By James Tabafunda
Northwest Asian Weekly
Naomi Ishisaki (left) and Pramila Jayapal (Photos by James Tabafunda)
In his State of the Union address on Jan. 27, President Obama encouraged both houses of Congress to “continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system – to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation.”
The issue continues to affect Asian immigrants who want to stay, work, and raise their families in the United Sates. An unbroken immigration system would result in an estimated $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years.
Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, said she’s “really happy” that Obama mentioned comprehensive immigration reform in his address.
At a media briefing on Feb. 1, she spoke about her organization’s efforts to encourage federal and state legislative action in 2010. “It’s clearly a priority for him,” she said. “We would like to see him actually come out with a clear statement about how we achieve that in the same way that he did with health care reform and climate change.” Whether that statement is made or not, Jayapal recognizes that creating more jobs is the top priority for Obama’s administration.
Current efforts in the area of immigration include Rep. Luis Gutierrez’s (D-Ill.) bill, which is known as the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009. It is currently being debated in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Jayapal says Obama, immediately after taking office, reminded all immigration advocates that they need to get 100,000 people to support comprehensive immigration reform, not just 100 people. “So, we’re also mobilizing the streets to make sure that we can put the pressure on the president, the House leadership, the Senate leadership, and all of the members of Congress to make sure that this is something they know is right for the country, right for the economy, and right for their political future,” she explained.
OneAmerica identified seven critical components of comprehensive immigration reform. They include enhancing our nation’s security and safety, protecting fundamental rights for all, a rational and humane approach to undocumented immigrants, ensuring appropriate ways for workers to enter the U.S. legally, allocating sufficient visas, and promoting immigrant integration.
The seventh component concerns keeping American families together and reducing immigration backlogs. OneAmerica says outdated family immigration channels need to be reformed “to restore our commitment to promoting family unity.”
“What does it mean to say the family backlog?” asked Jayapal. “And, why does that affect Filipinos and Chinese, and how many Koreans are undocumented anyway? Those kinds of things are part of why we think it’s important to always articulate all the principles in immigration reform, so that people really understand this is an issue that, of course, affects the Latino community, but also affects a lot of other communities as well, [including] the Caucasian community.”
OneAmerica’s mission is “to advance the fundamental principles of democracy and justice through building power in immigrant communities, in collaboration with key allies.”
Regarding refugees, Sarah Curry, OneAmerica’s research and policy manager, said, “There are a high number of refugees that end up with an undocumented status, and if we look at refugee policies over hundreds of years, we see different waves.” She is the author of the organization’s report on immigrant contributions to Washington state.
The Seattle-based immigrant advocacy organization also introduced new features on its website, one designed to be a “one-stop shop” for resources related to immigration.
Naomi Ishisaka, OneAmerica’s communications director, said, “It was really important that we had something that was really flexible, that was really quick to update, and something that allowed us to have a range of content from research to news to photos and videos to all the things that we wanted to do.”
OneAmerica offers free assistance with citizenship applications in various cities throughout Washington state.
Past immigration reform efforts on the national level include the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, which created “a comprehensive scheme prohibiting the employment of illegal aliens in the United States.” The IRCA also established an extensive “employment verification system” – known as the I-9 system – designed to deny employment to illegal aliens.
The IRCA was followed by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996. It assigned the U.S. attorney general “to establish three pilot programs to ensure efficient and accurate verification of any new employee’s eligibility for employment.”
“I think if we don’t pass it this year, we’re looking at potentially waiting until 2013, which I have to say would be an absolute travesty for immigrants and for the country as a whole,” said Jayapal. ♦
For more information about OneAmerica, go to www.weareoneamerica.org.
James Tabafunda can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
Immigration reform, yes.
Amnesty, no!
No matter what race, origin or religion….
If you are here illegally, it is time to go home.
If you are here legally, welcome neighbor!!!
Research: What I’m doing, when I don’t know what I’m doing.
With 15 million American citizens out of work and millions more underemployed, it is incredibly insensitive, selfish, and immoral for the cheap labor and ethnocentric pro-amnesty special interests to be peddling “comprehensve immigration reform” mass amnesty.
NO CIR AMNESTY
Illegal aliens are NOT “immigrants.”
“Comprehensive immigration reform” is a euphemism for mass amnesty for 11-20 million illegal aliens.
The vast majority of Americans have made it very clear:
NO FORM OF ANY AMNESTY
ENFORCE EXISTIMG IMMIGRATION LAWS
I am so discussed by all the hateful comments that I see here and I have to say that I did not realized that I will see so much hate, xenophobia, racism when I arrived in America. I am a legal permanent resident, who came to this country from Europe, by the way the university propose the position to me because there was apparently no one in this country who would be able to do the job that I am able to do, so NO I did not still your stupid jobs. In fact I feel that you should be grateful to have me here since I contribute a lot to science. I spent thousands of dollars to get the green card and it took few years to complete the process, so I understand why people become illegal in this country. It is because for those who don’t have college degree there is no other way to stay in US, even though they love this country, not only for the small amount of money that they would be payed cleaning the offices or building cheep houses for you, or pick tomatoes in the field making them cheep for you as well. I am not trying to find excuse for those who did not obied the law, but the whole discrimination process that I see in US bothers me a big time. I thought that this is a country of immigrants and built by immigrants. I thought that this is the greatest country in the world where people are humane. I am not sure if I can believe in that after seeing how you chase all the nannies, construction workers and farmers. I am shocked how you are soooo eager to ruin people’s lives by separating parents from children, husbands from wives etc. Horrible! Unfortunately, you allow those people to enter the country for years, your employers hire them to make higher profits, and now one did anything to prevent this. Now is to late to send them all back, and frankly speaking it’s impossible. In fact it is probably cheaper to give them papers. They are already a part of your society. Wake up people and face the reality. Also, stop being hateful and xenophobic. You all are immigrants, the native Americans did not invite you here either, which makes you illegal immigrants as well.
