I said that several posts back.
Apparently we agree on something then... perhaps we should fix some of that before we start kicking people out, no?
Do you have any evidence for this?
Not right off hand, no. Perhaps "most" wasn't the correct term to use. I have met enough of them personally to know that it's not an uncommon occurance, however (although admittedly, I have a strange and unexplained tendency to gravitate towards people from other countries).
Please spare me the use of terms like "nefarious" - it adds nothing to discussion and, in my case, is inaccurate. Instead, please explain how someone here illegally is on a legal path to citizenship.
Misunderstanding here, on both counts. In the first case, I assumed (apparently wrongly) that you were a typical immigration alarmist... my apologies. In the latter part, I was talking about the illegal party being an immediate relative of someone who is here legally. It doesn't seem logical for me to tell an individual that it's OK for them to live here, but their wife must go back to Mexico until our immigration system, perhaps YEARS later, gets it sorted out.
Actually, it pretty much is, since this thread is about Arizona's anti-immigration law. Sure, some illegals are from other countries, but I'm not going to pretend that perfectly equal enforcement will not result in the vast majority being those who came across the Mexican border.
We can't single out Mexicans and say the laws only apply to them, either, now can we?
Yes. We pay $18K a year to keep someone in prison.
Seriously, do you think that in this case it was even an option? His only crime was that his financial circumstances changed.
A one-way ticket to Senegal from Phoenix is about $800. Also, if he didn't have $800 worth of assets he couldn't transport back to Senegal, he's not contributing all that much to the local economy, is he?
Well no... at one point he was all but homeless. I took him in, myself for a while (actually at that point, he was still legal), but he eventually found a minimum wage job.
Because we can't do it in the past, and the future isn't here yet.
And the future would be a hell of a lot brighter if we concentrated on the correct priorities. I honestly don't think that the immigration issue holds a candle to some of the other problems we are facing right now. If we don't get our acts together, it will take care of itself... because Mexico will have a better economy than WE do -- at least in terms of lower income jobs.
I live in Phoenix. Let me tell you that there's nothing "sudden" about this. Illegal immigration has been debated for decades in this country. Maybe you're only just becoming familiar with it.
Well, honestly... I'll tell you the degree to which I'm familiar with it. I'm from Kansas, and I hear a bunch of egocentric A-holes whine about the indignity of hearing Spanish spoken in their local restaraunts, and whining about how it's a damn shame that nearly 1/3 of the city is now hispanic... pretty much senseless racial and ethnic bias, in other words (nevermind that we've had a hispanic population here since the town's founding). I've heard this kind of nonsense all my life. By the way, I'm white... I don't have to be of Mexican heritage to see how silly it is, even when I hear it from my own family and friends.
Don't get me wrong, it isn't just about the Mexicans... you should have heard them when the local meat packing plant started hiring a lot of Islamic people from Somalia, instead... and only a few years after 9/11. There was never any violence involved, but the talk was rather unseemly... people even getting worried that these people might set off a bomb or something... because we ALL KNOW that all Islamic people have a tendency to do such things, right? That problem took care of itself when the meat packing plant shut down a huge part of its operations a few years later (devastating the local economy, i might add). As far as I know, there are no Somalians whatsoever living here at this time.
So yeah, I get a little freaked out when people tell me about how the Mexicans are invading our country. People are people, and I don't honestly think that our culture requires that kind of protection. So WHAT if white people are losing their majority... if you admit that white people are no better than non white people, doesn't that cease to be an issue? Perhaps this isn't what you were saying, but it is something I hear a lot. It all boils down to senseless fear of those who are different.
But what does the timing matter? If the economy were good, people would be arguing that we shouldn't mess with what works. Personally, I think it's better to do it now because the economy can rebuild without a dependence on cheap, illegal labor. That's gotta be better than ripping it out later.
Timing MATTERS. In more ways than one.
The only reason that pushing this issue is anywhere close to politically feasable nationwide can be found in our recent history: 9/11 and the mistrust of other cultures that comes from it (admittedly not Mexico specifically, but by extension, all cultures)... the economic downturn and the search for someone to blame... why not the illegals? In the bigger picture, if we use this moment of political feasibility, we are doing nothing more nor less noble than caving in to FEAR, as a nation.
Secondly, it takes up resources for something that is not a priority, and is becoming better instead of worse completely on its own. There is only one thing this country should be concentrating on right now, and that is fixing this horrible economic situation that we've gotten ourselves into. Furthermore, we should do so without spending a bunch of money on meaningless side issues that are politically convienient at the time.
Congratulations... at least you're not a total idiot.
Securing the border only partially alleviates the problem, and it doesn't nothing about those already here.
Agreed. should all 12 million of those already here be sent back to Mexico (or elsewhere)? I honestly don't think that'd work very well. I'm not trying to put words in your mouth here, just mentioning that this is not a viable option.
Please read the subject line. This about the Arizona law, not the border or the fence.
In the national debate, they appear to be parts of the same trend, with many of the same outspoken supporters.
A 10% tax on the money wired to Mexico from the USA will generate $2B per year.
I don't know if this is the case or not... but might that be a violation of treaties we have with Mexico? NAFTA, for instance?
. At least I'm not being cryptic. It's more of a rant than anything, I'll admit. Frustration with rampant idiocy and the power of the press in promoting it (on BOTH sides of the political spectrum) kind of does that to me. I really don't agree with either side in this issue... they're all a bunch of foaming-at-the-mouth lunatics.
