5.04.2008

Why I am against illegal immigration, point by point.

First an introduction. I am a 5th Generation son of immigrants, my Great Great Grand Parents came over from Europe to start new lives. They worked hard to integrate into American culture by learning the language and loving their new homeland, took low paying jobs, were treated with disrespect and disdain. They did this for the hope of a better life for their posterity. I come from a long line of service to country, my father, grandfather and great grandfather all served in the military, were willing to give their lives for this country.

In relation to this issue, I am against the act of illegally entering this country then demanding the rights of citizenship due to the fact that you are simply working and paying taxes. We are a land of laws, it is wrong to expect that you can break the law by coming over illegally and then expect to be given what citizens have worked for, for generations.

As for the individuals I respect the fact that they left their own country in the attempt to find a better life for their children and family. But as an American citizen I can't help but be aware of the problems of this has caused, here are a few facts:

- The Federal Government pays about $5.5 billion per year for the care and education of illegal immigrants. Those are direct costs that are measureable, such as uninsured medical care, food assistance and education of illegal immigration.
Source: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer

- 29% Of our prison population are illegal aliens. This costs over $1.6 billion per year, double this for the cost of apprehension and prosecution. Source: http://www.cis.org/

- 2,158 Murders are committed every year by illegal aliens, this is more then 15% of all murders. Source: http://www.gopusa.com/news/2007/february/0222_illegals_report.shtml

- There is a movement within the illegal community to secceed(sp?) (The southern border states) from the US. Source: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25920

Additional Facts: http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/back1405.html

Additional costs are not being accounted for when dealing with this portion of our population. First, the additional population causes our general infrastructure to wear down more quickly, roads, utilities, etc... Granted many illegals have jobs, a subset of those pay taxes, but their contribution does not and should not grant them citizenship. Afterall they broke the law to get here and break it every day they remain.

I have sympathy for those that are here to work hard, but the statistics state that these people are overall not helping to build the fabric of America, rather they are trying to tear it down and build something new. This new thing is alot more like Mexico then it is like the USA. That scares me.

Those of you who know me know I am not racist. I love people of all colors, races and creeds. I have family that are of different backgrounds and wouldn't have it any other way.

Enough ranting, lets talk solutions:

- Everyone who came over here on their own two feet by choice should be dealt with in some way to satisfy the law of justice. Perhaps they should be fined for breaking the law, it could be taken out of their paychecks. Once the fine is paid they could be given the fast track to citizenship, assuming they have not broken any additional laws and have proved they can hold a job.
- Children of illegals who came with parents, should be given the fast track to citizenship, but there would have to be proof that they were brought here before the age of 18.
- A program should be developed that anyone who is here illegally who wants to join the military can gain citizenship for himeself/herself spouse and children. They would have strict guidlines to follow, perhaps the first part of basic training would be 6 weeks of intensive english laungage training, then they would go on to basic and advanced training for whatever branch they preferred and had the appriate apptitude for. Once they have completed training they would be given "probationary citizenship" if they were called to active duty, they would be given full citizenship or if they serve in peacetime for, perhaps 2 years they would get full citizenship.
- Our borders must be secured, if it means a wall, then so be it.
- We must enforce and tighten our laws to make it unpalatable for people to come here illegally. (Arizona has done this in one fell-swoop by making it a 1 strike your out for businesses who hire illegal immigrants.)
- We must streamline or immigration system to make it easier for decent hardworking people to come over legally, lets bring this system into the 21st century.
- We must have guest worker programs for those industries that need additional labor.
- Once programs such as these are put in place, illegals would need to register by certain deadlines, these new programs would only apply to those who where here before this date. From that day on anyone who tried to cross illegally would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and deported.

This is a problem. It needs a solution. I am a simple man, but I believe all of my suggestions would lead to more integrated immigration and in the long run a stronger country.

12 comments:

  1. WOW!
    Hmm! Okay...I pretty much agree with everything you said though I've never been able to express myself as clearly and factually as you did.
    I don't agree with the "fast track for illegals" thing though. I don't believe we should reward people for breaking our laws!

    I'd like to be the first to say that I love the Mexican culture. My step mom is of Mexican descent. I adore her! (Please know that she share the same views as I do about this subject) They (most Mexicans) hold to a lot of my own core values. I know that many of them come here to work their families and send money back "home".
    My only problem with that is that the money doesn't go back into our economy. America cannot afford to support other countries that do nothing to aid our economy.

    Another problem I have is something that may sound a little odd...I hope I can get my thought out clearly... I met a woman at Wal-Mart the other day. She was of Mexican decent (legal or or not I don't know...nor do I care). She was extremely sweet and I ended up holding her BRAND NEW baby while she was trying to check out. She spoke English fluently. But to her 2-yr-old she only spoke in Spanish. Assuming that she was helping him become bilingual; I asked her if he spoke both English and Spanish. She said "no". She went on to explain to me that most Mexican Americans do not teach their children English and allow them to wait until they are in school before they learn it.

