http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prop_187
why would they try to stop something that does not exist? because that seems a little pointless.

whites = europeans
blacks = africans
mexicans = native americas….. true americas!

fake mexican elite like Vicente Fox = europeans!

this land belong to all native americans, how can any native american from any tribe of the americas be an illegal allien any where on this land, when its the land of there race! there people native american land!

look at the girl with the baby, she and her baby are full blood native americans!  do they look african or anglo european? no!
this is the land of mexican native americans and alll other native americans from alaska to argentina!

what benefits do u guys think illegals benefit? nothing! they can`t get food stamps health care or anything for free some of you in here need to study a little more on this topic before commenting also these people might be poor and troublesome to some of you but ahhhh! remember they are putting food on your table cleaning the stables doing jobs that some of you over weight couch potatos won`t do also making life alot easier on you so why discriminate think about it at one point mostly all of your ancestors were immigrants at one point this country actually belongs to native americans…the indians! so show theses people love and care for them because it could have happen to anyone of us.

After all my experience with the ultra toxic hard left, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that someone got some beyond tenuous way of pushing the Planned Parenthood propaganda out of this.
I’m sorry if a majority of Latin Americans are unhappy with their lack of “family planning.”  (Is it really the inabilty to go to the store and buy a condom-and look at the pictures on the box if you really don’t know how to use one- we’re really talking about, or is it a lack of coercive things like sterilization that the commenter is really bemoaning? I’m sorry if that is really the case-although it’s sounds more like a case of hard left fantasy and projection which too often lead to facistic enforcement upon the third world-think African women being sterilized in exchange for food for their village.

My point is that if Latin Americans are unhappy with their countries, it is their responsibility to change them and not an entitilement to break U.S. laws-Mexico’s own immigration policy agrees with this far more than even I.  Just as it is up to U.S. citizens to enforce immigration laws for their country’s own well being.

Wow “angry mexican” what great points you make.  What a treasure you are to the country you insist on forcing yourself on.

This story is so convoluted with excuses for why your mother is illegal!  I’m not even sure who your mother is at this point-she’s Hispanic, Russian Jew, what?!  You’re so desperate to charge racism-even though hispanic is really cultural, linguistic and geographical, NOT racial, that I’m guessing Hispanic.  I think I came up with better excuses in grade school for not haveing my homework done.

AS for the sinister INS forces, it looks like she got away with breaking the law her whole life.  How convenient that she wanted to be legal, but couldn’t .  I’ve noticed that legal hispanic immigrants also don’t have much sympathy for the illegals.  Do you have ANY idea what she would have faced in Mexico if she tried immigrate there illegally-and what you would have faced helping her?!  I bet she would’ve gotten her act together then.

As for the whole leftist victimology, it is the over 100 million victims of Stalin’s and Pol Pot purges that deserve sympathy, not the communist agitators in this country.

Regardless of what lovely hardworking qualities I’m sure your mother possessed, fear is nonetheless the price you pay for lawbreaking.  It’s astounding that that has NEVER occurred to you?!

It’s so frustrating talking to the pro illegal immigration crowd-none of this is ever heard or considered-it is a mentality so drowning in an evasive self-righteous martyr complex.

“Pro-Immigrant”?  Pro Illegal Immigrant-or more likely the pro law breaking side.  After all the argument is that they should keep being allowed to break the law-it’s racist not to let them.

For some perspective maybe take a look at how Mexico treats it’s own illegals!

Americans maybe ignorant from too many reality shows-but not everyone falls for such pitiful strawmen, boiler plates, and martyr manipulations!

Maria, comment 8759,

It’s not that we hate you and you’re wrong when you say that you that you only want to help this beautiful country.  YOU may want to help this country but many other illegals do not.  They come here for many other things, and yes true they originally come here to work but many times good intentions end up in bad places doing bad things sometimes not even out of wanting to but out of desperation.  We’re just tired of the crime, the overrun hospitals, the quickly filling up jail cells, the taxes we pay to balance out the deficits you people cause, the animals you let run around the streets of the ghettos you live in that I have to constantly rescue, the change in the cities from nice to hell over time, tired of it all.  Come here LEGALLY!  My wife did and it took 5 years and about $1000.00 dollars.  If you don’t have the time it takes to apply correctly nor the money, then oh well.  And yes it’s that simple!  It’s not your country, you’re not welcomed here unless you do it the correct way.  And if you can’t, then do not come here.  If only every one of you did the correct thing, lived the correct way and did everything the legal way.  It frustrates the people that are doing things legally but why should we?  Why should my wife go through the system if we didn’t have to put her through it?  Why should I pay for medical care if I don’t have to?  Why, why why?  Talk about unfair?  I’m a legal resident, born in this country and I don’t get all the perks you latinos get.  It makes me sick.  I suggest we close up the borders NOW and for those of you who are here illegally, count your blessings while you’re here because if I were in charge of this country, you’d all be gone.  And you President Bush, you make me sick.  The person I voted for selling this country out from underneath us?  You should be ashamed of yourself.  Clinton and his republican house and senate did way more for this country (I’m sure it was because of the house and senate being right wing) but nevertheless, you’re more liberal than he ever was.  I was in favor for every choice you made till now and to me, this is the biggest and most important choice you made and you screwed it up, badly.  If I could vote again, I wouldn’t have voted for either of you but then again, who knows if Kerry would have been as liberal as you cause as it stands, you definitely don’t fit under the definition of ‘republican’.  Ahhh, what a mess!

you know what you stupid cock blowin peace of shit, when is the last time a mexican touched his own children, huh? never you nazi fuck….
you’re basing all of your statistics on one fuckin mexican, what kind of shit is that. so the next time you feel like writing another paragraph about mexicans be more accurate you “preppy white scum” burn in hell with all the other nazis and pedofiles.you white inbread piece of trash..go fuck a goat.

