I don't know what is right in this debate. Frankly, what is the point of becoming a nation where you must present your "papers" at the slightest turn? Certainly to vote, yes. But America's strength is its friendly immigration policy, and that is our historical stance. The times we turned boatloads of refugees away were embarrassments. Let's figure out who is raising Cain over this issue in the first place. Closing the borders is not a solution I'm necessarily in favor of. The harshness of the desert is somewhat of a deterent as it is, except to people desperate to feed their families. We need some thoughtful anaysis and framing of the question before laws can be drafted dealing with it.
"But America's strength is its friendly immigration policy"
That's is sole "strength?" Don't we have one already letting in 1.1 million a year legally?
Should the Chamber of Commerce and the cheap labor industries determine our immigration policies?
Isn't our "strength" a middle class that is viable? Is the policy of depressing wages of American citizens and legal residents moral? It's not, so, should we allow morality to be redefined by employers seeking to increase short term profits?
Admittedly the salient points are being drowned out by the MSM and twisted polls. The Unions are silent, I suppose their leaders have been coopted into secrue Democratic Party/Industry promises of paybacks.
One of poppa Bush's talking points for putting NAFTA on the fast-track was that it would reduce illegal immigration......plus the feelgood stuff you just wrote.....guess what it didn't work, except against us.
P.S. We have laws now. We need enforcement.
I've lived near Santa Rosa, California for the past 25 years. In that time I've seen the town go from being under 5% Hispanic to over 25% Hispanic.
No nation can handle the type of mass migration that our country is seeing and remain a nation....
Yep. We need immigrants today, and we are making it much more difficult to come into this country legally than ever. The anti-immigrant crowd is extremely emotional on this issue though. We need to manage and control immigration much better so that we know who is coming in and keep out bad elements, but we need to allow hard working healthy people in, IMHO.
I think it is clear what is right. We need to stop illegal immigration through enforcement. Those poor immigrants who become citizens legally end up having their wages deflated competing for jobs with people who often work off the books or make up social security numbers. There is no excuse for not complying with labor laws and companies that knowingly hire illegals should be punished.
I also think the demonstations we've seen on tv illustrate why we need to enforce the law, we have a growing population that not only is illegal but also doesn't identify with America and that is a huge problem. We also have a mythology about how there aren't any Americans to do the jobs which is just a lie. I think that immigration law should be streamlined but the truth is that the majority of those crossing the border would not be allowed to immigrate legally even if they did apply. A huge number of illegals are imprisoned and many more are simply let go while citizens are detained for similiar offenses. The one thing that is clear leniency is not the answer to this problem unless we want a permanently growing underclass to subvert our lives and our government.
Boo-freaking-hoo.
We CAN secure our borders, anyone who says differently is either an ILLEGAL, a wannabe ILLEGAL, a relative of an ILLEGAL(s), a business owner that hires ILLEGALS or just an idiot. Pick your category. Failure to control our borders will ruin our country, the days of allowing any and all to come here freely are gone because there are people who want to take the southwest for some country called aztlan, there are muslim terrorist who just want to take the whole country and kill as many infidels as possible in the process, not to mention the ones who come here to work are killing us with expenses we can't afford. Add in MS-13 and you have a deadly mixture of criminals and terrorists that are pouring in daily.
I guess you don't read much or you would know that the desert doesn't stop hardly any of them and if they are so f**king poor how can they afford to pay a coyote $5000 to come here? 5 grand in mexico will buy a lot of food and pay a lot of rent.
Most of the illegals I observe (on TV of course) jumping border fences and cutting thru the desert look to be in their late teens or early 20s, not at all like I would envision fathers "desparate to feed their families", as you say.
Now, it is certainly possible some small percentage of these disheveled types could be fathers with plans to send money, but they are the abberation, not the norm.
As a newspaper writer in the East Coast, I can furthermore report first hand that most towns now have huge sections with homes stuffed with young single males, often 5 to a room, with many of them involved in drugs, gangs, and/or the most crude existance you could imagine.
Most police forces (I mostly cover crime) have suddenly found themselves overwhelmed with SPANISH ONLY speaking populations, and are unable to communicate or cope. Cops are scrambling to find or train interpreters just so they can investigate many of the knifings and shootings which occur nightly in most of the all-Spanish speaking sections. (huge populations from Guatemala, Nicaragua, not always Mexico)
Every time I hear McCain or Lindsey Graham or even Bush gushing on about some heart-tugging illegal immigrant case, I go livid. These politicians dont give a ratts butt about the danger that my daughters and grand-daughters are experiencing because of this ongoing flood of illegals, most of whom are continuing life in their third-world style, complete with cock-fighting and all.
Let me help you out with your dilemma; its very simple what needs to be done first. Ignore the 11-20 Million lawless invaders already inside the border [for now]. Instead, close the border down tighter than a bulls ass in fly season. Use rubber bullets and/or lethal force to do so. Completely shut down the flow of illegals entering the country [which is estimated at 3-5 thousand per day].
Once that has been accomplished, then we can all sit around and debate what to do with the free-loaders.
Does that help? Does that clear things up for you? I hope so. Any debate on this issue is completely and totally meaningless unless we can all agree, that we need to seal the border [by whatever means is effective and absolute].
Nonsense...Americas strength is Americans...and immigrants who by the millions want to come here know that. Thats why they want to be here...Check the instruction manual...the horse goes in front of the cart.
If we accept your statement, it as if America needs immigrants...its the other way around...
We are who we are because of our founding fathers and the principals they set forth...we are not defined by the millions who have come to enjoy and enjoin this nation and its ideals.
I am sick and tired of hearing that we are who are because of some ethnic ingress...nonsense.
We are Americans, and the envy of those who want to come here...and we are certainly not who we are because some certain groups want to join us... WE ARE AMERICANS...and we ought take pride in that for its own sake...not because vast amounts of third world populations want to come here and share a piece of the pie. Americans baked THAT pie...try not to forget that...
Arizona is NOT anti-immigrant, the hispanic culture is a part of us, but we are quickly becoming overwhelmed. If those of you in the middle of the country fail to stand by us, who are quickly being submerged, then by the time you feel the pain we feel, it will be too late.
"But America's strength is its friendly immigration policy, and that is our historical stance"
I take it that by this statement, you believe that immigration is, simply for the sake of immigration, beneficial to our nation? Is there ANY population level our nation could reach at which you would say enough is enough.. that we do not need any more? What is the maximum sustainable population for our nation, if there is one?
America's strength has historically been our mineral resources, technological innovations and the ability to capitalize upon them with a massive manufacturing sector.
Mexico.
It's Mexico's failure or refusal to deal with its woeful corruption and to repudiate its scandalous third-world socialism that has made Mexico, a naturally rich and beautiful country, a place of entrenched poverty and oppression.
Too many people kneejerk their way to the conclusion that for some reason it is the US taxpayer's job to relieve the Mexican government of the burden of its corruption and incompetence. The Mexican government is only too pleased to shirk its responsibilities and get a free ride at US taxpayer expense.
The illegal aliens need to return or be returned to Mexico where they can bring pressure on their government to drain that swamp of its appalling inefficiency and corruption.
This latest generation of illegals isn't assimilating like previous waves of legal immigrants did - that's the difference.