Illegals with a license (Denver: middle-class, 2013, felony)

[Bideshi]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

It is the Republican Party which has blocked nearly every attempt at passing legislation about almost everything, including immigration. Tell me which Republican in the past 6 years introduced a comprehensive bill concerning immigration in either the the House or the Senate. The Republicans have a majority in the House, so they could pass their own immigration reform bill and shoot it over to the Senate. Even if the Senate rejected the Bill out of hand, the Republicans would get a lot of mojo out of such an event, especially with elections coming on. But do the Conservatives attempt any such thing? .

New laws are not needed. The existing laws need to be enforced. The President is sworn to uphold the laws of the land. PS: He's a Democrat...

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by Bideshi

New laws are not needed. The existing laws need to be enforced. The President is sworn to uphold the laws of the land. PS: He's a Democrat...

The President is a DEMOCRAT? Well, that explains a lot of things I've been puzzled about. Do you think they'd let him get a Colorado driver's licence?

[Ceij]

Originally Posted by headingtoDenver

What about the unsecured border to the north? Should we create a Great Wall of America?

A Large Illegal immigration helps to conceal the CRIMINAL activity in shear volume. Canada doesn't have the volume of illegal immigration thus the Criminal activity is easier to trace and curtail. Also, Canada is a MUCH BETTER PARTNER than Mexico could EVER be, which helps a great deal.

Oh, were you just trying to be sarcastic?

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by Ceij

ILLEGAL immigration is NOT about evil immigrants or evil employers. It's about EVIL POLITICIANS who play games with with people's lives and our tax dollars to pit one group of citizens against the another to serve the politician's own POLITICAL GAIN.

Farmers employ Illegals because Politicians have too much to gain by NOT allowing sufficient immigration to meet employment needs. Farmer would be FAR HAPPIER to hire LEGAL immigrant.

As long as we play into the political canard that those who are concerned about the additional cost and the potential DANGER of a terrorist or health disaster MUST be Racist, this issue will NEVER be solve because it will be Just too beneficial for corrupt politicians to solve it.

Where in heck did I mention racism?

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by Ceij

The Political Party that has the MOST to gain from a political issue is the Party that LEAST WANTS THAT ISSUE SOLVED. The House, the Senate, and the Presidency was completely under the control of DEMOCRATS. Did they solve the immigration issue? HELL NO. Because Democratic politicians have too much to GAIN by NOT solving the immigration issue.

There are too many FOOLS to the manipulation of politics.

Well, let's turn it around. Did 8 years of George Bush solve the immigration issue. Through multiple Republican presidents -- Eisenhower, Nixon, Bush, Bush, Reagan -- immigration along the border was always a problem.

[Bideshi]

Neither party nor any recent President has pursued enforcing the immigration laws. They all pander for the hispanic vote.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Bideshi

Neither party nor any recent President has pursued enforcing the immigration laws. They all pander for the hispanic vote.

That's partly the case. Another big part of the case of non-enforcement is that employers want employees who docilely accept low pay, no benefits, no unions, no workers comp if injured, no legal recourse for grievances, etc. These employers pay dues into the Chamber of Commerce who lobby Congress to look the other way while they talk the problem to death, decade after decade.

These employers do NOT pass the savings on to us, they simply pocket more profits for themselves and socialize the costs onto the public. The current saying "privatize profits and socialize costs" means that Wal-mart, et al, pays minimum wage and makes a huge profit but the costs of food stamps or medical care in emergency rooms for their low wage workers are socialized onto we taxpayers.

Hundreds of thousands of employers, from the largest national names on down to the mom and pops love to hire the hungry immigrants, including illegals with phony IDs.

Meanwhile, they have us divided and conquered on the topic so that we argue with each other while THEY do nothing to fix it.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by Bideshi

Neither party nor any recent President has pursued enforcing the immigration laws. They all pander for the hispanic vote.

A lot of U.S.-born Hispanics are as much or more upset about illegal immigration than Anglos are. Who the politicians are pandering to is the illegal immigrants themselves. Granting citizenship and, along with it, access to the US welfare system, educational system, etc. is a sure to ensure that those new American "citizens" will be politically loyal to the slimeball politicians in Washington who gave the illegals American citizenship when they in no way earned or deserved it. Why almost nobody seems to be able to see that shows just how "dummied down" Americans really are.

[Ceij]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

Well, let's turn it around. Did 8 years of George Bush solve the immigration issue. Through multiple Republican presidents -- Eisenhower, Nixon, Bush, Bush, Reagan -- immigration along the border was always a problem.

Republicans can't act on immigration without being called Racists. Plus, there is the struggle between the The LEFTIST establishment and the RIGHTIST Libertarians. on the other hand Democrats who don't face ANY of those issue STILL take no steps to solve it.

[davidv]

Originally Posted by Bideshi

New laws are not needed. The existing laws need to be enforced. The President is sworn to uphold the laws of the land. PS: He's a Democrat...

He is upholding the laws of the land, just not enough to your liking I guess.

Most people have seem to think that illegal immigration is this horrific crime that must be caught and/or prevented at all costs. Let's look at a couple of things.

There are two ways to become an illegal immigrant:
1. Sneak into the country.
2. Overstay your visa.

The first group gets all the attention, but, in fact, they account for only 60% of the illegal immigrants in the US. The easiest way to get into the US is to get a tourist visa, and then never leave. Many people want the US to fortify our southern border, but even if we could somehow manage to prevent all border crossings, we would still have a substantial number of illegal immigrants in the US.

So now the question becomes, do we limit tourist/student/other visas to the US so that people will not overstay their visa? Tourism is a major part of our economy. We would be cutting off our nose to spite our face.

If we build an impregnable barrier between the US and Mexico, what would stop people from flying to Canada on a tourist visa and crossing the northern US border illegally? Should we build an even longer impregnable barrier up north?

Catching and prosecuting every single illegal alien is like trying to catch and prosecute every single speeder. It can be done, but only at a great cost? Is the cost worth it? IMHO the answer is a resounding NO!

We catch what we can and do the best that we can with the resources we have.

One last thing: as a history teacher, I teach children how immigrants built America. The Chinese and the Irish built the transcontinental railroad, European immigrants built the cities of the US, the Mexican Braceros saved US agriculture during WWII. Immigration built America, and immigration will save America.

Immigrants are still building our cities and our highways. They are a large piece of our agricultural output. They are more likely to have more than one job. They are more likely to start a business. Immigrants (illegal and otherwise) are risk-takers, and they reap big rewards in the process.

Tell that to your Starbucks swilling middle class teenager who won't clean his/her room much less work a manual labor job.