Illegal Immigration: Invasion by Another Name

[Semper_Fi_1]

Of course, in the long term, the bad thing is that illegal immigration harms Mexico by allowing the Mexican government to go on with NOT taking care of its people.

We need a Marshall Plan for Mexico; get her up and running as an effective modern democracy. NAFTA wasn’t it.

AMEN. I agree with you 100%. Mexico is in an interesting situation. It is a develop/ed/ing modern Western country with a corrupt government. They are capitalistic insofar as the multi-nationals can establish a presence in Mexico and get richer by exploiting the Mexican citizens by providing subpar wages, subpar working conditions and no healthcare or life insurance benefits (incidently putting the burden on the United States), but not capitalistic in the sense that just anyone can establish a business and prosper if they work hard. They have vast wealth and resources but the wealth is in the hands of the few. Mexico is not a democratic republic but a dictatorship ran by the multi-nationals who benefit from NAFTA.

 

[ziggernaut]

Amen. The only change I would wish for is to not tie this to the Republicans. This is a national issue, transcending any party affinity. And in truth, the Republicans under GW have probably done more to exacerbate this problem and its seriousness than the Democrats.

I am told that if I “love my neighbor” I will stay quiet or even support millions swarming across our borders unbidden. This is a logical fallacy. One does not love one’s neighbor by doing harm to another neighbor, except in just defense of the first.

In fact, if I support illegal immigration, I fail to love and instead do serious harm to my neighbors who are Americans - in lost jobs, lowered wages, lost access to and increased costs of health care, higher insurance rates (auto as well as health), higher costs for education, decreased quality of education, a higher welfare burden and less access to welfare for needy Americans, and higher rates of crime…and in many cases, more brutal crime.

No matter the twisted logic used to try and support it…It is not just to rob Peter to pay Paul…and when done under color of authority it smacks of arrogance and elitism.

Amen, amen, amen!

God Bless…
Jeff

 

[Greg27]

I believe every country has a right to control its borders. In Australia for example, because we are an isolated country and our economy relies a lot on agriculture, we need to screen imported goods very carefully for diseases which might infect and ruin crops or agriculture, as well as damage our unique biodiversity.

Likewise, with illegal immigrants, we need to screen them for diseases like TB and also keep their numbers under control.

Yet compassion is also important. A lot of people migrate for economic reasons, but in some cases they also flee violence, persecution, rape, war, or drought or flooding. Jesus did say in Mathew ‘Whatever you did for the least of these…you also did for me.’ Migration policy should not be merciless.

 

[Semper_Fi_1]

I believe every country has a right to control its borders. In Australia for example, because we are an isolated country and our economy relies a lot on agriculture, we need to screen imported goods very carefully for diseases which might infect and ruin crops or agriculture, as well as damage our unique biodiversity.

Likewise, with illegal immigrants, we need to screen them for diseases like TB and also keep their numbers under control.

Yet compassion is also important. A lot of people migrate for economic reasons, but in some cases they also flee violence, persecution, rape, war, or drought or flooding. Jesus did say in Mathew ‘Whatever you did for the least of these…you also did for me.’ Migration policy should not be merciless.

Our migration policy is not merciless. However, as it is now, it only encourages lawlessness in both the United States and Mexico. No one does anything about it. Our local governments claim that it is a federal issue, so they do nothing and normal citizens are the ones that suffer. Where I live we have a lot of illigals and they are not being absorbed into the American culture (neither do they want to be). A lot of them see coming to the United States as their ‘right’ because Mexico & Spain used to control some parts of the southwestern US. We legally purchased the land from Mexico after winning it (we didn’t have to give them a dime) and turned it into what it is today.

Also, Mexico won’t fix its internal problems if it thinks that it can thrust them on us. We have a good immigration system if the current laws were enforced. When America takes care of its poor people and working class first then we should worry about foreigners. But we still take refugees, exhiles and the destitute.

NAFTA & CAFTA has been a huge failure for this continent.

Bush is trying now to let Mexican truckers into the United States without any quality controls such as proper CDL licensing, background checks etc. What Bush and the leaders of Canada and Mexico are trying to create is a North American Union without borders and sovereignty. www.spp.gov details this plan of the Security and Prosperity Partnership which includes working groups at the cabinet levels of all administrations (non-legislative – so our representatives have no say so in these internal meetings).

