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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (281915)	3/27/2006 8:05:31 AM
From: Amy J	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573869

Just curious why you focus on employed illegal immigrants? I live in the land of immigrants (Bay Area) and a friend from South America said there are some very, very bad illegal immigrants that are more criminal than anything we normally see in this country and she said they come from her country. She obviously doesn't know them, but given they come from her country, she is able to recognize the type of criminal they probably are. They are unemployed illegal immigrants because their job she believes is to conduct a ring of drug deals or possibly murders or other horrible crimes. She said she was surprised these types of criminals from her country are here in our country - she felt only a poor country would have such bad criminals. She doesn't think the US govt will be able to handle these types of crimanals - she said they are so much more worse than what we find in the USA. She's disappointed the USA hasn't gotten rid of them. Ironically, the USA govt made a sweep of all people from her country and she got deported after she showed up to the govt and learned her immigration lawyer messed up the processing (he's now debarred from practising in Calif), however, the mafia-like criminals she said that live somewhere in either SJ or Campbell (I think she said Campbell) still remain in the USA. Ironic. She's closer to the situation than you or me, so I'm more worried about what she's worried about, specifically illegal immigrants that are unemployed global criminals that our local police system would never be able to handle on its own without the help of FBI, CIA, etc. But how do you catch the illegal immigrant that's a mafia-like criminal? Right now, the govt simply deports the educated. I'd like to see a very strong focus on the following: - change the laws so that you can deport a person for criminal behavior even if they are now US citizens but were previously illegal immigrants over the past ten years. - make a sweep that targets illegal immigrants that are doing drugs, ring operations, murders and other horrible global like crimes. Don't deport the employed, educated illegal immigrant, but give them a better path to citizenship and get rid of the criminals that have landed in this country like a swarm of bees that sting this country. I tend to agree with the guest worker program, because it encourages all the reputable and honest illegal immigrants to register while it allows the govt to get rid of the ones that don't register (who are probably criminals). But it would need to give the people a path to citizenship while coming down extra hard on criminal behavior and boots anyone out of this country that does something illegal. We are too lenient on crime. - make it a requirement to speak English so people integrate into our system. Get rid of the "Spanish" is special. Other foreigners aren't treated special, so Spanish should not be either. Speak English or you can't get your citizenship. I'd rather see the govt fight criminals that are illegal immigrants than deport the hard-working people that build this country. The Republican bill will only impact teh honest, hard-working people. The criminals will still sneak through teh border, conduct their rings, and remain hidden. You recall how the govt simply releases those that have snuck over the border due to a lack of resources, only to see them sneak over the border again? That's the real problem.

To: Road Walker who wrote (281915)	3/27/2006 11:01:28 AM
From: Taro	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573869

That's why it's intellectually dishonest to say, as President Bush does, that immigrants do "jobs that Americans will not do." The willingness of Americans to do a job depends on how much that job pays — and the reason some jobs pay too little to attract native-born Americans is competition from poorly paid immigrants. It is equally intellectually dishonest not to admit, that some "little paid jobs" never would exist at those higher payments fancied by some of those blame-it-all-on-Bush-and-illegal-immigrants-only "experts". Taro

To: Road Walker who wrote (281915)	3/28/2006 6:23:21 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1573869

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," wrote Emma Lazarus, in a poem that still puts a lump in my throat. I'm proud of America's immigrant history, and grateful that the door was open when my grandparents fled Russia. In other words, I'm instinctively, emotionally pro-immigration. But a review of serious, nonpartisan research reveals some uncomfortable facts about the economics of modern immigration, and immigration from Mexico in particular. If people like me are going to respond effectively to anti-immigrant demagogues, we have to acknowledge those facts. What too often happens with this issue is that there is not a distinction made between legal and illegal immigration. We have quotas on legal immigration to insure we are not inundated with new labor. Illegal immigration bypasses that arrangement and creates its own setup. First, the net benefits to the U.S. economy from immigration, aside from the large gains to the immigrants themselves, are small. Realistic estimates suggest that immigration since 1980 has raised the total income of native-born Americans by no more than a fraction of 1 percent. No surprise there. Second, while immigration may have raised overall income slightly, many of the worst-off native-born Americans are hurt by immigration — especially immigration from Mexico. Because Mexican immigrants have much less education than the average U.S. worker, they increase the supply of less-skilled labor, driving down the wages of the worst-paid Americans. The most authoritative recent study of this effect, by George Borjas and Lawrence Katz of Harvard, estimates that U.S. high school dropouts would earn as much as 8 percent more if it weren't for Mexican immigration. What also is not discussed is what happens to areas where illegals live in great numbers. Because they are paid below market, they have to live 5-10 people to a 1 bedroom apt. That leads to overcrowding and the taxing of a city's infrastructure as well as its services such as police and fire. As a consequence, the city suffers. That's why it's intellectually dishonest to say, as President Bush does, that immigrants do "jobs that Americans will not do." The willingness of Americans to do a job depends on how much that job pays — and the reason some jobs pay too little to attract native-born Americans is competition from poorly paid immigrants. Yes, natural born Americans, not illegals, do those jobs here in Seattle. Consequently, labor costs are higher here than in cities where there is a large illegal population. Having lived in both, I much prefer this situation even if it means paying more money for services.