This country is built on the platform of immigration–LEGAL IMMIGRATION! As I sit here typing this, I realize and recognize that I, too, am an immigrant. I came in as a permanent alien at the age of 12. I went through the education system and the proper channels, waiting till I was 18 to apply to become a naturalized citizen. I had the opportunity to utilize all the services, amenities and luxuries offered by this country. The reason why they were offered to me: I WAS LEGAL.
I understand that many people come here looking to lead a better life–my family did. My issue however is, what is the point of having laws if:
- they are not being enforced, and
- we pardon the people who violate these laws?
Am I saying that the illegal immigrants should be sent back? NO! They have created a life here and uprooting them is not right.
And as for granting them TOTAL AMNESTY? I am not sure about that. What do we know about them? A lot of the documents they have are fake and we don’t know who they really are; we may never really know. Does this not make it easier for them to breach our security (oh wait a minute, that was already done when they entered illegally). What about the criminals who are illegal? Should we not send them back? We are wasting our tax dollars on them when we could be putting them to other useful programs.
There are many countries that refuse to take their citizens back. Why are we letting them get away with that? Yet we sometimes turn away political refugees coming from conflict filled areas; even the ones that need real refuge. Is it not the responsibility of a country’s government to take care of their own?
Why do we choose to trade with Mexico under the blanket of NAFTA, despite them failing to adhere to NAFTA standards–i.e. no child labor, providing a certain lifestyle for their citizens, etc. This is the same country that is handing out maps of the American desert to its citizens to help them cross successfully. This ILLEGAL immigration problem is not just with Mexico, it’s with other countries as well.
China won’t take their citizens back. There are so many violations of human rights there, and they refuse to adjust their currency, refuse to eradicate child labor, should I continue?
The bottom line is we have to establish the difference between legal and illegal immigrants rather than blanket them under the umbrella of immigrants as it has been happening recently in the media.
I was listening to the radio the other day and the man who helped organize the boycott refused to even acknowledge that illegal immigration is rampant. I wanted to offer him a cup of coffee so he could wake up and smell REALITY. As for singing the American anthem in different languages, forget it! It’s like me going to Germany and asking them to sing the German anthem in Hindi, as I don’t speak German. Even in the Olympics each country’s anthem is sung in its own language and not the language of the country hosting.
What we need is to secure our borders and come up with a plan that won’t give total amnesty, but rather to enable the officials to assess each case separately.
For Further Reading:
Immigration Bill Expected to pass senate…
Failed Amnesty Legislation of 1986…
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While I generally agree that illegal immigrants already here cannot be uprooted, I think our nation’s borders need to be seriously taken under control before we can embark on immigration reform. There is also the point to consider that illegal immigrants are also unfair to the legal immigrants like you who have jumped through many hurdles to come here. Another economic thought is that by coming here, illegal immigrants artificially depress wages for everybody here in the United States. While I understand that illegals are doing a lot of work that Americans don’t want to, I still think that if there were no iillegals, wages would rise until enough low-income Americans were attracted to that kind of work.
:shrug:
It’s a touchy subject, but it does need to be addressed.
Build a 2000 mile long wall (triple layer) first. Then we can deal with the internal problems next.
Know what’s ironic? America as we know it today was built up by illegal immigrants- no I’m not talking about those from Mexico- I’m talking about Europeans “illegally” coming here and then stealing lands from Native Americans and then Africans who were “illegally” placed here involuntary. So who are we to decide who is illegal immigrant, and who is legal?
Besides, the illegal immigration is our own fault when you think about it–because we’ve passed NAFTA, and free trade agreements that basically shut down small farms in Mexico and Latin America in favor of our giant agribusinesses. That’s why so many of the illegal immigrants are here–they used to live in those rural areas where they worked on those farms. Not to mention the huge factories that mostly employ young Mexican women (they’re called maquiladora factories) along the Mexican side of the border. The companies tend to prefer women over the men in their hiring policies because women generally don’t form unions, agitate for better treatment, and they’re easier to control. That’s also why so many illegal aliens you see being caught in newspaper photos are men–they can’t earn a living in Mexico to the extent they can earn one here in the United States.
