As President Obama prepared to unveil his plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration system Tuesday, advocates for immigrants in Massachusetts and nationwide mobilized for what they say is their best chance in almost three decades to secure a path to US citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Advocates say Obama’s recent victory and Republican attempts to appease Latino voters who flexed their political muscle last year could propel Congress to pass legislation that has failed repeatedly, even as the number of illegal immigrants climbed to the highest levels in US history.
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until we secure our borders, we will deal with this issue every 30 years.
Until we deal with immigration, the border will continue to be a problem. Can't cure the symptom without addressing the disease. Our system is a mess; it needs to be taken down to bare ground and rebuilt to be rational, flexible and fair. At present it is none of the above.
No matter how you feel about illegal immigrants - no matter whether you wish to secure the borders, feel that they ought to be deported immediately, want mostly skilled workers who follow the legal, not illegal path to living here: there is one fact that no one can dispute: That is, so long as people live under what amounts to dictatorships in Latin American and other nations where it is not possible for parents to even support their children, we will have this "problem". Our nation supported the wrong side, the dictatorship and powerful agribusiness and other corporations in Latin American countries, so we can't sit here and just say that we have nothing to do with the cause of the problem of poor people trying to cross our borders to survive.
If you don't want to believe this, it is because you have your head in the sand. We need to face the consequences of exploitation in these Latin American and other countries - no, by no means all of our fault - and look at our complicity in the problem.
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The only good immigration plan is:
Detain and Deport...
Yes, Senator Kennedy, send'em back!
The vast majority of undocumented immigrants are honest, hard-working, family-minded people who are here because they need to take care of their families, and our government's trade policies - NAFTA, CAFTA - have made it impossible for them to do that where they were born. They came without a visa because there are no visas for them - there is no "line" they could have gotten into. - They would love to pay taxes and get into a "line."
President Obama has been tearing apart their families through deportations of hundreds of thousands of parents, and fattening the for-profit prison corporations with immigration detentions, at a rate higher than any other previous president.
Why not enforce workplace safety regulations and labor laws for all workers? That would decrease the incentive for employers to exploit undocumented workers, and help the American citizens who are also affected by wage theft and unsafe workplaces.
And first of all, stop deporting innocent people. That includes the hard-working fathers and mothers who re-entered the country to be with their spouse and children after being deported. I know a number myself, and they are not "criminals" the way the President paints them to be. They are no different from all the other people who had no other way to support their kids and old parents. Many have been here for a decade or two and worked hard all this time.
Let's start with fairness.
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If he decides to let them stay, then they should be inelligible for welfare and should pay an "I lived here illegally" tax for like 10 years. Then it is like, ok, you can stay but you didn't win the lottery...welcome to the real America, taxes are high and when Deval and Obama are done are on everything. And make sure you get health insurance ERs aren't free...my copay alone is $150. Welcome, if you can accept that you shouldn't have more rights and benefits thsn those of us who followed the rules...
Where do you see undocumented immigrants getting "more rights and benefits thsn [sic] those of us who followed the rules" under this new plan?
Once this plan is shoved down the throats of the majority, do you think it would be possible to get back to checking all children in our public classrooms for proper immunization? You've put this off, placed our children in danger just to squeeze a vote from the undocumented visitors. It amazing just how low you'll go to stroke your ego's!
Someone had better get a grip on the borders no matter what they do with the illegal aliens who are here.
Mexico's birth rate is over 17/1000
Guatamala's is over 30/1000
Ours is about 11/1000
I can almost understand accepting 1,000,000 immigrants per year, almost. But not based on what Barry says about attracting brilliant people. That is actually an insult to all of us living here. We have plenty of brilliant people already of many ethnicities and cultures. Maybe he is just admitting that the Feds have totally failed with our primary and high school education systems, so we should import those people into our universities, cause our kids are too stupid?
Maybe he's read your posts! Hold on, big guy- Just KIDDIN' YOU... All in good fun. Geez, don't go off on me now.... take it easy...
"History" the net gain from immigration from Mexico right now is zero. It is the net result of stronger enforcement and a slowing birth rate in Mexico and limitations on jobs in America. As to accepting brilliant people how is that an insult to Americans. He's simply saying yeah we are getting more brilliant people. What you want a limitation on brilliant people.
Well I see the usual no fact emotional responses on the board. I suppose we could just ignore the problem like we have for the past ten years. We've got a couple of poposals that seem fairly logic and makes snese, but hey it's more fun to just do nothing that way you can complain. The reality is you are not going to round them up and send them home no matter how much you wish to do that. You can defeat every bill regarind immigration but then you will destroy the Republican Party for all time.
So you just go ahead and complain list all the bad things and guess what. Some folks see the long term, even Republican's, fix this problem or become a permanent minority Party with a shinking base of old white guys. Grow up guys.
Let them all in and I hope they take your job. Everything free in America!