There is Always That One Guy

Often times during an argumentative essay or and in-class I will come across a person who agrees with me, but comes off like such an uneducated, biased, arrogant person that makes me almost wish I hadn’t taken the stance I previously took. The in-class essay scenario happen more often than not but regardless, while I was searching the internet for another topic to post about I came across a man by the name of John W. Lillpop who sided with me in that we should not give illegal immigrants amnesty, but in such an offensive, biased, red-neck way that I really wished he had never posted anything at all because his argument is so poor that it probably hurts my side of the overal debate taking place.  In the site, Lillpop says that illegal immigrants don’t deserve amnesty because:

“* Invaded America by ignoring U.S. borders and immigration laws.

* Hampered homeland security and the ability of the federal government to detect and deal with potential terrorists.

* Plundered public services to which they are not entitled.

* Caused educators to "dumb down" class room studies in order to accommodate masses of non-English speakers.

* Forced U.S. hospitals and other medical facilities into bankruptcy, thereby making those facilities unavailable to U.S. citizens.

* Managed to send $30-50 billion a year back to Mexico each year, despite the fact that they cannot or will not pay for medical services received.

* Engaged in wholesale identity theft inflicting great harm to the credit and financial status of millions of innocent Americas.

* Depressed wages and the earning power of American citizens and their families.

* Invaded America for the express purpose of producing "anchor babies" to shield themselves from deportation.

* Refused to learn English.

* Taken over the streets of large U.S. cities in order to demand "rights" to which they are not entitled.

* Waved the Mexican flag and shouted, "Yes, we can!" and "We are America!" in Spanish as they protest the rule of law.

* Turned May 5 into a day known for rampant public drunkenness and violence, rather than celebration of culture and heritage.

* Voted unlawfully in American elections.

And for this they are owed respect?”

After he was done listing his poorly thought out reasons that weren’t entirely true for the most part, he finished the post with: “With all due respect, the only thing America owes any invading criminal is a solid kick in the ass, a one-way trip back to Mexico, and a permanent ban to keep these scum from ever stepping foot in America again!” John W. Lillpop clearly doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about and probably lost a bet to a Hispanic American and now he is just trying to rag on their entire race. Hopefully Mr. Lillpop can do some more research before he tries to go on another rant that only a racist, illiterate, bigot could appreciate. Also I hope he decides to change his last name, it’s hard to respect a man who is trying to come off as a tough guy when his last name is Lillpop. It makes him sound like he is from some part of Candy Land.

Gangs Harrasing Illegals

Nearly two dozen members of a Hispanic gang were arrested in Kansas this week under a federal grand jury indictment accusing them of victimizing illegal immigrants who do their business in cash and are reluctant to go to law enforcement because of their immigration status. Federal officials have long been keeping an eye on the Dodge City area, which has become a hub for drug trafficking in the Midwest because of its remote location and easy access to places like Denver, Kansas City and Oklahoma City. They say gangs have thrived in the area because police lacked resources, including Spanish-speaking officers, and gang members are able to easily blend into the growing Hispanic population.

U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said all but one of the 23 members of the Nortenos gang arrested is first- or second-generation U.S. citizens. He said they preyed on illegal immigrants who were vulnerable and unlikely to seek police protection, using violence and threats to create a climate of fear, defend the gang's reputation and territory and promote its drug trafficking activities. The gang is charged under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, which allows prosecutors to charge individual members as part of a larger criminal organization. In recent years, the act has been used to prosecute human trafficking and gang cases, including charges in 2007 against 28 members of the Crips gang in Wichita which was the first time RICO was used against gangs in Kansas.

This is one of the largest fears that come along with illegal immigration, illegal Latinos getting taken advantage of by gangs. Joining a gang is a very tempting offer to a poor male Latino trying to make a living, especially when they are alone in a foreign country. At first glance, they see the fancy cars, wads of money, and respect from everyone, however they never see a gang member retired with a house in Palm Springs. Joining a group of people that share your heritage and say they can help you is something that is hard to turn down. If the illegal immigrant turns down the gang life, it is not uncommon for the gang to harass them and exploit them like in this situation. Gang violence is something that affects many citizens in the United States and clearly it affects some non U.S. citizens as well. It is a shame that an illegal immigrant can come all the way from Mexico or further trying to find a better life only to be harassed and taken advantage of by those who claim to share the same heritage.

Arpaio in Trouble

               It’s no secret that Sheriff Joe Arpaio does things a different way than most law enforcement officials. Arpaio has been nicknamed the “World’s Toughest Sheriff” and relishes the title and does a lot to make sure he keeps it. However Arpaio may have taken things a little too far in recently because he is facing a lawsuit asserting a “pattern of unlawful discrimination” by law enforcement officials here claims that Latinos at the county jail were often referred to as “stupid” or addressed with a coarse ethnic slur. It also says that an e-mail circulated among jail officers contained a photograph of a Chihuahua in a swimsuit, over the words, “A rare photo of a Mexican Navy Seal.” The suit also asserts that Latinos were often stopped and searched for appearing disheveled or dirty or if it was deemed that too many people were in the back seat. Some were detained because they were said to have looked nervous or avoided eye contact. Statistics do shows that Latino Americans in the United States are more likely to be stopped in Maricopa County than their non-Latino counterparts.

               Sheriff Joe Arpaio has waged war on Illegal immigration and has conducted countless raids and has deported hundreds of illegal immigrants back to Mexico. In a 32-page complaint, the Justice Department contends that he and his deputies waged a campaign against illegal immigration through sweeps of homes and workplaces, and in traffic stops and jail practices aimed at Latinos, regardless of status or citizenship. Sheriff Arpaio also sought to silence his opponents including lawyers and judges through retaliation, at times filing lawsuits that were later found to be baseless, the complaint says. Sheriff Arpaio has said things that have not made him a popular figure among the Latino community and has had his fair share of discrepancies against their community as well; however one cannot deny that he has gotten results. Since Arpaio took office illegal immigration has dropped significantly, while there is still work to be done, Arpaio is the best man for the job in my eyes. This lawsuit, judging by the standoff, will most likely go to trail which will hinder his progress in the war on illegal immigration which will hurt both sides of the argument. Those who say he is a bad sheriff are only making him worse, hopefully this lawsuit is resolved in a way that is expedient and painless for both sides, however that isn’t very likely unfortunately.

We Caught Them, Now We're Letting Them Go

Department of Homeland Security officials said that fewer illegal immigrants stopped by police for minor traffic violations would be held for deportation under changes announced Friday to a federal fingerprinting program. The program will change the way federal agents handle illegal immigrants when they are detained for petty vehicular offenses in response to a report by a task force on the federal program. One of the task force’s central recommendations was that the program, called Secure Communities, should avoid deportations of traffic violators. The sharply critical task force report, issued last September, argued that such deportations were inconsistent with the department’s stated priorities of removing foreigners with serious criminal records. The increase in deportations of minor offenders under Secure Communities, the task force concluded, was undermining vital ties of trust between local police and immigrant neighborhoods.

                In a 19-page response released Friday, Homeland Security officials forcefully reasserted their support for the program, which has been the center of fierce controversy since it began in October 2008. The program has put President Obama at odds with governors in Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, who are his political allies, and eroded support for him in Latino communities. Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that Latinos will be crucial voters in the presidential election. The Hispanic population of the United States is extremely valuable in the upcoming presidential election and has not stood by the Republicans for a long time and they show no signs of supporting Romney. The Obama administration’s changes came after a hearing at the Supreme Court on Wednesday where government lawyers argued against an Arizona law that would expand the powers of the police to enforce immigration laws. Administration officials say Secure Communities is an example of the aggressive federal enforcement that makes action by state police unnecessary and counterproductive.