BUSH wanted to give them , Mexicans, cards. The senate and congress said,“No, we already tried that. They were called “Green Cards” Don’t give 5hat worthless Piece of trash credit for what the true leaders of our nation are doing, YOU IDIOT!
BUSH WANTED THE MEXICAN VOTE. Now he’s getting on the bandwagon. I live in San Antonio Texas. I wish you scum that feels so sorry for mexican aliens lived here. There NOT here to wash dishes. THEY ARE HERE TO STEAL KILL AND DESTROY. Clinton put up 3 huge fences at San Diago. YOU KNOW WHAT.
THE CRIME RATE IN SAN DIAGO DROPPED 80 PERCENT.
THATS RIGHT A WHOPPING 80%. You don’t have ms-13, street gangs, graffiti, murder, constant theft in your city yet? YOU WILL S.O.B. wait and see.
Come to texas and spend some time here. You’ll be runnin em over with your car, if you sill have one. Do you remember the railway Killer? Mexican.
the most dangerous highway in the US is HWY 90 to El Paso. You know why you white preppy scum? Because they will kill you and leave your body to rot for $10.00.
Believe me. I am living it and just got my car stolen by one . He stole it drove it and wrecked it. I had to pay for his night on the town. this is the 3rd car they have damaged. One was a poor little wetback that i felty sorry for. He took my keys while I was sleeping. the next stole my car at Goodwill second hand store using a wrecker. the most recent went into my house. Stole my pants from the bathroom and the took my car and wrecked it. I have since bolted the doors, have a huge hunting knife , and a shotgun and I hope one of the cockroaches comes into my house because I will kill the S.O.B. Come get em take em to your town.

If it makes you white-hating rich-hating far-left fruitloops happy, Bush and Republican Senators just handed you guys the House in 2006, and Senate and Presidency in 2008.

The Republican base isn’t too keen on importing 100 million South American slaves.

“Monroe’s Doctrine of Manifest Destiny?”  Can you be any stupider?

Listening to our friends in Mexico and from Guatemala, I was surprised to realize how many did not want to come to the US. They loved their families, the view from their front porches, their friends, the weather, their government, their language, their music, their history—everything. BUT, with government policies banning family planning and US economic policies devastating small farms and agricultural workers and many others, economically they had no choice. Risk the hard and dangerous trek to the US or risk watching your children die of malnutrition. If only we could spend as much on helping provide real, long-term jobs for people in their homelands—how much happier so many people, here and there, would be.

Touching story.
Your mother learned the language. She paid her bills no doubt.
Every day I see the affect of illegals draining our social services. The work here cheaply, have no health insurance, many times the car isn’t insured. If they incur expenses, so what
?
You and I get to pay the tab. They conveniently don’t speak the language especially if someone is asking them if they can pay for their damages.
If you want to live here, follow the rules, learn the language. It’s real simple.

I can relate to your story, Mr. Scheer: my grandfather was an “illegal” from the then-Soviet Union too.

It was 1922. The Canadian Government opened up its borders to those Ukrainians who were willing to go to their central “breadbasket” provinces like Alberta and Manitoba and set up farms. It was also a time of Jews in the Ukrainian SSR being persecuted for their beliefs, with Stalin’s tacit approval. So the family who later became known as the Goods/Goodes emigrated, their stated destination being Canada.

However, this family might have sojourned in Canada for a few days, but Canada was not their final destination. They wanted to live in Die Goldineh Medina, the USA. They snuck out of Canada and made it to Chicago.

My grandfather worked for the first 11 years in a frankly illegal business: the alcohol smuggling business. Prohibition was in full swing, and one of the only ways for people for whom English was not their first language (Yiddish was) to earn their keep was in the rum running trade. For years, my grandfather drove cars and trucks between Toronto and Chicago, bringing back Canadian liquor. He then would distribute it to the hotels and restaurants who kept their clientele by keeping discreet speakeasies going.

By Repeal, my grandfather had learned to speak English, more or less, and had a huge list of hotel and restaurant clients. He got into the institutional food industry and became a solid middle class breadwinner with a first generation native-born American wife (her parents were Polish Jews and went through Ellis Island) and kids.

My grandfather didn’t have anything more than an education the equivalent of elementary school, but he made damn sure all three of his children went to College. One became a CPA and is now senior partner of a big-ish firm in West LA. The other two didn’t finish college on the first go; one left with her M.r.s., the other left for a while and came back and finished her BA a few decades later.

How many great American success stories will we deny if we close up our borders with a new Berlin Wall?

People have complained about “un-assimilable” immigrants for generation after generation, but what has inevitably happened with each generation of immigrants? Assimilation. It might take a generation, it might take two, but the proof of the pudding with regard to Mexican and Central and South American immigrants is that their native-born children don’t speak Spanish so much as Spanglish. Listen to Latino 103 FM or watch LA TV and hear what I mean.

The next generation will speak English and consider their parents “squares” for speaking Spanglish. Trust me on this.

Thanks to your sympathy to our cause.
We have to come here illegally because the government doesn’t give us visas to come here legally. If I want a work visa, they want me to be ignorant, don’t speak english, and have never been here before.That is the only way that they are going to let me come here to work in the fields.
I am Mexican. Maybe if I am from Honduras or Nicaragua or El Salvador, they will receive me with open arms.
We are here because the American citizens don’t want to work in the dishwashing machine at the restaurants, they don’t want to work in the kitchen when it’s hot like hell. When a manager hire a white or black American citizen they leave the kitchen in 5 minutes, they hate to work in tough jobs.  If a store hires American citizens to work unloading trucks they just don’t do it, because is hard for them.
We are here because there are jobs for us, because people hire us, because US need us. That is the reason why we are here.  They need us to do 18 rooms a day in the hotels. My friends have been working like housekeeping and if they do 15 rooms a day, the hotel management is going to ask them to clean 18 rooms.
That’s why we are here, if there is no work to do, we would not be here.
I don’t understand why people hate us, if they go to eat out at the restaurants where we work, they go shopping where we are behind doors working so hard. They will find clean toilets is because we are working day and night to keep them clean.
American citizens hate us and they laugh at us, and they yell at us but they send their elders to residences where we clean them, we take care of them, we are their friends in that place where nobody offer them an smile, a hand, a kiss. We do that for all of you, American Citizens.
Why you hate us so much? Why you don’t go attacking the people who rise the gas prices? Why don’t you go attacking the ones that make the laws? Why you want to destroy our families? If only we want to help this beautiful country?
They are hunting us like animals.  We don’t want amnesty, we are not criminals and we don’t have to ask for forgiveness if we just came to work.

Perhaps those who favor open borders, amnesty, no laws restricting immigration, or unenforacable laws should, to use a most certainly capitalist inspired idiom, put their money where their mouths are.  Open your home to those who want it.  I most ardently respect anyone who seeks a better life, particularly for his or her family.  But there is a defference between helping others and tearing down oneself and, by extension, ones neighborhood and country.  There is room to allow those to come to the USA and become citizens - legally and on our own national terms.  We are not required to make room for those who decide that our laws do not apply.  We can sympathize, but all roads to ruin are paved with such good intentions.

This bullshit over illegal immigrants really gets my dander up!  Scheer’s essay of this week brought tears to my eyes and rage to my heart!