Because this is a nation of laws (or at least it’s supposed to be) and we’re not enforcing the illegal aliens problem. Put up that triple-layered 2000 mile long fence.
It won’t work—look at the Berlin Wall for example. They’ll invent new ways to get around the wall, and the human smugglers will demand a higher price to get the illegal immigrants over or around or under the wall. There are recent instances of tunnels being built underneath the wall remainder in California, and an eleven-foot wall will increase the prices of twelve-foot tall ladders.
Noelle, that’s fine at least it’ll be a trickle rather than a deluge of illegal aliens coming in at 2 million per year or 10,000 per day by some estimates. I seriously doubt those numbers can be approached anywhere near it should a triple layered fence be set up and somehow smuggle in illegal aliens into the U.S. I’d rather see 10,000 smuggled in a year than seeing 2 million walking effortlessly across the borders every year.
Your history is not only flawed, but it is completely wrong my friend! The first people in North America were Viking explorers by the way, who legally laid claim to it way before the American indians colonized the eastern half of the US and Canada. What was done to the Indians was a tragedy to our standards, but then, they were not accepted as “people”, and they did not “want” to be accepted as people either, so what do you do then? The eastern half of the US was BOUGHT from the indians by the way, and not stolen, as was the central and western portions by cash or barter. When the Indians declared war on the smaller US, they were defeated, and their lands confescated. (Yes, this is legal under the articles of war, which the indians did sign during their envolvement in the English/French wars in Canada (nearly 1 to 2 hundred years earlier).
I think it is also notable that the US embraced the Native Indians from that point foreward, and as a treasured point to secure for American postarity as well as preserving the Native cultures. How many other peoples or countries can claim that?
The illegal aliens from Mexico though do NOT seek American citizenship, but to instead rape this country of its resources and charity, cursing the US all the way. The immigrants from Europe were ALL legal and passed through Ellis island and were required to be lawful citizensm and pass basic English competency to enter the US. (Please pay attention to the last few statements closely!)
Non-compliance meant being turned away back to your old country (proof of return ticket was required in the process). I ahte to sound like I am anti-Mexican, but these people need to be rounded up and shipped home if they are indeed illegal, if not for the past legal immigrants, for our soveirgn laws, (which they scoff at and spit upon).
I am in favor of illegal immigration. After all, who else would make my burritos and staff the 7-11s?
You were fortunate that you came here as a permanent alien at the age of 12. You were very lucky, many, many millions do not have that luxury. A good friend of mine was brought here at the age of 11 on a temp. VISA. His parents put him in the schools and then kept him here illegally. When he turned 18, he did NOT have the luxury of applying for citizenship because he was here illegally.
Dont jump to conlcusion that all immigrants are law breakers just because they entered the country illegally.
Your post was in poor taste trying to lump all immigrants together. As like all things in life its never black and/or white. There is alot of gray in this issue.
Uh, coming into the U.S. illegally IS breaking the law. They are by definition law breakers. In Mexico, Mexican police near Guatamala border arrest Guatamalans who enter Mexico illegally and they get charged with a felony and are thrown in Mexico’s jail. Better to build that triple layered fence to help save lives and our tax dollars.
Some laws are meant to be broken as we all know. Some laws are unfair and unjust, we could go back over the law books over the last 100 years and see how many laws had to be changed and adjusted to better fit our society. What the Senate is doing this week is JUST THAT, they are going to make adjustments to our immigration laws and THAT is something I support!
There is nothing unfair about controlling the flow of immigration and making sure they enter legally. You believe in open border, please leave the doors of your house and car with the keys available at all times.
No, I dont believe in open borders. I am hopeful that the Senate will find ways to tighthen and improve security at our borders. I am also hopeful they come to a “just and fair” resolution to help the 12 million immigrants already in our country as well as some type of provision for those who want to enter our country in the future.
Well, seal the border first. Then work the internal problems. There should be two separate bills. Not one.
