rogue

The only economic reality is that by drying up the jobs magnet that draws the illegals here, the employers of illegals would lose their lucrative profits from exploiting the so called cheap illegal labor, which is fully subsidized by the American taxpayers, with social services, ER medical, free education for the illegals children, incarceration of criminal illegals, etc.,etc.

zaphod

employers are definitely to blame. giving jobs to illegals is giving them incentive.

the government doesn't help matters any by NOT enforcing existing laws. thousands of illegals could be rounded up every day, they're not hard to find. 500,000 can gather on national tv, and protest our laws. why weren't there a couple thousand cops taking everyone in?

and finally, the illegals themselves are kind of collectively lazy. the millions that have come accross the border are enough to transform their country into someplace good. but that's hard, and long term. it's easy to jump accross the border and pick or build something. so they do that instead. and act like the US owes them something just because their country sucks and they don't wanna fix it.

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".. i stand by my ethnic slur ... do your worst you filthy pretentious savages .."
"Diamond" Joe Quimby

notahack

It's the fact of having an unsecured border that people with evil intentions could use as an entry to the USA.

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"We have met the enemy and he is us" Pogo

rogue

Just another betrayal by the incompetent jorge.

bododie

My question is this. Everyone uses the excuse that people deserve a better life. I would like to know this: How can it be a better life for someone who has no education, can't speak English, and has no skills? The only way it will be a better life here is through crime, or public assistance. Those actions represent a lack of personal honor, and any loyalty to this country. I don't give a rats ass what your problem is, but if you come here illegaly with the intent to take from this country and give nothing back, then you are an enemy of America. And if someone tries to force me to "accept and embrace" a culture which differs from my own in terms of values, then you can go to Hell instead of America. The freakin' end.

Shiva_TD

I would ask a simple question. Where in the US Constitution is the US government delegated the responsibility to regulate immigration? Yes, Congress is mandated with the responsibility to establish a "uniform Rule of Naturalization" but that does not authorize the federal government to restrict immigration to the United States.

Caltex

Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution
"To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;"

The clear interpretation of the laws, as by the early Supreme Court:
"The power of naturalization is, with great propriety, confided to Congress, since, if left to the States, they might naturalize foreigners upon very different, and even upon opposite systems; and, as the citizens of all the States, have common privileges in all, it would thus be in the power of any one State to defeat the wholesome policy of all the others in regard to this most important subject. Congress alone can have the power to pass uniform laws, obligatory on all the States; and thus to adopt a system, which shall secure all of them against any dangerous results from the indiscriminate admission of foreigners to the right of citizenship upon their first landing on our shores. And, accordingly, this power is exclusive to Congress." - Joseph Story (Supreme Court Justice 1811-1845)

It couldn't be more clear. Congress has the power to regulate who is let in, who can become a citizen, and what that requires.

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Gnuf Said

I have looked at the immigrant quota system because I think that is where the problem lies. You can read some useful information here and here.

Please read the links if you would like to really talk about this issue.

I will summarize the immigration quota links, but please read them anyway in case I missed something.

Basically, the quota system is in three parts. 1) Immediate family members of US citizens. 2) Family-based category. 3) Employment-based category.

The first category has pretty much no limit to it. A spouse or minor child or parent of an adult US citizen can get a green card.

The second category has quotas for subcategories of brothers, sisters, and adult married children of US citizens, and for kin of green card holders.

I'll get to the third category in a moment.

For the second category, in addition to the specific quotas for the sub-categories, there is also a per country quota. No country can be the source of more than 7 percent of the total immigration quota. This translates to roughly an annual quota of 25,620 family-based immigrants from, say, Mexico each year. Each country has the same quota. The size of the source country doesn't matter.

As you can imagine, this creates a tremendous backlog. In some cases, up to 20 years on the waiting list.

That's why some people have an issue with the "get to the back of the line" argument. And it explains why some illegals got tired of waiting and took their chances on coming here without permission.

Okay. The third category (employment-based) is where a foreign worker can get a work visa if they have a job here. A work visa is not the same as a green card. But once a worker has a visa, they can apply for a green card. And once they get a green card, that makes their family members eligible for the second category (family-based) green card.

The employment-based category has a total annual quota of about 195,000.

If 100,000 of the work visa immigrants applied for a green card, and then each of them had one or two immediate family members who would then qualify for a green card, then it is easy to see how a tremendous backlog would develop. In fact, one can see a snowball effect. Each year, there would be more applicants than quota space. So those who got pushed from one year to the next would be pushing the following year's applicants over into the year after that, and so on.

So my question is, do we need to increase the quotas?

I think we do. If the employment demand is there, and we all know it is, then it is ridiculous to deny the supply the ability to provide.

That brings us to the guest worker visa proposal that keeps coming up in Congress

Is it too large? It would virtually double the number of quotas. And it doesn't say if it would also double the family-based quota. If you are going to increase the number of guest workers, shouldn't you also double the family-based category? If you don't, then you are just exacerbating the waiting list situation, in my opinion.

Punishing employers for doing whatever they can to fill their employment needs is not the way to go. If a guy needs 10 laborers and can't find them among the local work force, what is he supposed to do if the government tells him he can only hire one foreign worker? The lettuce is going to rot in the field. Food prices go up. And so on.

Increase the quotas. That's the only reason these people are illegals. Increase the quotas and the number of illegals will drop dramatically. We are seeing the law of supply and demand in full bloom.

Gnuf Said

Two news stories to support my side of the argument.

No Blood for Lettuce | NewsBusters.org

Colorado could use inmates on private farms after immigration crackdown limits worker pool - International Herald Tribune

Gnuf Said

What do you suppose the reason is that no country can be more than 7 percent of the source of foreign labor?

The only thing I can think of is that they don't want too many Mexicans coming here.

Racism?