                ICE also reported having over 700 meetings last year with numerous law enforcement agencies and advocates for immigrants to explain the program that is about to be put into effect. This debate involves finding an immigrant that has come here or stayed here illegally, which is a crime, and then letting them go. Obviously I don’t necessarily agree with this because it is like catching a known car thief, and then letting him go back into the city. It sounds different when you substitute “criminal” in for “illegal immigrant,” but that is what they are and they should be treated as such when they are detained no matter what they are detained for.

Because it Works, We Should Change it

                The weekend checkpoints set up along random intersection in Los Angeles, here were always meant to catch those who had had too much to drink. In an operation intended to be equal parts deterrent and enforcement, the police would stop every car, testing drivers suspected of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs. However, recently the large percentage of Hispanic citizens in Los Angeles has been complaining about the unfair treatment of illegal immigrants along these checkpoints. They claim that if and the security thinks someone is an illegal immigrant they can ask for their driver’s license and because illegal immigrants can’t own a driver’s license, they are caught, detained, and then deported. The Hispanic population claims that this is unfair, because, it works. These checkpoints are very effective ways to apprehend illegal immigrants and many people at the top of the police department, including the Police Chief Charlie Beck, have decided to sympathize with illegal immigrants. The Police Department has been trying to lighten their image by appealing to the Hispanic population of Los Angeles.

                “It is good to show some sense of understanding of their plight,” Chief Beck said when the city’s Police Commission approved the change in March. While it is important to recognize their hardships, it is even more important to recognize the hardships they are unfortunately inflicting on the American taxpayer. “We need to find a way to be compassionate, yes, but also keep the roads safe,” said Tyler Izen, president of the union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League. “I’m not sure the right way for us to deal with this is at the local level.” It is a tough decision; however when you step back and look at the situation, the Los Angeles Police Department has to decide which to protect, the illegal immigrants, or the citizens of Los Angeles County.

                Under the new policy, drivers who are pulled over for minor traffic violations, including speeding, are asked to show valid identification and proof of insurance. If unlicensed drivers do not have a previous citation, they will not face a 30-day impound, where fees can often reach into the thousands of dollars (often more than a car is worth). If a licensed driver is able to come to the scene immediately, that driver usually will be allowed to take the car. If not, the car will be towed but can be picked up as soon as the owner comes to retrieve it with a licensed driver. Hopefully this new change can find a middle ground in this argument, however when it comes to identifying illegal immigrants, often times discrimination is going to occur unfortunately.

Greece's new plan

Greece is a country that is facing the most similar issues regarding illegal immigration and looking at how they handle their immigration problems could show the United States how to, or how not to hand our problems. About 130,000 immigrants cross the country's porous sea and land borders every year, the vast majority via Turkey, and the authorities are forced to release those who are arrested because of a lack of permanent housing. The numbers aren’t as big as the numbers in the U.S. but when considered the smaller civilian population, 130,000 is a lot of immigrants. To deal with this immigration problem, Greece opened its first purpose-built detention center for illegal migrants on Sunday in Athens, a week before a national election where illegal immigration has emerged as a key issue.

On Sunday, the first 56 immigrants were brought to the Amygdaleza detention camp in western Athens, a police official said. Dozens more are expected at the camp in the next few days, which can house up to 1,000 people, the official said. Amygdaleza is the first of about 50 camps that Greek officials say will be built by mid-2013. It consists of dozens of containers that were originally set up to house people hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes. "We are sending a message in every direction that the country is not unfenced anymore," Civil Protection Minister Mihalis Chrysohoidis said at a rally in Athens.

With Greece in its fifth year of recession and worries over rising crime levels, illegal immigration has become a major issue in the run up of the May 6 election. The once-obscure far-right Golden Dawn, which wants to deport all immigrants, is among the parties that has benefitted most from the mood among voters, and is expected to win its first seats in parliament. Greece's ruling Socialist PASOK and conservative rival New Democracy parties have also pledged to crack down on immigration to try to win over voters. Seeing all of the issues that another country on the other side of the world has in common with your own is interesting because its repercussions in the political elections are almost too similar to the ones going on in the United States. Looking at how Greece handles its own immigration can give the United States its own ideas on how to handle our illegal immigration issues. It will be interesting to see if this program works out for Greece, and if it does, it will be even more interesting to see if the United States adopts that same program.

Caring for Illegal Immigrant Children

Crossing the border is dangerous for full grown adults, let alone small children and teenagers. The Department of Homeland security has found that many teenagers, mostly boys, flee their home country because they are separated from their family, or their family is neglecting them, or worse. Many of these teens underestimate how difficult crossing the border is and are caught by border patrol and then kept in a cell waiting to be deported. The cycle will then often be repeated until the teenager makes it into the United States or is killed. This is clearly something that needs to be stopped and a federal child-welfare agency is paying the Department of Defense for using the dormitory, including electricity and maintenance costs, though officials said they did not have an exact dollar amount, to do something completely radical.

               Federal officials began housing more than 200 children that have attempted to cross the border and failed at Lackland Air Force Base, turning a vacant dormitory that was once the living quarters of basic training recruits into an emergency shelter for young illegal immigrants. Lackland Air Force Base is located in southern Texas close to San Antonio and offers food, housing, clothes, and proper hygiene to these displaced illegal immigrant children. This is a heartfelt and caring action but several lawyers who represent unaccompanied children questioned whether using Lackland as an emergency shelter violated a settlement agreement from a class-action lawsuit that establishes how the federal government can treat these children while they are in custody. In that agreement, reached in 1997 and known as the Flores settlement, federal authorities agreed to seek state licensing of the facilities to house these children, in response to accusations of substandard conditions. The Lackland dormitory has not been licensed by Texas as a child care facility, and state child welfare officials said the building was not subject to state regulation because it is on federal property. The Flores settlement makes an exception to the licensed facility requirement when there is an emergency or an influx of minors, but requires that those minors be placed in licensed programs “as expeditiously as possible.”

               Caring for the homeless children and teenagers that cross the border is something that the United States of America should consider however, after the children grow up, should we give then citizenship? Questions like this are sure to arise if this course of action becomes acceptable.

Not Exactly Our Idea of Progress

For as long as anyone in my generation can remember, illegal immigration has been on the rise. However, new evidence has surfaced that indicates that illegal immigration is now on the decline. During the 1970s, foreign-born residents from Mexico stood at 760,000. The 2007 peak was 12.6 million. Christian Ballesteros, who has been at a shelter for immigrants in Matamoros, Mexico, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, pointed to stiffer U.S. penalties for repeat offenders as well as brutal criminal groups that control the Mexican side of the border as reasons for the immigration decline. Ballesteros, who has been deported four times, was recently caught after hopping the border fence near Nogales, Arizona.

Ballesteros claims that there is a factor creating the decline that nobody could have predicted. "The Mexican cartels are taking over, are actually being like the border patrols on this side," Ballesteros said. "They threaten them, 'if you don't pay, what we're going to do is we're going to cut your head off.' That's the worst, the worst, the worst part." Obviously this isn’t a solution that anyone wants, unfortunately there is nothing the U.S. can do to stop it. If the cartels come on our side we can prosecute them and put them away for a long time, but that’s not the case. The Mexican government has to step in and stop this before the violence spills over into the United States.