From Arizona…
I’m for cooperation with the Mexican government… if living standards in northern Mexico (along the states of Baja Calif, Sonora, and Chihuahua) were better, they’d be dealing with transplants from the other Mexican states, just as we in America do in our big cities from those cities that really suck.
I say this because we really don’t have the same problem with Canadians crossing the border. (Unless the media haven’t been reporting on this.) It stands to reason that the immigrants aren’t really coming here to be here, but rather to get away. A better strategy, then, might be to incentivize staying in Mexico. This would be a cheaper project than what we’re currently doing in other far-flung areas (think rebuilding Iraq)… so let’s do it.
Now, as for building a fence… ridiculous. The border really doesn’t exist, except in our imagination and at the whim of cartographers. Like drawing a line in the sand and saying, “Over there is your team, and here is mine.” In 200 years, we’ll wonder why we bothered with such a fence. Also, Latin America (especially Brazil) is prospering… and at some point Spanish-speaking refugees might prefer to immigrate there.
As for immigrants from elsewhere, I don’t know too much about that.
Put up the fence until Mexico’s economy stabilized and start to prosper like Canada. We don’t know how long that would take or whether it’d be successful. We ALREADY pour billions of dollars into Mexico for years! Nothing so far. Vicente Fox REFUSES to acknowledge or accept responsibility for his own people, telling them to go north (basically so) and print comic books on how to get to the border and how to survive. Unreal.
Yeah–the comic book was the kicker. Some people are rationalizing the approach, saying that Fox knows a futile case when he sees it. They’re going to do it anyway (Mexicans entering the U.S.), so give them the tools to do it safely. Kind of like saying giving condoms to teens condoms is more sensible than promoting abstience–it is.
I’m pretty sure if we decided to partly subsidize universal health care in N. Mexico and offshore non-tech jobs there instead of to India (these jobs are already lost, let’s give them to our neighbors?), we’d see less immigration and it’d be at less cost than what we’re about to spend on border control (6k patrolmen & building and maintaining a gigantic wall). Not only that, we’d have more friends in Mexicans and some leverage in telling Fox to tighten the border.
I’m sure there are creative (and far better) solutions that have already been thought up but not yet implemented. (And, pre-emptively, I’m glad we didn’t think of them back to when my great-grandmother got on a boat in the night and left for New York.)
Why do we need to be giving incentives for them to abide by the law? Fox is basically telling his citizens to commit a crime. I dont think any other country would stand for such a situation in their own soil.
lolypup,
Are you stupid? Listen to what you are saying! “You are not a criminal just because you are breaking the law”. Is that how they teach kids in Mexico? No wonder they are all illgal aliens here. “You are only guilty if you are caught.”They have no moral fiber evidently in how they think.
Can you please explain why you would say something so stupid?
Lolypup,
I never lumped all immigrants together. If you read the post you would see that I said that deporting them is not the answer and neither is granting them total and absolute amnesty. I did however stress the fact that people who have committed crimes and are living here illegally should be sent back. I understand there is GRAY in life, hence I said each situation should be assessed separately!
The Feds should perform a stringent audit of employers and fine them if they are hiring illegals. If we no longer hire illegals, then what reason would they have in sneaking across borders?
I don’t want American resources being used for the services that these illegals are receiving (health, education, etc…) when they are not even paying any taxes (see, it leads us to the employers again).
This planet earth belongs to the human race and now we are telling people they cannot come in America just because they are using up our resources? This country belonged to the native americans and now no longer. Texas used to be Mexico until they lost the war at the Almo. Taxes in my opinion is another word for “extortion.” if you do not pay your taxes you will be locked up in jail and the bookies will just break your legs first. The government hates competition and that is one of the reason why bookies hide to do business.
Uh, Mexico SOLD the land over to the United States as part of the peace treat with the United States to end the Mexico-American war (1846-1848). It was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) that provided for the Mexican Cession. Mexico ceded (”gave up”) 1.36 million km² (525,000 square miles) to the United States in exchange for USD$15 million. The United States also agreed to take over $3.25 million in debts Mexico owed to American citizens.