Our current situation in regards to our President’s immigration policy and the Security and Prosperity Partnership are a direct result of NAFTA & CAFTA.

 

[Teelynn]

Bush is trying now to let Mexican truckers into the United States without any quality controls such as proper CDL licensing, background checks etc. What Bush and the leaders of Canada and Mexico are trying to create is a North American Union without borders and sovereignty. www.spp.gov details this plan of the Security and Prosperity Partnership which includes working groups at the cabinet levels of all administrations (non-legislative – so our representatives have no say so in these internal meetings).

Our current situation in regards to our President’s immigration policy and the Security and Prosperity Partnership are a direct result of NAFTA & CAFTA.

Very interesting. Did not realize this until I read your post. I think alot of people (like I have) keep looking for a link between Mexico and USA politically, realizing there has to be a behind the scenes reason for total lack of control of our borders and total indifference to the immigration problem from the top. Total indifference no matter how loud Americans screamed. Thanks for shedding some light.

 

[Greg27]

Our migration policy is not merciless. However, as it is now, it only encourages lawlessness in both the United States and Mexico. No one does anything about it. Our local governments claim that it is a federal issue, so they do nothing and normal citizens are the ones that suffer. Where I live we have a lot of illigals and they are not being absorbed into the American culture (neither do they want to be). A lot of them see coming to the United States as their ‘right’ because Mexico & Spain used to control some parts of the southwestern US. We legally purchased the land from Mexico after winning it (we didn’t have to give them a dime) and turned it into what it is today.

Also, Mexico won’t fix its internal problems if it thinks that it can thrust them on us. We have a good immigration system if the current laws were enforced. When America takes care of its poor people and working class first then we should worry about foreigners. But we still take refugees, exhiles and the destitute.

NAFTA & CAFTA has been a huge failure for this continent.

Bush is trying now to let Mexican truckers into the United States without any quality controls such as proper CDL licensing, background checks etc. What Bush and the leaders of Canada and Mexico are trying to create is a North American Union without borders and sovereignty. www.spp.gov details this plan of the Security and Prosperity Partnership which includes working groups at the cabinet levels of all administrations (non-legislative – so our representatives have no say so in these internal meetings).

Our current situation in regards to our President’s immigration policy and the Security and Prosperity Partnership are a direct result of NAFTA & CAFTA.

I never said the U.S. policy was merciless; I in fact said every country has a right to control its borders. What I did though was qualify that statement so that border control concerns are balanced with compassion and justice. That in policy, is something each country has to work out itself according to its situation.

 

[anniemart]

I never said the U.S. policy was merciless; I in fact said every country has a right to control its borders. What I did though was qualify that statement so that border control concerns are balanced with compassion and justice. That in policy, is something each country has to work out itself according to its situation.

[But we still take refugees, exhiles and the destitute]

And isn’t interesting that people forget the “who” that constituted the initial colonies? Remember the Penal Colonies? Yes, we might just all have criminal ancestors in our bloodlines…oh, the problems, the problems, the problems with immigration…maybe it’s all hereditary!

 

[strngrnrth]

We should open our borders but require that anyone living here follow our laws, including the minimum wage law. Make it easier to become a citizen. Citizenship involves responsibility and instills attachment to a country and its laws and ways. Treat those who scream at us while waving a Mexican flag just as we would treat those who scream at us while waving a Soviet flag – ignore them.
We should protect our sovereignty by watching who we vote for and by taking an active role as citizens. Anyone who remembers the '60’s knows that if we ar econquered it is just as likely to be from within, by American-born radicals.
If you are not 100% Pre-Revolutionary in your descent, you are a beneficiary of our past open borders. The average American is 37. The average gap between parent and child in this country is 28 (not everyone is the oldest child). If the second generation was all born five years from arrival, and your immigrant ancestors all came over just as the Stamp Act was passing, in 1760, the second gen. dates to 1765. Subtract 37 from 2007 and you get 1970. Subtract 1760 from 1970 and you get 210. Divide that by 28 and you get 7 1/2. Add two for 9 1/2. You’re either ninth or tenth generation. With no inbreeding, you have between 256 and 512 immigrant ancestors. That is probably very very unusual. In other words, easy immigration made Americans of almost all of us in this country. In fact, since your ancestors were probably born in more than one country, you likely would never have been born if this land hadn’t let your forebears in so gladly. You owe your life to the open borders of our past.

