Immigration seems to be 2006’s “gay marriage ban” issue for political conservatives. It seems that many US citizens have the same ideas as the GOP when it comes to illegal immigration – like that they should be deported, are taking jobs from native born US citizens, and some talking heads make it seem that next to terrorism – illegal immigrants are a threat to America.
To highlight the issue President Bush wants to send 6,000 troops to the southern border to help police the area and erect a long wall to keep out Mexican and Latin American illegals as that seems to be the biggest problem area.
Now I have no concrete evidence but all of it smells of bigotry and racism.
There hasn’t been any talk of troops or a wall for our northern border with Canada.
40% of illegal immigrants entered the country legally on a visa and never returned home. Two of the 9/11 terrorists had expired visas. The visa loophole still is a low priority at Homeland Security with only $30 million of the $1.95 billion border security request Bush filed last week, going to address it.
Manuel Bartsch, a high school student born in Germany, was detained in Ohio after he contacted the Immigration Service to see if they had any paperwork on him. It seems when he wanted to sign-up to take the ACT and needed a Social Security card, he had none. He called the INS and found out that his step-grandfather had never completed the paperwork to allow him to remain legally in the United States. He was jailed in Cleveland for 16 days for being in the country illegally.
He got out of jail and fought deportation with the help of the Pandora community, the involvement of U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor, R-Port Clinton, and Bartsch’s Cleveland attorney, David Leopold. In fact a bill was introduced in Congress that would let Bartsch stay legally.
What if Bartsch had not been white and from Germany. Does anyone really think Congress would fight for him to stay?
For further reading:
Border initiatives miss huge group
Bartsch salutes American Dream
Doug, many Latin illegal aliens are routinely let go or the police are not allowed to detain them even though they have obviously fake ID: there are santuary cities that do not allow the police to even ask if they are here legally. Illegal Latins have more rights than not only other illegal aliens but also U.S. citizens.
If the kid from Germany was from Mexico he would not have been deported- the out in the open illegal aliens on TV, radio and in the marches who are known in their communities and not being rounded up.
Whenever I hear the pro-amnesty people say illegal aliens pay taxes and are not a burden to legal tax payers it's hard not to laugh.
I suppose that's why all those emergency rooms in CA had to close and why people near the border in AZ have to drive four hours to get to a hospital that isnt' overwhelmed with illegals.
Here in Columbus, OH it costs on average over $11,000 a year in taxes to send a child to public school. If you make a low wage and if , IF, IF you are paying taxes you you are not covering the cost on one child much less a special needs child. Taxpayers subsidizes no wage and low wage residents especially if they have children.
The neighborhood papers have continual arguments over school levies. The elderly and the child free don't want to pay for their neighbors kids sports. One elderly women wrote that she had to walk to school and bring in wood: she does not feel that she owes her neighbors kids football and a lap top.
I've heard parents say they voted for levy increases because they "couldn't/ didn't want to" pay for their child's sports: of course they had no problem making someone else pay for their child's sports.
Educators in Columbus and across the country talk about the national tragedy of the drop out rate and how much it costs society to have high school dropouts- O.K. Then how is making millions of high school dropouts citizens going to help the U.S.????
The scary but behind the scenes reason that the Libertarian leaders , not necessarily the members, want amnesty is to hurry up and destroy all real and perceived welfare.
The CATO institute is pro school voucher. If you read their literature this is contrary to their philosophy of everyone taking care of themself and their own. Their real goal is to eleminate tax funded schools and moving tword vouchers is a step in that direction.
Illegal aliens are already a net drain on the economy. If tens of millions become citizens they can legally bring the rest of their families and qualify for even more tax funded social services. With tens of millions of more low wage workers, their children, their parents, grandparents and sibilings all tax funded benefits will be bankrupt even faster which provides a reason to eleminate those services altogether.
Hell you can qualify for earned income tax credit and get a "refund" on taxes never paid! SSI is determined by income: once current illegal aliens bring parents and grandparents they can get SSI even though they never paid into it. Illegal aliens are a net drain on the economy. They use more in social services than they contribute. The savings on free medical care, education, prison and the social cost of illegal drugs would build one heck of a fence. Of course we could build a fence. We put a man on the moon! Israel could give us guidance if necessary:)
They will not necessarily come out and say it but many Libertarians and conservatives want social security eleminated. Since they cann't offend their members who receive these benefits their best hope is to bankrupt it as much and as fast as possible.
CNN re-ran a show featuring a "model" illegal alien family in GA. The father grossed $25,000 a year. His wife used over $80,000 in free medicad for her cancer treatment and the son had a free apendectomy in addition to having gone to school free and was awarded a college scholoarship. I wish I had had $80,000 of free medical care when my mother was dying of cancer in IN. I paid for alot of things out of pocket but could not afford oxygen and medicad did not cove it.
I paid for my college loans into my 40's. Why are people who are here illegally being given scholarships? Don't we have laws that you cann't benefit from breaking the law- or is that only for deathrow authors?
I certainly hope there is no compromise on illegal immigration.