It was war. Mexico lost. We bought the land and paid their debts in the process. They agreed to the deal.
Actually, we are inviting people to come to work and live in America…legally, that is. Over 1,000,000 immigrants are legally entered into the United States every year. We have more immigrants come to America than any other country in the world. And you’re complaining?
Unreal.
In 1902, the Canadian government wouldn’t allow poor immigrants to enter the country.
For what it’s worth, this is an email to Senator Frist from a retired Border Patrol agent living in Hereford, Arizona. It’s circulating the Internet and Snopes has verified to be authentic.
http://www.snopes.com/politics.....patrol.asp
Dear Senator Frist:
There is a huge amount of propaganda and myths circulating about illegal aliens, particularly illegal Mexican, Salvadorian, Guatemalan and Honduran aliens.
1. Illegal aliens generally do NOT want U.S. citizenship. Americans are very vain thinking that everybody in the world wants to be a U.S. citizen. Mexicans, and other nationalities want to remain citizens of their home countries while obtaining the benefits offered by the United States such as employment, medical care, in-state tuition, government subsidized housing and free education for their offspring. Their main attraction is employment and their loyalty usually remains at home. They want benefits earned and subsidized by middle class Americans. What illegal aliens want are benefits of American residence without paying the price.
2. There are no jobs that Americans won’t do. Illegal aliens are doing jobs that Americans can’t take and still support their families. Illegal aliens take low wage jobs, live dozens in a single residence home, share expenses and send money to their home country. There are no jobs that Americans won’t do for a decent wage.
3. Every person who illegally entered this nation left a home. They are NOT homeless and they are NOT Americans. Some left jobs in their home countries. They come to send money to their real home as evidenced by the more than 20 billion dollars sent out of the country each year by illegal aliens. These illegal aliens knowingly and willfully entered this nation in violation of the law and therefore assumed the risk of detection and deportation. Those who brought their alien children assumed the responsibility and risk on behalf of their children.
4. Illegal aliens are NOT critical to the economy. Illegal aliens constitute less than 5% of the workforce. However, they reduce wages and benefits for lawful U.S. residents.
5. This is NOT an immigrant nation. There are 280 million native born Americans. While it is true that this nation was settled and founded by immigrants (legal immigrants), it is also true that there is not a nation on this planet that was not settled by immigrants at one time or another.
6. The United States is welcoming to legal immigrants. Illegal aliens are not immigrants by definition. The U.S. accepts more lawful immigrants every year than the rest of the world combined.
7. There is no such thing as the “Hispanic vote”. Hispanics are white, brown, black and every shade in between. Hispanics are Repu blicans, Democrats, Anarchists, Communists, Marxists and Independents. The so-called “Hispanic vote” is a myth. Pandering to illegal aliens to get the Hispanic vote is a dead end.
8. Mexico is NOT a friend of the United States. Since 1848 Mexicans have resented the United States. During World War I Mexico allowed German Spies to operate freely in Mexico to spy on the U.S. During World War II Mexico allowed the Axis powers to spy on the U.S. from Mexico. During the Cold War Mexico allowed spies hostile to the U.S. to operate freely. The attack on the Twin Towers in 2001 was cheered and applauded all across Mexico. Today Mexican school children are taught that the U.S. stole California, Arizona, new Mexico and Texas. If you don’t believe it, check out some Mexican textbooks written for their schoolchildren.
9. Although some illegal aliens enter this country for a better life, there are 6 billion people on this planet. At least 1 billion of those live on less than one dollar a day. If wanting a better life is a valid excuse to break the law and sneak into America, then let’s allow those one billion to come to America and we’ll turn the USA into a Third World nation overnight. Besides, there are 280 million native born Americans who want a better life. I’ll bet Bill Gates and Donald Trump want a better life. When will the USA lifeboat be full? Since when is wanting a better life a good reason to trash another nation?
10. There is a labor shortage in this country. This is a lie. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American housewives, senior citizens, students, unemployed and underemployed who would gladly take jobs at a decent wage.
