Politics – "America is waiting for a leader to risk saying that the best answer is not the simplest one. Should Americans have to compete for jobs with a desperate population frightened into accepting rock-bottom wages and working conditions?" The heated issue angers a public that sees inaction as the best policy for politicians.
A felony is a felony. Congress needs to cease pandering for votes and ACT. No amnesty. Immediate deportation.
First time offenders who either illegally enter or legally enter but then overstay their visa are guilty of a misdemeanor, not a felony. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigratio...
But Jingoism seems to be selling very well just lately at home and abroad.
I believe the author made some excellent points. The answer is neither yes nor no. It is yes and no. I think if the public had been able to trust that the Federal Government would actually control the borders, the recent attempt at comprehensive immigration reform would have passed with bipartisan support.
All illegals have got to go. Regardless of age, marital status, or any other crap they're hiding behind. This is the United States of America, Not the United States of Mexico.
I can't get over the fact that some would have us feel sorry for the corporations who tap into illegals as a labor pool. I can't believe that we are supposed to feel sorry for illegals, who are, 'just trying to have a better life.'
I applaud all of the immigrants who come here legally, and say to the rest, GO HOME!
English is my language, and America is my country. If you want to live here, go through the proper procedures and learn the Friggin' language!
NO AMNESTY EVER!
Boy are some people easy to sucker. Ever since Reagan the super rich in America have been sucking the rest of us dry and inventing things for you to hate so you won't notice their theft. You fell right in the propaganda trap.
By the way, by your criteria maybe YOU should leave since others were here first.
New museum pays homage to America's first settlers
...Spanish conquerors and explorers established the first permanent European settlement in the U.S. in Saint Augustine, Florida in 1565. By the time the Mayflower pilgrims arrived in 1620, Hispanics had established settlements throughout the United States in what is now the Carolinas, Virginia, Florida, Georgia and New Mexico. During the 1600s and 1700s, Spanish explorers founded other settlements in present-day Arizona, California, Southern Colorado and Texas. ...
The overwhelming majority of Americans want illegal immigration stopped. What is it you and your ilk don't understand about that? Sure go back 400 years when Hispanics (European Spanish) established settlements. Who did they chase out,kill, enslave that already lived here? This is today. We don't want any more of em. We have enough. Are you trying to overpopulate the USA and help the corporations get cheap labor? I don't get your agenda in trying to justify illegal immigration. As far as the Southwest goes, we took it away from them as they took it from the Indians. They were no more saintly than America was. As far as your Reagan et al conspiracy theory, it shows your nutty far out thinking. You don't like the results of the super rich here? They're gone but we get the benefits!!
TOW
Hyper, hates the Rich and Jews more than he loves Illegals, who BTW come from all around the world.
Every nation on the planet has been built by conquest. Even the natives on this continent conquered the other tribes, killing, stealing, taking slaves. I'm not trying to 'justify' anything, I'm just stating facts.
The notion that any segment of the human race is or was somehow beyond reproach is disingenuous. The native tribes were for the most part warring tribes and far from the sainthood myth that is associated with them.
I remember Reagan as governor when I lived in Calif. He embraced the "Bracero" program which permitted enough farm workers to come to the U.S. to meet California's farm labor needs. They would stay for the season, then go home (to Mexico) and live like Kings (to them) and be with their families for 6 months in their impoverished village. Then Chavez and the farm workers' union complained they were acing out the American farm workers and they weren't getting paid enough. So the program was abandoned and here we are with all the illegals.
Well, as much as I am disgusted with the way settlers, white and Hispanic, did their level best to eradicate the Native Americans, my ancestors were not part of that crime. My people came here in the middle 1800's, as legal immigrants, learned the language (English), worked hard and raised families. I was born about 100 years later. I am an American, born and raised. My people did not sneak across the border in the dead of night; they arrived by ship at Ellis Island.
My wife came here from Thailand to study art. She overstayed her visa, so she was here illegally. I married her, gaining her a green card, and we've been together for over 30 years. We have a young son completing ROTC and just about to commission as a second lieutenant in the light calvary. You plan to send my wife out of the country, you better come to my house VERY well armed, because we're going to put up one hell of a fight.
As far as I can see, if she doesn't belong here, then you either better be an American Indian or you need to go back where your family came from too.
Living in a corporate dictatorship is quickly changing this country.