Illegal alien is not a race, and not all illegal aliens are of the same race. Our opposition is to ILLEGAL immigration, not LEGAL immigration. LEGAL immigrants are welcome here. ILLEGAL aliens are not welcome here. It has nothing to do with xenophobia or racism. If we were xenophobic, we wouldn’t want ANY foreigners here. But the American people welcome LEGAL immigrants, so we’re not xenophobic. As far as racism is concerned, large numbers of white Americans, black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans are opposed to ILLEGAL immigration. ILLEGAL aliens are comprised of whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. So, who is racist against who? As far as “hate” is concerned, Americans don’t like anybody violating our laws, regardless of whether the person is an American, a LEGAL immigrant, or an ILLEGAL alien. So I guess you could say we “hate” all lawbreakers, regardless of their race, immigration status, or whether they’re an American or a foreigner.
The United States is a country of Americans and LEGAL immigrants, and always has been. LEGAL immigrants helped to build this country. But ILLEGAL aliens are not LEGAL immigrants. This is a very compassionate, friendly, welcoming, and humane country. But Americans don’t like people sneaking into our country in the middle of the night. That shows disrespect to our laws as a country, and disrespect to our kindness as a people. If a foreigner wants to come here, they should come here LEGALLY and obey our laws. If foreigners do this, they will find this country to be a wonderful place to live in, and the people to be friendly to live among.
We are not ruining anybody’s lives by deporting illegal aliens back to their home countries because they came here illegally in the first place. Illegal aliens created the problems in their lives by violating our laws. And nobody is separating parents from their children. If an illegal alien parent is deported, the family decides whether they will go back to their home country together. We don’t make that decision for them.
Yes, all Americans are descendents of legal immigrants. In fact, the native inhabitants of this land were also immigrants as they came here from Asia. No, the European settlers who came here were NOT illegal immigrants. A person can’t violate a law that doesn’t exist. The native inhabitants didn’t have any immigration laws in place at the time the Europeans started arriving here, so there no immigration laws to violate. Those European settlers were simply immigrants, just like the native inhabitants were when they first came here.
First, If you’re talking about legal visa. I would like to see visa on your grandfather’s father’s father’s passport. Could you prove that you’re son of legal resident? I don’t think native American invited any of Caucasian to have turkey party. They all just came and took land.
Second, if someone is seeking a better life than somewhere else. He/she has right to go anywhere on this planet. It’s our government’s duty to make sure that no one gets here illegal. And if they do, they won lottery. You can’t punish illegals for country’s corrupted government.
Third, I am small business owner. All illegals are doing the job that most Americans don’t want to do. Now, you might have question about wages. High wages kills small business because they don’t make enough profit and can not afford to pay 15 dollars an hour for cleaning toilets. No would want to invest money if they wont see any profit. The American lost all jobs overseas because everyone is getting educated overseas to compete with Americans. So please don’t blame poor illegals. They’re cleaning toilets and bathroom for you.
Fourth, take construction industry for an example. If you hire 100% American work force, it would rise house price to almost double. so 100,000.00 dollars worth house could be sold for 400,000.00.
At last, we can solve this problems by giving them opportunities to clean more toilets and pick more tomatoes. Thousand jobs could be created by making them legal. If we charge each of them 2000.00 to become legal, think about the revenue. 2000.00 * 20million. = in trillions. We can pay all the debts. Also, think about jobs that we can create from supporting this bill. Each city would have at least 100 people working to filling out paper to make them legal. There are so many cities and counties around U.S.A. They really can turn around the market if opportunities are given.
Please be kind and save my small business. I am tired of paying high taxes and high wages where I can’t afford to pay.
My ancestors on both my mother’s side and my father’s side both came to this country LEGALLY. I did genealogy research on my family tree and traced both sides back to Ellis Island. Sorry if that disappoints you. I was born in the United States and both of my parents are American citizens. Sorry if that disappoints you. Most land areas in the world have changed hands several times over the many centuries. Deal with it or spend the rest of your life crying about it. Your choice.
All people must respect the laws and borders of every foreign country in the world. Nobody has the right to enter any foreign country without the permission of that country’s government. If they do enter without getting permission, then they have violated the law. All illegal aliens are lawbreakers who deserve to be punished by being deported back to their home country.
It is ethically wrong and unfair to reward lawbreakers for violating the law. We don’t reward Americans for violating the law. Why should we reward foreigners for violating the law? We don’t need illegal aliens lawbreakers and criminals in this country for any reason. If we need additional workers, we can let in more LEGAL immigrants and guest workers. No more amnesties!
You did not take a job that no one else could do. You were given a job that no one here wanted to do at the price you are doing it at. So yes, Americans are right to resent immigrants who drive down wages.
Max9010, you are spewing La Raza propaganda. Everything that you posted as “facts” are simply exaggerations, misrepresentations, and distortions of the truth, if not flat out lies.
Americans gain Billion of US dollars from threatening immigrants Invertors
and Home owners from Europeen Countries.
Miss use from fear and misuse of trust used from immigrants.
Government employers and Immigrant Attorneys have done this from those
who want to establish a Legal responsible life, these are the practices.
Billions of Dollars got taken away from those who established a life.
Undocumented Workers Give $7 Billion Annually to Social Security
The norm of this treatment to immigrant is the worth in this country.
The norm of US citizens credit, is who the most lean out of their credit windows,
so far that they has no control of their own financial responsibility.
This is why Millions lost their homes.
The report of Farmer in the US shows that no American worker
Won’t pick Apples or Cabbage and work 8 to 10 Hours a day.