11. It is racist to want secure borders. What is racist about wanting secure borders and a secure America? What is racist about not wanting people to sneak into America and steal benefits we have set aside for legal aliens, senior citizens, children and other legal residents? What is it about race that entitles people to violate our laws, steal identities, and take the American Dream without paying the price?
For about four decades American politicians have refused to secure our borders and look after the welfare of middle class Americans. These politicians have been of both parties. A huge debt to American society has resulted. This debt will be satisfied and the interest will be high. There has already been riots in the streets by illegal aliens and their supporters. There will be more. You, as a politician, have a choice to offend the illegal aliens who have stolen into this country and demanded the rights afforded to U.S. citizens or to offend those of us who are stakeholders in this country. The interest will be steep either way. There will be civil unrest. There will be a reckoning. Do you have the courage to do what is right for America? Or, will you bow to the wants and needs of those who don’t even have the right to remain here?
There will be a reckoning. It will come in November of this year, again in 2008 and yet again in 2010.
We will not allow America to be stolen by third world agitators and thieves.
David J. Stoddard
U.S. Border Patrol (RET)
Hereford, Arizona
Bravo, David J. Stoddard!! We need more people like you!
I also questioned some recent studies which claimed that the illegal immigrants really do not cause the devaluation of decent wages across the country. Whose funded those studies?? Think again!!
I would be not surprised at all that the recent studies to be funded by the business community to mobilize the support against the strigent immigrant legislation.
We really need the HONEST dialogues about the existing problem on illegal immigrants. What we really could do and could not possibly do.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
How come didn’t the U.S. Government have the similar Marshall Aid for revamping the Mexico and “poor” Latin America’s economy pretty long time ago???
So we would not have to deal with the illegal immigration from the border of south. The reality of illegal immigration handfully comes from Africa and Asia like Nigeria (oil-rich).
The Native Americans were absolutely right about the absurdity of land ownership from commonly ultiizing the land and natural resources, then engaged in nomadic life. So we could let the land and natural resources to be replenished for future generation.
The GOP and business community generally exploited the illegal immigrants for cheap labor and “chew/spit” those economically and politically disfranchised populace.
We, the customers and citizens are also the product of problems for letting the businesses/corporations get away with the hiring of illegal immigrants!!! We also want low, low, low, low prices on almost everything!!
Exploiting the illegal immigrants for cheap labor ought to be the “human rights” issue!! Where are our outrage???
The United States, Canada, Mexico and Latin America governments ought to work out the pragmatic agreements on labor and migration issues. So the future of three “worlds” - EEC, Asia under China’s overt influence and North America pit economically and politically against each others.
Let me play the devil’s advocate, we kinda ought encourage the migration and registration of illegal immigrants and help them to develop their economic status. In the end, we, the North America and EEC could defend ourselves against the mighty China’s 2 billion people, especially 300 million army in next 20 years.
Why can’t the United States government and business community make the long-term investment in our own people like the Appalachian region and make them to be fully employable and economically feasible, not bringing foreigners on B-1 visas (ex. Irish computer specialists).
We have our severe problems with the underemployment of millions and millions of Americans in our own BACKYARD!!
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
Under-employment(unemployment) problems? Unless you want Germany or France running around at 10-12% unemployment rate, the U.S. has been consistently in the 4 to 5% range. Severe problems? Nice hyperbole.
The Mexican government is not taking care of its people. They have diverted funds that were earmarked to assist the poor with basic needs (food, electricity, education, etc…) into the pockets of corrupted Mexican politicans (Including the president). These same politicans are encouraging the poor to go to The United States to support themselves and their families.
The illegals aren’t here to apply for citizenship, they want a job, free housing, free health care, and free education for their kids. Who is paying for these services? We are!
America is wasting its resources on illegal immigrants, resources that could be spent on hard working Americans who deserve such services (especially Senior Citizens).
The illegals want the American life without having to pay for it. Give the illegals who are here a chance to apply for citizenship. If they dont want citizenship, then send them back to Mexico and crack down on the corrupt Mexican politicans. Its time the Mexicans take care of their people and spend money on their poor.
