Let's Formulate A Plan (For Immigration Reform)
By TXPoet Posted in Immigration — Comments (28) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The method for computing the number of illegal aliens in the US is flawed. Please review this paper by Bear-Stearns from January 2005 concerning a more accurate picture of the actual numbers and problems involved.
For those not old enough to remember what the US was like prior to the changes brought about by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, I offer these quotes from a supporter of that Democratic sponsored Bill that got us into this mess, Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy.
"First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same ... Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset ... Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia ... In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think ... The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs." (U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization of the Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, D.C., Feb. 10, 1965. pp. 1-3.)
Fact: The total number of legalized immigrants entering The United States since 1990 has averaged 962,000 per year. Several credible studies indicate that the number of illegal entries has recently crept up to 3 million per year, triple the authorized figure.[Bear-Stearns]
Fact: Undocumented immigrants are gaining a larger share of the job market, and hold approximately 12 to 15 million jobs in the United States (8% of the employed). [Bear-Stearns]
Fact: Since 1980, the Asian American population has almost tripled, Hispanic American more than doubled, Native American increased 62%, and African American increased 31%, while the non-ethnic population has remained almost the same. This is a trend that is expected to continue. The latest estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau predict that the minority population will comprise fully half the U.S. population by the year 2050. This agrees with Roy Beck’s numbers. [See “The Silent Majority Wants Immigration Reform”, Gumball Immigration]
US History.Com has a simple chart showing the population growth of America.
Yesterday (5 May 2008) we discussed immigration concentrating primarily on illegal immigration. One commenter asked me about my plan.
As Beck states in his presentation, the effects of immigration are economic and environmental and long lasting. They will affect your children and your grandchildren. Do not base your suggestion on what will pass Congress or is popular but on what is right for America. I am looking forward to your input.
I am planning on offering a few of my suggestions for points that I think should be included in immigration reform. They will be just that, suggestions. What I would like now is your input… your suggestions. If you haven’t already, please read yesterday’s diary, “The Silent Majority Wants Immigration Reform”. Be sure to read and/listen to all links.
This is an emotional issue for some but it is good to have some basic facts. Review the information and submit your suggestions. Then later this week I will compile suggestions and we can try to find some common ground.
I'm still disappointed that we didn't implement the post Hurricane Katrina plan:
1) Dig a moat along the southern border, and fill it with water
2) Use the dirt from the moat to build up the levies in New Orleans
3) Release all of the alligators that were running wild in the French quarter into the moat.
Ok, but seriously (since that didn't happen), I think we first need to start enforcing our existing immigration and employment laws. If employers actually verified the identities of those working for them, and were required to pay social security tax on ALL employees (according to our already existing laws), we wouldn't be in this mess. Likewise, if all of the people who have stolen social security numbers were actually prosecuted (this is, afte rall, a felony).
Secondly, as TXPoet has mentioned elsewhere, it should be a felony, not a misdemeanor to invade our country - and violators should be prosecuted.
We need to do away with laws that allow for anchor babies. Just because you trotted yourself across the border to receive free healthcare in one of our hospitals, shouldn't make that baby an American citizen.
And finally, we need to stop providing free welfare, health care, and education to families that are not contributing to the tax system that is paying for those services. (No, employees are NOT paying taxes, if they are using stolen social security numbers!)
This is not a comprehensive plan, but it would be a good start.
Jenn Sierra
Ft. Hard Knox
Legal immigration should be increased to 1% of the national population a year. This is higher than the current legal immigration population (.33%) and current annual illegal immigration (.1%).
Legal immigrants assimilate faster and easier than illegal immigrants. So raising legal immigration helps assimilation. It would also make it possible for people to come legally who want to come work. Right now unless you have a family member in the country it is close to impossible to legally immigrate.
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There is no way that you can get a plan through that would absolutely never allow these people back into our country. Immigration violations are misdemeanors. Do we deport legal immigrants for misdemeanors? No, make them go home then get back in line.
Now also found at The Minority Report
they should be able to turn right around and come back within a month after a background check is done...it has to be quick because otherwise there will be no buy in to go home and come back.
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
out of control situation without being called "nativists" or "racists" and being called what we are which would be Conservative Americans who recognize the border to our country.
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
If you stopped agreeing with people who say they are opposed to illegal immigration because "Mexicans are drunk drivers."
That's honest advice, not a taunt.
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
because I think this would be a great idea. I wouldn't necessarilly be opposed to requiring the immigrants to go home to get legalization if it meant that they soon return.
Mike Pence proposed something very close to that. He was promptly accused of being for "Amnesty" by the Tancredo crowd and denounced as a traitor.
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
I say screw Tancredo. We don't need any of his race baiting in this discussion.
Now also found at The Minority Report
I agree with you on Tancredo, but it's not a one-man problem.
Let's face it, regardless of how flawed McCain/Kennedy was, the only reason SOME sensible bill hasn't passed is because the Tancredo wing of the party is dictating the terms of the debate and making it almost impossible to do anything to actually deal with the problem.
