I think that the "guest worker" program is the only realistic alternative left to the country at this time.
I don't really like the thought of illegal immigrants being rewarded just because they are already here but I don't have a better alternative that is realistically able to be accomplished.
Could we deport 8 to 15 million illegal immigrants?
Yes
Would it cause untold economic damage, riots, battles?
Probably.
I will support President Bush's "guest worker" program ONLY if the government agrees to deport those here illegally that are the actual criminals AND get serious about controlling our borders.
If the USA has a "guest worker" program there should be no reason for anyone to be trying to sneak across the border.
If there is someone in the area of the border and they can't show proper ID, take 'em and put 'em back on the Mexican side of the border. If they resist, use the appropriate amount of force up to, and incuding, deadly force.
Because the pro-illegal alien lobby has a bottomless pit of money and can hire PR people to spin (and fabricate) anything any way, there are an undue number of myths and lies that the public (and many politicians) has bought into. The FACTS are:
1. It is NOT racist to call these people "illegal aliens" In fact, "illegal aliens" is the only term used in federal laws and regulations to describe criminals (and they ARE criminals) who come into our country illegally. They are not illegal immigrants, not undocumented immigrants, not migrant workers, and not day laborers - they're ILLEGAL ALIENS.
2. Mexico is NOT a poor country. It has the fifth richest economy in the world, and by sending its teeming masses to our country, that status keeps on rising. Mexico has more resources per square mile than the U.S. and plenty of money to take care of its own people. Why should the taxpayers of this country subsidize Mexico's corruption?
3. Illegal aliens are NOT necessarily coming here to work. Lou Dobbs recently reported that 33 percent of our prison population is now comprised of non-citizens. Plus, 36 to 42 percent of illegal aliens are on welfare. So, for a good proportion of these people, the American dream is crime and welfare, not coming here to work.
4. Illegal aliens are NOT doing work Americans won't do. What jobs won't Americans do? In most states, Americans still clean their own houses, do their own landscaping, clean hotel rooms, work in restaurants and fast food places, paint houses, DO CONSTRUCTION WORK, work in airports, etc. - just like we have the past 200 years before "our" government allowed these people to invade our country. There are 18 million Americans who cannot find a job, so illegal aliens who are coming here to work do so at peril to American workers.
5. Illegal aliens absolutely do not contribute more than they cost. Certainly the millions in prison and on welfare aren't contributing a dime to our economy, and the ones who are working often are paid in cash with no deductions for taxes at all. The ones who use fraudulent social security numbers and qualify to pay taxes and social security have so many deductions for dependents that they pay little if any taxes. We have seen them pay less than $100 in taxes and get back $4,000 refunds (thanks to earned income tax credits and multiple dependents). The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the average Mexican illegal alien costs U.S. taxpayers a whopping $55,000 each. Some bargain, eh?
6. The economy does NOT depend on illegal aliens. Sure, greedy CEOs (making $50 to $150 MILLION a year) and business owners depend on illegal aliens, but due to #3, #4 and #5 above, the only thing illegal aliens are contributing to is the collapse of our economy and making the rich richer.
7. Without illegal aliens, the price of agricultural products and other goods and services will NOT soar. The definitive study on this subject is the University of Iowa's "How Much Is That Tomato?" The study concludes that 'since labor is such a small component of the end-price of agricultural products (which includes price to the growers, transportation costs, processing /storage costs, grocers' profit, etc.), using minimum wage workers instead of illegal aliens would increase prices of agricultural products by approximately 3 percent in the summer and 4 percent in the winter ... hardly the making of $10 heads of lettuce, $25 hamburgers, $1,000 per night Days Inn hotel rooms like the pro-illegal alien lobby claims.
8. Consumers are NOT benefiting from lower labor costs. Again, it's CEOs and business owners who benefit from taxpayer subsidies for their illegal alien workers. The Big Three automakers say they moved so many jobs to Mexico because their labor costs are 80 percent less than in America. Anybody notice the price of new cars spiraling downward under NAFTA?
