Comments on: What We Owe Illegal Immigrants

The Nation: Aliens Are Often Exploited And Undercompensated For Work

[nathan-hale]

Yea right

[nathan-hale]

Yea right

[javadavid]

I cannot agree strongly enough. It sickens me, as a proud descendant of european immigrants to this continent, to hear the current debate over immigration. The reason that the majority of undocumented workers ARE undocumented, or are in this country without permission is simple: we have denied them permission collectively as a class of people.

There's one important fact I feel is not being mentioned in the current discussion. Just as we've done in the past with other immigrant groups, our current immigration law provides no "line" to get into for almost all latin-american people. People from all spanish- and portugese-speaking countries in the Americas are automatically excluded from the diversity Visa lottery system--the only way to enter the United States without being a scientist, engineer, or doctor.

[nathan-hale]

This publish button is never enabled either you are trying to censor or you have a *** server.

[nathan-hale]

If illegals were not here illegally then they would have rights. If they were not illegal they would not be exploited. They have only the right to leave give them 90 days to do so now that is an amnesty I could agree to

[nathan-hale]

Illegal immigrants have the right to get out, anyone who aids these known felons should be brought up on charges. That means Presidents, Senators, and media outlets. We live in a lawless society when government can pick and choose the laws they want to enforce.
I am all for Amnesty, Illegals would have 90 days to leave on their own. After that time they should be rounded up, finger printed, and deported, and never be let back in this country again. This is the only Amnesty I would agree to.

[nathan-hale]

Illegal immigrants have the right to get out, anyone who aids these known felons should be brought up on charges. That means Presidents, Senators, and media outlets. We live in a lawless society when government can pick and choose the laws they want to enforce.
I am all for Amnesty, Illegals would have 90 days to leave on their own. After that time they should be rounded up, finger printed, and deported, and never be let back in this country again. This is the only Amnesty I would agree to.

[nathan-hale]

Illegal immigrants have the right to get out, anyone who aids these known felons should be brought up on charges. That means Presidents, Senators, and media outlets. We live in a lawless society when government can pick and choose the laws they want to enforce
I am all for Amnesty Illegals would have 90 days to leave on their own. After that time they should be rounded up finger printed and deported and never be let back in this country again

[krotec54]

Mexican have not work before 1995
we owe then nothing.

[menofoz]

I would encourage everyone opposed to this illegal immigration reform bill i.e. swindle, to flood Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and Senator Kyle%u2019s office with emails. Regardless of which party you%u2019re from its time to unite to defeat these unpatriotic Senators and Congressmen who are hell bent on destroying the American way of life. BTW, Emailing those crooks in the White House is hopeless

As American taxpayer dollars pour out of the United States and into Mexico, additional taxpayer generated revenue is used to financially support Mexican nationals here illegally, even as they facilitate the transfer of this ill-gotten wealth out of the US economy. Meanwhile, American lawmakers, blinded by political opportunism, propose opening the doors to the financial and political ruin of our country.

[lonewackodot]

Immigration is a complex topic, and it's clear that Ehrenreich is either ignorant or disingenuous. For instance, most illegal aliens do have to commit follow-on crimes, such as identity theft, and they're also engaged in follow-on crimes by others, such as hiring, transporting, or harboring illegal aliens.

And, the San Diego ACLU has an indirect link to the Mexican government, being part of a group that's headed by an immigration lawyer with at least three links to that government, including collaborating with them on a legal project (check archive.org for vocesunidas.org) and even writing an "opposition research" piece for that government.

And, believe it or don't, the U.S. economy would not collapse without all that cheap labor: we would invent new machines and make other adjustments, including forcing stoop labor jobs such as picking strawberries to move offshore. There's no reason why an advanced country like the U.S. should continue to have such "industries", especially when bringing strawberry pickers into a high cost of living country forces some of them to live in caves:

theatlantic.com/doc/199511/guest-workers

I'd suggest Ehrenreich does a bit more research into this issue and contacts those who oppose illegal immigration to find out all the other ways she's wrong.

[menofoz]

I would encourage everyone opposed to this illegal immigration reform bill i.e. swindle, to flood Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and Senator Kyle%u2019s office with emails. Regardless of which party you%u2019re from its time to unite to defeat these unpatriotic Senators and Congressmen who are hell bent on destroying the American way of life. BTW, Emailing those crooks in the White House is hopeless

As American taxpayer dollars pour out of the United States and into Mexico, additional taxpayer generated revenue is used to financially support Mexican nationals here illegally, even as they facilitate the transfer of this ill-gotten wealth out of the US economy. Meanwhile, American lawmakers, blinded by political opportunism, propose opening the doors to the financial and political ruin of our country.

