Poizner: California must stem the flow of illegal immigrants (Los Angeles: buy, law)

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by californio sur

Republicans taking an anti-immigrant position in California do so at their own peril. Yesterday 1000's marched in downtown Los Angeles demanding citizenship. This issue tends to stir up Latinos regardless of legal status & is why Republicans don't do well in California, among many reasons.

Thousands Rally for Immigration Reform in Los Angeles (http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/politics/immigration-rally-20100327 - broken link)

Just to echo the reply to this again, being against illegal immigration or amnesty isn't anti-immigrant. There is a process to immigrate legally. Many of my friends have went through it first hand and my family has went through it before me. Don't spit in the face of people that put in the time and effort to immigrate legally with this insulting crap

[californio sur]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

Just to echo the reply to this again, being against illegal immigration or amnesty isn't anti-immigrant. There is a process to immigrate legally. Many of my friends have went through it first hand and my family has went through it before me. Don't spit in the face of people that put in the time and effort to immigrate legally with this insulting crap

Entirely agree. There are several issues: inability to handle more immigrants [jobs\ schools\ medical needs\ transportation] and the need for better surveillance of the border for security purposes.

But Republicans tend to get too fired up & say things that cause a strong reaction. Poizner is trying to get super-conservatives to vote for him by saying that Whitman is just another John McCain regarding immigrants. These primaries are for a select type of voter that don't represent California very well. Once the Republican candidate begins to campaign against the Democratic candidate, they drop all the anti-immigration comments. The issue of immigration divides many Republicans [ie. Bush certainly was pro-immigration reform].

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by basketballakev

California must stem the flow of illegal immigrants - latimes.com

This guy has just won my vote!

It's just meaningless talk.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

I can't really think of any candidate that would suggest otherwise. Unfortunately, in order to stem the flow you need to cut off the services, and the last time the state said to cut off the services the courts said it's unconstitutional to do so

What really needs to happen is we need to go to the US Supreme Court (same as what you are saying).

In particular, Plyler v. Doe needs to be overturned. This was the Supreme Court ruling that said schools could not ask for proof of citizenship when enrolling children.

Plyler v. Doe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

However, the state could cut some services to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants. To some extent, some services that are used by illegals are going to be cut, just out of sheer necessity to balance the budget. Of course, some of those programs are used by native born citizens as well.

[BlackShoe]

In a practical sense, none of this has any real meaning, Whitman has a huge lead in the polls and is going to be the GOP candidate. The problem is that Meg is very soft on the illegal alien situation, and seems unwilling to confront the puplic employees unions and their power. The conservative wing of the GOP is very lukewarm on Meg, but will support her against Moonbeam. An interesting note is that in early polls Whitman is leading Brown, somewhat of a surprise. However, Brown has done no real campaigning, so the real battles will not begin until after the primaries.

[DowntownVentura]

^^
I think the public employee unions are more of a problem in CA than illegal immigration.

[Sparklez_304]

hes got my vote.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by DowntownVentura

^^
I think the public employee unions are more of a problem in CA than illegal immigration.

I work in the public sector but I agree with you. The current and future pension liabilites for public sector employees are HUGE, and that's true even with the most optimistic of assumptions about future pension fund performance, etc.

[BlackShoe]

Originally Posted by DowntownVentura

^^
I think the public employee unions are more of a problem in CA than illegal immigration.

Coin flip? Both are driving the state into bankruptcy.

[RedJacket]

Originally Posted by DowntownVentura

^^
I think the public employee unions are more of a problem in CA than illegal immigration.

That's certainly not a problem that's unique to CA. I read where CalPERS is under criminal investigation. I'm sure there's other states that should be looked into for corruption as well.