Posted on 11/17/2004 8:54:21 AM PST by Ron H.
The chairman of a House International Relations subcommittee yesterday urged the Bush administration to drop its proposed temporary guest-worker program and not "reward Mexican nationals living and working illegally in the United States" with legal status.
"It is our hope that in future discussions with the Mexican government, you will encourage Mexico to do its part to address illegal immigration rather than encourage their citizens to illegally enter the U.S.," said Rep. Elton Gallegly, California Republican, who heads the subcommittee on terrorism, nonproliferation and human rights, in letters to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
"Cooperation with our close neighbor Mexico is essential, but we also feel that Mexico must respect our sovereignty and our laws, and ........
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Luis and I are good friends. That helps. Regards.
I wish there were a way to start threads like this where it could be discussed the way you two are handling it. There is probably no one on FR who thinks illegal immigration is a good thing but clear and realistic ideas on how to handle it are not common.
Here's what I think is the problem here.
There are TWO problems that everyone seems to lump as one.
Problem one are the ten plus million illegal aliens already in the country.
Problem two is the remaining millions that will come in if we let them.
Let's address problem one as it relates to Tancredo's proposal.
Imagine that your name is Pedro, and that you and your wife Elvira arrived in the US from El Salvador back in 1986, and decided to overstay your visa and set roots in beautiful Hialeah (blue collar immigrant city in NW Miami-Dade County).
You went out in the immigrant underground (yes, there is quite an extensive one here) and bought a couple of great sets of papers for yourself and Elvira, then you got a job at La Suave Shoe factory doing plant maintenance, and Elvira cleaning rooms at the Ramada Inn by the highway.
Eighteen years later, you have made it to maintenance supervisor at La Suave, and 'Vira now has a house cleaning business that employs half a dozen newly arrived immigrant women. Your kids, Luisito ;-), Silvia, and Anna are attending school, and Luisito wants to study architecture.
Along comes Tom Tancredo who tells you that you now need to give up your house, your job, your things, and your kid's future...everything you've built in the last eighteen years, and go back to El Salvador to apply for a possible limited legal re-entry and take a job ten steps back down the ladder IF you get back in, and IF someone will hire you...La Suave can't wait to see if you will come back.
If you don't go back voluntarily, you run the risk of getting caught and being deported, losing your house, your job, your things, and any possibility of a good future for your kids.
Would you volunteer to leave, or would you wait until they caught you?
IF you got caught.
Mark my words...we are either going to have to legalize a ton of the illegal aliens already here, or round them up and remove them by force...no half measures here.
Now, the border is a different issue altogether, and subject for another night.
Buzz off troll!
:0)
Sob...gasp...WWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAA
By the way...that legendary $10 tomato is nearly upon us, and the price wasn't driven up due to a spike in the wages of the pickers, but thanks to four hurricanes in one month treking over the nation's tomato supply in Florida.
You should have been a lawyer. Hard cases make bad policy. This family might qualify to enter legally under some visa as a rich enterpriser who "will" create jobs. Plus, I think this family would have qualified under previous amnesty programs. Were they asleep at the switch? I am open to certain exceptions, particulary if your hypo is of a tax paying Cuban American family, who may have voted for Bush illegally. :) But my real fear is to create a tsunami. When it comes to that, just mark me down as a no-nothing Tancredoite. Oh the horror!
When I was a teenager, my classmates were the berry pickers. Between the young people looking to earn gas and
date money and the legal immigrants, the fields and orchards should be pretty well taken care of. Instead of putting immigrants on SSI and foodstamps the minute they get into the country, let them work for their money. Also
prisoners can be a source of labor for road repair and farm
work.
Your post is very good. It helps to clarify the situation. I think a fence and border guards are not the right answer. We have to eliminate the draw of easy jobs and welfare. The first step is to use biometric indentification and no longer use documents of any kind. Then make it both mandatory and very easy for employers to determine if an applicant is legal (using biometrics). Finally when you find a business employing illegals, shut them down and confiscate the business or take away the contractors license. Eventually the jobs for illegals will simply dry up. Once the volume of illegals drops, it will be more practical to carefully scrutinize every person crossing the border for terrorist ties. Illegals who are here and have been here for 5 or 10 years will lose their jobs and go home. Finally we need to change our constitution to agree with 95% of other countries and no longer give citizenship to children born to citizens of another country on our soil.
Oct - 6% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Nov - 21% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Dec – 15% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Jan - 6% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Feb - 14% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Mar - 58% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Apr - 80% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
May - 34% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Jun - 25% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Jul - 16% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Aug - 10% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Sep – 11% increase in illegal alien apprehensions
Total increase in illegal alien apprehensions for FY 2004 over FY 2003 was 26%.
And it will never work.
There also is no way that the elites in Mexico who have no desire to fix the conditions that make them leave would want their citizens returning in 3 years.
We don't need to be engaging in another war right now --- it would take us creating a new Mexican Revolution to bring about any changes in that country. The Mexicans don't want improvements that would allow for a middle class --- just like their nationalized oil --- the profits go into a few pockets, they would resist that very strongly.
Sending them back would actually be the best way to change Mexico -- some of the illegals have been exposed to a middle class society in the United States -- they have learned there doesn't need to be a two-class society with the handful of Mexican elites taking all the wealth of their country.
Not only that -- some of the illegals have learned to drive tractors instead of using handtools and burros to farm --- they would likely insist on some of the necessary changes that must be made to their very wealth country which has the same natural resources as does the USA.
Thanks, I was hoping you would clear up the situation, twenty-six percent is not four fold, but it is a significant increase nevertheless.
Are more apprehensions a sign of more efficient border control, or are they a sign of more border activity, and how can you make the distinction?
I don't want to be insulting in any way, but I can tell you two things...
Teenagers today are not the same as they were when you were a teenager, and farms cannot rely on teenagers to do the work.
Teenagers today are not the same as they were when you were a teenager, and farms cannot rely on teenagers to do the work.
Funny you mention that . In my parents neighborhood there are several families with teenagers but guess who I see cutting the grass in the neighborhoods. Lawn Care Services and the employees seem to be of Hispanic descent. I am 20 years old and I have to say that alot of the kids I grew up would never be caught dead working in a Mcdonalds, it would ruin their image I guess. The ideal job for those teens is working at the mall preferabbly in a store and not the food counter. When I think about it the mall eatery employees tend to be asian and hispanic.
Ants. Take away the sugar, they'll go elsewhere.
Good, I look forward to planting some tomatoes in my backyard and selling them for $10 each.
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