The same with cleanup work for trash ect.. ect..
“Without the help of immigrant labor, the US economy would virtually collapse.
We want and need cheap immigrant labor, but we do not want the immigrants.”
Even during the ongoing recession, immigration reform legislation that legalizes
undocumented immigrants would boost the American economy, according to a new
study out of UCLA.
The report said that legalization, along with a program that allows for future
immigration based on the labor market, would create jobs, increase wages and
generate more tax revenue. Comprehensive immigration reform would add an estimated
$1.5 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years, according
to the report.
Cato Institute
This study finds that increased enforcement and reduced low-skilled immigration
have a significant negative impact on the income of U.S. households.
Modest savings in public expenditures would be more than offset by losses in
economic output and job opportunities for more skilled American workers.
A policy that reduces the number of low-skilled immigrant workers by 28.6
percent compared to projected levels would reduce U.S. household welfare
by about 0.5 percent, or $80 billion.
In contrast, legalization of low-skilled immigrant workers would yield
significant income gains for American workers and households. Legalization
would eliminate smugglers’ fees and other costs faced by illegal immigrants.
It would also allow immigrants to have higher productivity and create more
openings for Americans in higher skilled occupations. The positive impact
U.S. households of legalization under an optimal visa tax would be 1.27
percent of GDP or $180 billion.
That’s an even more optimistic outlook than the UCLA study, adding $1.8
trillion to the GDP over 10 years.
That’s a lot of new jobs.
As a Chinese immigrant, I must remind immigration advocates that the United States now is the greatest debtor nation in the world history due to many of our policies. Presently, well over 15 million U.S.-born citizens and legal immigrants, including open border advocates, have lost their jobs. Although some immigrants are great assets to the U.S., it is simply selfish, shortsighted and irresponsible to promote amnesty and ever increasing immigration to gain political clout.
Asian, Hispanic and African immigration advocates should be told that if the U.S. population continues to grow at the rate of last decade, mathematically, the U.S. could have India’s current population within the lifetimes of today’s children’s children.
Furthermore, Asian open border advocates should take a hard look at history: Millions of Chinese and Koreans were killed by the Japanese nearly a century ago; millions of Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodians were killed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s. Extreme violence and corruption still exist in many countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Do Asian, Hispanic and black immigration advocates really want their children an overpopulated, corrupt, impoverished and violent country?
Decades ago, Chinese already realized that population growth and immigration would impede its economic success. China also seriously restricts immigration even for Chinese born abroad.
For the sake of law-abiding Asian and other U.S.-born citizens and legal immigrants, we should all urge President Obama and Congress to work on curbing teen pregnancies totaling 750,000 a year nationwide, encourage small families and drastically reduce immigration, both legal and illegal. Many legal immigrants who did not apply for welfare are appalled at the extensive welfare abuses in the native and immigrant communities. Therefore, the federal government should require that all sponsors of immigration should pay for the welfare costs, cash and non-cash, provided to the relatives they brought to the United States: It is simply wrong to tax other legal immigrants and U.S.-born citizens to pay for those welfare programs. China does not hand out welfare to its own citizens!
Yeh Ling-Ling, Alliance for a Sustainable USA
not to enact some sort of immigration moratorium and seriously enforce our immigration laws across the board so that we can put American jobseekers, welfare recipients and non-violent prison inmates to work. Those measures will help reduce unemployment and budget deficits thanks to higher income taxes and fewer unemployment and welfare checks.
“remember ALWAYS , its all abour votes and how to get votes by generating FEAR and what you want to hear is the basis of getting Elected”
No that’s precisely the problem. Fear has NOT been successful on immigration policy. The character assassination engaged in by the open-borders lobby and its media lackeys has FAILED to intimidate enough people in elective office to support the horrendous policy known as “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”.
In fact, the tactic of the immigration boosterism community to use fear as a political weapon did at one time have a lot of power to intimidate, but that power has eroded and I think one can now say that the tactics of fear and hate by the open-borders community are now more of a liability than a benefit to their cause.
anjum qureshi says:
February 18, 2010 at 12:41 pm
This is really a very critical and important issue. There are so many students who really want to go for heigher studies but are stuck because of their expired status. Govt should act fast to implement the reforms so that important time of their life should not be wasted and they should be benefited with higher education
————
Not on your life. We have plenty of American students to fill the seats in our colleges and universities and we still have several hundred thousand foreign students who are willing to follow the law and pay foreign student tuition as well.
If illegal aliens don’t want their lives to be “wasted” then they can take the high school education that they gain here and go back to their home countries, where even a high school education puts them far ahead of the majority of their countrymen. As it is, many illegal aliens drop out of high school. Hispanics have the highest drop out rate of any group and also the highest rates of teen pregnancy. Real concern for “education” there.
Well, most of the students that I know are not Americans. Sorry, but our universities are not only run by foreign professionals but also supported by the money payed by foreign students in form of tuition. We don’t have many educated people in this country. Everybody knows that abroad.
spanish town jamaica wrote:”Some may say, “why not stay in your country and try to make it better?” Murder and corruption is all that seem to the there.”
————-
And you think ILLEGAL immigration isn’t CORRUPT? That politicians ignoring the laws they made and swore an oath to uphold isn’t CORRUPT? If you think that, it’s no wonder your own country is corrupt. Corruption flourishes when citizens allow it to. My Turkish students railed against the corruption in their government, yet couldn’t see any connection between that and their willingess to cheat on tests and assignments. The former President of Mexico said that a politician who is poor is a poor politician. An American president who said that, even after leaving office, would find himself with a lot of explaining to do–and probably a special prosecutor to examine his administration. No, there’s a reason for not wanting to legalize illegal aliens–and it has everything to do with their willingness to break the laws of this country. They bring their culture of corruption with them.