Roughly 6.1 million unauthorized Mexican immigrants were living in the U.S. last year, down from a peak of nearly 7 million in 2007, according to the Pew Hispanic Center study released Monday. It was the biggest sustained drop in modern history, believed to be surpassed in scale only by losses in the Mexican-born U.S. population during the Great Depression. About 1.4 million Mexicans left the U.S. between 2005 and 2010, double the number who did so a decade earlier. In the meantime, the number of Mexicans who entered the U.S. sharply fell to about 1.4 million, putting net migration from Mexico at a standstill. More recent data suggest that most of the movement is now heading back to Mexico, accounting for the drop in the illegal immigrant population. The Government is taking steps in the right direction to stop illegal immigration, but watching them die as they try to cross is not what anyone wants. Unfortunately for the U.S., this problem is in the hands of the, less than capable, Mexican government.

Handling Immigrants with Criminal Records

A program meant to help illegal immigrants with criminal recordshas been giving off mixed signs. The mixed messages about the expansion of the program, known as Secure Communities, from officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement led directly to “opposition, criticism and resistance in some locations,” the inspector general, Charles K. Edwards, found. But in a second report released on Friday, the inspector general’s office found that despite the rocky start and continuing political disputes, Secure Communities has been effective at rapidly identifying more immigrants who committed serious crime at a very low cost to states.

The program is a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement policy, intended to increase the number of convicted criminals among about 400,000 immigrants deported each year. The second report for this found that enforcement officers had a good understanding of priorities set by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for detaining and deporting immigrants identified under the program, making decisions in line with its priorities in 97 percent of 723 cases that auditors reviewed. The back-to-back reports brought both an embarrassing critique of the performance of officials at the immigration agency, known as ICE, as they extended the program across the country, but also an endorsement by the inspector general’s office of its effectiveness in some aspects. Officials have said they plan to spread Secure Communities nationwide by next year.

Under Secure Communities, fingerprints of anyone arrested by the police are checked against both F.B.I. criminal databases, a routine procedure, and also against databases of the Department of Homeland Security, which hold records of all foreign-born people in the immigration system. As of last December, the program was operating in 44 states, covering 64 percent of local law enforcement jurisdictions. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has acknowledged that her department fumbled communications about Secure Communities. Homeland Security officials said Friday that they were in the final stages of preparing new guidelines to govern the program, as the inspector general urged. Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, the ranking Democrat on the House immigration subcommittee, wrote a letter last year that prompted the inspector general’s review. She said Friday that she was “frankly disappointed” with the reports, saying they failed to answer several of her questions: “Does the program also ensnare victims and others with no criminal history? Is it susceptible to racial profiling?” Immigrant advocates said the inspector general reports showed that the Secure Communities program should be canceled. The gives off such mixed signals because this is a very problematic discussion. When the is completed its hard to say which of the reports will be true.

Of Course the Church Has its Opinion

The bay area’s largest religion, Catholicism, is taking a stand on illegal immigration. Considering that this area could very well be the place that is most affected by illegal immigration it has caused everyone to form their own opinions and the Catholic hierarchy of the bay area has gone public. “It is heartbreaking to hear the painful stories of unjust deportations pouring in from our congregations. California can do better," says San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer. This position isn’t shocking because the Catholic Church would obviously never turn anyone away or tell people where they can or cannot go. They believe that everyone has a right to go where they please and do whatever they want as long as they follows God’s rules. This is why the church is kept far away from the government and it should always be that way.

According to a recent survey done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, fifty-five percent of Catholics believe today's immigrants strengthen the country more than they create a burden, compared with 45 percent of all Americans and 37 percent of Protestant Christians. Illegal immigration is a topic that digs at our emotions because it involves families being separated and people being deported like produce. However, it’s common knowledge that when it comes to what is best and what isn’t, it’s clear that emotions should be left out of the decision. We've been hearing more and more stories in our parishes, especially within the Hispanic population," said Bishop William Justice, Niederauer's assistant. "The children all of a sudden don't have a parent around. It's really not supporting the unity of the family, the sacredness of the family." The Hispanic population, especially those from Mexico, is a largely Catholic and often very religious so if their family is going through a hard time, the local priest would be a very good outlet for people to vent and share their problems with.

Illegal immigration is a problem that often times aren’t fair or just but the law is the law and at the end of the day people have to enforce the law or our nation would crumble. Religion is based on very few facts and large amounts of emotion which is why very few people are better at identifying what morally right or wrong than priests or rabbi’s or other religious figures. While we can’t involve the Church in political affairs we can however listen to their opinions.

The Situation in Iowa

               A Midwest state that saw hundreds of illegal immigrants arrested in the nation’s largest workplace raids wants to offer undocumented aliens a precious taxpayer-financed benefit by passing a controversial law previously defeated in its legislature. A bill in the Iowa House (Iowa Opportunities and Workforce Act) aims to give illegal immigrants discounted in-state tuition not even granted to U.S. citizens of other states at public colleges and universities. Ten states including California, Texas, New York and Illinois currently offer illegal immigrants the costly perk which has been legally challenged in at least two states. At the request of immigration advocates, sympathetic Iowa legislators have twice attempted to pass a measure to grant illegal aliens tuition at the cheaper resident rates. In 2004 a bill was approved by the state House but defeated in the Senate and three years later the measure was re-introduced but stalled before reaching the House floor. Proponents of illegal immigrants are confident that the third time is the charm. The Democrat from Des Moines (Ako Abdul-Samad) who recently introduced the bill for the third time assures “it’s a win-win for Iowa” that will increase citizenship in the state. The congressman guarantees that he will continue introducing the measure until it becomes law.  Iowa lawmakers seem to think that offering illegal immigrants benefits will solve many of the serious issues that surfaced after headline-breaking raids at meatpacking plants in Marshalltown and Postville in 2006 and 2008.

Hundreds of illegal aliens were caught using fake Social Security numbers to work at the factories and many ended up getting criminally charged or deported. This is something Iowa is doing well and that is punishing illegal immigrants when they are found. However this may be a step in the wrong direction because Iowa is now were offering them benefits, tax-payer funded benefits that have already been struck down. To make matters worse Iowa City, one of states largest towns, is attempting to become a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants. Iowa City would be joining Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Madison, Wisconsin and Phoenix as cities that will protect illegal immigrants. The biggest problem I have with this act is that it is treating undocumented immigrants, who are here illegally, better than our own, hardworking citizens. Democrats in Iowa have to clarify which group they are going to support more, the Iowans who have been in the state their whole lives, or the immigrants who are taking advantage of our financial system.

E-Verify

               The art of making money is simple; bring in more money than is being spent. The companies that can do this the most efficiently are the ones that will succeed and the ones that fail will go bankrupt and out of business. How companies make money is their secret, whether it is a great new product, or amazing service, or unprecedented convenience all successful business know how make money. Some companies however, don’t play by the rules and do illegal things to increase their profits. Hiring illegal immigrants is one of those illegal things. Companies will hire illegal immigrants because they will work for dirt cheap and they will work hard to keep their horrible job. By doing this, businesses can undercut their prices and run their competition out of town. Up until recently this has been a problem that has plagued the business world for a long time. Finally, a new weapon has come around that can finally stop business from hiring illegal immigrants, or at least catch them when they do it and that weapon is E-Verify.

