Backlash against illegal immigration grows

[proud2BlibKansan]

By Dave Nontgomery | McClatchy Newspapers

Kevin G. Hall/MCT

Illegal immigrants cross the U.S./Mexico border. | View larger image

WASHINGTON — Seven weeks after the collapse of legislation in Congress, the outcry against illegal immigration is louder than ever, manifested by proposed clampdowns at the state and local level and an uproar over the arrest of an undocumented immigrant in the execution-style slayings of three New Jersey college students.

Scores of organizations, ranging from mainstream to fringe groups, are marshalling forces in what former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calls "a war here at home" against illegal immigration, which he says is as important as America’s conflicts being fought overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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"I don’t think there’s been a time like this in our lifetime," said Doris Meissner, a senior fellow with the Migration Policy Institute and former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. "Even though immigration is always unsettling and somewhat controversial, we haven’t had this kind of intensity and widespread, deep-seated anger for almost 100 years."

The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, said the number of "nativist extremist" organizations advocating against illegal immigration has grown from virtually zero just over five years ago to 144, including nine classified as hate groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan supremacists.

Some senators who participated in the mid-summer debate over President Bush’s failed immigration bill said they were barraged with some of the most venomous mail of their congressional careers. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who supported the bill legalizing undocumented immigrants, said he has received death threats because of his position.

more . . . http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/19043.html

[Double T]

1. We can't even provide for our own existing citizens............

how in the HELL are we going to support and provide for 20 million more?!?!?!

[rudeboy666]

3. You're missing the point

Given the current hostile context against a powerless minority group, we must be careful lest we delve too near the forces of reaction.

[Double T]

7. The American People are a powerless majority group.........

so what's your point?

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Demonizing people is not the answer

It leads to racism (read the whole article) and fosters hatred. That's not how to solve this problem.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. How about ending our $720 million a day war?

Just think of what we could afford if we weren't spending that money on an illegal war.

[Double T]

8. Agreed. Charity begins at home first.

[Xenotime]

9. They do the jobs we won't do.

[bluestateguy]

10. Those are Chamber of Commerce talking points.

Pay people a living wage to pick lettuce and do manual labor, and Americans will do those jobs

[Double T]

11. Yep. Like electricians, HVAC technicians, landscapers, retail sales, construction jobs........

truck drivers and ALL those other jobs Americans WILL NOT DO??? :crazy: :silly:

[TahitiNut]

19. Really? Funny how that meat packing plant was up and running several days ...

... after about 75%(?) of the illegal alien employees were identified. They sure seemed to find enough people willing to do the work who weren't here illegally. :shrug:

That was the Smithfield factory. There've also been raids at Del Monte produce processing plants and six Swift & Co. plants. To my knowldedge, none have had problems finding workers ... at a reasonable wage (more than $8/hour).

[Solar_Power]

32. Excellent point - amazing how people buy Rove's talking points

Only Big Business benefits from illegals

[NoodleBoy]

2. you know, as far as immigration politics goes, it's really interesting to see how the rest of the

country is handling it. Here in the Southwest, we view the 2006 elections as breaking the back of the anti-immigrant campaigns, because we managed to make many impressive wins during a year when they threw every hateful attack they had at us.

To me, seriously, it's the last gasp of a movement that didn't really understand itself, and once 2008 rolls around we'll be able to get alot more done addressing the issue without resorting to extremism and without being derailed by them.

[bluestateguy]

5. I have grown more conservative on the immigration issue in the last few years

Maybe the defining moment for me was being rear-ended in my car five years ago by a woman who was most likely an illegal immigrant: she had a counterfeit Mexican driver's license, no insurance and spoke no English. When the cops came to the accident scene, they gave her two tickets (one for driving too close to my rear and another for the phony Mexican license). She of course, did not want me to call the cops (I can't imagine why).

Her insurance card was also bogus. She did not have insurance, and after the accident she vanished, so my insurance had to pay for the damages to my car.

Anyway, it's not nativist or racist to demand that we enforce our laws already on the books, patrol our borders and stop the employer exploitation of cheap illegal labor. That by itself is not racist or nativist.