[menofoz]

I would encourage everyone opposed to this illegal immigration reform bill i.e. swindle, to flood Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and Senator Kyle%u2019s office with emails. Regardless of which party you%u2019re from its time to unite to defeat these unpatriotic Senators and Congressmen who are hell bent on destroying the American way of life. BTW, Emailing those crooks in the White House is hopeless

As American taxpayer dollars pour out of the United States and into Mexico, additional taxpayer generated revenue is used to financially support Mexican nationals here illegally, even as they facilitate the transfer of this ill-gotten wealth out of the US economy. Meanwhile, American lawmakers, blinded by political opportunism, propose opening the doors to the financial and political ruin of our country.

[javadavid]

One more anecdote: we have a sheriff of a nearby county who is on a personal crusade against "illegal" immigrants because he says they're filling up his jail. I find it odd, but I've never heard anyone ask him for what offenses they're being jailed. That's ok, because I already know. The overwhelming majority are jailed because they drove without a driver's license from the state. Now, many of those drivers went to the trouble to learn to drive, to practice, to study the state's driving laws and signals, and took and passed the state's driving exam. Everything leading up to the license being handed over is handled by the State Highway Patrol. But the license is actually issued by the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The Highway Patrol has no problem at all allowing these people to get driver's licenses, but the state will not budge on issuing licenses to those who cannot prove they are in the country legally for a period of more than six months. The immigrant, in good faith, does all he can do to obtain a license. The license is refused because of no citizenship documents. The sheriff then applies a law most likely intended to keep drunk drivers from driving drunk again to arrest and jail the immigrants. Then the sheriff complains that immigrants are filling up his jail. Well I say, "Let them out and stop jailing them. Let them keep working and paying taxes and focus your efforts on the criminals who, with malicious intent, have stolen, raped, murdered, etc."

[javadavid]

I know many, many people who, as the article says, have broken and entered to work. All of them have to pay the same amount I do to register their vehicles, educate their children, pay their rent and utilities, and put gas in their cars. But more importantly, all of them have all the same taxes withheld from their paychecks that I do.

These same people would be the very last people that you would ever see in a line to receive some public service. They are proud and want to do for themselves. They don't visit the doctor often, but when they do, they usually pay the full amount--in cash. Their employers may even offer them health insurance, but many reject the offer because it would mean using a social security number that is not theirs. They would never accept welfare or other types of assistance. It would never even cross their minds as an option. They would prefer to go back to their country and live in poverty--at least they'd be with their family.

When most of us have an accident at work, we go to the ER, bill our insurance companies, and miss a couple weeks of work. When one of these workers has an accident at work, they ask for a bandaid and keep working. They did not leave their families and travel thousands of miles to not work.

[menofoz]

As American taxpayer dollars pour out of the United States and into Mexico, additional taxpayer generated revenue is used to financially support Mexican nationals here illegally, even as they facilitate the transfer of this ill-gotten wealth out of the US economy. Meanwhile, American lawmakers, blinded by political opportunism, propose opening the doors to the financial and political ruin of our country.

[menofoz]

As American taxpayer dollars pour out of the United States and into Mexico, additional taxpayer generated revenue is used to financially support Mexican nationals here illegally, even as they facilitate the transfer of this ill-gotten wealth out of the US economy. Meanwhile, American lawmakers, blinded by political opportunism, propose opening the doors to the financial and political ruin of our country.

[menofoz]

As American taxpayer dollars pour out of the United States and into Mexico, additional taxpayer generated revenue is used to financially support Mexican nationals here illegally, even as they facilitate the transfer of this ill-gotten wealth out of the US economy. Meanwhile, American lawmakers, blinded by political opportunism, propose opening the doors to the financial and political ruin of our country.

[menofoz]

As American taxpayer dollars pour out of the United States and into Mexico, additional taxpayer generated revenue is used to financially support Mexican nationals here illegally, even as they facilitate the transfer of this ill-gotten wealth out of the US economy. Meanwhile, American lawmakers, blinded by political opportunism, propose opening the doors to the financial and political ruin of our country.

[javadavid]

I cannot agree strongly enough. It sickens me, as a proud descendant of european immigrants to this continent, to hear the current debate over immigration. The reason that the majority of undocumented workers ARE undocumented, or are in this country without permission is simple: we have denied them permission collectively as a class of people.

There's one important fact I feel is not being mentioned in the current discussion. Just as we've done in the past with other immigrant groups, our current immigration law provides no "line" to get into for almost all latin-american people. People from all spanish- and portugese-speaking countries in the Americas are automatically excluded from the diversity Visa lottery system--the only way to enter the United States without being a scientist, engineer, or doctor.

A relatively small number of people who live in Mexican border cities are given cards that allow them to cross for shopping, etc., but not to travel very far into the country. But the vast number of people from Mexico to Chile, in order to obtain permission to so much as vacation in the U.S., are required to travel sometimes great distances in their countries to a US Embassy to prove that they have ridiculous sums of money in bank accounts, own properties or businesses in their county, and have health insurance.