The more accurate description for the euphemistic “immigrant” label would be illegal aliens. The more often squatters & trespassers are equated with immigrants, the less likely a compromise solution will be found.
You keep trying to make this point, somehow trying to lay the blame for these protests on government actions. You are wrong.
Yes, of course, the recent debates in congress have brought the issue to the fore, but WHY is the issue being debated. It’s because about 11 million people have broken our laws. We agree that the government is somewhat complicit allowing the problem to get so big, but the fact remains, there are laws on the books that these people willfully violated. THAT is the reason we have this problem now. To attempt to blame congress for this mess now, when they are FINALLY attemptiing to enforce the law and control our border, ranges from laughable to disengenuous. Thank goodness for the Minutemen who have shed light on the issue and are forcing our chickenshit politicians to do their duty.
One of the articles you cited makes the argument that our immigration laws are unjust. I, and I bet most Americans, would not agree with that estimation. Any country has the right to set its own immigration policy and control its own borders. But even if they are unjust, it is not up to people who snuck into this country to change our laws. Anyone who raises their hand to do so shold be the first ones shipped out—immediately.
At a very basic level its simply an issue of manners. Even a guest knows that they should display the good graces of not making demands of a host. If I come to your house for dinner I don’t start making demands about how you cook the chicken. And these people aren’t even guests. They’re trespassers. Law-breakers. And for them to make ANY demands on the people’s home into which they have stealed is the height of hubris and disrespect. These “protests” have brought this to light. For THAT, I am glad they happened. Maybe, finally, America will wake up and do what has to be done about this invasion of illegals. This is an attack on our national sovereignity, and it is incumbent upon our elected officials to make sure that our laws are enforced. And I, for one, am doing what I can to hold them accountable.
I think you are being disengenuous here. While legal immigration reform is necessarily part of the discussion, it is not what the arguement about. Your, and other’s, desire to portray it as so is a transparent attempt to NOT have the focus be on the illegals: what we do about the one’s that are already here and how to keep people from sneaking in in the future.
No, you are missing my point. My point is that there are people here legally, and plenty of them, who support the efforts of others to legalize. If you look at the data I linked above, you will see that a large number of families with at least one member here illegally have other members here legally. And that doesn’t count the people who have no relatives here illegally, but still somehow manage to have empathy.
But you’re agreeing with my point. As does your cite. In fact, it’s the entire point of your cite: illegal aliens (euphemistically referred to as “unauthorized workers” :rolleyes: ). Check the title even. The issue is the 11.5 to 12 million people here illegally. Sure, there are groups that want to have a say in this, family members, etc, but the question is what do we do about people who are here illegally now, and those that will flout are laws in the future.
According to your cite, 56% of the illegal population. Another 22% or so are from Latin America meaning more than 3 out of every 4 illegals are Spanish-speaking South Americans. I think that should be kept in perspective.
Here is an English translation of the Spanish version of the Star-Spangled Banner, for those who are curious:
El Cid, though I agree Tancredo is out of it mentally, I have the impression his seat is perfectly safe, and will be until a fellow Republican manages to knock him off in the primary.
I know that - English is my native language, even, and I have pretty decent reading comprehension skills.
If you actually read the methodology section starting on p. 14, you will see that a significant proportion of the group the report defines as “unauthorized” includes people in quasi-legal, even employment-authorized statuses as Temporary Protective Status (a category that applies to people whom the U.S. government has decided cannot safely return to their home countries, but who may not qualify for asylum on one of the statutory grounds, as in cases of civil wars; it’s been used for Central Americans, Liberians, etc.). It also includes asylum applicants, whose cases may remain undecided for long periods of time, but if approved will be allowed to remain in the U.S. indefinitely and eventually apply for permanent residency and citizenship.
Historical note: many Central Americans were granted permission to remain in the U.S. as the result of a class action suit in the 1990s, in which the plaintiffs alleged that the asylum applications of hundreds of thousands of Central Americans were denied for reasons of the U.S. foreign policy at the time, rather than on the statutory bases of proving a well-founded fear of persecution as required under U.S. law and international treaties to which the U.S. is signatory. Because their asylum cases were improperly denied at a time when they would likely have been approvable, eventually and after much legal action on the part of grassroots groups, the government passed a special program to allow these wronged people to apply for permanent residency. So “unauthorized” does not equal “illegal” or whatever other dehumanizing term you care to use.
In case you can’t find it yourself, look at p. 13 for demographic info on the mixed legal status of families with at least one undocumented member.
Mexico is part of North America.
As are Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, etc. Lochdale needs to start at Venezuela to find his desired South Americans.
As a practical matter, I don’t think so.
Nope, the idea is to make it worse for those illegals and to even turn the people who are helping into criminals.