This president doesn't give two shits about illegal immigrants. He only sees them as a source for cheap labor being demanded by his Texas "bidnessman" good-ole boy friends to exploit and drive down wages for everybody else.

[rodeodance]

14. The ones here already have set roots (both business and the gov. is to blame) and

to punish them more is not right.

I think the plan the that some of Dems are pushing (and bush) to fine them and then go to back of line for citizenship is a good plan.
Too much hate already and it is getting dangerous.

[Triana]

17. BINGO bluestateguy! Thank you...

...I agree wit ya - on that and on Edwards. :)

[emilyg]

18. You're making too much sense. Thank you.

My daughter and 2 grandchildren were in a head-on which almost killed the baby. Same scenario - Mexican illegal, drunk, no insurance.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. They are not allowed to buy insurance

because they don't have US drivers licenses. So insurance companies refuse to sell them policies.

It seems kind of silly to get angry at someone for a problem they can't solve.

Read the immigration laws. They come here illegally because current law makes it nearly impossible for them to come legally. They are desperate and hungry and have families to feed, much like those of us lucky enough to be born here. American employers show up south of the border with buses to help them come here. American employers pay coyotes to smuggle workers across the border. When these employers are caught breaking the law, they are fined (but not much) and they appeal the fines - so they are not out a dime.

The demons here are the employers who knowingly break the law to make a buck. And Congress who refuses to change the laws to be more fair to the American workers and the immigrant workers.

I refuse to demonize human beings who just want to survive. Both American workers and immigrant workers are being penalized while the real law breakers get off.

[bluestateguy]

22. A drivers license is a privilege, not a right

And furthermore, she didn't even have a legitimate Mexican license. Texas cops know what a real Mexican drivers license looks like, and they knew it right away as soon as they saw the laminated card she gave them. "This is fake", they said, and she admitted it. She falsified a document from her own country. How can we expect her to respect this country's laws?

I do, however, agree that we need to crack down on employers who exploit, and even invite these people into the US. I'm sure most of them are here to work and make life better for their own families, but we, like any other sovereign nation, have the right to enforce our immigration laws, and to expect that businesses and people follow them. A lot of the Western European nations that people on this board like to celebrate, and say that America should try to be more like them, have airtight rules concerning immigrants and citizenship. Far tougher than ours.

Finally, if she was so concerned about "survival", maybe she should have been paying attention to the road when she rear ended me, in the middle of no traffic. Thank God nobody was hurt.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. I support allowing them to apply for US drivers licenses

so they can buy car insurance.

[RebelOne]

24. No matter how many points you bring up to justify

illegal immigrants coming here, I cannot support them. I can always spot the illegals in my town because they are the ones walking or riding bikes because they cannot get drivers licenses.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. I am bothered by people starving

Sorry if their humanity does not bring out the humaneness in you.

The other thing that is important to remember is that any reforms that address the real problem and penalize the real demons (the employers) will help BOTH American workers and undocumented workers.

[LeftishBrit]

27. A pity...

that walking and bike-riding aren't seen as good options by other people.

Are *all* non-drivers illegal immigrants in your town? I don't drive because I have some visual processing problems that would make it unsafe; and in any case I prefer walking when it's relatively short distances. I know plenty of people who don't drive. I realize that life is probably easier for non-drivers in the UK than the USA; but I still find it hard to believe that *everyone* drives except illegal immigrants; or that even people with driving licenses don't sometimes choose to walk or ride their bike.

[EFerrari]

28. I only drive because no undocumented worker would drive my car.

:)

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. You are doing the driving they refuse to do

:)

[LanternWaste]

29. Remind me never to introduce my girlfriend to you...

Remind me never to introduce my girlfriend to you... :eyes:

She rides a bike, too. Lot healthier than I am... lol

Paraphrasing Victor Hugo here-- "What's more important, imaginary red and black lines on a map, or non-imaginary people...?"

[Maq]

6. restructure the American Economy

There will be an American economic consequence to the wholesale deportation of illegal immigrants from south of the Border. The poorest of the poor.