The future of the corporation
November 21, 2007
LAST WEEK, superinvestor Warren Buffett, America's second richest man, testified before the Senate Finance Committee on the subject of why people like him can well afford to pay taxes. In fact, Buffett is ceasing to be among the very wealthiest because he is giving most of his fortune away to philanthropies while he is still alive.
"Dynastic wealth, the enemy of a meritocracy, is on the rise," Buffett told the senators. "Equality of opportunity has been on the decline. A progressive and meaningful estate tax is needed to curb the movement of a democracy toward a plutocracy."
Buffett also proposed higher taxes on the wealthy in order to give working people a break on their payroll taxes, which now cost three Americans in four more than they pay in income taxes.
cont'd
And he supports taxing hedge fund bonuses at the same rate as ordinary income, so that billionaire hedge fund managers don't pay taxes at a lower rate than the people who clean their offices.
The conservatives on the committee were somewhat nonplussed, since Buffett is a poster boy for capitalist entrepreneurship. He isn't supposed to hold such views. And indeed, few Americans of great wealth do....
Trizine: "This is the United States of America, Not the United States of Mexico."
Well, actually, it's the US of native born Americans, immigrant German, English, Irish, Europeans, Asians, Africans brought here against their will, etc., etc., etc.
There's a realpolitik in regard to the number of illegal immigrants ALREADY here. Do we do our best to keep them barefoot and pregnant, so to speak, thus compounding social difficulty, or do we try to help integrate them into the larger, (then and now) patchwork American culture?
The xenophobic "send-them-back" contingent" is usually shockingly shortsighted in this regard when the long view is most required.
Bull Sh*t. You are part of the problem.
No. It's YOU and PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE!
It's all fine and dandy when they're in your garden mowing the lawn, watching your kids, screwing your husband/wife, or picking your veggies, but when they want to stand up for themselves, oh no, it's "THEY'RE TAKING OUR JOBS!" "DEPORT THEM ALL!" "THEY'RE A WASTE OF HUMAN FLESH AND WELFARE QUEENS!".
You don't understand the issues or how to fix them. You're afraid of the truth- that their labor is what keeps prices low enough so you can afford to buy it. Who do you think was building all those houses (that later foreclosed)? Illegals...
Why do you think that lettuce costs 99 cents? Illegals...
Go watch American Idiot and get your 2-minutes hate from Bill O'Retard. Because it's the American way of life that got us into this mess and dragged those people into it too. It's not illegals that screwed the economy, it's Iraq and Corporate greed! And an apathetic public.
Listen you idiot. I retired long time ago and from your stupidity you are not even educated enough to have a decent comment about anything more logical than what your mommy wants you to wear. Oh, and I don't have anyone working in my garden. In fact I don't have a garden, so your comment amounts to more Bullsh*t.
The bad guys are the people who exploit the undocumented status of these folks. There are already laws regarding this.
Remember Bush actually campaigned in Mexico. I scratched my head when that happened, but now I know what he was up to.
Anyone hiring people at less than legal minimum wage,and avoiding paying benefits and payroll taxes is a criminal and should be fined heavily and jailed if caught more than once.
I don't want cheaper goods at the expense of condoning a new type of slavery any more than I want worthless cheap goods from China just because they are cheap. It's the corporate elitists!
I'm with you 100% on this.
The US is a nation of immigrants and its standing as a nation in the opinion of the world is based on its willingness to absorb people if all nations and colours and creeds, especially the oppressed, the refugees from poltical and religious persecution and those escaping grinding poverty in their own lands.
If you're of Irish descent think potato famines. If you're Jewish think Nazism.
If there are "guilty parties" on the current situation its those who are making money off the backs of people who are driven here by economic necessity and doing back-breaking work that no one else wants so that you can buy tomatoes at rock-bottom prices.
That the situation is a complete mess is undeniable but a real solution must be fair and humane and not based on anger and prejudice. The emotions evoked and the remedies suggested by the extremists on this issue smack of the hatred for people of colour in the days of public lynchings.
Where are these tomatoes at rock bottom prices? More than that, where are those tomatoes with any tomato taste at all? Not in America!
Was in Japan in June and bought three big tomatoes for equivalent of 1.10 cents, and they were grown in Japan by a Japanese farmer, not imported from China. The taste was heavenly! Made me wonder about the propaganda of cheap illegal labor in the U.S. and those four tasteless tomatoes I got on Monday for $4.11.
