Imigration protests today

[Mulhollanddose]

I was watching Georgie Steponallofus' (Clinton's boy turned objective ABC journalist) show with Tom Tancredo (Republican) and Arlen Specter (half-breed) this morning...Tom was calling for real solutions to immigration. Specter was rationalizing ILLEGAL immigration with the BS "we are a national of immigrants...blah blah blah," obviously using that to justify his weak stance on immigration. Tancredo's plan suggests a 700 mile "fence" (lefties like to call it a "wall" because it conjours images of Berlin), Specter thought we should not use a wall, instead use drones and other ineffective technology strategies to APPEAR tough on immigration...Specter was obviously running defense for ILLEGAL immigration.

The neo-cons (patsy's term duh jour) are for illegal immigrants, including Bill Christol, John McCainiac, Arlen Specter, GW Bush...Bottom line: With the media, Democrats and pseudo-Republicans FOR illegal immigrants, nothing will be done.

[Icemaster]

ABC (Wo)man on the street interview during the protest:

"...Maria - who doesn't want her last name used as she is in the US illegally..."

'Nuff said.

[techweenie]

The local neo-Klan radio station in L.A. claims yesterday's downtown demonstration was a half million strong.

That's probably about a third of the employed "illegals" in Los Angeles.

One result of toughened border controls is that there are more than usual here, since they can no longer risk going home -- as most do, for 2-3 months of the year.

It's always stuck me as wrongheaded that employers are given a pass for offering the jobs that bring people here in the first place. But then, employers vote, don't they.

[on-ramp]

"When did you ever see a Mexican blow up the World Trade Center? Who do you think built the World Trade Center?" said David Gonzalez, 22, who marched in Los Angeles with a sign that read, "I'm in my homeland.'"

I didnt know Mexicans built the World Trade Center.
hmmm.....

[techweenie]

Originally posted by on-ramp
"When did you ever see a Mexican blow up the World Trade Center? Who do you think built the World Trade Center?" said David Gonzalez, 22, who marched in Los Angeles with a sign that read, "I'm in my homeland.'"

I didnt know Mexicans built the World Trade Center.
hmmm.....

Probably so. They build a lot of stuff all over the country. I have contractor friends who will only hire Mexicans.

And as Carlos Mencia says: if they build a wall on the Mexico border, guess who's going to do the work?

People really live in a fantasy world if they think immediate deportation of all illegals wouldn't throw this country into an instant depression. That's a key reason it won't be supported by either major party.

[on-ramp]

Originally posted by techweenie
Probably so. They build a lot of stuff all over the country. I have contractor friends who will only hire Mexicans.

And as Carlos Mencia says: if they build a wall on the Mexico border, guess who's going to do the work?

People really live in a fantasy world if they think immediate deportation of all illegals wouldn't throw this country into an instant depression. That's a key reason it won't be supported by either major party.

under that reasoning, let's open up the borders and let them all in.


who else is going to build our stuff?

[HardDrive]

Who is going to pick the fruit?

Who is going to wash the dishes?

I am NOT saying its ok for illegals to be here, but no one seems to answer this question.

[speeder]

Originally posted by HardDrive
Who is going to pick the fruit?

Who is going to wash the dishes?

I am NOT saying its ok for illegals to be here, but no one seems to answer this question.

I can answer that question effortlessly. There will never be a shortage of people to wash dishes, pick fruit, or any other job. We can legally import all of the people we want if necessary. The argument that dirty dishes is a rationale for uncontrolled, massive illegal immigration is insulting to the intelligence of a slug, as are all of the rest of the lame excuses.

People come here because we are a 1st world country that borders the 3rd world. Do I blame the Mexicans? No, I blame the U.S. for allowing it. We could have a fair, humane policy of allowing legal immigration from Mexico and the rest of latin America that does not resemble the current man-made disaster.

WTF do people think that immigration laws exist?? Maybe so that 10 million desperate people do not just flood in and lower the wages and quality of life for everyone else? Nah...

Mexicans and others come here for the $$, period. Not to do us a favor by washing some dishes. Someone should ask these activists what they think the U.S. was like 30 years ago. Piles of dirty dishes everywhere? Filthy toilets? Overgrown lawns? The stupidity of the pro-illegal arguments is pretty appalling. I'd have more respect if they were honest. Not much, but a little.

And anyone who believes that Mexicans built the WTC towers is beyond hope.

[sammyg2]

How about all the US citizens on welfare doing the picking and washing?
Let em work for their food stamps and free checks. Either that or starve. No more free lunches.

According to the experts, an estimated 100,000 illegal imigrants cross the California/Mexico border each year, and that is what I consider a very conservative estimate.
Ist step, stop all illegal imigration now. Stop it completely before this state and eventually this country is ruined. After we do that, we debate the people who's mere presence in this country constitutes a violation of law.
Suppose we eliminate the quarter million illegals coming into this country every year, then triple the number of legals who are allowed in.
Everybody wins.
I do not want to live in Tijuana or Juarez, but if the current trend contunues that is basically what Southern California will become. It is well on the way already. I can name several communities around here
that were once concidered very desirable places to live, but now have a large illegal imigrant population and no one in their right mind would dare walk the sidewalks in those areas at night any more.
It is only a matter of time unless something changes soon.