               E-Verify is an Internet-based system that allows businesses to determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. E-Verify is fast, free and easy to use and it’s the best way employers can ensure a legal workforce. According to E-Verify, more than 288,000 employers, large and small, across the United States have used E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of their employees, with about 1,200 new businesses signing up each week. While participation in E-Verify is voluntary for most businesses, some companies may be required by state law or federal regulation to use E-Verify.  For example, most employers in Arizona and Mississippi are required to use E-Verify. E-Verify is also mandatory for employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation E-Verify clause.

               E-Verify is a valuable tool that should be required throughout the nation to ensure that business play by the rules and don’t hire illegal immigrants because not only does it keep the playing field level for other business, it also keeps the illegal immigrants from being taken advantage of. These immigrants usually don’t know how valuable they are to a business and the hard work they put in for $5 an hour would be valued at much more if they just tried to gain citizenship. By making brininess’s switch to E-Verify we can ensure that business play by the rules and nobody gets taken advantage of.

Crossing the Border, More Dangerous Than We Though

Acccording to the United States Border Patrol, 1,954 people died attempting to illegally cross into the United States-Mexican border in 1998-2004 with hundreds more reported missing. When crossing the border these immigrants are completely disregarding all of the dangers that are in the Sonoran Desert. The biggest of these dangers is the heat. Heat exhaustion claims the lives of dozens that live in Arizona and none of the people were trying to cross 100 miles of some of the most unforgiving terrain on the planet. Many immigrants travel light so if they are caught by the border patrol they have a better chance of running away. This causes many to bring insufficient amounts of water and if you run out of water in the desert then there are few ways to get more.

Another large cause of death, believe it or not, is small injuries to the leg (mainly ankle.) When your 50 miles from the nearest hospital and you sprain, twist, or break you ankle your options become very limited. The Sonoran desert is covered with lose gravel and rocks that can make traveling on foot difficult. It isn’t unheard of for a group of immigrants to leave an injured family member behind because they will drastically hold back the group, not to mention if seen by the border patrol they will have no chance of escaping. Traveling on foot in the Sonoran desert isn’t just hard because of the ground but also because of the numerous species of cacti concentrated along the border. Not only do they provide little shad from the sun but some are poisonous which leads us to the last danger in the desert.

The wildlife along the border is some of the most dangerous in the continental United States. A Rattlesnake bite can kill within 6 hours if the victim is not rushed to a hospital which rarely happens. Scorpions and snakes claim the most lives but the larger mammals are also a force to be reckoned with. Mountain lions, bobcats, and other large cats roam the border and if startled can kill a man with one well-placed bite. It is rare that the United States Border Patrol can identify a victim in the desert because if a body is left in the desert, it will be picked clean by the many coyotes that scavenge for food under the cover of night. Over 3,000 people have attempted to cross the border and have paid the ultimate price since 1998. This shows how bad conditions have to be in Mexico if people are willing to risk their lives and the lives of their family members for a dream that most likely is far out of their reach.

Update on The Dream Act

                The push for The Dream Act has gained another state supporter and that state is New York. The Dream Act is a bill that will give illegal immigrants citizenship and in state tuition if he or she attempts to pursue a college education or military service. The bill however, has stalled at the Congress level and the future doesn’t look bright for it. States are finding other ways to give aid to illegal immigrants by giving illegal immigrants in state tuition so they can go to college easier than before. So far, thirteen states, including New York, have passed this education aid for illegal immigrants and four of these, Texas, New Mexico, California, and now New York have passed a state law that illegal immigrants can apply for government aid.

                The government was erected to help the American people before other countries. This is why I feel government aid is out of the question in my mind. However, if an illegal alien is attempting to gain one or more college degrees then I feel they would become a benefit to our society and therefor I am not opposed to giving them citizenship. I have also said that I feel that there is no bigger sign of patriotism than military service and if an immigrant is willing to serve then they should be rewarded with and education and citizenship.

                The problem with Congress is that if an illegal alien is not fluent in English then they would be completely useless in the military. Another problem with immigrants joining the military is that gang ties could come into play. According to the FBI, gang graffiti has been reported in many parts of Afghanistan and Iraq coming from many notorious gangs such as the Crips or La Familia. It isn’t hard to see why gang members in the military are a bad thing. Considering their usual hate for authority and often trigger happy mentality, if a gang member were to shoot someone they weren’t supposed to, other countries wouldn’t see a gang member, they would see a United States Marine.

                The Dream Act doesn’t have strict enough criteria for it to make it through Congress and become a bill. If the Dream Act was to add a clause that includes “being fluent in English” and “No criminal record” then I feel the Dream Act would stand a much better chance at getting through Congress.

Mississippi Following Suit

Alabama, Arizona, Florida, and other southern states are adding another addition to their side of the argument on illegal immigration and that state is Mississippi. Mississippi's Republican-dominated House of Representatives voted 70-47 Thursday to pass the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act." The bill now has to go through the Senate where it is expected to pass with relative ease considering the Republicans currently hold the majority in Senate. The bill, among other things, will make police check the immigration status for everyone that they arrest. It would also prohibit any "business transactions," including renewing a driver's license and getting a business license to keep immigrants from obtaining a driver’s license.

               These immigration reforms going on across the nation are giving local law enforcement more power over illegal immigration than they have ever head. This obviously is leading to greater displeasure from the Latino population because they feel all of this is racist and they also fear profiling and harassment because they are Latino. The fear in my eyes is understandable especially considering how much discrimination the Islamic population of America had to, and in some cases, still is enduring since the events of September 11^th. However, the complaints are a small price to pay when we are talking about illegal immigration because what all of this is doing is creating jobs for Americans that would otherwise have been taken by the illegal immigrants. It also forces business to hire documented individuals and pay them proper wages. This is so they don’t undercut their prices to send their competition out of business.

               Imagine if all of the states in the United States made illegal immigration reformations, with the entire country agreeing to recognize illegal immigration as a serious threat. "Perhaps it's boat-rocking time in Mississippi," said Phil Bryant, the governor of Mississippi, surrounded by fellow supporters of HB 488 at the state Capitol, where he passionately advocated for immigration reform. The Republicans are all rallying behind immigration reform, convincing the Democratic states to turn could be a more difficult problem. With the division in Congress between Democrats and Republicans then that vision at the start of this paragraph will probably never happen. However, if enough states like Mississippi can follow suit then illegal immigration can be slowed enough to not be such a major problem. We will never be able to completely stop illegal immigration, but we can contain it if enough states can follow suit.

If it's a Matter of Life or Death

A man from El Salvador is seeking citizenship on the grounds that if he is deported he will be hunted down and killed by one of the drug cartels. The man has been incarcerated in a New York city penitentiary since July and claims that he is a wanted man in home country. In October, a federal immigration judge ruled that Orellana-Garcia could be deported and denied an application for asylum. However, his attorney, David C. Bennion, filed an appeal asking that the court re-hear the case. Bennion is an immigration attorney and a self-described pro-migrant blogger. The ruling on the appeal is said to take place within the next three months. Bennion argues that because his client speaks fluent English and was raised in a family with an American culture that he will not be able to anonymously assimilate into his home country in a safe and suitable way.

               The man has a pregnant wife and three year old son who are living with his mother and the rest of his family are temporarily in the United States. If his son is born in the United States then he will be granted citizenship. In my eyes I feel that this man should be granted citizenship because he is, according to his attorney, fluent in English. This is one of the biggest factors in my eyes that should be taken into consideration when we are deciding on whether or not to grant someone citizenship. This will greatly increase his odds of finding a job and benefiting our country. Because his wife is expecting a son in the near future then he will already have a child who is a United States citizen.

