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Reviewing the title of the thread, immigration has always been legal and still is. You have to follow the laws and laws have been changed to meet the current conditions based on what is good for the country as far as needing people for whatever reason.
So, immigration has always been legal and I suspect it to remain that way.
were there laws against immigration prior to 1776? no, thus any one immigrating to this "country" is not illegal because no laws were broken.
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Originally Posted by Packard fan
The Statute of Limitations has run out.
There never was a Statute of Limitations.
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Originally Posted by NJBest
I'm not certain whether a statute of limitation existed...
I am, and there isn't one.
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Originally Posted by Pulgarcita
The white European man came to the Americas stole lands and resources, killed most native Amerindians that had been living here for more than 10,000 years, raped and slaved the rest of the population and set them to concentration camps.
And what about genocidal acts committed by Amerindians?
Who was the king of Amerindians? What lands were sovereign? Why was slavery legal? Where are the texts of their laws published?
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Originally Posted by Pulgarcita
Did you read the thread title?
Yes, it's pretty ignorant.
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Originally Posted by Pulgarcita
And slaves had no reason to work hard? Ever heard of the whip?
Native Americans beat their slaves with rocks and sticks instead of using a whip.
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Originally Posted by Pulgarcita
Slavery was crucial for the success of this country.
Actually, no. Individual plantation owners benefited, but not the US as a whole.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pulgarcita
Slavery is part of US history and many white people benefited from it, directly and indirectly.
Slavery existed in the Americas before Europeans arrived and it is part of Native American history and many Native Americans benefited from it.
Native Americans tribal groups enslaved other Native American tribal groups and engaged in genocide against other Native American tribal groups.
Native Americans also enslaved Blacks. Look up "Cherokee".
Before 1875* there were no laws restricting immigration, so any and all immigration was legal. Notice the remarkable fact that despite transportation to the U.S. being easy for anyone in the world the country didn't explode, jobs weren't stolen, American law and culture weren't replaced, and disease didn't run rampant. All people in the world should have the freedom to move between countries without interference from governments.
At the very least first world countries should be a free migration zone for their own people unless a government can prove it has a very good reason not to admit a person, since virtually all of the objections to immigration apply only to third world countries and countries with abhorrent cultural practices. This would imply open borders between the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Japan, the Asian Tigers, Australia, and New Zealand - try finding a conservative who can argue with a straight face that those people will be cheap labor, commit crimes, or bring in diseases.
At the very very least one would think think the Canadian border would be open right now, since it's a land border with the safest friendly country there is, it's a country that people living near the border have close ties with and don't consider truly foreign, and travel there never required a passport until 2009. The restrictions of today would likely have surprised previous generations, since none other than Ronald Reagan called for open trade and immigration with Canada in 1979 (in his announcement speech, no less**), and Barry Goldwater in 1962 predicted that in 2012 the Mexican border would be like the Canadian one, which was and predicted would still be "a free one, with the formalities and red tape of ingress and egress cut to a minimum so that the residents of both countries can travel back and forth across the line as if it were not there."
*That was the Page Act, which barred entry to convicts, Asian prostitutes, and Asian forced laborers. Not until 1882 was there a general restriction on any nationality (Chinese), and another law passed the same year barred entry to anyone who was a "lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of him or herself without becoming a public charge". In 1917 a broader Asiatic Barred Zone was imposed along with denying entry to homosexuals, epileptics, alcoholics, professional beggars, all persons mentally or physically defective, polygamists, and anarchists. Quotas by nationality for all immigration were imposed in 1921, marking the first general restrictions on immigration, though after 1917 practice came close to this. This was the beginning of the modern immigration system - before 1917 normal people from any country except China had always been admitted. Not coincidentally there were very few illegal immigrants before 1917 - for the vast majority of people in the world there was no way they could be illegal short of doing it deliberately.
**And if you don't believe it you can watch this Reagan Library-provided video at the 20:27 mark:
Before 1875* there were no laws restricting immigration, so any and all immigration was legal. Notice the remarkable fact that despite transportation to the U.S. being easy for anyone in the world the country didn't explode, jobs weren't stolen, American law and culture weren't replaced, and disease didn't run rampant. All people in the world should have the freedom to move between countries without interference from governments.
At the very least first world countries should be a free migration zone for their own people unless a government can prove it has a very good reason not to admit a person, since virtually all of the objections to immigration apply only to third world countries and countries with abhorrent cultural practices. This would imply open borders between the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Japan, the Asian Tigers, Australia, and New Zealand - try finding a conservative who can argue with a straight face that those people will be cheap labor, commit crimes, or bring in diseases.
At the very very least one would think think the Canadian border would be open right now, since it's a land border with the safest friendly country there is, it's a country that people living near the border have close ties with and don't consider truly foreign, and travel there never required a passport until 2009. The restrictions of today would likely have surprised previous generations, since none other than Ronald Reagan called for open trade and immigration with Canada in 1979 (in his announcement speech, no less**), and Barry Goldwater in 1962 predicted that in 2012 the Mexican border would be like the Canadian one, which was and predicted would still be "a free one, with the formalities and red tape of ingress and egress cut to a minimum so that the residents of both countries can travel back and forth across the line as if it were not there."
*That was the Page Act, which barred entry to convicts, Asian prostitutes, and Asian forced laborers. Not until 1882 was there a general restriction on any nationality (Chinese), and another law passed the same year barred entry to anyone who was a "lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of him or herself without becoming a public charge". In 1917 a broader Asiatic Barred Zone was imposed along with denying entry to homosexuals, epileptics, alcoholics, professional beggars, all persons mentally or physically defective, polygamists, and anarchists. Quotas by nationality for all immigration were imposed in 1921, marking the first general restrictions on immigration, though after 1917 practice came close to this. This was the beginning of the modern immigration system - before 1917 normal people from any country except China had always been admitted. Not coincidentally there were very few illegal immigrants before 1917 - for the vast majority of people in the world there was no way they could be illegal short of doing it deliberately.
**And if you don't believe it you can watch this Reagan Library-provided video at the 20:27 mark:
A country without borders cease to be a country. A free for all zone on a country's borders results in all kinds of problems for the citizens of said country. Criminals, terrorists, job and resource stealers and loss of their unique cultures is just the beginning. Open border's types truly baffle me that they have such tunnel vision with no thought as to the end results of their utopian views. I guess they don't understand what the "carrying capacity" of a nation is either. Sad, really.
That SAME thing can be said when the different Indian tribes had their donnybrooks BEFORE 1492.
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