Asians are supposed to be good at math. Just what does $1.5 TRILLION dollars over 10 years amount to in a $14 trillion economy for each of those 10 years. 1.5/140 = less than 2%, basically a rounding error. And, based on research done by George Borjas at Harvard, any “benefits” would go, not to Americans in general, but to the immigrants and their families. No, amnesty is not going to pass, and most likely won’t even be seriously discussed for several years, and not then if the unemployment rate remains high. Which it is likely to do until 2020, according to a recent forecast by Obama’s economic advisors.
“Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, said she’s “really happy” that Obama mentioned comprehensive immigration reform in his address”
The same delusional interpretation: Obama did NOT mention CIR. What is wrong with these activists constantly changing words? Idiocy? Illegal aliens in this country is a disgrace to America. Disgrace! They “want to better their lives” So do many Americans who can no longer afford to because we are paying for criminals and their criminal children. What part of that does not get understood by the few groups dangling that carrot in front of millions of criminal aliens? (very pathetic exploitation of people) CIR IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Go home! WAKE UP, DREAMies. Americans are patient and kind, until you piss us off, then we go bananas. Swoop and it all changes in a night. Get out before you are caught in the crossfire, take your anchors, stop pumping out babies you will not be able to afford in your own country once you are booted from here. Warning-leave now while you can, before your lives are completely destroyed here. We don’t want you and we’re tired of messing around..
You are tired of messing around because you don’t own anything. You are lazy who doesn’t want to get up early in the morning. If you think being an American is more important than protecting people’s right is more important. You’re not a god child. You’re devil. Go take economics and come back tell us about how illegals contribute so much to our society. You just complain because your spending habits are not taking you anywhere. You are just lazy.
Illegal aliens are lawbreakers and criminals. Study after study show that illegal aliens cost us most in services used than they contribute to our economy.
Dream on Child , its NEVER going to Happen . Don’t fool yourself.
remember ALWAYS , its all abour votes and how to get votes by generating FEAR and what you want to hear is the basis of getting Elected .
What you say and how it will help the nation dosen’t matter to THEM and also is not in Question anymore. Just Votes and Power AND Mojority in the Senate and Congress is what Matters to THEM !!!!!!!!!
Unless you are not a majority, You will not see a change coming. So all of DREAMERS out there have as many kids as you can at the taxpayers expense untill you become a majority.
Become the Majority VOTE
Sticker Shock .I had worked for the County and had a drug prtopriceisn plan. Rarely did I pay more than $15 for any drug.And then I retired and there went my prtopriceisn plan. The first time I bought my Lamictal at the local drug store I couldn’t believe the cost, almost $1300 . From that time on I then bought my Lamictal, generic, through Canada at a cost anywhere from $400 to $600.Now comes Medicare Rx with the pressure to join or risk the consequences of penalty charges. I joined and now pay a monthly premium deducted from my SS. Still I resisted buying my drugs stateside, especially since the Lamictal was not available as a generic. But it nagged at me that it wouldn’t take long to satisfy the deductible and so maybe It wouldn’t cost that much to use the Medicare Rx plan. Thus far, I’ve only used the Rx service one time so I don’t know whether I’ve made a savings or not, especially when I factor in the premium and the deductible. It is a bit tricky trying to compare prices. I could get the Canadian drug as a generic and I could get a 90-day supply. Stateside, I can only get the brand name and a 30-day supply. And I’ll have to factor in as well that I’ll once again have to satisfy the deductible for the New Year. I’ve really been spoiled by that nice drug prtopriceisn plan I had when I worked for the County. Maybe I should go back to work!
Illegal immigrants break the law by entering this country illegally. That is a fact that is undisputable. All I begging for is empathy for all law abiding illegal immigrants. Please understand that we did not come to this country looking for hand out, we came to try and better our lives, maybe get a college education, and if given the opportunity to give back to this country, for what we receive. The country that i came from is dirt poor. We lived in shacks that many here would not keep there pets in. Growing up, I remember being so hungry, and all I could do is imaging a plate of food. When it rained, the river would overflow its bank and water would be knee high in “home”. Some may say, “why not stay in your country and try to make it better?” Murder and corruption is all that seem to the there. The minimum wage is about US$45.00 per week for a family of 3-4 people. We have tried. It is just too overpopulated,the economy is very poor, and government trying to keep everything for themselves. This is not a life that i would wish on any one, poverty, voilents against women, murder, etc. I would not want my kids to be expose to this kind of life. In America, they have food, they have security,meaning about 60% of young men in their community ages 14-25 are not walking with guns, here they have an opportunity to better themselves, work hard and be good citizens. PLEASE HAVE EMPATHY. We are not trying to take from you, our kids are not trying to take from your kids, your kids will continue to do great in school, we just want ours to have the chance to do the same.
spanish town jamaica said:
“All I begging for is empathy for all law abiding illegal immigrants.”
There is no such thing as “law abiding illegal immigrants”. The word “illegal” means in violation of the law. Because of the fact that illegal immigrants have violated the law, they can’t be law-abiding.
illegal person died many time day and night from years.they live in fear.whose do for immigration reform they feal pain of illegals.God bleass them.and we pray they success.and thanks
If illegal alien lawbreakers and criminals hadn’t come here illegally, they wouldn’t have to live in fear. They have created their own bad situation and I don’t feel the least bit sorry for them. No more amnesties!
