Immigration or amnesty

Amen, cranberry.

Some version of "amnesty" will be passed eventually. That's the reality.

Rejecting this bill was a chance for a lot of people to try and score political points, and nothing more.

 

You're looking at this solely in terms of "why is it 'suddenly' an issue," when that's entirely beside the point.

However, since it seems to be the focus of your vision right now, it's not suddenly an issue just because radio blowhards have said it is. It's a problem that's filtered up on an increasingly steady basis. To say 'suddenly' is to pretend it's not been an issue before.

But with the economy struggling thanks to billions upon billions spent on the war, failed tax cuts, reduced personal spending following the 9/11 attacks, layoffs, etc., suddenly people are taking much more note of how much of their tax money is being squandered on illegals.

Hell, I don't need a radio blowhard to see this is an issue. I see it every day in my own freaking town.

 

I would say it's affecting us more now than 20 years ago because of economic factors. Everything's more expensive -- healthcare, education, etc.

Here's a link that may help this discussion: http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/tri3fullreport.pdf

It's a long government document, but I tried to scan it for some numbers, etc., and it contains some pretty valuable information concerning the subject.

But back to your question, this document estimates that in 1996, only 5 million undocumented immigrants were in the country. Now there are 12 to 20 million by most estimates. That's a pretty significan increase in 11 years.

It also said the 1986 amnesty program that gave amnesty to 2.5 million didn't work, and encouraged more illegal immigration.

 

OK, thanks, at least that's an acceptable answer to my question.

I doubt the nation's xenophobes know about the extent of growth during that time frame and/or want to blame many of our problems on a false cause, but that's another argument.

 

It has nothing to do with xenophobia. These people are lawbreakers and are not conveyed any rights by the Constitution as such. Look up the town of Maywood, Calif., sometime and see how "overrated" the problem is there.

Eisenhower (a real president) dealt with the situation effectively, using not much more than 1,000 patrol agents -- we now have more than 10,000 ineffectuals doing the job -- to seal the borders. It's still the talk of oldtimers on the patrol.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0706/p09s01-coop.html

 

1). I have often heard that 33 percent of this country's prison population consists of illegal immigrant. Is that statistic accurate and where can I find it?
2). Some say that if we just sent all the illegals back to where they came from, our healthcare crisis would be solved because all or most of the uninsured who go to emergency rooms are illegal immigrants. Are there any statistics to back that up? Aren't there also many poor, uninsured US citizens who do the same thing? I was one of them once.
3). Would it kill Lou Dobbs to give it a rest and talk about something else for just one night?

 

There are some 12 million illegals.

There are some 40 million uninsured Americans who aren't illegal.

So a statement that "all or most of the uninsured who go to emergency rooms are illegal immigrants" is obviously absurd.

 

My point exactly.

 

I'd venture that the one third of the prison population statistic is utter bullshit on its face, as well.

 

I don't get this. My ancestors immigrated legally, but I wouldn't have bet against them coming here illegally if the legal way had been difficult, if the choice was staying in the old country vs. sneaking in.

 

Sometime during the decade of 1910-1920, my Italian grandfather came to this country. He came legally, but in 1924 Congress passed a law to keep people like him as well as Eastern Europeans out.

Before than, my great grandmother came over from Ireland, probably in the later part of the 19th century. The Irish weren't real popular either with the Lou Dobbs of that day.

In 1994, my Mexican fiancee and I crossed the border legally, went to the court to get married after she got a 3-week visa. That was the year of Prop. 187, another anti-immigrant law passed in California.

In the first couple books of the Bible, God tells the Israelites to remember they were immigrants after he guides them out of Egypt. Like the Irish and Italians and other ethnic groups today, they "forget".

The point I am making is that "the law" has always been biased when it comes to immigration. There have always been the Lou Dobbs and Minutemen threatening going to hell in a handbasket, and yet the USA becomes stronger because of immigrants.

 

Hell of a post, Gold.

My ancestors came here I'm almost certain illegally during the famine.

You'd have a hard time convincing me that the "rule of law" meant shit to them, seeing as how the "rule of law" over in England was letting ships full of food rot in the harbors and foreclosing on sharecroppers farms.

Nobody wanted them here, either.