic. You do realize that plenty of Americans who are Hispanic voted for Prop 187, right? They don't like illegals either.
uhhh, sounds very familiar to one of my posts, great work.
"Further for most crimes except murder, have a statute of limitations where if you are not charged with a crime, after so many years, you can not be charged at all."
BS. There is no statute of limitations where after some amount of time you suddenly become a legal resident. If you enter illegally, your status is always illegal resident.
"No. But I recognize that it is an unavoidable reality. I recognize that it is impossible to seal the land sea and air borders of the U.S. against laborers as long as there is a demand for them and they need to come here to work to feed their children."
Whatever, Bayourod. It's becoming increasingly apparent from your posts that YOU are the sort of guy who makes a living by exploiting poor uneducated third worlders at the expense of American citizens who won't work for nickels. And to back up your untenable position, you call your opponents racist. Pure class, that is.
You are the Man! Mr Robinson! And this is what makes Free Republic a Great site.
Say what?
It's called illegal because it's illegal. Everyone who does it is illegal.
You're downright PROUD of your criminal ancestors, aren't you?
By the way FooFighter, there was no such thing as "legally" when your people came here.
Immigration Facts Pre-1880 ImmigrationBefore the 1880-1920 arrival of “the new immigrant,” most immigrants to the United States arrived from Western and Northern European nations. During the colonial period, the population was mainly English with large populations of Germans (6% of total population—150,000—by 1775) and Scotch-Irish (7% of population—175,000—by 1775). About 5% of the population were other European groups—French, Dutch, Welsh, Swedes, Jews, Irish, Swiss. 20% of the 1775 population were African slaves—forced immigrants.
Following the American Revolution, immigrants continued to be from Western and Northern European nations at a rate of approximately 60,000 people a year. In the 1840s, the immigration rate tripled and in the 1850s quadrupled in part because of the Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine of the mid-1840s and Germans fleeing crop failures, as well as the 1848 collapse of the countries’ democratic revolutions. Between 1830 and 1860, approximately 2 million Irish immigrants and 1.5 million German immigrants arrived. The total number of immigrants for the same 30-year period was approximately 4.9 million, with the overwhelming majority coming from Europe. These immigrants generally were Protestant with some Catholics (particularly the Irish) and their cultures easily meshed into the American culture. Numbers of immigrants declined slightly during the 1860s due to the Civil War but rose in the 1870s and exploded in the 1880s.
Also in the early to mid-nineteenth century, unskilled workers from China migrated to California and the western states seeking work. Unlike European immigrants who came in family groups, this immigration was primarily by males seeking work with the ultimate goal of returning to China. Very few Chinese women immigrated during this period and the few who came to California were already or became prostitutes. Chinese immigration began in 1820 and exploded during the 1848 Gold Rush. These immigrants primarily labored in mines, worked on railroads, and transformed the dry landscape into farmland. As more Americans moved to the West Coast and the once booming economy waned, anti-Chinese riots occurred in the late 1870s and 1880s (imagine that, the Chinese came, did all the dirty work, then people rioted against them). In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States for ten years, and further immigration legislation continued the ban until 1940 when the act was repealed and limits on Chinese immigration were lifted. Following the 1882 act, only certain Chinese merchants and their families were allowed to enter the country and these immigrants faced strict regulation and laws that deemed them ineligible for citizenship.
Immigration between 1880-1920 and the Age of the "New Immigrant" -- (your people arrive FooFighter!)
Between 1880 and 1920, almost 24 million immigrants arrived in the United States. These "New Immigrants" were primarily from Southern and Eastern European nations — Italy, Croatia, Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungry, and Russia. In 1882, immigration reached a new high with 788,992 persons arriving that year. During this forty-year period, the "New Immigrants" came to the United States for a variety of reasons. The population of Europe had doubled over the course of the 1800s, and the growing population (and the United States) faced the challenges associated with industrialization. During the second half of the 19th century, industrialization (the rise of cities and manufacturing) upset the fragile lifestyle and stability of the peasant classes.
