April 9, 2009 10:04 AM

Coming Soon To Obama's Plate: Immigration

By
Sean Alfano
Topics
Domestic Issues
(AP)
Recession, war, health care and energy all occupy major portions of President Obama's current agenda and you can now add one more side dish: a serving of immigration reform.

A White House official tells The New York Times Thursday that the president's goal is to enact "policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system."

A legislative debate could begin this fall and Mr. Obama is expected to formally address the issue in May, administration officials tell the newspaper.

"He intends to start the debate this year," Cecilia Mu?oz, deputy assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs in the White House, said.

Already an explosive issue, finding ways to legalize illegal workers while the U.S. economy is mired in economic turmoil could ignite even more outrage from critics, who helped sink President George W. Bush's attempt at a bipartisan immigration bill in 2007.

"It just doesn't seem rational that any political leader would say, let's give millions of foreign workers permanent access to U.S. jobs when we have millions of Americans looking for jobs," Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, a group in favor of reducing immigration, told the newspaper.

During the 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama said he would tackle immigration reform in his first year of office and recently acknowledged that the topic was rife with emotion. "I know that the people get real riled up politically about this," Mr. Obama told a California audience last month, but added that illegal immigrants "have to have some mechanism over time to get out of the shadows."

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by true_american8 April 26, 2009 1:14 AM EDT
Racist. That is the only thing I could say about almost everyone here. I love how you all complain about immigrants and automatically assume that all illegal immigrants are Mexican. First of all, there are also illegal Polish, Chinese, British, Australian, Irish, Italian, Greek, Iranian, Iraqi, Indian, Pakistani, Egyptian...and the list could go on and on and on. Just come out and admit that you are just plain racist. Obviously, you people have absolutely nothing better to do with your time than blame others for your problems.

Next time you want to say Mexico sucks, I suggest you think about how there used to be many Native Americans on these lands that we now call our own. I'm sure they said your ancestors sucked.
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by true_american8 April 26, 2009 12:59 AM EDT
You really need to go back to school! Seriously, learn some grammar. I'm not even going to go back and forth because it's just a waste of my valuable time to deal with your ignorance.

By the way, I have family and friends in the military also. And last I checked, the military never had a problem accepting Latinos into it's ranks. Especially since they're using a small little island in the Carribean called Puerto Rico.

Our government is and always has been one of the best in the world - and if you don't like it, I suggest you find somewhere else to live. I heard there are a lot of Americans retiring to Mexico...
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by true_american8 April 26, 2009 12:52 AM EDT
Neither I nor my parents voted for Obama. My grandmother didn't vote for Obama. My aunt didn't either. My parents came to this country over 40 years ago. My father and aunts benefitted from the amnesty in the 80's...believe it or not, there are some intelligent Latinos out there. And we are split almost 50/50 between Democrats and Republicans. Ask most Cubans and they will tell you that they did not vote for Obama.

What the right-wing and the Republican Party need to understand is that they are driving away the Latino vote with this anti-immigrant talk. Many will agree that ILLEGAL immigration is not right, but once you start generalizing and attacking Latinos, we do pull together. THAT is the reason Obama got the Latino vote this time. Unfortunately, McCain had a hard time convincing both the right-wing and Latinos that he was the man for the job. Unless you stop attacking, you will do to Latinos exactly what was done to the African-American vote. I only know one African-American republican...
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by true_american8 April 26, 2009 12:38 AM EDT
First of all...I think you need: A) grammar lessons, B) to check your statistics, and C) to brush up on your history.

As a first-generation American whose family did benefit from that Reagan amnesty, I must say that it is people like you who fuel this stupid debate. I agree that our country cannot afford another amnesty, that Latin American countries are plagued by corruption and poverty, and that Mexico does indeed have some of the most strictly enforced immigration policies on this continent. But to generalize and point out only Latinos as the cause of this problem is ignorant and racist.

Point A-grammar. There are many "Americans," born and raised here who cannot speak, read or write English correctly. I use you as a perfect example. It's womanizer, not Womanize. It's actually - while encouraging. Not encouraged. Also, you seem to like to capitalize words that should not be capitalized in the middle of a sentence. Even my 6 year old knows that rule.

Point B-statistics. Although Latinos are guilty of some of the highest negative statistics, unfortunately, they are not the only ones who drop out of school and have children out of wedlock. I know many Caucasian and African-Americans who lie on applications in order to do groceries with a Link card, while spending hundreds of dollars on clothes at Macy's. Also, I must point out that while Latinos may be the largest ethnic group coming here, Latin America is made up of 21 countries. If I recall correctly, we also get people from hundreds of other countries coming here. The difference is if their last name is not Lopez or Perez, they are not harassed by the authorities.

In Chicago, the "Little Village" neighborhood is made up of all Mexican businesses. It is the second largest source (as a shopping district) of tax revenue for the City of Chicago. As much as I disagree with Mayor Daley's policies, I respect that he recognizes the influence of the Latino community on businesses.

Point C - history: In the year 1492, an Italian named Christopher Columbus came to the New World. He brought with him diseases and "uneducated peons and criminals" who slaughtered, pilfered and raped millions. Yet, we have a holiday to celebrate this. To quote you, "we have suffered the largest invasion in the history of the world, of any Nation, at any time, by any means!" This happened to MY ancestors. You, my dear, come from those who invaded this country first. While Europe was in the midst of the Dark Ages, the Mayans had an accurate calendar, an advanced language, were way ahead in mathematics, science and agriculture, as well as a very efficient government and sewage system in their cities to promote hygiene.

People like myself are put in a very difficult situation. We are looked down upon by Caucasians because of our name. We are looked on as outsiders by Latinos because we are educated and can speak English fluently. We're called coconuts (brown on the outside and white on the inside). Yet, we are the ones left to correct people like you who are full of hatred and work so hard to segregate those who are ultimately the future of this country. The best thing we can do as responsible citizens is make sure that those who will be inheriting this disaster we are leaving behind are smart enough to clean it up. This will only be achieved by setting aside our differences and educating our youth - no matter if they are white, black, brown, yellow or red.
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by dhutch88 April 11, 2009 11:31 AM EDT
Obama is ruining this country. If there are not enough jobs and we let more illegals become legal does that create or make less of an opportunity. This guy once again puts his politics above our country. How in the hell can you admit 12 million more illegals when 75% of the population does not want them here at all. Hopefully, in four years we are able to reverse all these socialistic policies.
Plus Mr. Pres be a man and take out these Somali's. BE A MAN
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by ianlou April 10, 2009 10:52 PM EDT
Immigration!
What happened to Health Care Reform and the SSI Crisis????
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by truth-b-toll April 10, 2009 12:18 PM EDT
As long as you have employers who don't get punished for hiring illegals then the system will not change- no amount of crazy right wing hatred will make a difference.
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by dhutch88 April 10, 2009 10:56 AM EDT
We dont have enough jobs as is, send illegals back and give the jobs to U.S citizens. Enough said. Dont give them welfare give them illegals jobs.
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by babooph April 10, 2009 10:06 AM EDT
Wallmart & the like have fat lobbyists bribing to bring in peon labor-the US voter has no chance in this one.
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by tyrany1 April 10, 2009 9:44 AM EDT
These are the votes that could only help us to keep Obama in the white house forever!
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