If you are really interested in an honest historical comparison instead of one that merely fits your political opinions, read about the Know Nothings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know-Nothing_movement
Comparing people who voluntarily come to this country with the slaves kidnapped and forced here is absurd.
Some of the arguments being thrown around here today are almost word for word repeats of the same arguments the Know Nothings made against the Irish and the German immigrants in the 1840s.
These are the arguments where you lose me. I can agree with the arguments that base themselves on the idea that this is an overly bureaucratic, unworkable bill. That adding another layer of bureaucracy is a mistake. However. some of the other arguments being put forward are pure emotion based rantings with utterly NO basis in any factual reality. The argument that the immigrants will some how “destroy the Republic” or “Demographics are fate” are pure nativist rantings.
There is utterly no evidence that Hispanic Immigrants will do any such thing. Anymore then the Germans, the Jews, the Irish, the Blacks, the Chinese, the Japanese et al did. So if you want to argue this issue, I suggest you all stick to the economic or small Govt argument and leave the rest out of it. But when you start arguing that the Hispanics are the “Wrong sort of Immigrants”, you lose.
Every immigrant group has it share of problem children. But we have gangs and thugs that are native born Americans too. Most of the Hispanics I meet, or served with in the US Military, are descent hard working respectable people. So if you all want to win this argument, I suggest you leave the more emotional, over blown rhetoric behind and concentrate on making a calm rational factual argument. Too many of the people who you need to convince own ancestors faced the same sort of Nativist opposition when then came to this country to be convinced by these sorts of Nativist arguments.
So if you want to argue this issue and win, argue it on the merits NOT on some hysteric nonsense about “the Mexicans are coming, the Mexicans are coming”.
Read the The Hispanic Challenge By Samuel P. Huntington and then let's discuss this issue on the facts and not emotion. Name calling doesn't change the the very real differences between Irish immigration into America and the current sustained Hispanic migration that threatens to change the very nature of this Republic. The numbers alone should give anyone pause. To dismiss what is happening with the tired bromide that those of us who understand what is happens are "pure nativist rantings" demonstrates to me that you have no grasp of the facts or the historical context.
Every immigrant group has it share of problem children. But we have gangs and thugs that are native born Americans too. Most of the Hispanics I meet, or served with in the US Military, are descent hard working respectable people. So if you all want to win this argument, I suggest you leave the more emotional, over blown rhetoric behind and concentrate on making a calm rational factual argument.
LOL. Using emotion and anecdotal evidence indicate that you are not using factual arguments. Let's try to stick to the facts. This has nothing to do with whether Hispanics are hard working decent people or not. It has to do with the ability of this country to assimilate these huge, unprecedented numbers of immigrants, legal and illegal, who are coming more and more from Latin America, and whether they have the skills and talents necessary to aid our economy or become a drain on our welfare state and form a permanent underclass.
Importing Poverty: Immigration and Poverty in the United States: A Book of Charts
Surge in birth rate among unwed Hispanics creating new U.S. underclass
Two Sides of the Same Coin The Connection Between Legal and Illegal Immigration
Watching the Senate debate on the bill. Teddy Kennedy described those who are against it as “know nothings.” So you two are on the same page.