So, before you believe the prevalent pack of lies perpetuated by the illegal alien lobby, which makes billions off this government-sanctioned criminal activity, ask yourself who's saying this garbage and look at what they have to gain. Citizens Against Illegal Immigration, just like Protect Arizona NOW, is an all-volunteer, totally grass-roots organization of citizens who are making nothing and have nothing personal to gain from their efforts to fight this corruption.
Whose side are you on, and what are YOU doing to save your state and country from this evil?
sw
ping
If you had an IQ above 1, you would know that there is no such Federal Agency called the INS.
So you prefer no borders?
You're just full of solutions aren't you?
As for your challenge here, I've turned in employers who I know hire illegal aliens. I turned in a huge employer to the IRS who I know isn't withholding for his illegal employees. I hope they gut his business and INS swoops in and deports the invaders. I will jump at the opportunity to do it again if I have strong enough evidence that someone is hiring an illegal alien.
Already did.
Now, YOU do it!
Smart alec...
Do you believe that I haven't done this (called INS to report illegal aliens) quite a few times?
Or had a face to face meeting with the Mayor and the City Manager in the Mayors office?
Or addressed the City Council at a public meeting?
Or the Spark City Assistant Police Chief?
Or met with the Watch Commander for the Washoe County Sheriffs dept?
Or sat with Congressman Jim Gibbons in his office and discussed the problems with illegal aliens in Nevada?
Or called twenty Reps at their DC offices in the same afternoon asking for their support on a Bill I believe in?
You are barking up the wrong tree, Sonny. If I didn't care about the problem and hadn't spent many hours trying to correct it, why do you think I would even bother trying to get my ideas across to FR members?
I am not the kind of guy who sits wringing his hands about what to do when I see a problem. I don't try to engineer a way around solving it as you limp wristed folks like to do, I want it fixed, so I charge head on and get to work.
I have probably written half a dozen essays on illegal immigration and what I see as possibilites we could do for the correction of the problem.
Did you not read this one?
Ten Easy Questions - No Pencils Needed! 01/17/2004 98 replies
or this one?
Changing Our Country 12/15/2003 95 replies
or this one?
Can You Help America? 11/30/2002 688 replies
or this one?
Can You Change America? Part 2 12/08/2002 72 replies
or this one?
Do you have an extra 10 minutes today to tell your elected officials "I LOVE AMERICA" 04/19/2001 89 replies
Now if this is considered being a keyboard warrior, exactly what do you suggest that I do to make my voice loud enough for an old timer such as yourself to hear me?
I know living in Massachusetts must be tough but how about telling us what you've done lately. Are you sure you aren't a closet Kennedy supporter? He loves these illegals more than the president does.
Have you ever turned in an illegal?
Let me ask you a question that COEXERJ145 ducked away from.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1333040/posts?page=47#47
Is there any reason at all to be concerned that there will be another terrorist attack on CONUS?(continental United States)
What is your personal thinking on this subject? (terrorist attack)
Look, jveritas or whomever, I support Bush, and I think he is a good if not a great President.
One really *can* disagree on a minority of issues and still support a politician.
The thing is not opposition to Bush, much less 'hating' him, for goodness sakes, I pray for that man and our Congress every day.
But I simply disagree, and it exasperates me that this patriot and intelligent man can be so misguided about the criminal immigration issue.
But that is fine. In politics you never get 100% of what you want, and who realisticly expects to? It is a process of compromise and change.
One day I think 99% of those leading the Republican Party will wake up on this issue and see criminal immigration for the disaster that it truly is, just like Rush did.
It will just take time and patience and lots of discussing the issue.
And the more we discuss it, and the more absurd it becomes in the minds of most patriots, the sooner it will be addressed in a suitable way.
So there is nothing wrong with George W; he just needs a little more time, thats all.
In case you missed a fabulous "Letter to the editor" in today's Sun Times..
Offensive and inaccurate
I strongly condemn Father Andrew Greeley's suggestion that many Americans would favor shooting illegal aliens as they cross the border [column, Jan. 14]. Greeley's outrageous statement deliberately distorts the facts and surpasses in its irresponsibility a comment made several years ago by Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George, who said illegal immigrants are ''the hidden pistons that are driving our economy.'' Both are pure fiction.