Why should anyone who has committed identity theft, tax evasion, driving illegally ect.. be awarded citizenship? If I took someone elses identity I would face jail time.
My ex-husband was from Qatar. He had to prove he didn't have TB and a whole host of other diseases just to study here. He also had to prove he had a lump sum of money so he wouldn't use social services. Legal immigrants have to do the same. It's not suprising we are having outbreaks of diseases we thought the U.S. had eradicated.- We had , the South American countries haven't! Yes, illegal immigrants bring disease.
The Mexican census estimated 20 million people were "missing". The news showed entire villages in Mexico that were mostly empty. 12 million illegal aliens is a drastic under count.
Why should someone be given preferencial treatment to get citizenship because they've broken the law by being here longer? Why should illegal aliens who have gone to school here for free be given even more preferential treatment. A member of the "You Don't Speak For Me" pannel said, "then why shouldn't all foriegn students who completed a higher degree legally be given citizenship. They did everything legally and have been in the U.S. several years. They didn't even break the law. If a parent enrolls their kid in a distrcit they don't live in they are breaking the law and will be charged by the other district for the cost of the education. Why special treatment for criminals? An army family's children who cann't establish residency will have to pay out of state fees but an illegal alien can pay instate fees. Young American males must register for selective service or they don't qualify for college aid- illegals get another free pass: there's nothing fair about that.
Talk to some immigrants from India about the special rights for Latin illegal aliens and compaire it to what they have to do or face deportation. Why is it fair to let those who've broken the law stay but those who've obeyed the law must must wait years to legaly enter the country and be seperated from their spouses for an average of 5-7 years.
I'd like the last five years of my taxes refunded and I'll decide which of three I want to pay.
Expecting everyone to obey the same laws is not racism or discrimination: Special rights for Latin crimianls is.
Many sheriffs around the counrty call the INS when they stop a van full of Spanish speaking men with obviously fake identification only to be told to let them go! If they had a van full of Arabic speaking men with fake ID would the INS just let them go? I'd love to see that go to the supreme court.
It seems the pro amnesty argument is this: there are so many who have violated the law and the government doesn't have the will to enforce the law so therefore we must make all who violated the immigration laws and continute to violate the laws citizens.
Citizenship through intimmidation.
There is no reason to belive any new law will be enforce any more than it was in 1986. We'll get amnesy with no enforcement just like before.
Temporary workers are not temporary.
We need to enforce the laws we have.
Entry to the U.S. is not a human right.
If someone feels it's their Christian/Humanist/or other duty to help the less fortunate they can take their own personal resources and do that: they do not have the right to saddle the rest of the country with an enormouse influx of the poor. No one is owed citizen ship: especially those who have already broken immigration laws (amongst id theft, document forgery ect…)
A friend in Deleware, OH went to Brazil last July with her church to help the poor. Bringing third world poverty to the U.S. depresses our wages (meat packing went from 19.00 hr to 9.00; construction hourly wages are also declining and since many work crews all speak Spanish a lone American who doesn't speak Spanish isn't hired- right here in Columbus; not to mention Fisher Homes in KY; in Los Angeles, Black union janitors who earned $12.00hr with benefits were replaced with subcontracted Mexican and El Salvadorian laborers who were paid the then mimimum wage of $3.35 hr)who taxes our social services and will adversely affect the quality of life in the U.S.
We should never have the situation where someone who obeys the law has a longer path to citizenship than someone who breaks the law. If illegal aliens want to be citizens they should have to go through the same process as legal immigrants. It's unfair and unAmerican to have special rights for law breakers.
Oh so many thing to answer in this long comment but I most of it had nothing to do with my post so I will focus on the one part that does:
——————————
Doug, many Latin illegal aliens are routinely let go or the police are not allowed to detain them even though they have obviously fake ID: there are santuary cities that do not allow the police to even ask if they are here legally. Illegal Latins have more rights than not only other illegal aliens but also U.S. citizens.
If the kid from Germany was from Mexico he would not have been deported- the out in the open illegal aliens on TV, radio and in the marches who are known in their communities and not being rounded up.
—————————–
There are plenty of illegals from Mexico who are deported everyday. In fact they are deported by the bus loads in California. I have read about sanctuary cities and the concept is that local authorities aren't allowed to question someone's status nor report them to INS.
The concept applies to all illegal immigrants and doesn't apply to serious criminal offenses the person may have participated in. Basically if a cop is walking down the street and sees a Latino, the cop can't stop the person and ask their status (which is what a lot of cops would do and will do when stopping Latinos).
Most sanctuary city polices also prevent someone from being reported to INS for a traffic violation.
Manuel Bartsch, the guy I wrote about in my post, would NEVER have been asked his status because no one would have thought to do it. That is the sad part. Any discussion of this issue, including the rant in the comment above, always assume we can pick out who is here illegally and who isn't and those we know who are should be questioned about their status and deported. And had Bartch not been white, Congress would not have gotten involved.
Either we are all asked our status all the time by law enforcement or it is bigotry pure and simple.