Yes, I would. You have to draw a line somewhere; and whoever finds himself on the wrong side of the line is likely to believe himself the victim of injustice.
Mere physical presence doesn’t make anyone a member of a community. I can attend mass at a Catholic church, and I can take part in social functions there or even do volunteer work for a church bake sale or something; but as I don’t believe in Catholic doctrines, didn’t grow up in a Catholic family or a heavily Catholic neighborhood, and don’t have any other significant connections to the Catholic church or community, it would be absurd to insist that I was somehow a Catholic.
When people do not have a shared culture–a shared history, religion, philosophy, language, customs and traditions, values and beliefs, commonly held social and political institutions and principles, and other things beside–they are not a community. They’re just a bunch of strangers who all happen to live in the same geographic area.
An all-inclusive community is a self-contradiction.
And I notice your example doesn’t include the guy who enters the country illegally, uses fake or stolen Social Security numbers and forged papers to get work, lives with 9 or 10 other people in a two bedroom apartment where they play loud music 24 hours a day and harass the women in the neighborhood, drives without insurance or a driver’s license and flees the scene of any accident he causes, whose kids monopolize a teacher’s time at the expense of my kids, and who drives down wages for American citizens.
Just how many unskilled laborers who can’t speak English do we really need?
How did “equal protection of the laws” come to include the right to enter the country illegally and engage in all kinds of other illegal actions once here? Does it mean that we obligated to provide food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, and employment for anybody who can make it across the border legally or illegally?
We already have 300 million people here. How many are enough? 400 million? 500 million? A billion?
As I said before, how many poor people who don’t speak English do we really need?
We can’t physically accommodate everyone who wants to come. If we try, they’ll swamp the boat.
For the most part, you are correct however I have seen a few exceptions.
All arguments about legal or illegal, I would be a little hesitant to use a day laborer from a 7-11 since I really don’t know what his qualifications are and what his criminal background is. Does this guy really know how to lay tile or install drywall? Of course, usually they are hired to do some yard work and or to haul construction debris.
I recall hearing that there was some problem as well with finding an organization to run the center. The town didn’t want to be running it and the organizations interested wouldn’t exclude illegals. Is my memory correct on this?
I think Herndon is in a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation. The voters don’t particularly want the center, but the 7-11s get overrun with day laborers looking for work and members of the community looking to hire them. Obviously there is a demand for them or they wouldn’t be there.
I thought that the idea of a center for them was a good one in that it removed them from the street and it gave the laborers and the people hiring them a certain amount of protection. I certainly don’t envy anyone living near that 7-11.
Some of the voters – probably a majority of the voters – don’t want the centre. On the other hand some of the voters – and again probably a majority – benefit from the low labour costs of the immigrant workers in Herndon.
In fact, I’d be prepared to bet that most of those complaining about the centre have benefited in various ways from the low labour costs of immigrants, including a lower price for their wonderfully exclusive homes. What they want is for these poor people to come invisibly – like Santa’s elves – and do all the work cheaply, then disappear again as soon as the work is done: disappear as far away as possible, so they don’t have to allow the poor people who work in their community to be part of their community.
Well, I wouldn’t be comfortable with a system that allowed the government to beat people in the streets because they were illegal immegrants, for example.
I would suggest that question is best directed to the employers who hire such people in their tens of thousands.
And I’d be prepared to bet that many of the people who benefit from cheap labor from illegal aliens choose simply to ignore the destructive impact of illegals on the lives of lower class Americans, and then call us racist when we try to draw their attention to it.
It doesn’t. It means that all laws apply to everyone who is here, regardless of how or why they got here in the first place. Other laws make certain actions illegal, and those who commit those acts can be arrested…but that doesn’t remove the protections granted by the Constitution.
In other words, you can arrest and deport an illegal immigrant, but you can’t remove the legal protections from them that have been granted explicitly by the Constitution.
Who has advocated that? And how does it answer my question? How does the 14th amendment grant illegal aliens the right to engage in blatantly criminal actions?
I would suggest that it is also properly addressed to liberals who hope to build a political power base among immigrants.
I was responding to a comment by LonesomePolecat about “blur[ing] the distinction between citizen and non-citizen”. He didn’t seem to be distinguishing legal and illegal non-citizens.
Oh really? In this neck of the woods the major employers of the illegals are the smaller local “gardening service” businesses and a few small-time construction companies; not major corporations or large businesses. I’d be surprised if it were different over by you.
Questions:
Is there any kind of legal limitation in Herndon about how many unrelated people can live in a house?
Presumably these are rentals. Does anyone check if people not “on the lease” are living there? Isn’t that illegal in Herndon?
Are the authorities arresting people for disturbing the peace or violation of noise ordinances for the all-night parties or other behavior that is unacceptable?
I’m not trying to dismiss your concerns; I would have the same objections. I just wonder why laws that would apply to anyone are not used in this situation. Also I don’t know what the laws are there, but I believe that in many cases a lease is required to state who lives there.
I thought you were saying constitutionally protected rights should be for citizens only? Which would take me out of coverage too, by the way.
I don’t think the 14th grants illegal aliens the right to engage in blatantly criminal actions. I would be intrigued to see legal analysis that shows it did.
As long as there is a market for illegal immigrants, there will be illegal immigrants. If you hire them, they will come. You can focus enforcement actions on the individuals who are trying to provide a better life for their family, and, short of the long term incarceration of every person you can find not carrying the right papers (and I am not sure that would work either), there is pretty much nothing that will work to stem immigration.
Or alternatively, you can hit the companies that hire these workers at substandard wages, and punish them. But that would mean that prices would go up in restaurants, in supermarkets, for many services. It would also mean the businesses profiting from this might stop giving money to the politicians concerned. And that would never do.