Well, not everybody came to this country illegally. Many came legally with their spouses or wives on H1B and were told that they can not work, for 6 years!!!! Would you live on your wive’s salary? Well, you you are a pussy you probably would. Don’t tell me that this is OK. I would say that it is exploitation of immigrants. Sounds familiar? Yes, we exploited slaves as well. So, YES I hope that the visa law will be fixed, and the sooner that will happen the better for all of us. If we won’t do anything, we wont have 10 million illegals but 100 million illegals in 10 years, and what are we going to do then? Just use you brain from time to time. Yes, people broke the law, they came illegally or overstayed their visas, or were forced to become illegal because of the law. We can’t simply split families. Many are mixed – one person is a citizen or permanent resident and the other is illegal – we need to somehow allow them to become legal. I agree that they should pay fines for breaking the law, they should speak our language before they will be eligible for residency or citizenship, and for sure we must do something with the borders, so those people will not continue to come here!
This isn’t rocket science. A foreigner either does have or doesn’t have the legal right to be in the United States. If a foreigner doesn’t have the legal right to be in the United States, then they need to go back to their home country. Nobody is forced to become illegal because of the law. If a foreigner’s visa expires, then the law requires them to leave. If they don’t leave, then they have voluntarily chosen to stay in this country illegally. Amnestries not only reward people for violating our laws, amnesties also perpetuate the problem of illegal immigration.
Sorry, but I don’t agree. I live in Miami were most of the people are immigrants. The immigration law and problem with illegal immigrants is not that simple as people think. Yes, I do not like that Cubans come to the shore illegally every day and get their permanent residency after once year, while other immigrants have to spent thousands of dollars to get it. I see it every day at my university. I agree that we need to strengthen the security at our borders because our laws are being violated over and over again. I do not agree to breaking families who have been living in this country for years! Hitler was probably more merciful than we are. Why do we always have ruin peoples’ lives, here and abroad? We let those people to settle in US for years, and now we are surprised that they don’t want to go home. The fact is that this country became their home. So, my point is that we should blame ourselves too for the situation that this country is in.
miamidade said:
“Hitler was probably more merciful than we are.”
That is one of the most outrageous, ridiculous, senseless, and just plain stupid comments that I have ever read.
It is time to enforce our laws, enforce a system to verify eligibility for employment, efficiently deport those apprehended and stop all this talk about keeping the family together. There is no reason the family cannot be together in the country where the parents are legal residents, not the USA.
well what one is citizen and the other is not? Don’t be stupid, we are not going to deport all those people. We are too poor to do that, and those people are not going to go either!
We don’t need to roundup all illegal aliens in order to rid our country of them. If we pass tough laws and ENFORCE them, we could cut illegal aliens off from jobs by making it impossible for them to get hired. This could be done by making the E-verify system mandatory for all employers to use. We also need to make the penalties for employers knowingly hiring an illegal alien so severe that few employers would even consider doing it. We need to make it impossible for illegal aliens to be able to sign up for any social service program by making the E-verify program mandatory for verifying all applicants. If we implement these laws, millions of illegal aliens would self-deport. The rest would be arrested by police as they violate other laws, which will lead to them getting deported after their court hearings, or after their jail sentences are completed. We also need to secure our borders.
sure, you are right in one way. What you said makes sense, but it’s impossible to do. There is no way to check if employers hire only people with work permit. There is simply no was to enforce it. The E-verify should happen, but we also need to fix the law. It simply does not make sense. Why can’t we have the same system that Canadians have, a point system. They are much smarter than we are and they don’t have a problem with 10 million illegals. They bring smart, well educated people to their country, not the opposite. They have quotas, so when economy is bad they lower the number of visas available for that period. Why can we be like them? SMART not full of hate, xenophobia and racism.
If we were xenophobic, we wouldn’t want ANY foreigners here. But the American people welcome LEGAL immigrants, so we’re not xenophobic. As far as racism is concerned, large numbers of white Americans, black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans are opposed to ILLEGAL immigration. Illegal aliens are comprised of whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. So, who is racist against who?
America’s infrastructure is collapsing as corrosion ignored for decades, eats away of thousands of bridges that are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. A third of the nation’s highways are in poor or mediocre shape, with large holes appearing every day. Across the country leaking water and sewage systems are creating health hazards and contaminating lakes, rivers and streams. Many of these underground systems have remained unmaintained for fifty years. Weakened and under-maintained levees and dams are in dangerous states of disrepair, having no oversight, until an terrible accident occurs. The power grid is increasingly over strained, disrupting millions of lives and putting entire cities in the dark as the utilities crash because of archaic overworked switching systems. NOR MUST WE FORGET THE OVERPOPULATION ISSUE. The question that should be asked is why are we neglecting this infrastructure crisis, but the politicians use our money to support the illegal immigration invasion?
Now and not later we must demand E-Verify to remove illegal immigrants from our nation. Taxpayers money should not be aiding and abetting criminal businesses, that ignore immigration laws. 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act must be empowered and used in a–ZERO TOLERANCE–removal attrition. With 15 million US workers seeking work, it should be the policy of both parties to enforce our laws, that funds E-verify, 287 (g) local police enforcement and ICE raids. IS THE LEGAL POPULATION FOREVER GOING TO BE FORCED TO PAY FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT, EDUCATION OR AN OVERPOPULATED PRISON SYSTEM FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS? The once Golden state of California–branded as a Sanctuary State is under major duress, because both parties in Sacramento have ignored the obvious. Starting with The People’s plea in filing Proposition 187, to cut off support to people who have broke the law, sponging of the Californian people and now the state is–BROKE. Our country has our own poor–we cannot support other world governments responsibility.