               However the purpose of this post was to debate whether or not someone should be granted citizenship if they are fleeing for their lives from their home country. All religions would probably give the person shelter but if someone looks from a logical standpoint, then in my eyes, he or she should not be granted citizenship. It is obviously hard to prove that someone is trying to kill you and if the immigrant can’t prove that he is being hunted then how are we to know if this person is telling the truth? Also, because if the immigrant has done something to anger the cartels then obviously he or she was involved with the cartels and those are the last type of people we want in our country. If an immigrant is running for his life then the Mexican police should be the first people contacted and if the police can’t do anything, then it is an issue that should be solved by the Mexican government.

Last Stop, Kansas

When illegal immigrant states are mentioned people tend to assume the state of topic is Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, or especially California because these are states with high Latino populations. However, the number one state for illegal immigrants is Kansas. Being so far from the border it seems a little unrealistic but when the state advertises “undocumented help wanted” then it’s clear why immigrants would want to come there. Because Kansas is such a low wage state it has become a major destination for undocumented immigrants. Kansas economy has taken off lately because the employers have been taking advantage of desperate illegal aliens by paying them poverty level wages for unethical work hours. Some people are going as far to say that illegal immigrants have become Kansas’s slave labor.

The Kansas Secretary of State “slammed” legislators last week for failing to adopt powerful tools for discouraging illegal immigrants from moving to Kansas. The only attempt Kansas has made to slow illegal immigration has been by slashing food stamps, which in theory would have been a good idea. This would discourage most first world immigrants however when almost all immigrants don’t need to rely on them as much because they are almost guaranteed to have a job that pays money. While it may not be very much money, it is enough to keep most illegal immigrants above water. Unlike most of us, many illegal immigrants have learned to never take anything for granite, something we all could learn from them.

The biggest controversy circling immigration in Kansas right now is the “They Can’t Deport Us All!” campaign that has sprung up in this Midwestern state. The Kansas Agriculture Secretary, Dale Rodmen, is asking the government to give farmers a waiver so that they can get illegal immigrants to come back and work on their farms. They obviously want this because they are unwilling to pay the average American the money they deserve to ear. Jobs in agriculture are often back breaking labor that should be paid that of a construction worker especially when compared to the amount of manual labor and stress exerted on the human body. It’s clear that most employers would love to keep undocumented immigrants in the United States but all of the employees want them out. Republicans are outraged at this because illegal immigration and Labor Rights are two of the most talked about things on the Republican agenda.

 

Amnesty Isn't The Right Thing Here

Many illegal immigrant sympathizers feel that we should give many of the illegal immigrants presiding in the United States a full pardon and amnesty. They feel that all of the illegal immigrants are hardworking people that would only better our economy and it would also send a good image of our nations to others around the world. Many of these people are Hispanic or have close friends that are Hispanic and one of the biggest problems with illegal immigration is that race is at the heart of the problem. However, when we put aside the race it’s clear that if hundreds of thousands of people were committing crimes then I guarantee we would not just pardon them. Not many but some people are afraid that if they don’t sympathize with illegals that they will be subject to ridicule.

               Giving all illegal immigrants amnesty would only worsen the problem. More would flock the United States in hopes that the United States would grant another mass pardon to the new illegal immigrants. Also, there are illegal immigrants that we as Americans really wouldn’t want to be citizens. Many gang members from the Mexican drug cartels have illegally moved to the southern parts of America and giving them citizenship is the last thing anything wants. If America is going to give anyone amnesty then it is the people that have no criminal record or gang ties. Also, the border needs to be secure before anyone gets pardoned because that’s the biggest issue with illegal immigration. Without secure borders illegal immigration will always be a problem. Another problem that wouldn’t be solved with amnesty is that things in Mexico must get their act straight or more people will always want to come to the United States.

               Only when we can identify the serious criminals, make our security as secure as we can, and when Mexico can solve the problems then we can grant amnesty. Giving criminals citizenship will only put our actual citizens in danger. Without safe borders, more illegal immigrants will keep coming after we grant ours amnesty. And if Mexico still is at war with the cartels then nobody in Mexico will continue to live there when they find out that they can simply walk across the border and expect amnesty. Without all of these problems solved then amnesty will only restart the process that illegal immigration has started. Even then a mass amnesty will also cost our government millions. Amnesty is a thought that in a perfect world would be perfect and almost expected out of countries worldwide. However because of world is clearly imperfect then we have to keep our borders strong and continue to deport illegal aliens until amnesty is a serious possibility.

The Minutemen

In April of 2005, Jim Gilchrest along with a few other private citizens formed the Minutemen, a group of civilians who are trying to enforce the border by themselves. While many people have voiced their outrage at this people calling them racist vigilantes who are giving Americans a bad name however they view themselves as American heroes. In a previous post I briefly gave on overview on them but now I feel it’s worth a full post.  The Minutemen have received staunch opposition to their cause because many see them as a bunch of white trash racists who enjoy hunting humans like serial killers. In my personal opinion I don’t think they enjoy hunting humans or even that they’re racist, the fact that they have faced such opposition but still persist, to me, means that at the bottom of their hearts they feel they are doing the right thing for this country. Now there is no problem with trying to do the right thing. People who do wrong trying to do the right doesn’t always make them a bad person, however it often makes them a stupid person and I think that applies to this scenario.

               On October 4, 2006, approximately forty agitated students stormed the stage of Alfred Lerner Hall during a Minuteman presentation by Marvin Stewart and Jim Gilchrest at Columbia University in New York City, where Board Members Marvin Stewart and Gilchrist had been invited to speak about the Minutemen cause. The students charged the stage with banners, from here the rest of the demonstrators began to cheer on the hecklers in the audience and eventually a demonstration turned into a protest that bleed out into the streets in front of the speech. In the 55 minute video of the presentation, hecklers can be heard calling the pair “racists” or “murderers” and other similar insults. Eventually, as one, the protestors begin to chant “racist, fascists, go away!” AdHoc, a progressive publication based at Columbia University, reports that Gilchrist and Stewart and the audience had been exchanging insults prior to the stage rush, and the speakers seemed to be intentionally inciting the students rather than giving a serious presentation on the immigration debate.

               Amidst this and other scandals the Minutemen still persist in their crusade against illegal immigrants. My only problem with this is that they have little government training and that whatever actions they do along the border, is going to be attributed to the United States Government which could easily lead to complications. The United States Border Patrol is made up of highly trained men and women who know what they’re doing and understand how every action they commit has reactions that affect racial tensions along with political.

Georgia Wants Them Out of Their Schools

               Two years ago Arizona enacted its bill that allows police to arrest citizens if they suspect they are an illegal immigrant; the state has since received criticism from every aspect of life. From senators, to average citizens, to bands refusing to play shows or go on tour in the city. Even though the bill was met with such criticism many states have followed suit making America more and more dangerous for illegal immigrants to reside in. In Georgia, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal signed a copycat bill into law in 2011, making his state the third to give police such wide powers to investigate the immigration status of suspected undocumented immigrants. “This legislation I believe is a responsible step forward in the absence of federal action,” said Deal.