I guess Bush, Inc. thinks they’re American from millennia!  I have no idea from where the name Bush derives, I only know where some of them should go.  I know a story they should be told.  It concerns a Polish woman who used to watch my baby for me to go food shopping.  She always wore a scarf that reached below her eyebrows.  One day I asked her why.  She pulled it back and revealed the most hellish scar I’ve ever seen on a human.  She was just a little girl, working in the fields with her two brothers and her parents when Hitler’s thugs came upon them on horseback.  Out of the 5 people in the field, she was the only one left alive and she wouldn’t have been had they realized they hadn’t killed her, too!  Their slaughter of humans was done with hatchets!  Nothing the slightest humane nature, like a quick gunshot to the head.

We’re all immigrants.  Makeas no difference from whence we came nor how.  White man found a land kept pure by Indian tribes, proceeded to kill them off, put them in stockades, abase them in every manner possible known to man.  Old Christopher’s crew traded broken pieces of blue glass to the Indians for huge chunks of gold!  We stole their country and set out to ruin it, and that’s what we’ve accomplished.

I say how dare the big boys choose a group or groups of humans and say they do not belong here when in all reality, it’s they who dont belong here or among any civilized human beings!

Ida would be proud of you!

You do not have to be enlightened to know that a few million mexicanos at the bottom rung are just a drop in the overflowing bucket of economic hurt that is coming your way. Actually, if you are a capitalist you make millions by cheating them immigrants of their fair wages.

The plutocrats in this country have more in common with plutocrats in Saudi Arabia or the emerging plutocrats in Iraq than the common people, new immigrants or old. Is Bill Gates worth a 100B? Even god is not worth a 100B pesos.

Hate is good. But hate the right source of your economic misery. Oil companies get a ~100B in subsidies and give you $3/gallon gas!

The gap between the rich and the poor is on the rise. While the corporate media will tell you this is a free country and you can be a millionaire if you want to, I suggest you dust off that shoeshine box to earn your next meal ‘cause the statistics says your chances of breaking into the next higher quintile of income are rather slim to nothing.

And make that hate snappy and effective. You know the plutocrats are gunning for you. They are armed with corporate power and ready for the coming class struggle. Their tools are all legal, their morality sanctioned by the Lord himself: FCC rule changes to control the media, SEC rule changes to control the markets, the Drug Laws and big prisons to hold the poor derelicts, bankruptcy law changes to squeeze the middle class, Patriot Act to control the would-be unruly terrorists at Kansas State, the quacking courts stuffed with corporate sludge. You name a freedom, and I bet there is a law to squash it.

Robert Scheer decides to share a personal account and many readers fail to show an ounce of sympathy. He is not asking for empathy. He is solely trying to demonstrate the hardships that legal and illegal immigrants confront.

At times I wish I were a Native American, of which I have greater claim as a Mexicano than most Americans who claim to have Cherokee blood or have a black friend, and have the opportunity to go back in time. I would fill my heart with hate and go to Ellis Island. There, I would gather up an angry mob of Natives or maybe paint myself in White Face and get the KKK to help me and yell “go back to Europe you bunch of losers.” This country was not made for you! We do not care that your potato harvest has failed. Deal with Hitler, he may not be that bad, and we are anti-sematic as well, so why would we want Jews in our country.

However, I am a loving human being who follows the teaching of Ghandi. May the Great Spirt in the sky have mercy on this hateful human race.

I am sure your mother was a good woman.  However, I am sure that the reasons for the rage of the people you villify, escapes you. 

The left like the right wing is out of touch with the concerns of working class people. 

It is easy for someone like you who lives in their ivory tower to have contempt for working people much like your right wing counterparts.

It is no secret that the bird that shits on working people has both a right and Left wing.

I used to be left wing but reading your recent article reminds why I am not anymore.  The left is just as flaky as the Reaganites.

This heart warming editorial is one of your best.
Your comments are entirely consistent with the sentiments on our Statue of Liberty.

I am unimpressed by the sob story about your mother.
Do you want to create more hate, like the hatred you felt for the heckler, like the hatred I feel for you right now?  Then let more illegal immigrants pour across our border.  You can see it’s p*ssing people off.  Yet you advocate more of it.  You want to shove it down our throat.  The wishes of the majority of Americans don’t matter to you.  We are just not as “enlightened” as you, are we?  There are ethnic and racial tensions simmering just below the surface in this country.  Just keep pouring gasoline on the fire, smart guy.
God, I despise people like you.

America is multi-cultural.

Get used to it.

Unlike Mr. Scheer, I can trace the American residency of my father and mother’s families back to the days before the Declaration of Independence was signed. Though several generations removed, I was named for a great…uncle (Robert Craddock) who was an officer in the Continental Army.  Remembering the ideals of those who formed this country (most of whom were immigrants or children of immigrants) is why I support today’s immigrants in their struggle to win reasonable accommodations toward establishing citizenry.  Amnesty - no.  A rationale process, yes.  And certainly one that doesn’t subject honorable people like Mr. Scheer’s fine mother to degrading treatment.

Illegal immigrants’ children and other olny spanish speaking children are nuking the public school system in California.

Global corporatism good, global labor bad!

Every Nazi in this country is perfectly happy when we go to these countries with guns, WTO, and the world bank, destroying local ecologies like the Niger delta for resources and destablizing sustainable communities by privatizing their water and selling Monsanto seeds.

Why not global labor with open borders, wal-marting cut-throat struggle to seek daily livlihood. wouldn’t you love to see half the fat-ass Dorothies in Kansas living it up on the streets.

As I read all these comments I see how messed up the immigration issue is. I heard that the gov issues some 3.5 million green cards a year worldwide. If you have 6 million comming into the country then you are 2.5 mil short.

The other issue is that business for some reason or other hire these people.

Will someone bring some reason and logic into the solution?

I feel sorry for all the well intentioned actions on the parts of all those who have taken part in the recent actions concerning this issue. Yet I can’t help but suspect that they are being used as mere pawns for the self serving interests of those who have spurred them on. Yet’s face it America for all its faults is a nation of laws and personel rights based on them. All Americans are taught this concept K, through 12 grade. We, those of us who are Americans understand this whether, it pertains to rights of property or, representaion. Americans histoically, fought to important conflicts; (ie, War of Independence and Civil War) because of this. That in mind it must be also understood that they don’t like to be told what to do by anybody. Yet, I can also understand the situation of those who seek a chance to become Americans as well, yet, there is a process. Is that process flawed? Yes. But breaking the laws that are set in place for that process to work is not the answer. Those of you who want to stay in this country must take time first to understand this country. Most Americans although they might not voice it think like this: Why are you coming here and demanding a hand out, when at the same time you, as citizens of another country are not demanding those same rights from the elected officicals who are suppose to be running your native country in your best interests? Why are are you here begging to be explioted; when you have a right in your own country to damand not to be denied there? You see it’s a matter of being culturally handicapped to the ways of America, that will prevent any forward movement on the parts of your cause. This is how American’s see it.