Maybe the displaced homeowner, the foreclosure poor can take their place in the Meat Packing Plant, the Lettuce field or the lawn maintenance crew.

Will the American Economy be restructured in this way.

[OHdem10]

13. In the last couple of months, a Chicken Processing Pla nt

was raided. Being operated by Illegal Immigrants. Owner of
plant was fined heftily and was forced to advertize for
replacement workers. he ran ads and over400 persons apllied,
standing in long lines.

Over 200 American Citizens were hired at higher wages. The majority
of the new hires were Arican Americasns.

So do those Illegal Immigrants take jobs other American will not do??

[Alcibiades]

12. We tend to conflate anti illegal immigration stances

with anti-immigrant stances here at DU. We can have a policy that curbs illegal immigration while treating immigrants as human beings. Let's increase the number of legal immigrants while we increase enforcement. Let's have an immigration policy that does not treat Mexico and Andorra the same. Let's enforce our immigration and labor laws.

US citizenship is not a universal human right. No country has the moral obligation to accept me as a citizen of that state, and we do not have any moral obligation to accept anyone and everyone who wants to come here.

There isn't a backlash to illegal immigration, per se, except on the part of a few racists or nationalists. The backlash is against the bad effects of illegal immigration. For Bush and his fellow richistanis, of course, all illegal immigration has been good. There has not been any consequence for them, other than an increase in the supply of cheap domestic help, which is something they care deeply about.

As someone who has done many of the jobs Americans supposedly don't want to do, I think that giving the rich access to a large pool of illegal immigrant labor gives them a powerful weapon they can use to smash every standard of decency we have set in our workplaces for the last hundred years.

[DBoon]

15. 20 million people leave their home for one reason

that is economic hardship.

What has happened in Mexico to make it so hard for ordinary people to make a living? After 20 years of neo-liberal free-market economics, including NAFTA, do you think maybe there could be a problem in Mexico?

Why did a quarter of the Irish population emigrate in the early 19th century, mainly to the USA? Was it for generous welfare benefits in the destination country? Was it so they could leach off the hard working native American population? Or was it because English colonial policies pushed them to the point of starvation?

There are two ways to solve this problem:

- Increase the standard of living of the average Mexican to the point where they no longer need to leave. There is a precedent for this. For many decades, there have been many illegal Irish immigrants living in the US. The Irish economy has improved to the point where these folks no longer need low paying American jobs.

- Lower the US standard of living to the point where we are no better off than the average Mexican. I fear this is the real agenda behind neo-liberal economics, to even out wages and standards of living world-wide so US labor is "competitive" with labor in the worst off country in the developing world. By depressing wages, increasing living expenses, and currency devaluation, we are approaching that point.

I'm afraid the "problem" of "illegal immigration" will be solved when the dollar is worth no more than the Mexican peso. Your standard of living at that point will make you long for the days when your biggest worry was getting your car hit by an illegal immigrant.

[Yupster]

20. Here's a rough statistic

from nationbynation.com

Mexico

22.36 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate:
4.99 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)

Such a young population. The economy can't provide nearly enough jobs for their growing population, over 1/10th of which is now living illegally in the United States.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. Thank you for facts

and common sense solutions. :)

[KAT119]

31. I live in a beautiful little Arizona town w/ a trailer park

of illegal mexican immigrants right in the heart of town--and it has turned into a terrible slum--all the restaurants have been taken over on nearly every level by Mexicans w/ no job skills but plenty of attitude and noise-- no one cares to learn English--and all of the Americans raised here are out of construction jobs, every other type of job to which the Mexicans do not even regularly show up for in the morning.

To say that the unemployed citizens are annoyed/angry is a gross understatement...and reading the daily reports of mexican spousal abuse/drunkenness and theft is more annoying....

Mexico is a very wealthy country w/ oil, and other resources--The gov't officials just won't help their people in any way w/ job creation, education etc.
They point them to USA for free lunch, health care. education etc. paid by overly burdened citizen tax payers.