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Well, from the Mexican government's point of view, there isn't a problem. The remittances Mexicans send back to their country help prop up the economy, and they don't have jobs for these people anyway.

I have an interest in this because, as I have mentioned, I plan to move to the Philippines, which also has a corrupt government. And they have the same situation, with the exception that overseas Filipino workers go to countries where there is huge demand for their services, and they are legal in those countries.

However, at the same time their work is desperately needed, they are discriminated against and treated with contempt, just as Mexicans are.

I don't like this kind of discrimination. To me, Mexicans and Filipinos are human, and deserve to be treated like people, not some kind of vermin.

The fact that many people here just want to buy a big can of Alien-Be-Gone and spray it on any illegal who crosses their path sickens and appalls me.

I think it denies their essential humanity and our tradition of welcoming immigrants, which gives our country vitality and helps it grow.

We seem to have some weaknesses in our laws, and it seems to me those should be addressed. For instance, maybe we should change our health care policies so that illegals who can't pay are given stabilizing treatment and then deported. And maybe we should change our citizenship policies so that if someone is born on our soil to people who are not legally here, the child stays a citizen of their home country. Those two changes would dramatically reduce the burden on our resources, which seems to be a big argument you folks have.

If I were in the Philippines and participated prominently in demonstrations against their government, I would be deported and my file would be marked as an undesirable so I'd have a tough time getting back in. Perhaps we should apply this to demonstrators here and just round 'em up and send them back. After all, they're expressing a desire for the US to be like Mexico; if they want that, they should, indeed, live in Mexico.

That much, I agree with, because it's frightening to see people who hate us and are willing to demonstrate against us. That's crossing the line in my view.

But to deport people who just want to make an honest living, out of jobs that exist here, strikes me as a lose/lose situaiton for both Mexico and America.

D

I have zero problem with the remittances to Mexico. They don't mean anything as far as I'm concerned. The US doesn't "lose" this money, it gets recirculated in many ways, besides we print so much of it it hardly matters. If the cash transfers are a manifestation of tax evasion, there are already laws against that. I do not know and don't see how I could know the character of the remissions, and it is the least meaningful detail in this whole controversy IMO. What you call their humanity is seriously diminished in my eyes, because they are so aggressive, they start out being illegal, they are jumping ahead in line of those who come here on a controlled basis, they are NOT interested in assimilating. They are all take and no give. Again, it's behavioral, not racial. They are expressly creating a foothold for more and more of them to enter the US, and, emboldened by the near-total lack of border security, begin their alleged "beneficial stay" in the US with the idea that our laws don't matter. I can't support that.

I have a lot of experience with Filipinos, and they are among the kindest, gentlest, and diligent people I have ever met. I worked with a ton of them aboard ships. Many of them worked very hard, sent home money, and were able to live very well because of the disparity in wage between what they earned aboard ship and what wages are/were at home. Good for them. They took an opportunity and returned home to benefit from it. If the Mexican workers did that, I would have far fewer objections to their presence. Of course I'm generalizing, but the Filipinos don't exhibit any of the agressive "gimme" entitlement mentality that we see in these Mexican protest marches. I don't see them treated with contempt. Seriously, I don't.

And this "gimme" thing...this is not folks who just want to make an honest living. Those immigrants, you will not see in these marches. They are busy making that honest living. The marching and the Aztlan movement et al are an aggressive and extra-legal invasion. I can't support it, no matter how natural their desire to become earners here. It's frickin nasty. There's nothing noble about wanting to feed your face. Everyone wants to do it. It's just another way of them saying, "we're here, we're belong, you can't stop us, we don't care how much police and street-cleanup overtime you have to dish out". It's big-time in your face. They already have plenty of entitlement they are very arguably not entitled to, and it's never enough. This is the sign of an agressive invasion, not a blending of cultures, not a mutually beneficial proposition. Just "get outta my way, I'm getting mine, and my kids and my relatives are gonna here and take what's rightfully theirs. You can't stop us." Who needs this? It's just inviting in competition for resources at every level. And now, because of the pandering of our politicians to their overwhelming numbers, we have to consider at great length giving them drivers licenses, in-state tuition rates, and many other benefits that should NOT be denied to bona-fide citizens. If the resources were infinite, it would be less of a big deal. But they are not.