A middle fingered salute to Vicente Fox and his cohorts.
Definitely, those who already live and work in American should not be uprooted but I am in favor of having the law that blocks more illegal immgrants coming across the border. WHY? Because all of our taxes go to those illegal immigrants who do not work.
Well, I do like Mexicans and food!! I respect their culture they bring to USA but one thing really bothers me that I see many posters, documents, Spanish CC on TV/DVD, merchanise labels/instuctions, and so on are printed in Spanish. My question is, how will they learn English? Any thought on that?
McDonnell, I am speaking of the underemployment among deaf people and regional areas, ex. Appalachia and the Midwest in the United States.
There are still the high unemployment rate in many regions. DC do not suffer from the high unemployment rates at all.
RLM
We need a CIA covert action program to improve the economy of Mexico.
The Center for Security Policy was cited in an article in news.google.com that most foreigners in Mexico cannot work and cannot be Mexican citizens unlike here.
I’m glad to see a legal immigrant writing on this issue. To become a legal immigrant, you in effect have to pay over a thousand dollars or so in visa applications, physicals, and you have to abide by a maze of regulations. You must report if you plan to relocate, and many people are stuck where they are in order to be sure their green card process doesn’t get voided and they have to apply all over again.
To be a legal immigrant is NOT to be that free until you get permanent residency and/or citizenship. During this whole process they are ineligible for governmental aid (green stamps, ssi, ssd, etc.).
That people who are here illegally (I agree 100% with David J. Stoddard) can just gate-jump the whole process after exploiting the system– that was the most stomach-turning idea I’ve ever heard. Nobody who really knows what legal immigration is like is going to go “yay, let’s have them get free citizenship, I sweated 10 years learning US red tape, why shouldn’t I begrudge some illegal worker the chance to get a green card?”
You know what is the worst? Giving illegals varying waiting times according to how long they’ve been in the country illegally. How are they going to prove this? “Yeah, I’ve been here illegally for 20 years, see, I have…. WHAT to prove this?” Drivers licenses? Illegal SSNs? That is soooooo boneheaded and it will just open up the opportunity for fraud, bribery, lawyers, and corruption.
Guest worker visas should only be issued OUTSIDE of the United States. Nobody who is here on any kind of visa or illegally should apply.
You know the number one motive for identity fraud, other than money, is all the illegals that want SSNs to work here. I know a person who had her identity stolen 3 times and she basically can’t get a loan or credit, period because she has no way to prove she’s herself anymore. The system is broken and congress won’t stop the credit card industry, and Americans don’t save money anymore.
And now the government wants to track farm animals in a national database, called NAIS. This is in name of terrorism, but really it will mean identity fraud for animals is now possible. It will unfairly penalize the small farmer while giving mass corporation farmers easier regulations, and it will drive up the cost of your meat and milk. And can microchipped animals be called organic, really?
Theoretically even a child who takes her pet goat to a 4-H fair out of state could be fined for failing to inform the government.
I encourage you to take a look at http://www.nonais.org
BTW, do not buy dogs from pet stores or “puppy mills”. Some of those puppies have been whelped in Mexico (cheaper) and driven thousands of miles while still too young to be away from their mothers. They often are very sick and will have permanent emotional damage. Don’t believe me? Look it up.
Mike, we missed the boat on NAFTA. It was a big mistake, the biggest mistake Clinton made (other than that cigar deal) was to sign this agreement without requiring Mexico to establish a minimum wage and some worker safety standards. It was a gimme for greedy businesses eager to set up in Mexico. But now few businesses like to work in Mexico– the people are so poor that kidnapping is big business in Mexico City, and anybody who looks like an American businessman is a prime target.
Ross Perot sounded like a frothing madman about NAFTA in 1992– but he was right. He was right. It was a bum deal for America.
[…] Illegal Immigration: A Non-Issue by Swetha Amruthur […]
Mexico is going to do well after President Fox signs the Bill to allow recreational drugs for sale. Their biggest customer will be the Americans.