I immigrated legally in 1952, I live in Southern California and have lived here since 1969, and on this issue I disagree with you totally and completely.

Doesn’t make sense…complain about working long hard hours for abysmally low wages, isn’t that the complaint of workers in Old Mexico…? If you poor people are treated equally as bad where ever you are…why not stay in your own country..and leave our country and our wages alone…

Let’s focus for the moment on legal, rather than illegal, immigration.  Why do you think that the U.S. (and all other countries that permit immigration) place limits on the number of immigrates it accepts each year?  Does it have anything to do with the government’s (federal and states) ablility to provide services ie, education, medical, welfare, transportation, energy, etc?  If not, why not simply allow everyone and anyone who desires to improve their life and the lifes of family members to come to the U.S. and live here permanently?

So?  I would support amnesty for all 80-year-old leftist Jewish women who fled their country of origin to avoid political persecution.  Is that the writer’s objective?

No.  The writer uses a Hallmark-style emotionally-manipulative story to presumably suggest that all illegal aliens should be allowed to stay.  What garbage.

What about the guy who came yesterday?  What about the gang bangers, pedophiles, rapists (No, most immigrants are not any of those, but some are, and since they do not undergo any interview or background check when they come, we have no way of knowing). 

Yes the illegal immigrants mostly come here to work.  They want our jobs.  Is it in the best interest of the American people to allow businesses to import workers (or slave labor) from third world countries to take our jobs?  No.  It is not in the best interest of the American public.

Further, if you want a vision of the future (at least for California), look at Detroit or Oakland.  Both cities had a tremendous immigration from the South to fill then-available jobs.  The immigrants were mostly poor, uneducated, low-skilled.  They got jobs in the manufacturing and auto industry (Detroit) and in the shipyards (Oakland).  Then the jobs left.  And both cities have faced enormous difficulties since then with a large low-educated low-skilled low-income population, rampant unemployment, depleted tax base, increased crime, deterioration of the housing stock, increased crime.  Yes, Oakland is making a comeback, but that’s partly by making areas too expensive for the poor people, so they are forced to Richmond and other areas.  Detriot, as we know, continues to flail.

These employers who are importing illegal workers (and supporting Monday’s march) will move their businesses to China or Thailand as soon as they can figure out how to do so.  Then what? 

Official estimates are 12 million illegal immigrants.  Those estimates are probably low, and the number may be closer to 15-18 million.  10 million alone in California.  Each one marries (maybe each other) and has 3 children within 5 years - you now have an increase in the population in California of 40 million in a 10 year period, mostly low-educated, low-skilled, low-income people. 

Let’s assume we want to help others.  Does that mean we should make the following sacrifices:  radical increase in population; overburdening of police, fire, sanitation, water, sewage, schools, hospitals; increase in crime (imported drug trade from Mexico and just the normal crime that accompanies poverty and overcrowding); increased demands on the schools to now educate more students and provide education in two languages; increased demand on housing which pushes up the prices, increases the density of neighborhoods, and accelerates the depreciation of local services such as parks and recreation. 

And what do we get for this?  Employers make a ton more money, which they do not pay in taxes since Republicans have cut or eliminated taxes for wealthy people.  My tax dollar brings me fewer services.  My cities, towns, beaches, parks, are overcrowded and overburdened. 

Give me a break.  The only reason for this recent upswing in illegal immigration is a government that allows it because their corporate owners profit from it.  Working men and women see their own wages fall, housing costs increase, neighborhoods deteriorate.

What should we do?  Start with the assumption that everyone who is here illegally should leave.  They should not be allowed to cut in line in front of people who have filled out the forms, followed the rules, and are patiently waiting to come to this country legally.

Amnesty?  Yes, of course, in some circumstances.  What are those circumstances?  We could fairly come up with some set of criteria - length of time in the country being the starting point. 

This entire debate has seen the weakness of the left prevail: sentiment and emotion are used to support a position.  Rational analysis is abandoned so everyone can feel good and support the poor people.

Fox wants everyone to leave Mexico so the ruling class in Mexico does not have to face what otherwise would be an angry population of young people demanding change.  How can liberals in this country possibly support an elitist corrupt Mexican (and American) government that proposes slave labor as a way for them to stay in power (Fox and his friends) and to make more money (Bush and his friends).

The problem is none of the so-called immigrants in the modern era want to assimilate and become Americans. They all want the benefits of American society - including the often derided and lambasted capitalist system of business - the money, medical care, standard of living, etc, without actually having to become American. They want to turn this nation into little Mexicos, little Havanas, little Vietnams. 

Why the need to creat a Spanish anthem? Why not learn to sing it in English?

Why must schools teach each child in their own language? Some districts have more than 40 different bilungual education programs. Earlier generations of immigrants WANTED to learn English. They wanted to be Americans, and Americans only, not hybridized and hyphenated versions of something neither American nor of the nation where they were born.

If I thought the majority of these people were interested in becoming American citizens, with emphasis on AMERICAN - not Mexican-American, or Irish-American, or Korean-American, I might be more accepting of their wishes to allow them into this country. But the fact is they want to reap the benefits of all this great nation has to offer, without wanting to be a genuine part of its culture or heritage.

If you are an immigrant who still flies the flag of your former nation, if your heart still pines for your motherland, then I suggest you return to that place and work on improving the conditions there, instead of trying to turn the USA into a watered down version of your birthplace.

Dear Robert,

You and your mother’s political ideas make it very difficult for me to defend Jewish folk.  Thank goodness Jewish people, like other peoples, have diverse such views…but to the Jew hater that makes no difference.  These folk know I am not communist and they also know that I, as one of those evangelical fundamentalist type Christians, defend Israel and the physical bodies of Jews.  Your mother’s communism is a Jewish invention, but not after the spirit of the one GOOD Jewish contribution, and that is the written archive of the testimony of God called the Bible…both in it’s Hebrew religion maintenance of Moses (not Judaism) and Christianity. 