Equally disturbing is Greeley's charge that a majority of Americans ''hate immigrants'' and are ''willing to deny them the most fundamental human rights.'' What a majority of Americans have told pollsters for years is that they want less legal immigration and stricter enforcement of immigration laws. For this they are supposed to be ashamed?
His church, like organized labor, cannot get enough of mass immigration because both have seen better days in terms of membership. But you won't see either using any of their money to help pay the escalating costs associated with illegal immigration, including free medical care and public school education.
Greeley says Catholics are the biggest hypocrites of all in terms of immigration, but I believe that blaming ordinary parishioners is an attempt to mask a more serious shortcoming that extends all the way to the Vatican.
How would he explain his church's support of an immigration policy that hurts most our own working poor? The church's hierarchy in this country, including the National Council of Catholic Bishops, is solidly behind a general amnesty for millions of illegals. Where is the church's compassion for the 14 million underemployed American citizens whose daily economic struggles are made increasingly difficult because they must compete with illegal aliens for the full-time jobs they once did at higher wages? Or do these religious leaders believe that today only the foreign-born, particularly illegal aliens, are entitled to ''search for a better life''?
As I see it, turning its back on millions of our own poor citizens shames the Catholic Church. Therein lies the problem
Dave Gorak,
executive director,
Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration,
Lombard
Bush-bashing orgy? I don't think so. I just want secure borders and immigration laws that are meaningful AND ENFORCED.
"Pick up your phone and report to the INS about an illegal immigrant and his employer."
I'm five instances ahead of you and I'm proud to say that all five times the illegals have been rounded up and removed.
Anything else "Macho guy"?
If ones that voted for the wimp (like those here annoyed by his immigration incompetence) can't flame him on it..
Who can?. Nobody.?.
I voted for the idiot twice. Not because he was anything special but because of the compitition.. FR is not DU because we vet our OWN people as seriously as we vet any others.. thats why FR threads can be trusted.. The "I'm a unite'er not a diver'er", sound bite is lame in its essence.. If America needs anything its a good dividing.. because being a "liberal" really is a mental disease.. its also a social disease... And Bush is playing out to be pretty "liberal". Unless their is some Machivellian Plot I know nothing about..
I have a similar "practical solution" for the problem of child sex abuse. I call it the 'NAMBLA Program.' We have tons of older kids, minority kids & kids with health problems awaiting adoption, since so many adoptive parents want a healthy infant of their own ethnicity. We should simply supply one or two of these undesireable children to each identified pedophile -- that will give them an outlet for their unorthodox sexual desires, and it will also incentivize them to care for the children, since we won't be giving out replacements if they kill or neglect the first set. Note that I am certainly NOT saying that we ought to reward pedophilia or encourage it -- we need to be taking steps to discourage the development of new child abusers -- but those who are already here, you have to deal with them, right? Are you gonna call the police and report a child molester? I DARE YOU! I DARE YOU!
In California and Arizona, signatures were gathered, and voters passed legal measures.
In California, voters ousted a Governor that gave licenses to illegal immigrants.
I rather suspect many on FR HAVE called "authorities" and have become cynical, due to unacceptable responses.
All of these efforts were widely supported on FR.
That is doing something.
1. Border Patrol picks up illegals, takes them to whatever processing center they take them to, and they are released on their own recognizance, having been told to appear for a hearing some time in the future. They don't.
2. States - like California and Arizona - pass initiatives to omit or limit welfare bennies to illegal immigrants, and the duly-elected initiative is either stayed by a d!psh!te federal judge, or a lawsuit against that state is threatened by some Mexican bureaucrat, in The Hague International Court.
All of this takes place under the watchful eye of the Bush Administration who says absolutely nothing about it.
I'll agree that Bush is still the better alternative than either Kerry or Gore, but this is one issue that he needs to taken to the woodshed over.
I have not called INS on any employer, but this isn't the issue for me. I'm not nearly as worried about the economic impact as the implications this lackadaisical attitude has on the war on terror: If drug runners and the like can get over the border armed and undetected, why can't terrorists?
Get your name and address down so we can see it...I'll be the first...