Now Senior citizens have been shortchanged from their benefits, to keep paying for illegal immigrant families.Be Aware that its not California suffering, but Arizona, Texas and a wide ranch of others states being forced by corrupt legislators, to keep up this travesty of catering to the settlement of illegal immigrants and families. YOU CAN CALL THE CAPITOL SWITCHBOARDS AT 202-224-3121 TO DEMAND THEY MAKE PERMANENT E-VERIFY FOR EVERY WORKING PERSONS VERIFICATION. TO FUND FULLY 287 (G) LOCAL POLICE APPREHENSION LAW IN STREETS AND STATE HIGHWAYS AND GIVE POWER BACK TO ICE TO AUDIT AND RAID PARIAH COMPANIES. Get confirmation of the truth about the 20 to 30 million illegal immigrant invasion, Acorns secret arrangement with the Census bureau, Armesty at NUMBERSUSA & JUDICIAL WATCH.
everything is collapsing, so you decided to blame immigrants for that. Well, if we would not invade other countries, invest in our children’s education and the nation’s infrastructure, punish our greedy bankers and corporations to ruining us financially,and get rid of corrupted politicians for not doing anything to change the situation, we would be in much, much better shape than we are today. Anyway this is a country of immigrants and you are one of them.
miamidade said:
“Anyway this is a country of immigrants and you are one of them.”
I’m not an immigrant. I was born in the United States, and both of my parents were born here too. So I am an American by birth. In fact, the majority of Americans alive today were born in the United States, so they aren’t immigrants either.
Illegal aliens are criminals and parasites, one and all. Their very presence here and practically everything they do on U.S. soil is illegal. They need to be ferreted out, rounded up like cattle, punished for their numerous crimes, then booted back to whence they snuck in from with such extreme prejudice that they will never, ever think of violating our sovereignty again. Enough is enough.
Words from a True native American, oh wait… maybe you are not a real native American, in that case… guess who thinks that YOU might be a criminal and parasite, check your roots and get your history straight, someone, sometime in your family immigrated to US and you simply lost track of your culture.
Illegal or not, immigrants make a huge difference in our economy today, if you think economy is as bad as it is.. try removing the 11 million immigrants from the country and then you will see a nasty collapse of a fragile economy affecting every class in our nation. Much of the growth of the country in the last 2+ decades is given due to cheap labor, now they asked us, who got extremely wealthy behind their backs, a little something back and all we do is show poor attitude and criticism.
It’s time to grow up as a nation and show what true citizenship is about.
My ancestors, along with the ancestors of tens of millions of Americans alive today, came to this country legally.
Our economy would NOT collapse if we removed all illegal aliens from this country. Legal immigrants and unemployed Americans would simply take the place of the illegal aliens in our workforce. If needed, we could let in more legal guest workers. Illegal alien lawbreakers and criminals are not needed in this country for any reason. We could get along just fine without them here.
It’s time for Mexico to grow up and quit being such a corrupt, lawless, and dysfunctional country.
Well, I don’t thing that the NATIVE Americans invited you to their land, so that makes us all illegal aliens and parasites, right? They accepted our ancestors or they were rather forced to do that, so I don’t think that we have a right so call the people parasite if we are also the same kind of people. My family came to this country legally, and we do remember that we are also immigrants. So it drives me crazy when I see how the older parasite/non-native Americans treat new immigrants (legal and illegal). Instead of making those people scape goats and blame them for all the bad things that is happening in this country, maybe we should be angry at our politicians who take us to 2 wars and bankers who ruin us financially.
miamidade says:
“Well, I don’t thing that the NATIVE Americans invited you to their land, so that makes us all illegal aliens and parasites, right?”
Wrong. When the European settlers started arriving here, there were no immigration laws in place. Since a person can’t violate a law that doesn’t exist, those European settlers were NOT illegal aliens.
Whether or not the European settlers were welcomed warmly by the native inhabitants when they arrived here is a totally different matter.
Veronica,
I hate to say this but you are a fool, if you really believe what you are writing to be factual.
A word of advice, do some open minded research on the root of American history and your argument will be more accurate in context and content.
There were laws, of course they were not called immigration laws but each native tribe had their own laws and rules governing their people and upheld by the council headed by their Chief
An Indian tribe was originally a body of people bound together by blood ties who were socially, politically, and religiously organized, who lived together in a defined territory and who spoke a common language or dialect.
There is clear historical,archaeological and cogent evidence for all who wish to be open minded that before Columbus ever set foot on what is now called America, there were people (natives) living legally here, maybe not to your understanding of the term legally, perhaps you may call them savages,but nevertheless they lived here along with many other tribes.
Columbus came in contact with the natives of this land and many others on his voyages, it is the Europeans and their followers who are the leaders of illegal immigration and as a matter of fact all of us whether you were born here or your parents, great,great,great grandparents, everyone are children of and ancestors of people who came here for a better life. If anyone has a right to be legally here it is the children and grandchildren of those natives who first lived on these lands and you can check the Land ownership Laws which were manipulated and violated by the very courts and sitting President that enacted them.
I don’t like getting into these foolish arguments by ridiculous uninformed people but sometimes it is warranted to respond accordingly.
I REST MY CASE.
Keith.
PS
(For your information the Chinese navigated this land in 1421 and the New World seventy years before Columbus arrived and they were called aliens UNABLE TO ASSIMILATE, read the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, it was not until 1965 were they free from a structure of racial oppression from the so called LEGAL AMERICANS)
Keith.
Keith, it all comes to the fact that a person can’t violate a law that doesn’t exist. The native inhabitants did NOT have any immigration laws in place at the time the European settlers came here. Thus, those European settlers were NOT illegal aliens. You can twist and spin and contort until you’re blue in the face, but you can’t change the facts.
My ancestors on both my mother’s side and my father’s side of the family came to this country LEGALLY. Illegal aliens lawbreakers and criminals are in this country illegally. Do you understand the difference between LEGAL and ILLEGAL? If you don’t understand the difference, then you shouldn’t even be commenting on the subject of illegal immigration.
The only people who have the right to be in the United States are American citizens and those foreigners that we have given permission to come here LEGALLY.