Poulenc: You are out of date. Currently the most "immigrants" are illegals from Mexico and south of the border countries.
Yes, keep them barefoot and NOT pregnant. The more they like it here the more they come here. It's up to them to integrate, learn English, etc. Most of them would rather not. They don't even want to stay here except for the money they can make vs. their home country.
And I'm not afraid of xenon!! Argon does freak me out. (That's a joke in case you're a blonde).
In Irving Texas, they stopped giving free education and health services to illegals and guess what happened? They left and went to the closest sanctuary city the big D.
Not that I'm advocating kicking them to the curb that way, however, if the benefits of things paid for by we taxpayers were taken away, the situation would cure itself. Mainly because the tax free stuff outweighs the low wages and without the free stuff, the incentive would no longer be there. They would demand higher wages, which the corps won't want to pay and eventually they will leave or assimilate.
Jobs would be done by Americans (the fantasy about jobs we won't do is bunk), those working will be paying taxes, which will in turn lessen the burden on us and to the medical costs absorbed by those paying for healthcare.
Establishing a firm, humane, and effective immigration police to prevent illegal immigration and to confront the undocumented immigrants currently residing in the U.S. is a complex issue.
I believe, the first culprit to address lies with the corporations. For they have the money, the power, and the will to keep this issue frozen in endless controversy. And, they are succeeding at it.
sapde - the first way should be to safeguard our social security numbers.
Should already be in place with the Technology available. Should be Impossible to duplicate, replicate or assume ownership of someone elses SS number ! Done.
BUT the first thing you do is take away the bait - the jobs that US Employers are offering illegal workers ! Easy to do. BUST the companies, send those caught back to their homes and simply ENFORCE the current Laws ! IS that so freaking hard to do ? Stop ALL THE rhetoric directed at Bush or anyone else ! Shows your ignorance. Simply identify those companies EMPLOYING them, close em down and you know what - BIG SURPRISE - There are NO LONGER Incentives to come - NO WORK ? Why is Common Sense the LAST resort for people wanting to solve problems ? IF your NOT reporting these companies OR calling in potential abuse of our Laws - THEN SHUT UP ! Your part of the problem folks ! Weennies.
I can solve the immigration problem within reasonable satifaction. I have a plan, but it won't fit here. But I'll tell you the basics and who knows maybe a politician or analyst will get a hint and run with it.
The problem is that you have to consider the Immigration issue in the same way you would consider a "grey goo super-disaster." In other words, you have to 'box it in' then attack from all angles. If you don't then the problem will metastasize and pop back up like a tumor.
The problem is every damn thing we have done in the past 400 years. Face it, there were a whole lotta screwups that got us here. So to completely fix the problem will take the equivalent of ctr-alt-del to our way of life. Not a reboot, mind you.
You start by considering all the issues, what started then, what solutions have been tried, what worked, and what didn't, and most importantly, why. If you don't do your homework, anything you do will fail.
Next, you create your battle plan. It has to be a 3 stage process. Placement, Containment, Collapse.
Placement means you put the people you trust in places where they will follow and best execute the plan. Deviations will be costly. Next you consider and plan for every foreseeable future challenge and how to mitigate or prevent it. If you don't, your plan will fail. That means Containment, the writing of bills (but not necessarily bringing them to the floor), the hiring of border patrol officers, the changing of procedural rules, etc. In other words, the measures that keep the problem from spreading out of your control and when the problem tries, you have to have the ability (people and resources) in place to squash it. Otherwise you fail.
Finally, Collapse. Take out problems in systematic order without exception.
Start with INS. Fix the visa problems. Overstay will not be tolerated anymore, but offer extensions so people can take care of the paperwork.
Next, secure the border.
Third, setup an amnesty program that gets people legalized.
Fourth, crackdown hard on anyone who hires illegals for any reason. Provide a system so people can check without hassle to avoid racism.
Fifth, Address bilingual education.
Sixth, Foreign and economic policy needs to be changed, radically. In other words, fix the problems that led to them coming over here in the first place.
Seventh, check for terrorists/criminals and deport them if necessary.
Eighth, pass or upgrade laws protecting legal immigrants civil rights.