My defence of the obnoxious Jew resides in the promise found in both sets of scripture, that of Moses and the prophets and the prophets of Christ, that of the entire population of unbelieving Jews that enter Israel and Jerusalem, God will destroy two thirds and save a third (convert them to Christ).  That means two things: ONE, Christian prosyltism will NOT destroy the Jewish identity (says so in the Christian’s own manual), TWO, One out of every currant Jew, at least those in Israel, are the unmanifested elect of God, and hence our brothers-to-be…and that without us lifting a hand to convert them.  I guess that is a variation on the half full glass optimism.  Now this is terribly grating to the ears of today’s Talmud blind Jew and I am not even sure about how it sounds to the apostate communist atheistic Jew, but I feel putting things on the table as a leveling, rather, bottoming device, may allow thinking on the Jew of a Christian principle that demands their safety, something they can proffer to an over zealous identity movement or replacement theologian type “Christian, if the Jewish person feels physically or personally threatened by such types.  For the Christian who insists on denying Israel’s right to exist because of replacement theology, it will mean that allowing God’s infrastructure of His continuing involvement in the lives of a people who have wandered away from Him to continue, they need not feel that Israel has to be converted before they can have such a land…because Zechariah and Ezekiel have God handling that, “for His name’s sake” and NOT for any righteousness that the Jews coming into the land may lack “in God’s eyes.”

NOW, concerning the topic of immigration.  You may love your mother, but she was wrong.  And for you, a half Jew, to persist in supporting anything else that will destroy America complicates those who desire to support the likes of you and those who innocently are identified with the same blood.  I will continue to support the Jews but that will not forbid me to chasten you on your stinking thinking and destroying what made America blessed in the first place.  Wake up.  Your own devices are putting you into a danger that I cannot remedy.  I WILL continue to oppose your stinking communist, socialist thinking, though it makes my task more difficult to protect your body, even with my life, against the people of my kind, who are EQUALLY as wrong and racist as you are.  It may be good to be the King, but it is definitely miserable to be in the middle as I happen to be.  Read John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and find out what government is SUPPOSED to be.  It is NOT to be involved in Charity or Education, for it IS a gun, and what reason or right has a gun to do with charity and education in the first place? and for once, though I have not a clue why the president insists on not protecting our borders, by killing folk who are killing Americans, THEY ARE doing what they are supposed to do.  Never mind, government, that there are starving people in America, that is OUR responsibility, that of the churches, atheistic philisophical societies, Synagogues, perhaps even mosques, and private philanthropists with means, not yours, and if you divest yourselves of education and charity, all the way down to the local level, and let society regain their responsibilities, then you might not have been so distracted so you could have protected us from 9-11, or something like that in the future.
By the way, in that I am being presumptuous to think you are for higher taxes and bigger government,  the Bible itself, concerning the Prophet Samuel, claims that when you tax the farmer and the rancher a tenth and the common people a twelth (one month) of their labor, the king has made the people a slave, and servant.  America is about the first in it’s governmental institutions, which declares government the servant and the people are kings.  My Christian scriptures says if we are slaves, then we know how to be good servants, but if free, to USE that therefore.  As far as I know, no document has declared the citizen of America to be a slave, so I will as a FREE man FIGHT whatever that will return us to slavery.  Now, check our tax burden, sum up the “liabilities” by percentage of our income, and tell me, practically, if we are slaves or if we are still free.  If it exceeds 9.99% (in combining all of our tax burdens from Federal to State)then we are practical slaves, and if it excedes 20%, as were the Egyptians required to give to Pharaoh, after the people sold themselves into slavery and were redistributed on what was once their own private lands, then we are ABJECT slaves.  I am not one to throw you, judgmentally, into the waste bin of the incorribables, but if this revelation obtained by your own industry in answer to my delivering you this homework, does not spark the HONORABLE Jewish responsibility in you to be TRUE deliverers from bondage and injustice, then you are a traitor to America, until you come to your senses.  Remember, the influx of Illegal Immigration into America while our currant regime has usurped our responsibilities for charity and education, by providing such through theft of our dime and without real representation, then these Illegals are THIEVES, no matter how pitiful.  Repent and help us remove our bondage, so that the people have the money to give from their bounty remedy to the ills of the world through temporary measures as we seek to assist, privately, those cultures in giving them the tools to help themselves.  We will give such WITHOUT agenda, while our government’s give such WITH agenda, and WITH strings, AND truly an aim to put other peoples into THEIR bondage of influence.  This is both a rebuke and a plea.  Do not be the source of error but in the name of the Jew, try to be a remedy.

Stephen Hale from Midland, Texas

It’s a shame that so many conservatives’ ideology makes them unlikely to seek therapy for the rage that underlies so much of their politics.  It is mostly if not wholly based on demonizing the Other, whether it’s an immigrant, a person of color, a gay or lesbian, or a welfare recipient. 

Strange that there’s little anger directed at crimes of the rich, white and well-off, which result in far more economic harm.  Conservative politicians rely on directing their constituents’s anger at the powerless at our society, instead of the powerful.  It’s so sad to see Republican voters get fooled time and time again by this ruse.  Your wages are falling?  Can’t afford health care?  Look over there, it’s Mexicans!  Eeeek!

Stop letting Republicans play you for fools, wingnuts.

All of you complaining about illegals, remember that a good chunk of this nation was taken from Mexico—the entire Southwest, Texas and California, in a war the U.S. invented.  Then we made a law stating that the former citizens of the country we stole are no longer welcome here.  Sheesh!  As far as I’m concerned, the only people who have any right to complain about illegals are American Indians.

One fortunate grandchild of “legal” Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.

Sir, I’m like you mother, is Jewish girl from former Soviet Union, and was “let” into this greatest country on Earth by Ronald Regan’s brave political standing. But unlike your mother, I didn’t bring the leftist ideas with me, and as far as I know none of my fellow emigrants from Russia did that as well. If she would disclose these ideas at the interview prior to enter this country, she would never be admitted, so compare her with us is very wrong to say at least. It is very dishonest and disturbing to try and undermine a country where you supposedly ran to find a refuge. If it’s that bad, why did she come here in a first place? There is nothing noble about your mom’s and your position on immigration issue.

#8456 “Does anyone follow the logic here??..”

Sorry, but all of your arguments sounded like they were based on your own fears and bigotry and when you do that, logic goes right out the window!

Immigration is an extremely important subject that should be discussed in as non-partisan a fashion as possible.

It’s quite pathetic that all this site can offer are stories designed to tug at your heart strings (this current story) and misleading articles (Marc Cooper’s recent piece here).