               While this action alone is enough to provoke plenty of hate and animosity towards the state, but Georgia went a step farther and made all of the public university check for illegal immigrants in their school by issuing a mandatory audit to all of their students. After discovering that there were, in fact, illegal immigrants at all five public schools locations for the University of Georgia, the school board voted 14-2 in favor of banning all illegal immigrants from attend college in Georgia’s public schools. The school succeeded in strengthening the states boarders from illegal immigrants but it did hurt the institutions in another way, major collegiate sports. Salon.com gives this example “High school football star Chester Brown of Hinesville, Ga., had a rude awakening. For months, he was courted by the University of Georgia football team to join its legendary football program. He even got a UGA tattoo on his left forearm. But the October 2010 vote made it so that the Samoan-born athlete would automatically be denied admission to UGA. Now Brown is likely to be recruited by big-name schools out of state.”

               This action caused an even greater uproar from the Hispanic population and still Senators made an attempt to get every major college in Georgia to ban illegal immigrants from their schools. This bill unlike the Arizona SB 1020 is a bill that I don’t necessarily agree with. These immigrants are at a major, well respected college trying to better themselves and serve our nation. The biggest problem with illegal immigration is that we are allowing undesirables into our nation most of the time. When the few that aren’t so undesirable arrive and attempt to stand out by attending college they should be congratulated and allowed to stay. They should not be allowed in-state tuition, but they should still be allowed to attend.

An entirely new dilema

               There’s a large hate bandwagon for the government, the police, and border patrol because for some reason it’s become cool or hip to do so. Most of the time all there reasons are based on isolated events or based on complete lies but every now and then there are events that tarnish one of these departments image. For the government it would be senators and governors lying or taking bribes. For the police it is usually police brutality or racism. Recently a subject has brought negative attention to the border patrol and that would be the treatment of the mentally ill. Cases where an illegal immigrant crossing the border with mental illness provides no easy answer, sending them back to Mexico where they could be taken advantage of again or keep them confined to the holding cells with all of the other criminals which isn’t much of a better alternative.

               The Bakers Field Californian estimates that there are around 30,000 illegal immigrants in our nation’s detention centers and approximately 1,000 of them have a serious mental illness. What to do with them is the question. Putting them back in Mexico doesn’t appear to be the right answer because it is more likely they try to come back to America or they get caught up in all the crime. Keeping them in holding cells in detention centers is what we have been doing recently and it clearly isn’t working. One suggestion is to make a hospital for them in America; however this would have to be funded by the American taxpayers and would only give these immigrants what they want. Another fear of using this as an alternative is that immigrants could abuse this and claim to be mentally handicapped when they are not.

               This dilemma is one that involves our emotions as much as it involves our money. The cheaper alternatives appear to be morally wrong while the morally right choices will put a greater strain on an already problematic economy. The mentally handicapped cannot be treated like the average criminal that crosses our boarder, there has to be an exception. In my eyes, communication with Mexico could provide both countries with a solution. Perhaps extraditing these mentally ill immigrants to a hospital in Mexico where they could receive proper care. However the Mexican government has plenty of problems of their own and isn’t always easy to communicate with. If Mexico could be more like Canada or any other self-sustaining country this would not be an issue, but if that were true, illegal immigration as a whole wouldn’t be an issue.

Form hard nosed criminal to weary traveler

               The LA Times followed an illegal immigrant by the name of Luis Montes trying to cross the border along the Texico (Mexico-Texas) boarder. “Luis Montes slipped across the Rio Grande and had started crawling through a field when a U.S. Border Patrol agent nabbed him. It was a Saturday and the 32-year-old illegal immigrant figured that by Sunday he would be deported back to Mexico, where he would promptly try again to cross into Texas. Instead, Montes was put on a plane, flown halfway across the country and bused to the California-Mexico border. At 2 a.m. Tuesday, U.S. border authorities took off his handcuffs and escorted him to a gate leading to the desert city of Mexicali (Mexico-California).”

               In the eyes of the United States Border Patrol, Mexico is Mexico no matter which part of the country they are in. Many people feel this is almost a form of police brutality because if Mexico dropped a Californian in Texas he probably wouldn’t know where he was going. The article, which seemed to sympathize with illegals, depicted Montes as a weary traveler who was displaced in an unknown, uninviting part of Mexico. Quotes like "”Is there a lot of crime here?" he asked.” Show how clueless he is to that part of Mexico. This is exactly what the border patrol what’s and in my eyes it genius. The story above clearly indicates how Montes was going to make another attempt at crossing the border in Texas, now he’s been reduced to a wandering nomad who just wants to find his way home. The first thing he did instead of contacting his coyote, was call his wife and have her transfer him a few pesos so he could eat something. No doubt he will need more to get back home, this entire trip has cost Montes time and money that I doubt he will want to spend again for such a useless task. This encounter is going to obviously make him think twice about crossing again because what if they had dropped him in an unfriendly area? What if they had dropped him the middle of nowhere? These questions are and should haunt Morales especially when he thinks about crossing the border again. This entire plan was concocted by the Alien Transfer Exit Program, which tries to disrupt immigration patterns and so far they have been succeeding. Through a combination of fear and confusion the program is able to keep most immigrants from trying to cross again.

Look We're Not Alone!

If you thought America had the only problem with illegal immigrant then think again. Thousands of illegal immigrants cross from Turkey into Greece at Kastanies, Greece each year, often traveling from there to other parts of Europe. What is Greece’s response you may ask? Build a fence! A thirteen foot high fence, that is, topped with razor wire and monitored by night vision cameras.  The fence is supposed to stretch from Kastanies, to the Greek village of Nea Vyssa, near the northeastern town of Orestiada and will cost upwards of $4 million. The fence will cover a 125 mile space mostly follow the river Evros, a river that provides a natural border between the two countries. The Turkish government has not argued against the proposition nor do they show signs of doing so in the future. The New York Times interviewed someone trying to crossing the border where the fence is supposed to be built, one of the men who identified himself as Said, 24, said that they had been walking for seven days, and that he hoped to reach an uncle in Hungary.

This story is a testament to two things in my mind. One is that we as legal citizens underestimate the hardships illegal immigrants face. The war in Syria has made Said leave everything he owns and walk for more than a week and he hasn’t even arrived at his destination. I ran two hundred meters for track and almost passed out. These illegal immigrants aren’t much different from those in Mexico; companies don’t just hire illegal immigrants because they will accept lower wages, but also because they are almost always harder workers than many U.S. citizens. Farmers in Alabama complained when many of the illegal immigrants were deported because they claimed that U.S. citizens couldn’t do the job half as well as the illegal immigrants could.

The second thing this story is a testament to is that a fence clearly is the proper course of action if other countries are building their own. If it was such a poor course of action then I feel that America wouldn’t have built one in the first place and I’m sure Greece wouldn’t have made the same mistake. It’s quite obvious that things that work are used by everyone. The light bulb works, that’s why everyone uses it, the car works, that’s why everyone uses it, and a fence works, that’s why everyone is going to use it if they start to have problems with illegal immigration.

If You Don't Want a Fence Then What Do You Want?

          An interesting website has caught my attention; the website is www.buildbetterthanafence.com, a charitable organization that is advocating something better than a fence along the U.S. Mexico border. The group claims to be a charitable organization and they ask for money to, as the name states, build something better than a fence along the border. After spending a half hour on this site I concluded that they don’t actually come out and tell u what they want build instead of a fence. It appears that $114 of my money will go to some random kid along the border and that will be his magical ticket to an actual education. That’s what they want to replace the fence with, an education system. I think anytime you can improve someone’s education then you should as long as they are a U.S. citizen or at least trying to become one.