    Am I the only person in the world that sees a problem with this? I mean come on! We live in AMERICA. The national language is ENGLISH! It is not the public school system's responsibility to teach those children English. I can understand if someone just came to the country and they do not speak English. But when you are born and raised in America I think it is your obligation to teach your children English. I wouldn't go to Mexico and expect everyone to waist the time, energy, and money to teach my children Spanish. That would be MY job! Not that of the Mexican tax payers!
    Why is America the only country in the world expected to change its culture to fit others? We wouldn't go to China or Russia or France and expect classes to be taught in English speaking teachers or signs to be posted in English.

    Why isn't America allowed to be America?

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  2. Though I agree with you in principle, tecnically the U.S. doesn't have an official language at all. Some states individually do. The state of New Mexico is in fact the only state to have two official languages, you guessed it English and Spanish. Just about everything there is written bilingually (is that even a word). Considering how old many of the cities are that were originally Spanish settlements and missions in the 15-1700's, and that until the 1900's the majority of the anglo poulation was of spanish/mexican descent and that it wasn't officially a state until 1912, I can understand that. In fact the population of the state as a wole is about 86% white and 41% of that is hispanic (both decendants of spanish colonists and new immigrants).

    Interesting as that may be (I, personally, find history and demographics fascinating) going back to the original point, I agree that although it may not be official, everyone one should know that Americans speak English and if you're going to live here and raise your kids here you should learn it and teach your kids.

    Oh and it was up as an ammendment to an immigration reform bill in 2006 to declare English the national official language. It got through the Senate but died in committe reform in the House.

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  3. No worries, John.. The economy sucks so much right now that even the illegal immigrants are going back to Mexico. Indirectly the immigration problem is solved! heh

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/30/immigrant.worker/index.html

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  4. You're right, it's a matter of supply and demand. Most illegal immigrants don't have skills that are marketable in a slow economy.

    When people from the higher skill pool are willing to work for less and their is less work, they have to find work elsewhere.

    By the grace of God I have been insulated from this as far as employment, but when it comes to food prices, I really feel that pinch.

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  5. Things I learned working in Pueblo, Colorado.
    1. It a village of Mexico Long before it was part of the United States.
    2. Before Colorado was even a state, the Mexicans were conforming to the inevitable by learning and speaking English.
    3. The People there of Mexican descent almost unanimously complained about the illegal aliens. And said they wished they would go home.(I refuse to call them immigrants as that infers they are trying to come legally and comform to society).
    4. Many of those same full blooded Americans of Mexican descent could speak very little or no Spanish.
    5. A 22 yr. old illegal alien can claim 12 dependants and it doesn't send up red flags to the IRS.
    6. An illegal can just mark "exempt" and have no witholding on his check.
    7. When we were hiring and a person comes in and can't speak a lick of English and asked for an application,(in Spanish) I was required by law to give it to him.
    8. When I asked for Documentation and was told it would be a few days, and after 4 days I received brand new, hot of the press, SS cards (Unsigned) and Green Cards, according to the law, I could not ask any questions but had to accept these documents.
    9. Even though I knew from sight, and even from their own lips that they were illegal, I could not legally refuse them until after their numbers were run with the SS administration. Sometimes this could take months.
    10. The first thing they do when they bring their wife and children over the boarder is go to the Welfare office and sign up their wives and children for food stamps and WIC, They see nothing wrong in this because the "Government"Pays for it. (These men average $800+ a week with overtime AFTER TAXES)

    If I try to write anything else I could have a stroke. (This subject makes me mad) Suffice it to say I think this issue is one of the most important our country faces. Study the possible solutions, and when you vote this fall, make sure your elected officials are on track to fix it! Of course, like Corey said, the slow economy is helping.

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  6. Wow. This is the conversation I wanted to have, thanks everyone for your input.

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  7. Shiloh, I'm not ignoring your response...Rather, it peaked my interest because I specifically remember an 8th grade history teacher telling our whole class that the national language was in fact English and that some of our founding fathers wanted to make it French but, English won out. (Wow, talk about a run on sentence.)
    Sooo, now I'm trying to research and find out whether my teacher was full of you-know-what (which could very well be the case because I am the product of a Terre Haute public education) or if there is some truth to his story.
    So far I've found nothing to support his claim but I'm still looking...and feeling a bit chagrinned.

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  8. Erica, Follow this link and it will take you to the site where you can find the cogressional bill and cosponsors to make English the Official Language of the United States.

    http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/thomas

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  9. Cindy I pasted the link in address bar and it gave me the following error notice: Error no database () or queryType (phrase) selected

    Any thoughts?

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  10. Erica,
    Try this site, if it doesn't work just google "congressional Bills" and do your search from the Thomas site that will come up. http://thomas.loc.gov/
    This is the Thomas Jefferson part of the Library of Cogress and you can get access to the bills there.

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  11. I JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT EVERYONE OF YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON A DEBATE TEAM, WITH YOUR LISTS OF FACTS AND GREAT VIEW POINTS! I GET ENRAGED BY THIS TOPIC MYSELF, BUT I NORMALLY USE THE FOLLOW UP THAT I "READ" IT SOMWHERE, AS MY STANDING GROUND. LOL. BTW YOUR FAMILY LOOKS GREAT AND I'M VERY HAPPY FOR YOU!

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  12. Beth!

    Hi! It's been a long time! Feel free to join our little blog group! I hope all is going well, judging by th picture in your profile you and your hubby look great!

    Get me your private email address through Will and I will invite you to the Brazil Bunch Blog.

    -John

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