Ninth, Set up a group at the UN to regulate refugee placements between the countries of the world. Refugee placements must be spread evenly and sensibly throughout the world.
Tenth, I guess you review or something.
People - Think about what you need to do. use your head. THE people you need to direct your hate and rage towards ARE THOSE COMPANIES AND INDIVIDUALS that live in your districts that employ Illegal Immigrants ! BOTTOM freaking line ! STOP wussing out and blaming Bush or someone else for your own failures ! The people from Mexico that come here illegally come here for what ? JOBS ! Without JOBS - NO NEED to even apply ! Wake up ! YOU people need to identify those companies that are abusing immigrants at lower wages, you need to get off your stagecoach on the money issue period - McDonalds, B King and all of the other chains PAY THE very same Minimum wage pay to ALL ! Stop crying !
The worst thing that could happen to an American Company right now is for them to be identified as large, illegal employers, breaking the Law ! STOP spraying blame and get off your butts and identify these employers !! OR shut up please !
Good point but only a part of the solution. What have you done lately to ID and boycott such employers?
I personally DO NOT know of any employers here that ARE using Illegals in their businesses. Pretty much all construction and road work I would imagine. Big business would be crazy to allow themselves to be caught, something that could destroy their businesses due to reaction from the Public. If you know of any, you can anomynmously report them to the Federal Government through your state agencies. THATS how you sto this, NOT criticiuzing our Governemnt, President or anyone else for OUR lack of CONTROL OVER YEARS on this subject ! WHAT has Tx, NM, AZ and CA been dooing for the last 20 yrs to combat illegals ? HLL< I would think THEY would have had programs to PROTECT their OWN STATE BORDERS ??? hello !
It does absolutely no good to report illegals being employed to ICE. I have done so, when I was certain it was happening, because I was working for a company that did it, I personally saw the fake IDs and I had to sign their I-9s. I was instructed that I could not make any judgement as to the validity of any SS number or card, even if two people gave me the same number on the same day.
ICE did nothing. Nothing at all.
Americans just dont get it ! Dont want to get involved ! Would rather take the high road and blame anyone and everyone BUT themselves for these issues. NO guts, NO Patriotism and basically a true hate for life in general ! Mark these words my friends - These immigrants, ONCE Amnesty or Citizenship is awarded, will eventually ORGANIZE and CREATE the Strongest, largest Union to hit the face of the earth ! Keep screwing them on wages, keep bitchin cause you WONT do the work they do in some cases and keep throwing useless stones at Washington ! Hospitality Industry, Construction Industry, Home Building...and on and on. They will CONTROL these industries and YOU and I will pay dearly ! AND ANY OF YOU THAT SUPPORT HILLARY OR OBAMA, ARE NO BETTER THAN THE IMMIGRANTS ! THEY BOTH TRIED TO SCREW U BY VOTING YES ON THE IMMIGRATION BILL, THE ONE AMERICAN CITRIZENS SHUT DOWN WASHINGTON ON TO STOP THIS HELLISH, AMNESTY GRANT !! yOUR AGAINST but YOU SUPPORT THOSE 2 ?? DAH !
AgentX - We need to simply bring our Immigratkion Program up to 21st century standards. Take the technology available and FIX the system ! If it didnt take 5 yrs for a potential work visa for an honest Hispanic individual, THEY WOULDNT SWIM RIVERS, CASH OUT THEIR LIFE SAVINGFS OR DIE IN A UHAUL ! If they could register and apply and within 30 days have their LEGAL visa for America, the good,, trustworthy, noncriminal applicants would come here LEGALLY. THEN, you would know anyone swimming was probably sorry anyway and you could use force much easier ! The Laws are there ! The policyu is there ! The system sucks and trhe prosecution of American Comapnies that employ illegals, is NON EXISTANT ! STOP the employers, Fix teh system (modernize), THEN I think you'll understand why COMMON SENSE is SO much easier than MORE Laws, Walls, Fences and all of the other things you people want to throw OUR TAX dollars at as a solution ! Please !
Yeah, that's what I said. You posted while I was in the middle of posting my last statement.
The current laws don't work- too many loopholes. Modernizing and updating the system and laws is required. Otherwise INS won't know who stays, who goes, or who's who. Like right now.
So I agreed with you on that point.
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What do the corporations want, who hire undocumented immigrants? How about more controversy, more inaction, and more cheap slave labor?