 

[maryjk]

You owe your life to the open borders of our past.

Maybe my American citizenship, but my life? In your opinion, I would not be alive if my Grandfather had not come over from Ireland?

And my Grandfather came over within the law. He didn’t sneak over the boarder.

 

[strngrnrth]

Maybe my American citizenship, but my life? In your opinion, I would not be alive if my Grandfather had not come over from Ireland?

And my Grandfather came over within the law. He didn’t sneak over the boarder.

Would you have been born if your parents had never met? And what I’m suggesting isn’t that we wink at people sneaking in, but that we make it legal to come in, while expecting everyone here to obey our laws. That’s how it was when most of my ancestors came, and I’m glad. The problem of my ancestors’ nonproximity aside, my Irish ancestors most probably would not hve lived to have kids had they stayed. That’s why they came here. To live. At that time, Americans were frightened that the Irish would destroy America. The culture seemed so different, and the newcomers lacked dignity, being half dead and all that. And, many Irish formed gangs and pressured employers for higher wages and better conditions. They had a reputation for being mobsters very soon, and a few even were. Yet Ireland gave this country inventors, artists, statesmen and stateswomen, humanitarians and others who made America better.
The same happened with the Poles, Italians, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Eastern European Jews, Russians, Greeks, Romanians, Chinese and others. America was better off at the end of the 100-plus-year Immigrant Rush than before.

 

[maryjk]

Would you have been born if your parents had never met? And what I’m suggesting isn’t that we wink at people sneaking in, but that we make it legal to come in, while expecting everyone here to obey our laws. That’s how it was when most of my ancestors came, and I’m glad. The problem of my ancestors’ nonproximity aside, my Irish ancestors most probably would not have lived to have kids had they stayed. That’s why they came here. To live. At that time, Americans were frightened that the Irish would destroy America. The culture seemed so different, and the newcomers lacked dignity, being half dead and all that. And, many Irish formed gangs and pressured employers for higher wages and better conditions. They had a reputation for being mobsters very soon, and a few even were. Yet Ireland gave this country inventors, artists, statesmen and stateswomen, humanitarians and others who made America better.
The same happened with the Poles, Italians, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Eastern European Jews, Russians, Greeks, Romanians, Chinese and others. America was better off at the end of the 100-plus-year Immigrant Rush than before.

Not having read the whole thread and just responding to this. I really don’t know if my parents would have met. But I do know that my Grandparents and Great-Grandparents came into this country trying to be part of this country.

They waved American flags, they tried their best to learn the language. In effect, they became American. They did not demand that teachers speak Slovok or Gaelic. Yes, Great-Grandma that never went out still only spoke their native tongue, but everyone else learned English.

And they came to this country under the laws of this country. I know I said that before, but I think it needs repeating. People that want to come to this country and plan on following our laws need to start by coming into this country legally. Not over the fence. Not using someone else’s social security number. And not sneaking back in after being sent home 2 or 3 times. If the laws need to be changed, fine. We can look at the laws. But that doesn’t mean that we have to give amnesty to everyone already here.

 

[strngrnrth]

Not having read the whole thread and just responding to this. I really don’t know if my parents would have met. But I do know that my Grandparents and Great-Grandparents came into this country trying to be part of this country.

They waved American flags, they tried their best to learn the language. In effect, they became American. They did not demand that teachers speak Slovok or Gaelic. Yes, Great-Grandma that never went out still only spoke their native tongue, but everyone else learned English.

And they came to this country under the laws of this country. I know I said that before, but I think it needs repeating. People that want to come to this country and plan on following our laws need to start by coming into this country legally. Not over the fence. Not using someone else’s social security number. And not sneaking back in after being sent home 2 or 3 times. If the laws need to be changed, fine. We can look at the laws. But that doesn’t mean that we have to give amnesty to everyone already here.

No automatic amnesty – fair enough. But I also don’t want the attempt to enforce our immigration laws to turn into another excuse to invade our privacy.