I mentioned him only because I think his tactics need to be called out. Tancredo and his ilk were totally unrepentant about sliming good men like Pence, Brownback, Isakson, Chambliss, Flake, etc. That needs to be addressed before any forward momentum is gained on the issue.
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
at the whole of the Tancredoites then. It's utterly rediculous to watch them hate brown people so much that they won't let any compromise happen. In politics you must compromise or accomplish nothing (or worse the other side gets everything)
Now also found at The Minority Report
hardcore but than place no blame at the left and their inability to deal either .....think LaRaza and their ilk.
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
No, it's not the same. I hate to say it, but the left was MUCH more willing to compromise and get a workable bill then the right was. The far-left was fairly silent during the debate, and basically got Robert Menendez on their side and nobody else.
The far-right on the other hand basically slimed 2/3rs of the Senate, including most of our best members, for even trying to do something.
Sorry, in this case, it's the Tancredo people's fault.
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
with Ted Kennedy and Mel Martinez in helping to draft this legislation...did you not read up on all the activity at that time?
http://www.americanpolicy.org/imm/main.htm
"In 2005, La Raza received $15.2 million in federal grants, of which $7.9 million was in U.S. Department of Education grants for Charter Schools, and undisclosed amounts to get-out-the-vote efforts supporting La Raza political positions including lobbying for open borders and amnesty for illegals. Had the Senate’s immigration bill passed, several million more dollars were budgeted for La Raza."
"MEChA’s founding principles state: "In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal gringo invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlan from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny…Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and no to the foreign Europeans…For La Raza to do. Fuera de la Raza nada." That closing two-sentence motto is chilling to everyone who values equal rights for all. It says: "For The Race everything. Outside The Race, nothing."
These words don’t come from a fringe radical element. These come straight from the official MEChA sites at Georgetown University, the University of Texas, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Oregon, and many other colleges and universities around the country."
Oh yeah it is just Tancredo who is hardcore...if I didn't know better I would think you were playing Alan Colmes to my Sean Hannity.
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
Uhh, what you are saying has absolutely NOTHING to do with the actual bill that came down, the actual bill that could have come down, or what happened in the Senate.
I don't care what they did. They got little to no support in the Senate. They simply did not castigate members of the left for compromising on some issues, and if they did, they were ineffective, because virtually the entire democratic caucus but wazzhisname from NJ was trying to reach a compromise.
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
agreements? Lulac was another organization involved with Harry Reid and the rest of the left....the only one's with sense were the D's from Redstate...while looking around I found this on Harry Reid...
http://www.corporate-aztecaamerica.com/hispanic/caras-voces/pdf/Caras%20...
Yeah man there is a tv station called azteca America...but Right Republicans are nativist's and racist's...will bs never cease.
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
Intentions does not equal results.
I don't know or care what they intended to do. Not a single Democratic Senator was castigated by his party for trying to cut a deal.
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
Intentions does not equal results.
I don't know or care what they intended to do. Not a single Democratic Senator was castigated by his party for trying to cut a deal. That's just a fact.
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
Did you support or oppose "The Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005" (H.R. 4437)? It passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 239-182 on December 16, 2005?
Did you support or oppose The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (S. 2611)? It passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 62-36 on May 25, 2006.
What member of the U.S. Senate or U.S. House best represents your views on the subject of a solution to the problem of illegal aliens.
Do you believe that millions of illegal aliens should be given legal status and a path to citizenship?
I did not support or oppose either of those acts. I wasn't "politically aware" at the time. My activism has begun in the last year or so.
I don't know and I don't care who in the US House or Senate best represents my views. My views are mine. I see proposals out there and I go with them.
Eventually yes. That is what it will take to get a consensus formed on an immigration bill that will give us the border and immigration enforcement that we want.
Now also found at The Minority Report
Simpson316, since you weren't "politically aware" in 2005 or 2006, what present legislation do you support regarding illegal immigration?
that I could find in THOMAS, I guess none.
My philosophy would be an enforcement first (for a period of 5 years) and then a loosening of immigration to 1% of population (as Adam C indicated earlier today). I would favor any legislation that would allow for employer sponsored entry (as long as the entrant wasn't tied to the employer for more than a period of 2 years). I do not favor mass deportation. For one, it is logistically impossible. For two, coming here illegally is only a misdemeanor. Do we deport for a misdemeanor?
We must know that unless we provide the other side of the debate with something, we will not get what we want at all. See last years immigration bill. It was scuttled because it wasn't perfect and now we are facing a few more years of status quo. Is that acceptable?
Now also found at The Minority Report
Umm, how does an increase in immigration assimilate them? We need to assimilate the immigrants that we already have! How does bring in more do that??
Ted Kennedy has been a liar for over forty (40) years on the subject of immigration.
While John McCain joined with Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in 2006 to support rewarding millions of illegal aliens with legal status and a path to citizenship, I am pleased that Jeff Sessions and approximately thirty-one other Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted against such a plan.
But I'll say this, before 1965 our immigration laws were basically racist or to be generous xenophobic. Also I think the solution to immigration is to allow more of it. This is in the interest of national security as law enforcement will be freed up from looking for lettuce pickers to looking. And its also makes sense as it follows the free market principal principals.