Millions moved to European cities seeking work and a decent life following the decline of agriculture and their way of life. Approximately 60 million people fled Europe during this period, with almost half that number coming to the United States.
Low wages, unemployment, disease, forced military conscription, and religious persecution (particularly Eastern European and Russian Jews forced from their homes by Pogroms) all inspired immigrants to flee their homelands and come to the United States. These immigrants were inspired to come to America by its reputation as the "Land Of Liberty" and also by the inspiring letters of friends and relatives already in the United States. These "New Immigrants" fleeing poverty and persecution faced difficulties in assimilating into American culture that immigrants in the 1840s did not. Most could not speak English, nor were they literate in their own language. They came from nondemocratic governments and were often distrustful of government. Immigrants during this period crammed into cities in the Northeast (although many did migrate to the Midwestern city of Chicago), and created small ethnic communities where they preserved the culture of their homelands. Immigrants maintained their culture by publishing newspapers in their native languages, opening specialty grocery stores and restaurants, and establishing churches, synagogues, and schools. But these communities could not protect immigrants from discrimination inflicted by native-born Americans. (your people sound like Mexicans FooFighter)
The New Immigrants during the 1880-1920 period typically settled in the cities along the eastern seaboard and entered low-paying, wage-labor jobs (you guys had the crap jobs before the Mexicans came!). They filled the growing factories and also worked at other poorly-paid jobs such as construction work or sewing. These immigrants often arrived with little money and were forced into substandard housing in the worst sections of the overcrowded cities (East L.A.?>. With their populations rising exponentially, the infrastructure of the cities could not handle the effects of overcrowding. Many cities had problems with sanitation, leading to overflowing sewers, uncollected garbage, impure water, and a general stench in the air. Combined with soaring populations and overcrowding, crime rates rose. Many nativeborn Americans blamed the New Immigrants for the unsettling situation in the cities and for taking over “their” nation (WHOA!!!! You sound just like the people who beat up on your people! FooFighter!)
. In 1882, Congress began to pass legislation limiting immigration. This first immigration act levied a fifty-cent tax on each immigrant and prohibited people previously convicted of political offences, "lunatics," and those likely to become public charges. In 1891, legislation established the Bureau of Immigration within the Treasury Department and made polygamists, those afflicted with a "loathsome" or "dangerous" disease, and those convicted of a crime involving "moral turpitude" disqualified for immigration. In 1917, Congress chose to override Woodrow Wilson’s presidential veto to enact legislation that required a literacy test for immigration — an adult immigrant had to be able to read forty words in any language. This legislation also barred immigration from Asia except Japan and the Philippines. Following American involvement in the First World War (1917-1918), anti-immigrant sentiment grew as thousands of people from war-torn Europe flooded the U.S. In 1920-1921, approximately 800,000 people came to the United States; about two-thirds of that number were from southern and eastern Europe. In 1921, Congress enacted the Emergency Quota Act, the first quantitative immigration law. This stopgap legislation restricted the number of immigrants by their country of origin. Only 3% of the number of persons from that nation living in the U.S., according to the 1910 census, were allowed to immigrate. The Immigration Act of 1924 made the quota system permanent and reduced the percentage allowed into the U.S. from 3% based on the 1910 census to 2% based on the 1890 census numbers. This change from the 1910 to the 1890 census shifted the nationality totals to a time when relatively few southern and eastern European immigrants had arrived. The legislation was enacted in order to limit more “New Immigrants” from arriving and essentially the U.S. closed itself to mass immigration.
There was no "legality" to coming to America when your people got here FooFighter.
Had your people been able to walk here, they would have.
Good post.
Then he obviously has no clue as to the reality of the situation.
Many bumps to that. Exactly right --- and anyone who doesn't believe it --- go check it out. The Mexican flags all over make me gag. If they love it so much then they need to go back.
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