The website claims that the border cities have a much lower crime rate than the cities in the United States and they base all of this off of an article someone read in the USA Today magazine. In fact, the entire section titled “cause” is completely copied and pasted from the USA Today article titled “U.S. border cities prove havens from Mexico's drug violence.” They talk about how safe border cities are, now when I thought of border cities I thought of cities in Mexico. Instead they are talking about the cities in America and obviously they are safe from the violence in Mexico because there is a fence! Everything they told me in their very informative video was that our border patrol and our fence are doing their jobs. I think it’s well known that the border cities along the Mexican border IN MEXICO are some of the most dangerous cities on the planet. In my eyes, we should build an even bigger fence which was something I hoped this group would be advocating. To my dismay they want better education in America, well that nice but don’t you think that’s the states job and not yours? I certainly do, the group gives some rather insulting quotes from politicians on Arizonan education but guess what, we’re in a depression. Every depression America has been through education, among other things, has suffered. Education will come back but not until the economy can. This group wants to divert the resources going into border safety to education and that will help prevent illegal immigration. By making our cities better, that will keep the immigrants out. I fail to see the logic in that statement.

The group, which consists of four named and credited people, none of which appear to be from Latin-American dissent all hail from Arizona or at least have spent significant time in Arizona form Arizona appear to be people you can trust on a topic like illegal immigration. However, I tend to think a little less of them when their argument only strengthens my respect and admiration for our border patrol and shows me that all the money going to the fence is doing are worth it. If having an argument that completely contradicts their purpose doesn’t shake the foundations for your trust in them, the hopefully having an argument that completely contradicts their purpose copied and pasted word for word on their website should. The fence along the border is something that we need because illegal immigration is at a level that is much too high. We are spending valuable recourses on this wall because it is for an even more valuable cause. Education is something that is governed by the state and should be left to the state, the border cities are safe and they need to be kept safe, don’t sacrifice something big to save something small.

Is it Good Police Work or Racism?

Alberto and Eduardo Vielma were two undocumented illegal immigrants living in the United States. One day, Alberto was accused of shoplifting and the police were forced to intervene. When the police arrived, Alberto’s brother made his way to the store, accompanied by his boss, to the store just down the street from where he worked. When he got there, the policed asked to see the Vielma brothers’ identification, just the Vielma brothers. Nobody else at the scene was asked and nobody else was a Latino. The brothers are now awaiting deportation and the police officers are being accused of racial profiling by immigration supporters. To see the story in greater depth, go to http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08259/912299-455.stm.

               Ever since the Arizona SB 1070, Latino Americans have complained of profiling and racism. What they fail to realize is that illegal immigration is a racial dilemma. Caucasians are not the ones crossing our borders and neither are any other races other than the Latino population. Nobody is going to ask the Canadian or Indian if they are illegal immigrants because neither race has been documented crossing our borders illegally even though it would actually be relatively easy for the Canadian. The Pew Hispanic center estimates that 78% of illegal immigrants are from Latin American countries which show that clearly it’s impossible not to profile when dealing with illegal immigration. If you were to line up nine Caucasians and one Hispanic American and as any average American which one was the Illegal immigrant, most would point to the Hispanic. Not because they’re racist, but because that’s the decision that the facts would back up.

               Something else being overlooked here is that the police officer was right when he asked for the Vielma brother’s identification. How come we aren’t calling this good detective skills or good police work. If profiling like this gets results then we should stop complaining. Everyone in America has others judge them as they judge others, because that is what we do as humans. If you want to go to a place where you won’t be judged then move to a country that still practices Communism although that could be quite the adjustment. In the story, the writer depicts the Vielma brothers as you average human beings but what matters is that they are here illegally and the law is the law. Profiling is something that is going to happen and if a Latino American is here legally or is a United States citizen then they have nothing to worry about.

Why is This so Hard to Stop?

Traveling down the United States/Mexico border you'll come across big, burly, highly trained officers with revolvers in their holsters and you wonder "why is it so hard to stop illegal immigration when we have such a strong presents along the border? The answer is that it isn’t necessarily the border patrol that is failing it’s the economy and the funding that is failing. The entire section devoted to protecting our borders and naturalizing immigrants is underfunded and doesn’t have the resources to adequately deal with illegal immigration. In fact, the recent attempt at slowing down illegal immigration is like trying to close a revolving door. By Tamar Jacoby, an editor for the New Republic compares illegal immigration to the prohibition saying: “The problem with Prohibition, as every schoolchild knows, was that it was so out of sync with reality, so remote from human behavior and established economic patterns, that it had no hope of succeeding. It's not that alcohol is beyond government control. Realistic regulations--liquor licensing, blue laws, import duties, and the like--work effectively to keep both sales and use in check. But, by overreaching, Prohibition did far more harm than good, producing a national black market, a many-tentacled web of international smuggling, widespread criminal activity by otherwise law-abiding citizens, and underworld violence of a kind not seen before or since”

               This is the case with illegal immigration as well because like the black markets of prohibition, illegal immigration has created a black market however it’s much worse than just selling alcohol. They are selling people. The human trafficking business has become a manipulative tool to exploit the hopes and dreams of many innocent Hispanic Americans. The only way the government could put an end to the black market was to put an end to prohibition. The real way America can put an end to Illegal immigration is to make naturalization an easier process. By reinventing the process and making America an easier place to enter would solve illegal immigration and the human trafficking business it has created. As easy as it sounds it will create a problem, without a strict borders, unwanted people can enter the states like terrorists. Especially terrorists. The borders are tight for that one reason, and that reason is terrorists. The tradeoff is here, would America prefer large amounts of illegal immigrants or just a three terrorists and the consequences they will bring. This is why Illegal immigration is such a difficult problem, every major course of action America takes will have a potentially dangerous reaction to it and until America can find a non-consequential course of action, then illegal immigration will always be a problem.

The Pew Research Center

 

If you’ve been following this blog then you’ve probably recognized one of the sources I’ve consistently cited is the Pew Hispanic Center. The Center was founded in 2001 as a nonpartisan research organization to collect statistics and data on many controversial issues that they list on their “about” page on their website: http://www.pewhispanic.org/about-the-center/. The entire organization is founded by a charity organization called the Pew Charitable Trusts centered in Philadelphia. The Pew takes their information from a vast amount of sources across the nation, then rewords it and provides visual aids to help support their information and help the reader understand what is being said. One of the Pews largest sources or places where they get their information would be the 2000-2010 United States Censuses. This is an indisputable source that is provided by the Government which a great reason to cite the Pew as a source. They also conduct many public surveys and researches surveys to gather data from what the “average” American feels on a specific topic.

The actual headquarters is located in Washington D.C. and the Chairman is Donald Kellerman. Kellerman, a radio broadcaster from Brooklyn has bounced around the country from enlisting in World War II, to being hired as a producer for CBS. Then he spent five years as the Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Jacob Javits, after that he co-authored a book and finally, settled down as the Chairmen of the Pew Hispanic Center. In 2010 he passed away and left his large quantities of money and wealth to his grandchildren.

What amazes me about this site is that they can provide so much information without taking a strong stance on any particular subject they inform you about which is why it is such a good source. The Pew considers themselves “a fact tank,” a large data base that will provide the readers with everything they need to make a decision on either side of the fence. If you continue to read this blog then there is no doubt that you will see more citations from this site, I strongly encourage looking into this site as well.

