Astounding.
I believe that for things like speed limits, the consensus of people on the ground is the real law and it should control.
Fine. 69% of American adults believe that illegal immigrants should be prosecuted.
I don’t think sealing the borders is possible or cost-effective. Why not spend that money that could be spent on the fence on better law enforcement, which would help against all bad people, instead of concentrating on a group of people who are mostly not guilty?
Part of "controlling the borders" IS allowing local law enforcement to target illegals, THEIR EMPLOYERS and landlords. That would remove a great deal of the impetus spurring the illegal border crossing.
Our schools and hospitals were poorly run and shoddy long before illegals came and so blaming their problems on illegals seems to be putting blame in the wrong place.
The "blame" is for overburdening a system not equipped to deal them. Whether or not they were poorly run or "shoddy" beforehand is not an issue.
Has it occured to you that maybe one reason they don’t assimilate is that people like you and those in this thread are not friendly to them?
Do you use a pole vault to leap to your conclusions?
Because I want secure borders and our laws enforced, I am unfriendly to immigrants on a personal level? You're about as far off-base as you could possibly be.
Ronald Reagan believed in being positive, in looking at the bright side, and I think when we think of illegals so negatively we lose what Reagan taught us.
Ronald Reagan believed in controlling the borders and misguidedly believed that the 1986 amnesty would accomplish this.
We have the benefit, 20 years later, of knowing he was wrong because our government is unwilling to do the job entrusted to it.
Your points have been addressed. You "feel" we should be more positive. You "feel" that unfettered immigration will bring more opportunities. You equate today's illegal immigrants with the largely legal immigrants of the past.
We'll have to agree to disagree, because the very activities that you seem to think are so "positive" I believe will accelerate the destruction of this nation.
I think of America as a set of ideas more than a firm border.
Some of the ideas include that of hospitality to those outside of its borders, a long-standing tradition here.
I happen to find that tradition very appealing and find it very sad that many people speak so negatively of it.
I also appreciate another American tradition, one of defiance of rules many consider unjust, and using that defiance to change the rules.
Let me flip this over for a minute. I think you understand now why I like the idea of open borders - it is hospitality, and fair dealing with people who genuinely want to work. They want to help us out, doing jobs most of us don’t want to do, and in return all they ask is to be left alone.
I just don’t see anything bad about this.
So tell me, what’s so great about closed borders? Why is inhospitality, turning your back to people, so appealing to you? Why do you want to separate willing workers from employers which need employees?
Why not let people work who want to work?
I like to see a nation that grows, and a society that is open minded and receptive to all who do not threaten or oppose its core values. Many Muslims do oppose our core values, and I’m right with you in wanting to throw them out. But the hispanic immigrants who are 99% of this situation are Catholic, support our core values and just want the opportunity to work hard and succeed like Americans do.
Tell me why this is so bad.
D
(Please ignore the impact on the health and educational system. I’d like to hear what is wrong with having them here, not how their kids are educated or their health is treated. I want to understand about the principle of borders itself and why you consider it important. Frankly, I think if there was no impact at all on our educational or medical systems, you would still want to get rid of illegals, and I want to know why this is.)