If those on the left want to flood the U.S. with millions of additional immigrants, then perhaps they should start defending that policy on its merits and perhaps they should start answering objections.

I am a first generation Mexicano-Americano. My father crossed the border illegally. He was caught twice and sent back. Finally, he got his green card and the deportation problem ended. My mother knew when she crossed the border in Juarez that she would never be returning so my grandfather obtained a green card for her.

My father is in his 70’s, therefore he is a criminal for once being a “mojado.” Is it too late to deport him for having broken the law 50 years ago?

The Latino immigration issue can not be compared to the racist immigration policy that allowed Europeans to enter this country legally, yet excluded those so-called people of color. I assure you that if Europe was an impoverished land-mass to the south that they would be engaging in the same illegal activity.

Is it too late to send the Vietnamese back since we instigated that stupid war? Can we send back the criminals that Castro sent us? I guess Mexico should become a communist nation so that its people can be given political assylum.

Oh how easily we forget how we got here.  What I don’t understand is why insist on building a wall when we could build a building, say like the building on Ellis Island, that allowed so many undocumented people to come over and become legal citizens so their children could become “Americans”?  Why, because that would mean big business would have to treat them as legal employees and they would lose their cheap labor force!  And, of course, we can’t demand Mexico or any other third world country to treat their people with fair labor practices because than they would become our competitors, instead of our laborers! 

I wonder how those who think these people should be put in jail would survive under the conditions that make these people risk their lives to come here.  If your children were starving and you knew that just across the border you could get a job that would feed your children, would you tell them, sorry you’ll just have to die because it’s illegal to cross the border? Or would you do whatever you could to help them live?  I wonder how Jesus would treat them.  I think you know.

The US’s de facto immigration policy populates our workforce with “illegals,” and has created millions of quasi citizens who should be given amnesty. It is wrong to punish them when we so heartily enjoy the fruits of their labor.

I think all of the others who commented on your article about your “illegal” mother told all of it - what could I possibly say that hasn’t already been said.  Your “illegal” mother was a criminal when she sneaked into this country and then refused to become a citizen - sorry, no sympathy here!!!!!!

The problem (or one of them, at least) with the Great Immigration Debate is that all the arguments seem to lead to their own rebuttal.

If the U.S. sets limits on the number of immigrants allowed in annually, the numerical quota will never be high enough.  If it’s 900 K, why not a million?  If it’s a million, why not 1.5 M?

Arguing that we have an “open” border makes human rights sense, but turns out to be a security nightmare as well as wildly expensive. 

Portraying the U.S. as an international ogre for trying to keep ambitious, hard-working Mexicans from entering—legally or illegally—makes sense until it’s shown that we’re (I think) the only country in the world that recognizes as a citizen any baby born here to any mother, under any circumstances.  We’re also one of only a couple of countries in the world that allows foreign nationals to own property on our soil.

Because of the political ramifications attached to any definitive policy, our congressional leaders will never arrive at a solution.  It reminds me of the Cuban embargo. 

Everyone (including the editorial board of the “National Review”) wants to see that silly embargo lifted, but the state of Florida, with its semi-hysterical Cuban-American constituency and 27 electoral votes, is holding us hostage.

We cannot allow our laws to go unenforced.  That is first and foremost in this issue, and is non-negotiable.  I don’t care where you stand on the issue- you must be pro-enforcement of the law no matter what, if you are to hold any legitmacy whatsoever.  You can push for the changing of the law, sure, you can disagree, of course- but the rule of law does not bend for sad stories about your mother.

This nation is not the great feeding trough for everyone in the World.  We do not exist for everyone else’s benefit.  Why do we feel as if we need to provide “better lives” for people of other nations?  Our government’s first and foremost duty is to protect the sovereignty of this nation, and by letting illegals rape our borders, the United States govt has shown itself to be negligent and incompetent. 

George Bush should resign for this dereliction of duty.

“We are a nation of immigrants” - that’s the big catch phrase that the illegal aliens and their supporters fling around like a piece of meat in front of our elected officials.  This is such a deceptive and dishonest way to present the argument.  We ARE a nation of immigrants but SO WHAT? This has NOTHING to do with the real issue.  Don’t forget, the key word is ILLEGAL, not Immigrant.  We must seal our borders, deport all the criminals who disobeyed the law, and get the true immigrants an easier path toward citizenship.  English is a must.  No criminal record is a no-brainer.  Education is key.  Clean bill of health is imperative.  We should welcome immigrants, and welcome foreigners who want to become AMERICANS in every sense of the word.

Build a wall!
Fill it with lava!
Patrol the border!
Kick out the ILLEGALS NOW.

My mother-in-law was a legal immigrant.  Forced to leave school and work in a chemical factory by the Nazi government because she was left-handed, Maya met and married a young American flyer—-the son of German/Czech parents—-shortly after the Americans arrived in Pfaffengrund (a suburb of Heidelberg). Maya quickly learned English, even though she married into a German-speaking family. She became a U.S. citizen as soon as possible.  Her baby brother, Willi, joined the U.S. Army and became a citizen. Willi’s wife, a “displaced person” from Bulgaria,
also became a U.S. citizen after being a legal immigrant.

I’ve spent most of my life living in Europe as an American citizen due to work and marriage.  Citizenship is something you earn overseas—-not something that is granted—if you are a legal immigrant. Citizenship was once something you earned here if you were a legal immigrant.

It is not fair to all those waiting in line around the world to become legal immigrants if our country suddenly “legalizes” illegal immigrants from Mexico or any other country. Guest worker status could be a step up on the ladder to U.S.citizenship.

Sir, your story is quite touching. However, I would appear that upon arriving here she attempted to bring the politics of Russia with her. Sorry no sympathy for her struggle in the streets and being arrested. Secondly, there is a system for folks to come here legally. She chose not to follow the system,ie: behave in a legal manner and basiclly play the game. We all have to play the game, pay taxes, not make a habit of breaking the law etc. This country while made up of immigrants who came here by the rules does not owe anything to those who chose to take short cuts. The myth of illegals (not undocumented workers) doing work citizens will not do is bogus. Citizens will not work for less than minimum wage. Illegals drive down the labor market for poor and minority citizens by accepting lower wages. It is not all the illegals fault. The CEO’s of Tyson, and all the other companies whose policy of hiring illegals should be in prison for life, for slavery and treason. They are undermining the country for a buck. Rather than being smug about beating the INS, be greatfull your mother the criminal was able to beat the rap.

What a load of crap!