Another stupid quote from a politician

Everything politicians say is under heavy scrutiny; many times it isn’t fair how often they criticized however there are times where they set themselves up. Take Ron Paul for example, while he was campaigning in Nevada one of his goals was to appeal to the Hispanic American population but he did a little more than just that. In fact, he might have alienated all others who are opposed to illegal immigration. What quote could have done this? Well, on Thursday Ron Paul released this statement: “Illegal immigrants were being scapegoated in a manner similar to Jews in Nazi Germany because of tough economic times.” This comment without a doubt was an over the top attempt to woo the Hispanic population of Nevada to his side. This comment has drastically lowered my respect for Paul considering nobody, not even he, believe what he just said.

Johan Hohmann, one of Paul’s campaign managers said this about the quote “Paul’s focus on winning over these voters also reflects his more professional operation compared with his presidential run in 2008, when he garnered 14 percent of the Nevada vote to finish second. He is trying to expand his traditional base of hard-core, small-government libertarians.” I feel this quote is just another thing that these politicians are spewing to appeal to the Hispanic population. Nobody agrees with either of these quotes and nobody in their right mind should ever try to defend a quote such as this. To compare the United States Border Patrol and our very own law enforcement to child killing Nazis is completely outlandish. Paul also went on to say things like: “If an individual is found to be breaking the law, serious consideration should be given for them to return. But I would think 99 percent of people who come here come because they believe in the American dream.”

This is a classic example of why I’ve never wanted to go into politics because they give up all loyalty they’ve ever had for each vote. From Rick Santorum wearing and Iowa shirt then an Iowa State sweater vest the next day, examples like this show that politicians are the last people on earth that we should be trust however we make them the most powerful people in our country. Unfortunately, power corrupts so this isn’t really a problem worth trying to solve considering it’s completely impossible to get politicians to act like normal people. I suppose that’s the big message behind this post, politicians never mean anything they say or do.

Illegal Immigration by the Numbers

The Pew Hispanic Center conducted a survey that posted these striking results: “A majority of undocumented immigrants have lived in the US for 10 years or more. The study estimates that there are 10.2 million unauthorized immigrants living in the US.  Of these immigrants, about two-thirds have resided in the U.S. for more than 10 years, A third of the immigrants have lived in the U.S. for 15 years or more, nearly half of the immigrants are parents to minors.” These statistics are trying to support the mass amnesty of illegal immigrants in America, or at least the idea of such an action. Currently this idea would never be passed because of the sheer cost and lack of support from many of the Border States like Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. These states don’t support automatic entry to citizenship; however, most agree if Illegal Immigrants pay a fine then they should be allowed access to citizenship.

Giving all illegal immigrants citizenship is something that is much more serious and much more delicate process than people may think. Not all illegal immigrants are hardworking people that have been here for decades, some are drug dealers working for the many gangs of Mexico and giving these people citizenship would only increase the drug trade. Not to mention they would be open to all the benefits that come with being a citizen like you and me. In my eyes, an illegal immigrant should apply for citizenship and bring someone who can prove that they have been here for more than a certain period of time and then show that they have never committed any kind of felony. For those that cannot do this, the option to join the United States armed forces should be offered to them. However, they shouldn’t be allowed to serve overseas because we don’t want drug dealers representing our country in other countries.

Newt Gingrich said in last week’s debate that “If you’ve been here for 25 years, and you got three kids and two grandkids, you’ve been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don’t think we are going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out.” Now those aren’t exactly the criteria he is going to look for but the message is still the same. If Congress can set a criteria, a black and white criteria where your either in or out, and a relatively speedy process then I feel that illegal immigration will be much less of a problem than it is now.

Yes he said it, a holiday for white people

When it comes to illegal immigration, Arizona is considered one of the toughest states on the subject hands down. From the Arizona SB law forcing profiling on all Hispanic Americans in the state, to Governor Jan Brewers finger waging at President Obama when he came to visit, Arizona’s image has been tarnished over the recent years. However there is one man that is proposing a new way to rebuild Arizona’s image by creating a new plan for the people of Arizona. This man’s name is Cecil Ash, a Republican from Mesa, Arizona, and his plan is to create a holiday…..…for white people. Yes, just for white people, Channel 10 from Tampa bay, or WTSP, took to the highly educated streets of Mesa and interviewed a few people about the idea. One person said “it’s a crazy idea.” Another said "Good idea. Like they have Cinco de Mayo for Mexicans. We need something for whites." When he proposed it, Ash only intended to get a few laughs but now he is actually defending his latest claim.

 Now Ash didn’t just step up and say he wants a holiday for white people. The topic was originally over a Latino-American Day, Ash then stepped in and said that “When we (the Caucasian population) become the minorities that we get our own holiday. This outlandish claim, in my eyes, is an unbelievable statement because it is not going to reshape Arizona’s image, if anything it is going to worsen it. Arizona and America for that matter, needs to focus less on differentiating people and focus more on bringing them together. We have American holidays for Americans, not black people or white people or Hispanic people, for Americans. Believe it or not, some other people are actually proposing something similar, Tumblir, a social networking site, is boasting a Caucasian History Month and no I’m not kidding.

When people like Ash make jokes and then try to defend these jokes it makes more people than just himself look silly. Anyone who supports this ridiculous case is just asking to be accused of being racist or intolerant. Especially when the woman that agrees with your argument backs up her claim with: "Good idea. Like they have Cinco de Mayo for Mexicans. We need something for whites." First of all, dear God, Cinco de Mayo is much more of an American holiday than it is a Mexican holiday; this woman clearly had little to no reasonable knowledge of what she was talking about at all and while it would be easy for me to make various blatant accusations about her tolerance I will refrain and just assume that her painfully ignorant statement would make sense to someone else who shares her lack of awareness. This outrageous idea is clearly never going to make it past the floor and thankfully there are more intellectual people representing Arizona and hopefully they step up and help bring the states diverse population together.

No Food Aid in Kansas

Kansas, a state not well known for its Hispanic population is taking a drastic step against fighting illegal immigration. On January 22, the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, slashed food stamps for children whose parents are illegal immigrants. This is because it recently changed the way it counts household income when determining who is eligible for the food stamp. The issue is that the formula now includes the entire income of all members of a household, but calculates food stamp eligibility as if the citizen children are the only people in the household. Previously, SRS counted only a portion if one or more members did not provide proof of legal U.S. residency. For years illegal immigrants have been denied food stamps but if their children were born in the United States then they could receive them.

When Gov. Sam Brownback was elected governor he vowed to reduce child poverty however this is clearly a step in the opposite direction. “We have families who really are desperate,” said Elena Morales of El Centro, an anti-poverty agency in Kansas City, Kan. “These food stamps were making a difference for families to be able to provide nutritional food for their children, or food at all. … This policy not only hurts these families, it hurts us, too, especially because we’re talking about U.S. citizen children.” This quote clearly sums up how people are feeling and frankly I don’t blame them. These children have been born in America and these children are entitled to support from the government. These families are almost all low income families and putting food on the table for a five or more person family can clearly be hard when you’re trying to raise a family.

Scaring people away by starving their children is the wrong way to weed out illegal immigration. Targeting the families is the wrong thing to do and worse is that they know who they are hurting. Weeks before the change, several social service agencies in Kansas received phone calls from SRS workers who wanted them to know what was coming. Families are going to be divided and children are going to be taken from their parents because there’s no way the parents can provide for their families without food stamps. This is one step that I personally don’t agree with, our country can’t afford to stop illegal immigration if it hurts its citizens (especially children) like this.