Discord on the Immigration Accord

[didymus]

tinyurl.com/28annw

Discord on the Immigration Accord

There is little doubt about how grass-roots organizations feel about a bipartisan immigration compromise reached in the Senate: They don’t like it.
The New York Immigration Coalition issued a statement that called the proposal unacceptable, saying, “We say no to this deal.” In California, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund vowed to oppose numerous provisions in the plan. In Massachusetts, an immigrant and refugee advocacy coalition said the deal was “immoral, unworkable and unacceptable.”

While the senators and Bush administration officials exchanged congratulations on Capitol Hill for reaching the compromise, supporters and opponents of illegal immigrants eyed the politicians warily and prepared for a legislative showdown as the proposal heads to the Senate floor this week.

Under the proposal, an estimated 12 million immigrants who are in the country illegally would be eligible for legal status if they work hard, obey the law and go back to their countries of origin with the assurance that they could return. A guest-worker program would allow 400,000 new foreign nationals each year to work temporarily in the United States, but they would have no path to citizenship.

From what I’ve heard and read so far this bill won’t make it out of the Senate in its present form and may very well be DOA in the House.

My favorite mantra that I keep hearing in justification is “There’s no way you can round up and deport twelve million people.” Well, there’s no way to keep out illegal drugs either, but that doesn’t stop them from trying.

 

[pigtown]

Even if illegal immigrants do work hard, care for their families and do everything else they should be doing, the fact remains that they are in this country illegally. What is it about illegal that some people don’t understand? If you are here illegally, then you should be sent back to wherever you came from.
Another thing - when pregnant women come to this country, illegally, just so their children can be born here and can be American citizens, that should be stopped. A child should only be an American citizen if the mother is here legally. The child born to an illegal immigrant should also be considered an illegal immigrant! Too many people claim that we are trying to break up families when we even suggest that illegal immigrants be returned to their own countries when they have children who were born here and are, therefore, American citizens. The children should also be returned with their parents. We shouldn’t break up families; they should be sent back to their own countries together, as families should be.

 

[jc-servant]

We would not have to deport millions if the federal government just did what it is proposing to do after granting amnesty, enforce serious sanctions against employers of illegal workers. If the jobs dried up, the people would pack and remove themselves to another place where they could make the kind of living they want or they would just go home. I believe this new legislation is not needed and is a waste of time and money because it will not make anyone happy (or likely even become law).

The vast majority of people here illegally are not from war-torn countries. This is why proponents of amnesty keep bringing up red herring arguments about dignity and splitting of families, etc. These folks are here to make more money than they could at home. It stinks to be poor, but it is not a basic human right to earn middle class money.

If we enforced the laws we already have we would then have sufficient resources to focus on the criminals and other people who don’t leave voluntarily when they have no work. We could offer amnesty to those few people who actually are running from death due to wars, etc in their home countries.

I cannot believe that the debate on amnesty has not focused more on the future impact of millions of low skilled, poorly educated people who will have a very difficult time learning a second language. The wave that got amnesty in the 1980’s is applying for disability in increasing numbers, not because they don’t want to work but because years of hard labor with no skills and education to fall back on will put a person out of the job market earlier than a skilled worker.

One serious injury or even something like carpal tunnel can make these folks eligible for disability from Social Security due to the lack of English fluency. They will be able to draw more from that program than they ever put into the system. Additionally, they will still be eligible for the retirement benefits when they finally get to that age. I’m still waiting to hear this discussed on even Fox News.