I don’t like getting into these foolish arguments with ridiculously uninformed people, but sometimes it’s warranted to respond accordingly.
I am baffled at the nonsense you are writing,I am positively certain you are not well read in this country’s history.
“It seems that you speak for the whole country”, but you do not speak for me and thousands of others who are citizens by birth, but we do not go around and carry a pole with a flag saying that as you do
What you fail to realize is that the natives always believed that no man can own the land. Do you think they were as greedy as some of us are, to claim what belonged to another people? I ask you who wrote the laws after having stole this land by trickery?
You still have not addressed the issue of the illegal settlers who stole this land?
The settlers wrote the laws and rules which they pattern after their European system to protect themselves after having arrived here that was one of the reasons for the war between the settlers and England.
Your attitude portrays someone who despite the evidence refuses to examine it and just maybe realize that something is amiss in this scenario.
I can guarantee you in a few years time if not sooner this country’s history will have to be corrected and rewritten. What may hinder it is individuals such as you yourself who refuses to look at the evidence.
WE
at least one smart comment…
Keith, I am baffled at the nonsense you’re writing. You are obviously frustrated about the fact that a person can’t violate a law that doesn’t exist. You just can’t get around that very simple truth. You can babble on all you want about what the native inhabitants believed in, and how they viewed the land, and what their concept of ownership was. But you still can’t get around the fact that a person can’t violate a law that doesn’t exist. Since the native inhabitants did NOT have any immigration laws in place when the European settlers arrived here, those European settlers were NOT illegal immigrants. That fact may cause you headaches or give you an ulcer, but that’s your problem. Your revisionist version of American history may satisfy you, but it doesn’t reflect the reality of what actually transpired during that period of time on this continent.
One last thing: No more amnesties!
The reality is this that you have refused to accept historical fact and you are chained to the lies you have been taught and have come to accept as truth.
You will never verify what I am saying, you have just refused to even consider it.
There was a great leader in history by the name of King Solomon who said and I quote “if you try to reprove or correct someone who is a fool, they will only turn on you, The reason this is true is because prideful people are very hateful people, and they do not want anyone telling them what to do or what is right and truthful They have no humility and are unteachable. They will blatantly refuse correction and they possess an unteachable spirit and heart.
This fits you precisely, you keep repeating “we” and “we” never once indicating this is your opinion and not the opinion of every legal and law abiding American.
You are so narrow minded that you feel you are speaking for every American which you are not!
Let me clarify and repeat again, the explorers came here in search of bounty and the settlers came in search of freedom.
Why did the king and queen of Spain funded the explorers? I guess for nothing right, WRONG! and Why did pirates attacked the explorers and ships on the high seas? I will answer that for you,for the bounty they possess and stole from other primitive people.
Their find (The spread all over Europe and and lands and shortly afterwards started building shelters and walls to claim land that did not belong to them, they soon got together and wrote laws
The news of the explorers find (the new world) spread all over Europe which caused many people to pursue the dream of getting to this new world, they arrived sometime later and at first were friends with the natives, they were fed and taught how to cultivate the land and build shelters by the natives led by SQUANTO and thereafter they barricaded themselves with walls and started claiming this land of the natives.
Soon many others followed from Europe, they got together and wrote Laws to claim another primitive man’s land, does this sound familiar?
They then started enslaving the very natives by destroying their food source and lives, by slaughtering the buffalo for no reason but to force the natives to leave that area and move from fertile land to another further away.
As the Europeans increased they kept pushing them farther and farther, they were greedy for land and possessions claiming all of it, saying they have a right to it and not the savages, they used the very Law that they wrote making it illegal for the natives to posses the land that rightfully belong to them.
The natives had no rights to anything after the arrival of the Europeans since after all they were savages and fools.
The settlers were more intelligent and used it to steal all that they could, and again I repeat, wrote the laws to give them full rights to all the lands and possessions of the natives.
This very thing they did to the African slaves and others and it continues to this day. IT IS ALL ABOUT GREED!
Open your eyes and take a look at Congress and our Representatives.
Do really think they care about us or about themselves?
I plead with you as a fellow American who loves this country and who fought in Desert Storm and will not think twice to defend this nation from the real enemy, the ones who want to do us harm and I refer to the terrorist.
The settlers as they were called destroyed the very people who lived on these lands, they brought diseases and plagues from Europe spreading it to the natives, who had a primitive way to deal with diseases but many of their medicines worked until the uninvited settlers arrived.
Do not be narrow minded and do a little research and you conclusion will be very different, I am not saying that the current laws should not be upheld but please do so in a humane and sensible way as though it was applicable to you too.
All that I wrote was just to point out that the current problem has a root and reason and many of the reasons given by many intelligent people for the cause of illegal immigration is amiss.
Should Congress pass a bill making it law, giving legal status to some 10 to 12 million undocumented immigrations, this country will see a boom in the economy.
They will begin to buy homes, cars,goods and services pay all their of taxes etc which will cause a demand for production. This will immediately
pump some 1.5 trillion dollars into the economy.
If you do not believe me, again I say do some research and verify with any renown economist.
Most people come here not to stay forever but to work and obtain a better life for their children and grandchildren, just as our some of forefathers did, they are strangers and pilgrims all they are asking for is a chance for food and shelter and in turn give back and contribute and help further build this country. When I fought in the Gulf war I met young men and women who were not even citizens of this country yet they lay down their lives for people they never will meet and I ASK YOU WHY WOULD SOMEONE DO THAT?
Some that I knew never made it back, I never heard their names called and no one said thanks for giving their lives except in burial.
They give their all and made the ultimate sacrifice for a country who calls them illegal
I am also a parent and I will do whatever I have to do to ensure my children are fed and protected.
