Good news / bad news

Good news:

Millions of illegal immigrants will stop working today in protest against illegal immigration "crackdown" for what is being called "A day without an immigrant".














Bad news:

They plan to return to work tomorrow.

and this is suppose to be funny?

I think he got his headers switched.

*flip!*

(sound of bozo bit being flipped)

Oh, I'm pretty sure I got them right.

If only they'd protest every day! And, I think it'd be more effective if they protested in their country of origin for better jobs there.

Zuzu, the Irish that immigrated 100 years ago did so legally, and were prevented from working illegally. It's quite the opposite situation now.

He got the headers right

How does it matter that it took place 100 years ago rather than today?

So it is better to come here legally and have no job than to come illegally and have a job?
You are right it is quite the opposite situation.

Feel free to explain the "good" you see.

yes

Agreed

Because my grandparents did it the legal way. How about yours?


Guess why they won't have the jobs? Because the market is flooded with lots of workers who work for less-than-minimum wage, can't organize into unions, don't get benefits, and have virtually no rights.

That is, of course, what the illegal immigrants are fighting for - and the irony is that if they get their way, a lot of them may find themselves competing with unemployed citizens who would be willing to take the jobs at fair wages.

Affirmative

Immigration is the blood, sweat and spice of this country, but when someone comes into the country, they should enter legally.

.

Well, good. Then we actually agree.
I would much rather have these people come here legally.
I would like to see them have protetction from exploitation.
What we have are people willing to work, willing to brave the dangers to get here and willing to work for low wages. At the same time there is a demand for this labor.
The problem is an overly restrictive immagration policy that says "if you come from the 'wrong' country then you can't come here to work".
I say we modernize our criteria for allowing people in and fix things for those productive people we have here now who are illegal.

Isn't that what you're saying as well?

I'd rather have the opportunity to legally migrate to Mars, which I might have had, if American leaders weren't such fuckups over the last 40 years.

Immigrants *should* enter legally.
The border *should* be protected better.

Reality falls short of 'should'.

Frankly I'd rather have these honest, hardworking folks looking to support their families sneaking INTO our country. The alternatives are worse.

More people == more jobs, and the jobs I see most immigrants working aren't the kinds I see U.S. citizens fighting over.

I'd rather see tarriffs/taxes/quotas/fines put on companies that outsource labor to India than harsher enforcement for illegal immigration.

Disclaimer: I live in San Diego, the cross-border traffic is incredibly high here ... because no one can afford to MOVE to and LIVE in San Diego for what menial jobs pay. Of course most that cross the border for U.S. jobs daily do so legally... some of the rest get caught at the additional borderguards between San Diego and L.A.

Legal immigration is a good thng. Illegal Immigration is a bad thing. I have seen to many people struggle to do it the legal way, including people fighting for thier lives seeking political asylum to be accepting of any proposal that grants any possibility of of amnesty to people currently in the US illegally. Its not a mexican thing, its a legal thing.

If you do not like immigration policy, fine. I have major problems with it too. But the way to change that is your vote, not to allow illegal immigrants to come here and benefit from thier unlawful entry. This protest is the wrong action, for the wrong reasons, packaged up in doublespeak worth of the Bush administration. Itsa bigger shell game than the Iraq war.

Its time to secure the border, penalize those people who currently employ Illegal immigrants, we need to stop providing serivces and education to illegal immigrants, and deal with deporting those who are here illegally. Then we can turn around and address the problem of how to fill the jobs that the illegal immigrants take now. Work passes could be liberalized for sure. There are a number of serious reforms that need to be made, particularly in our relationship with mexico, but we need to make those changes in a way that reflects immigration policy.

NAFTA was supposed to open soem doors, but realistically, given the lack of economoic parity between Mexico and the US/Canada, its not been entirely worth the paper it was printed on.

Honest, hard working criminals you mean?

I agree with a lot of the posters in saying that I believe that if immigrants want to move to the USA, they really should do so legally. When my parents decided to take the boat and emmigrate to the USA, they did so through the proper legal channels. They had a sponsor family until they could be naturalized, and busted their ass to learn English so they could assimilate into American society and become self-sufficient and start their own business without the need to rely on interpreters. They understood that the USA could be the land of opportunity, so long as you put in the hard work. That hard work didn't just mean the manual labor- but the effort, vigilence and motivation to become a legit, sovereign citizen.

If one day jobs were so bad in the USA that I had to end up emmigrating myself to Canada, I would also do so through the proper legal channels. If for some reason I found myself there illegally, I couldn't fathom how I would have the gall to demand my rights whilst living there illegally and not paying my taxes. Instead I'd be busting out my touk whilst learning all aboot speaking Canuck so I wouldn't be viewed as a hoser when I have to end up going out to apply for a loan, eh? (Yes, I know most Canadians don't speak like this.. please don't lynch me and drag me behind the back of your Zamboni. )

My family and I are immgrants from Poland in the US. We came in 1987. It took ten years in order to do so legally. My grandfather came here (legally) in the mid-70s, so he was able to sponser us.

It took him nearly a decade as well to move here. His brother sponsered him, after moving here from the UK. His brother was allowed migrate to UK and then the US, because he fled Poland during WWII and served with the British in Africa.

Too bad we did it legally and didn't simply take a flight to Mexico under a tourist visa or something and crossed the border, since it would have been faster, cheaper, and back in the 70s/80s much easier to cross the boarder then it is today.

Agreed.


Again, only because it has been provided at such cheap levels. Hell, there's a demand for *free* labor, too, but we already decided that was a bad idea, too.


I don't care if you come from England, Japan, or Mexico. If you aren't here legally, then that's a problem. I would say it's *more difficult* for people from modernized countries to stay here legally, by the way, so does that mean it's discrimination against Europeans?


Yes, though are definitions of "fix" vary greatly.

To me, fix means fining companies who hire illegals, and jailing people who knowingly hire them.
To me, fix means a sophisticated entry system to the US to prevent terrorists from coming in.
To me, fix means stepping up the diplomacy with countries that are more than happy to send over people illegally and get revenue from money these people send to relatives back home.
To me, fix means not automatically granting children of illegals citizenship - perhaps legal status, but not full citizenship until they go through naturalization process.
To me, fix means examining our needs, and adjusting our *legal* immegration limits to appropriate levels.
To me, fix means appropriately funding the border patrol. Last time they requested thousands of agents, and got dozens.

What it doesn't mean to me is instantly granting people rights, and holding up a giant "COME ON IN EVERYONE!" sign to the world.

Rich people across America have panic attacks, as no one is around to care for their children or tend their lawns!

HOW WILL THEY GO ON WITHOUT THEIR GRASS BEING MOWED?!

Always trying to push the crackas down, aren't they?

I don't see people struggling to get to the US to work for free.


Not only is it a problem in itself, its also a symptom of a larger problem, which is why I think these protest marchs are important. It serves as a wake-up to people that there is a problem with out *legal* immagration policy.



I see the problem as
--our immagration limits are NOT set to appropriate levels, they are far too low
--this results in a high number of *desireable* illegals in the country. Desireable because they are here to work, they are "good" people and don't cause trouble.
--boarder maintainance becomes more difficult because of the high numbers crossing illeagally, therefore *undesireable* illegals have an easier time coming through.

Therefore, to increase out safety without spending enormous amounts of money on boarder patrol funding we should increase the number of legal immagrants allowed in. As a starting point, it might be a good idea to work toward granting legal status to those illegals who are desireable to allow to stay in the country.


yes, it would be a disaster to put up a huge sign that said:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!