Not at all, many see the lack of money to do so and then realize the plan of the house is a fairy story.
http://thinkprogress.org/?tag=Immigration
Even the local conservative press called the Minutemen clowns.
And I have said before that they take their chances, I’m not going to stop them.
The situation right now is of a host that is demanding other hosts to be arrested if they help the guests. I think even on biblical times God preferred to side with the guests rather than the hosts.
Even conservatives in this board have mentioned that the House plan will be changed or dismissed.
Spanish speaking, non US-citizens. The vast majority of illegals are hispanic/latinos.
[aside]
This reminded me of a pit I forgot to make a long time ago:
Some mayor news outlet (I think it was ABC) posted a report that said that Firestone tire accidents (that was the first sign of the tread separation problems elsewhere) were first reported in Venezuela, *“a country under the equator”. * :rolleyes:
I noticed that in other places as well.
Members of the media: Venezuela is OVER the equator![/aside]
Back to your regular pitting.
Okay. Accordiing to your cite:
11.5 - 12 million illegals (page 1)
From Page 16:
So, so far we have
- 12 million illegals (I round it up to make the math easier).
- Between 3 million and 4.8 million have overstayed their Visas.
- Which leaves between 7.2 million adn 9 million illegals that have snuck in (EWIs).
From that, again from page 16, we have between 300,000 and 400,000 who the report claims fall into “quasi-legal” status. Another 250,000 have applied for asylum. (Even the report acknolwedges that most of these applicants will NOT have their applications approved, but we’ll leave that aside for now.) The we have 600,000 whao have applied for legal staus, and are waiting to hear, and about 100,000 who are immediate relatives or fiancees of legal residents (althought this does not make them legal.
So, using your numbers in your best possible light to your argument, we have 12 million people who are here illegally, and 1.35 million that we might want to not count in that number. So even using the more conservative 11.5 million and the generous 1.35 million, we have 10.15 million people here illegally.
So, let’s talk about them and see if we can find some common ground. As it applies to these 10.15 million that are here illegally, what do you suggest we do? Anything? Nothing? Should we enforce our imigration laws at all? And hiow about the future? Should we know who is coming into our country and keep out those who arrive here counter to our laws?
I would really appreciate your answer to those questions.
I think I’ve solved that problem (for the purposes of this discussion) by granting you the benefit of every doubt on every definition and claim.SO please answer my questions as they apply to those that are here 100% illegally.
Well, that seems to be a practical problem. Practical problems can often be solved with a little creative thinking. So, is the problem you have a practical one or an idealogical one? Is there any point in exploring solutions for the practical problem?
Yes, the powers that be have done a fine job of demonizing these fine Americans. Not surprising in the least considering the conduct of bot our dem and rep elected officials over the past few decades. And now.
There is no host. A host implies an invitation. If you sneak in to my house you are not a guest. These people are trespassers. We can have a reasonable debate about the people who are helping them without trying to obfuscate the fact that there are millions here illegally.
No doubt. And again you point to a practical problem, which there may be ways to solve.
No, you are trying to tap dance away the fact that many religious and charity organizations do believe they are that, and that they are at risk of being declared criminals for doing what they think is a human thing.
And once again, It is silly to ignore past precedents, bills do wonders on getting rid of the illegal title; and once again, there will be no amnesty, but fines to acknowledge the trespass.
They can believe what they like. I can help someone who has broken some other law and feel that I’m doing the right thing. That doesn’t make it okay.
We are not debating if a bill’s passage CAN do that. Of course, it can. It’s already done so in the past. If by no amnesty and fines you mean a fine followed by deportation, we are in agreement. Anything else 1) rewards illegal behavior, 2) encourages more of the same in the future and 3) is grossly unfair to those who have and are atempting to gain legal entry while not sneaking in or overstayiong their visas.
Of course deportation is an option on the senate plan if the now legal residents don’t jump the hoops. Really **magellan01 ** your purity of denying a change in the conditions would have meant we would still be under the prohibition of alcohol law, the argument that some indeed who were not captured under that law would be “rewarded” after repealing that law was considered and dismissed.
And regarding the OP, virtually all the points there are moot: at least in Arizona:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0419boycott0419.html
Now for this, I’ll be there, with my American flag no less.
I just found this radio promotion called The Great American Spend-a-Lot and posted it in the GD thread. I thought others here would find it interesting, as well.
It is a promotion/anti-boycott by The John and Ken Show, a radio show on KFIAM640. To encourage you to buy a lot of stuff they ask you to fax in your receipt. Then twice an hour (3-7PM) they will select a receipt at random and reimburse you for your purchase—up to $640 per receipt. I’ll be buying some presentation materials. I need them anyway, and maybe they’ll be for free. Plus, anything to make this stupid anti-American boycott even more useless I’m all for.