I hope many will read my comments and have a change of heart and deal with these people in a humane way.
After all, are we not all flesh and blood from the human race and will you turn your back on the hungry,the naked and the needy and what example are we setting for our children and grandchildren?
I CANNOT DO IT AND I HOPE MANY FEEL THE SAME WAY!
May God Bless you Veronica and our wonderful country.
Keith.
Family reunification will be included in the new amnesty bill. This will allow newly legalized illegal aliens to bring their families here from their home countries. With a minimum of 20 million illegal aliens currently in the United States, this would mean that we will probably see another 30-40 million more mostly poor, unskilled, and uneducated foreigners coming here within a relatively short period of time after the amnesty bill is passed. Once they arrive here, most of these foreigners will immediately be eligible for welfare, food stamps, WIC, free medical care, etc. This will NOT be a boom for this country’s economy. Instead, it will create a massive increase in social services which will have to be paid for with much higher taxes.
If we need more money to be infused into our economy, we should concentrate on putting unemployed Americans back to work. We can also let in more legal immigrants and guest workers to supplement our workforce. These newly employed Americans, along with the employed legal immigrants and guest workers, will buy homes, cars, goods, and services, pay all their of taxes etc., which will cause a demand for production. This will pump some 1.5 trillion dollars into the economy. If you don’t believe me, do some research and verify with any renown economist. We don’t need illegal aliens in this country for any reason. Our country and our economy can get along just fine without them here.
Foreigners are welcome to come to this country to live and work, but they must do so legally. Nobody is above the law. Many Americans violate the law in order to try to achieve a better life for themselves and their children, but that doesn’t make it ok. We don’t reward Americans for violating our laws, and we shouldn’t be rewarding foreigners for violating our laws. Our immigration laws are very humane and compassionate. The United States lets in more legal immigrants than all of the other countries in the world combined. But we can’t let everybody in who wants to come here. That’s why we have immigration laws and quotas, so that it’s orderly, and so that it’s fair to all foreigners who want to immigrate here. Unfortunately, millions of illegal aliens have made the decision to bypass our legal immigration channels. These illegal aliens should NOT be rewarded with an amnesty for having violated our immigration laws.
Cooper, I agree with many of your statements but I have some questions and comments for your consideration:
(1) Where did you get those figures, “at least 20 million illegal aliens living here?”
(2)With the passage of any immigration bill making it lawful to legalize the undocumented, there is no way the relatives of those people can come here overnight, it will take some time and much cost to them, so the social services will not apply until then and even if this occurs what happens to all the fees and taxes these new immigrants paid to become legal, maybe someone will pocket it? these fees and taxes will be in the billions to trillions.
(3)Concerning the unemployed Americans and please do not misunderstand what I am saying but quite a large percentage of the young American population are lazy and do not want to work hard, I have had to work with quite a large number through out my years and I speak from my experience.
Many of them feel that they are entitled to everything without working hard to obtain it and they depend on credit cards to pay for their wasteful spending knowing they cannot afford to do so, this is one of the reasons for our situation today(greed and wasteful spending by individuals, cooperations and government)
(4)These undocumented I am almost certain possesses a good fortune since they cannot invest or put any into the financial or banking sector but they work very hard and long hours but where is their savings? we need to harness that savings and pump it into the economy and stop printing monopoly money thereby destroying our currency value.
(5)If legal and temporary guest workers come in to supplement the workforce they will not have the necessary cash in hand to purchase anything, again it will take years to accumulate it, so why then don’t we use the funds from the undocumented and make certain that they pay a high penalty.
(6)I ask you to take a look at the leaders young and old from science,law,technology and almost every area, who are they?
Around 95% are foreigners who came in legally and illegally and was helped by universities, hospitals, businesses etc you or I do not know which undocumented child or children might find the cure for cancer, Aids or any other terminal disease or maybe be another Bill Gates or great leader in any field to make this country a great country again as I knew it to be.
My humble opinion is to give them a chance but place strict laws in place and by overhauling the current immigration and employment laws making it difficult to attract any unlawful presence without the maximum penalty, and this should start upon entry in the US where they can be tracked by many different ways and means.
The answer will not be this easy but we have to start somewhere and I believe it can start with these suggestions.
Keith.
Hate to burst your bubble but CIR will NOT be happening anytime soon. Why do you think Oshama has not done anything about it yet except flap his jaws, because he knows this topic will only inflame the country. Americans are totally against this. We proved that in 2007 when we stood tall and told our gov’t that we did not want another amnesty. 2010 will be worse since now so many Americans are unemployed, thanks in part to illegals who are working jobs they are not entitled to. We are sick of millions of illegals who commit and get away with so many crimes, the anchors they drop that we have to support, feed and educate and the illegals who DEMAND rights of which they are not entitled to. Illegals will never get the respect they desire if they cannot abide by our laws and quit mooching off this country.
I don’t understand why people blame our current unemployment rates on undocumented workers. The current economic crisis was caused by unregulated banks, speculation, and the bursting of the housing bubble. It is convenient to scapegoat the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in this country, but it is certainly not clear-thinking to do so. Blame the people who are behind our global economic crisis, not the people who are suffering from it.
Illegal immigrants aren’t not here just to work, how many people without documents have a company and hired americans? We are humans and our politicans should be take care of the “humans righ”.
Many Illegal doesn’t have driver license, Isn’t easy to take care but at least look at those people.
American lawbreakers are humans too. What about their “human rights”?
Agree, I know many illegal immigrants who run their companies in Miami and their hire Americans as well.
This is really a very critical and important issue. There are so many students who really want to go for heigher studies but are stuck because of their expired status. Govt should act fast to implement the reforms so that important time of their life should not be wasted and they should be benefited with higher education
There are educational opportunities in their home countries.