Your mother CHOSE to remain in the United States ILLEGALLY! Why can’t people get that through their heads? I-L-L-E-G-A-L-L-Y!!!

The conditions she chose to work under were due to her illegal status and the illegal actions of the company that chose to hire her. She lived in absolute disregard for the laws of the country she may be demanding “BENEFITS” from now. HYPOCRITE!!!

She could have chosen to work toward United States citizenship and worked with a visa special for foreign citizens.

I cannot feel sorry for a situation that she and obviously millions of other ILLEGAL immigrants and workers have chose to live under.  This is nothing like slavery…or sweat shops…unless they were kidnapped and brought here against their wills.

There ARE people who come fleeing persecution and would rather live in the level of squalor that the U.S. calls “poverty”  than the much worse and probably more properly defined squalor they are forced to live under due to hatefule regimes in their own countries. 

Is that the case in Mexico?

I have hired hundreds of corporate employees over the years. Each candidate knew in advance that she or he would undergo a routine background screening. Every single candidate asked about salary, benefits and other working conditions.

I have hired dozens of Hispanic day laborors, all here illegally, to work around my home. Not one ever asked what I will pay before getting in my car, nor about hours, working conditions, etc.
The reason, of course, is that they know any such questions could cause an employer to simply wave them away in favor of another guy on the sidewalk.
The biggest obstacle that keeps yesterday’s illegal immigrant from moving up is today’s illegal and desperate-for-work immigrant. An open borders policy encourages employers to pay as little as possible. It means illegal immigrants have little incentive to educate themselves, and little ability to earn enough to keep their kids in school.

In the name of generosity to the illegals, most of whom are good-hearted, hard-working people, we are condemning them to permanent underclass status. Is that what Robert Scheer’s mother would have wanted from the America that took her in?

If the “free trade” agreements were reworked to provide worker’s rights and decent working conditions, etc., America wouldn’t be as attractive to the category of illegal immigrants who work here for the low wages ( that are far greater than wages available in their countries ).

It wouldn’t hurt to raise the minimum wage in this country or to have a single-payer health system either. Combined with better enforcement of OSHA and other regulations that affect the quality of the workplace many jobs might be more attractive to Americans. This country has such a large contingent of the “working poor.” It might help to cap the wages of the CEOs who make 400+ times the average salaries of workers in this country.

To solve this problem many things need to be done in this country and other countries to provide good jobs.

my parents,both from russia,radical unionists,somehow were able to acheive us citizenship.i think ida got bad legal advice back then.the backlash to welcoming immigrants, has more to do with the war,jobs,tax breaks for the wealthy, and yes, racism.i remember when the irish were the largest illegal group in nyc, and somehow they all got amnesty,cause they were working off the books and our govt wanted tax dollars.if times were different and our nation was on a positive,forward looking tract, this would not be an issue.

Thank you for such a moving column. One of your best. I felt your pain and frustration.

ron hansing

1.“I had just been moved to tears by one sign carried by what seemed to be a family stating, “We are workers not criminals,”

By definition one who commits a crime is a criminal>

2.“I know about having an otherwise law-abiding family member who spends decades working long, hard hours for abysmally low wages under miserable working conditions, ever attendant to the orders of employers who don’t care that they are violating the law.”

So? They put themselves in that position, no one else does.
3. “And if you object by joining a union and going on strike? Well, they can turn you in to the INS, and you’re trouble no more.”
see #2

Having a bedridden person report in person was over the top. I think they assumed you were lying about her being bedridden

It is important to remember that many illegal aliens wouldn’t be here if nobody hired them.

Capitalism is the problem. Capitalism loves
cheap and vulnerable labor.

If those who hire illegals faced serious penalties upon detection there wouldn’t be much of a problem.

But, instead of this path, you can expect us to
build walls - using crony contractors who hire illegals.

As Mr. Dooley said: “Tis a gre-e-at counthry,
Hinnessy, an’ the best iv it is we know we arre!”

DCN

My family came to America from Norway and Sweden. They followed the rules, learned the langage and educated themselves. Those from Viet Nam and other countries have done the same. They obeyed the laws and paid their dues.

This 80 yr old sick mom had the opportunity to follow the rule of law and chose not to do it; she willfully broke the law. Russian Jew or not she chose to remain here illegally and I do not believe the President would have been happy about it.

I wonder if this mom was a practicing Jew or a Russian atheistic woman of jewish descent. A believing and practicing Jew has a great understanding of the need for law and a high regard for following the law. Western law is rooted in the Torah. For a good Jew a life lived in good order is essential.

What makes Mexican ILLEGALS different from anyone else breaking the law? Nothing! What definition of the word illegal is confusing? A person who breaks the law is by definition a criminal. When these (criminal) illegal migrants are hurt or cheated they “expect” the law breakers to come under the law so that their rights and lives can be protected . One cannot have it both ways.

Remember, Mexico has NO problem deporting illegals from their country. America is great because it has a rule of law that requires those coming here to do so legally in good order. The USA works because the resources are designed to stretch to provide for it’s LEGAL residents.

If I am caught speeding, and I say to the Officer:

“Hey, there are 12 million of us out here speeding, you cant cite us all”

Or

“Hey, I have been speeding in this country for years, I demand amnisty”

I would be thrown under the jail. The sheer number of lawbreakers, or the duration of the criminal activity does not make it less of a crime. You want to be an American, go back home and do it the right way. The only people that want you here as ILLEGALS are those who would profit from using you. Do it right, and welcome aboard. Sneak over, and you deserve nothing save a bus trip South.

The entire argument about illegal aliens is just another republican racist scam intended to divert the citizen’s and media attention from the results of their corrupt and incompetent governance.  If the crooks in congress and the white house want to get serious about immigration reform they need to get to the source of the problem, those who employ illegals.  This isn’t about rules or the USA solving the world’s problems, it is solely about dollars.  If you want to stop illegal immigration, prosecute the employers, enact a living wage, require all government purchases to be of products manufactured in the USA and reform labor laws to give workers a level playing field.  When the laws are written by the crooks, enforced by the crooks and interpreted by the crooks, the net result is the immoral actbecomes legal and the moral act becomes criminal.

Touching story, but it falls into the “so what?” catagory.  There aren’t any political asylum cases in the Mexican invasion.  I’m still waiting for anyone from the “eliminate the borders and let ‘em all in” side to point out where in the Constitution the United States is obligated to take up the slack for any other nation—or dozens of other nations, as our current wave of illegal invaders consists of.

The bottom line is, we are either a nation of laws, or we are not.  We are either a sovereign nation with defined borders, or we are a dump site for whatever human dregs decides to stroll in.