[RoninLB]

The bs cheap job issue that only the Mexicans will do that sort of work is a capitalist scam followed by Bush and the rest of the party. Any serious discussion among economic thinkers leads to a 5-10% addition in produce. The length of time that increase would be effective is considered short to medium term. The other cheap labor jobs issue is unworthy of serious discussion.

The underlying prob is that the Mexican gov't has 100yrs of inefficient baggage to drag around in it's economic modeling.

The strategic reasoning is that the US is a blow off valve for poor young Mexican males. If they weren't trying to get over here they would be inciting a revolution.

Mexico should be charged $1,000,000 for each legal expat. Mexico should be charged for keeping their gangsters in US prisons. Mexico should put their oil reserves drilling rights up for collateral.

[jyl]

Although liberal on many issues, I strongly disagree with the protestors on this issue.

Legal immigration should be encouraged and illegal immigration stopped. Border controls should be greatly strengthened. Employers should be forced to verify workers' legal status, on pain of severe penalties. Legitimate business needs for low-wage labor should be distinguished from illegitimate needs, and addressed with legal guest worker programs. Guest workers who play by the rules for a long time (decades) and integrate into American society should be rewarded with green cards or citizenship, while those who don't should be barred from entry, work, benefits, and if necessary imprisoned.

One challenge is that the federal government will have to create a reliable system for actually verifying a worker's legal status, meaning a huge IT project that needs to actually work.

[speeder]

I just hope that the size of that protest march in L.A. doesn't scare the little gutless politicians in DC, if anything it highlights the scope of the problem. I'm surprised that it wasn't bigger, we have millions of them here. Really.

This is truly the last chance for the U.S. to draw a line in the sand, the barn door has been open for a long time and the horses are gone, talking about locking it a little in the future ain't gonna cut it. We American's have a stupid habit of ignoring issues until it is way too late to effectively deal w/ them, I hope for any improvement on this one. It's a nightmare.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by speeder

We American's have a stupid habit of ignoring issues until it is way too late to effectively deal w/ them, I hope for any improvement on this one.

It's a nightmare.

wow

[pbs911]

[...

[Mr_Wizard]

When a camera is present, the dumbest person in the room will always find it. Case in point this morning on GMA. They were doing a story on Duplin County, North Carolina, which is right down the road from me. And yes they do have a large immigrant population, a large portion of which I am sure is here illegally. Well this old coot said "Let 'em come legal. Those that are here illegal, shoot 'em. … Get 'em on a bus, do whatever, get rid of 'em," said Emell Coggens, a local resident." Well so much for me telling people that North Carolina is not Cracker Ville. This sounded like something that would come out of Slo Pat. I agree that something needs to be done, but shoot em, come on. Just my .02. From a local resident.

[Eric 951]

Originally posted by HardDrive
Who is going to pick the fruit?

Who is going to wash the dishes?

I am NOT saying its ok for illegals to be here, but no one seems to answer this question.

How about Mexican immigrants who are here legally?

Why do people think only ILLEGALS will perfrom these tasks?

[techweenie]

Originally posted by speeder
We American's have a stupid habit of ignoring issues until it is way too late to effectively deal w/ them, I hope for any improvement on this one. It's a nightmare.

Well, look on the bright side: we'll get to start all over when the ocean levels rise 3-6 feet in the next few decades.

I don't have a map of So Cal with this factored in, but here's Manhattan.



A Columbia University study concluded that as sea levels rise, large parts of Lower Manhattan including Battery Park City, part of the World Trade Center site, and the Seaport will experience 10-foot floods after large storms.

"Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."
-- Travis Bickle

[gaijindabe]

Funny - most of that in Green is reclaimed land.

Travis was right, and the real rain's name was Rudy.

Back to immigration - fast forward to the future - and think about when a generation of workers that has toiled in low productivity jobs starts looking for full SSI and medicare.

Complain all you want about Walmart - we are not going to be stuck with overseas factory workers retirement costs.

[Rikao4]

Move along, nothing going to happen, we didn't enforce the last set of laws..which if enforced NOW would solve it ! So this comedy will be no different. New laws are funny,enforcement even funnier. Think Russia, and one day..we will split up..they get the West coast,East coast, and you need to figure out how to sneak int OZ.
Rika

[Rick Lee]

I don't know the source, but I heard on a radio show that Mexico's #2 source of money (after their oil revenue) is the money Mexicans in the US send home to their relatives. This needs to stop as well. As it is, Vicente Fox has every incentive to help Mexicans get into the US and zero incentive to help us on the border issues.