Why is it that the only people in this nation required to obey the law to the letter at the risk of prosecution for failure to do so are the legal citizens?  Why is it that uninvited foreign nationals are exempt from that requirement?  The situation is criminally absurd.

I liked that comment about “daisy cutters and our bloated military budget.”  Military personnel standing up for that commenter’s rights serve and risk death, serious bodily harm, or, at the least, long overseas separations, for—depending on rank—maybe 50 dollars a day.  I wonder if that person would sing a different tune about our “bloated” military budget if he ever shouldered a weapon in defense of his own liberties rather than let others do it for him.

Maybe if they shut down the entire military structure and dumped the whole fiscal mass into socialist programs here at home, we might be able to re-open a few of the hospitals that have had to close down due to being swamped by illegals.  At least until the next 20 million illegal aliens show up to bleed them out again.

Interesting that none of the pro-illegal crowd addresses the health problems coming in with illegals who, along with their notion that they are magically entitled to American rights for simply sneaking in here, feel free to bypass medical screening legal immigrants undergo—diseases like the strain of antibiotic-resistant TB that has taken root in the Southwest, along with other interesting diseases like leprosy.  Along with a simple alleged “desire to work,” these medic-bypassing invaders are subjecting us to ghastly biological contamination.

This situation isn’t simply about people looking to better their situation.  It isn’t simply about Republicans stroking the business lobby with cheap labor, or Democrats looking to score new Hispanic votes.  It is about eliminating the border.  The ‘86 amnesty that legalized 4 million aliens and was supposed to wipe the slate clean so we would never have to face that invasion situation again.  Like the last time, granting citizenship—call it “guest worker status” if you want to; semantics—to illegals will do nothing but bring in the next, bigger wave of illegal invaders.  The “slate cleaning” amnesty caused the invasion to rise expotentially.  This one will do the exact same thing.  It’ll be 40 million next time—if we are still even claiming to have a border in place by then.

If we couldn’t resolve 4 million then, and we allegedly can’t resolve 12-20 million now, we might as well throw in the towel for the next gargantuan run for the border.

The United States of America does not owe the troubled people of the world who sneak into our country illegally automatic sanctuary.  No matter how sad the story of your mother, she was not entitled to be in America until she was granted permission to be here, any more than a hungry person is entitled to break into a private residence and help themselves to the contents of your fridge.

Immigration laws should be about what America needs, and not what foreigners need. I have studied the immigration laws of a number of countries, including Germany, Italy, France, New Zealand, Switzerland, Mexico and Costa Rica, and all of them attempt to prevent illegal immigration and enforce strict immigration policies, no matter the needs of invaders.  France, for example, used to let in huge numbers of Muslim Arabs from North Africa, and now they are rapidly loosing their cultural identity and are still dealing with massive riots, violent protests and other issues heavily fueled by these people and their descendants.

After having known a number of people from hostile countries who legally came here and received asylum, I know that it is possible to come here legally when fleeing political persecution.  If things are rough in another country and an immigrant can’t get permission to come here legally, they had better find another country to take them in, or better yet, stay home and contribute to fixing the problems of their home nation so that they can help make the world a better place.  When the United States came into existence, it was because people decided to put an end to their despotic English government through a costly and painful revolution.  Why can’t other people do the same thing?  France has done it several times. So has Mexico and most Latin American countries.

Keep in mind that when you see people flooding here illegally from Mexico, they are not all under death sentences from their government.  Likewise, they are not rushing here to assimilate, speak English and join our culture.  This has been proven by the numerous Mexican flags flown at rallies (especially before political consultants starting taking them away and handing out US flags at rallies).  This has also been proven by the US flags that were drug through the dirt at rallies and found filling dumpsters after the rallies ended. Their lack of respect for our government and our country was also demonstrated by the anti-American and anti-government signs in Spanish, and by groups like MECHA that openly state their intent to “reconquer” our nation., and have slogans like “For the race everything, for everyone else, nothing”.

Everyone in the world has problems.  It is not our nation’s duty to solve them all.  After seeing the great traffic, low air pollution and hearing about smaller class sizes and short lines at emergency rooms yesterday, I saw just how nice it would be to live in Southern California if the illegal aliens weren’t here anymore, and more importantly, if no new ones were allowed to come here.

Our country is wealthy enough to help all people who live here and want to come here. If we lay off the daisycutters and our bloated military diet there would be freedom, equality and a better life for all.

Republicans spout a lot of democracy rhetoric but when it’s at their own back door it’s a different story.

Monroe’s doctrine of “manifest destiny” and our capitalization of cheap labor is once again biting us in the ass.

How touching.  My mother was also an immigrant and it took her nearly 10 years to obtain legal citizenship.  I’m sure that every other immigrant who followed the process and became legal citizens and learned the language are sympathetic for illegals who feel that they are simplty entitled to citizenship and would rather break the laws than wait in line with every one else.  My mother would have had a much easier time with the whole process if the government was required to speak her native language too.

The flip-side of that story though is that Mohammed Atta and the majority of the 9/11 hijackers were by definition ‘illegal’ as well…

So, why punish any of the hijackers then for wanting to live a better life (albeit the afterlife)??...

Did not their unauthorized presence in the U.S. allow them to ultimately pursue and fulfill their ambitions in life as well??...Did it not?..

Since immigration to the U.S. is now out of the hands of the citizen/voter and is now solely left up to the discretion of the prospective migrant who wishes to invite themselves at their perogative by violating existing statutes voted into law by citizens of the United States, then what about other laws?....Shouldn’t we all be allowed to obey the laws as we see fit and to disregard the laws that we don’t agree with…That wouldn’t be fair if the same privilege/discretion were not extended to everyone else as well!

If so, then why should I have to pay income taxes anymore?....I don’t agree with them because I believe that the small share of revenue that is extracted from me annually is being wasted and/or stolen…so what would be wrong with me choosing to ignore laws regarding income tax….the extra money would certainly help me to live a better life…and what if there were millions of others who decided to do the same?..

Couldn’t you extend the logic to say that….since you can’t exactly round up all the delinquent taxpayers and extract money from them, then what about an amnesty for those people too?...

Does anyone follow the logic here??..

What a wonderful piece of writing. My Dad moved here from Norway in 1949. His status was marginal until he married here. He told me about many of his friends who were “illegal” here for years. How can we want to punish people for wanting to better their lives? My Dad’s story ended differently than Ida Kuran’s. He moved back to Norway. A lot of that seems to be happening these days.