Illegal Immigration

[Giant Communist Robot]

What a waste of energy trying to stop illegal immigration across our borders. I'll make a prediction here: it will never happen.

But here's an idea--offer them some trivial benefit for crossing at border checkpoints, and then make them pay a special illegal immigrant tax.

[Serenity]

Trying to stop cancer from spreading or are these immigrants like the mutants on X-Men?

[Haggis@wk]

Brazilians getting one-way ticket home

After federal lawmakers killed the bill in June, dashing illegal immigrants' last hopes to come out of the shadows, many started to pack up and go back home.

[Shapley]

New York State may want to give drivers' licenses to Illegal Immigrants, but Mexico doesn't want to follow suit.

[Haggis@wk]

Our federal Govt. can't build a 28 mile long fence but we still want to trust them with our health care.

[dai bread]

$20 000 000 for a fence????????????????

[Shapley]

$20 000 000 for a fence????????????????

It's a 'virtual fence', which is to say a fence that isn't really there.

$20,000,000 for a non-existent fence?????????????????

[Haggis@wk]

$20,000,000 for a non-existent fence?????????????????

I've offered them that 12-foot roll of "virtual" chicken wire in the shed for $200K...seems like a bargain to me!

[Shapley]

I saw 250' of virtual fence for sale on ebay for $100. That seems like it would come to about $60,000 for 28 miles of the stuff.

The rest of the money must be to get the Mexicans to wear those shock collars...

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

The virtual part of the fence was the fact that it was supposed to be made out of cameras and motion sensors and suchlike high-tech doodads. Personally, I think that a low-tech rock, properly aimed, would probably be bad for the high-tech fence. These are the same folks who've been cutting holes in the real fences, and digging tunnels under the real fences, and suchlike. I believe that they've mastered the concept of ballistic rocks.

I'm not sure that the same can be said about the congresscritters. Maybe we can get them to wear the special electric collars.

[Haggis@wk]

To Illegal Immigrants, Md. Feeling Less Friendly

Typical article trying to represent both side when there is only one. But the single most revealing breathtaking quote is:

Kim Propeack, a CASA lobbyist who helped bring dozens of Latinos to the Annapolis hearings, said her organization was trying to counter the "ugliness" of a small activist group by presenting real immigrants and their problems.

Sorry, I not only don’t want to know their problems I don’t want them or anyone else to somehow think that by being here illegally their problems have now gained some legitimacy.

The article highlights – in what’s become a common dreary monotony – the incredible gulf that exists between almost all elected representatives and the electorate. Even here in Texas my state representative stands in front of a crowd who are complaining about illegals and blithely comments that her plan to give illegals some kind of state ID cards. Even when we told her that was not why we elected her she dithers on about another plan to control illegal immigration with yet another ID card.

What’s happened to our leadership? What causes our elected representatives from the president to all the presidential candidates to completely miss an issue that 70% of the American people are united behind?

When they get elected are they taken into a back room and become pod people?

[barfle]

I'm with you on this one, Haggis. But I have an incident that happened to bar a few years back when she worked dispatching non-medical care givers (aka adult baby sitters).

Virtually all of the care givers were immigrants, and although they presented paperwork, it eventually became clear that many of the people weren't who they said they were. So she called Immigration to report one of them that was clearly undocumented. She got stonewalled. Now maybe she got one of those gummint workers (weren't you one of them for a while?) who was more interested in posting on the Internet than in doing his job. But really, when a hot one is handed to you, who's going to just wave it off?

[Shapley]

I'm with you on this one, Haggis. But I have an incident that happened to bar a few years back when she worked dispatching non-medical care givers (aka adult baby sitters).

Virtually all of the care givers were immigrants, and although they presented paperwork, it eventually became clear that many of the people weren't who they said they were. So she called Immigration to report one of them that was clearly undocumented. She got stonewalled. Now maybe she got one of those gummint workers (weren't you one of them for a while?) who was more interested in posting on the Internet than in doing his job. But really, when a hot one is handed to you, who's going to just wave it off?

If ou recall the 'Nannygate' Issue during President Clinton's term in office, you'll recall how difficult it was for him to find a Washington beaurocrat to appoint to fill a vacancy that had not hired an illegal immigrant to raise their children. Washington is awash with illegals, many in the employ of government workers.

I suspect that they are 'taken into the backroom' and explained the economics of illegal immigration. This is why laws are passed but not enforced, too many in power are benefiting from the labour of the illegals, and from the lobbying dollars of their advocates. At least, that is my humble opinion.

V/R
Shapley

[dai bread]

"When they get elected are they taken into a back room and become pod people?"

That would explain the discrepancy I've noticed for some time now. The gulf between the Americans I've met and those in public office is about as wide as the moat between here & California. Reports from those who have met Americans on their home turf put the gap even wider.

[barfle]

It regularly amazes me at the very high percentage of immigrants that work as patent examiners. In order to get the job, you must be an American citizen, and you must have a bachelor's degree (some technologies require PhDs or Masters). I would estimate half of my coworkers come from someplace far, far away. I work with Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Nepalese, Vietnamese, Laotians, Nigerians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Haitians, and even Californians.

I had almost as rigorous a check getting my job as I did getting my secret clearance, so the likelihood of an illegal working as a patent examiner is pretty close to zero (and who would risk it?). The contractor's cleaning crew could be something else again, however, as well as the contractors that staff the various cafeterias and coffee shops.

The point being that there IS indeed a large immigrant population around deecee, but many of them are also naturalized citizens. And if you want to find a solid bloc of voters who are opposed to amnesty, they're the ones!

[Haggis@wk]

"When they get elected are they taken into a back room and become pod people?"

That would explain the discrepancy I've noticed for some time now. The gulf between the Americans I've met and those in public office is about as wide as the moat between here & California. Reports from those who have met Americans on their home turf put the gap even wider.

One is almost afraid to ask. To which group goes the accolates??

[dai bread]

Really, Haggis! The accolades go to the plain, unelected, non-office-bearing Americans I, and my informants, have met. Who else?

[Haggis@wk]

Bilingual fire boss rule stirs controversy

SALEM, Ore. - Some English-speaking firefighters are losing their jobs because of an Oregon state law that requires them to be bilingual.

The Department of Forestry enacted a law three years ago that requires them to be bilingual, but this year they're actually enforcing it.

2002 was such a devastating wildfire season, contractors were scrambling to find firefighters.
Hispanics often filled their needs on the fire lines.

Jim Walker of the Department of Forestry said "what we do know is 85 percent of the crew make-up is of Hispanic decent."

But many of the Hispanic fire fighters do not speak English. Walker says the language barrier is a concern.

Those concerns led the state to draft a new rule that all firefighting bosses speak English, and the languages of crew members who don't speak English.

The most prophetic line is the last one.

They say it is more a case of legal workers who do not speak English.

This trend – and it is one – resonates very strongly with me. When I was unemployed in 2001/2002 I received a local and good job offer and then it was revoked when the employer learned I couldn’t speak Spanish, most of the people I was to supervise didn’t speak English. This was at a large U.S. company with stores in every state.

My question, ‘why would you hire someone who can’t speak the business language of the United States?’ Went unanswered.

[barfle]

My question, ‘why would you hire someone who can’t speak the business language of the United States?’ Went unanswered.

I would suspect the answer is "Because they provide a better return on my investment."

[Serenity]

Let's turn it into a sport! Capture without hurting them. Once captured, they can be turned in for tax points to "authorities" who would fingerprint and label them as non-citizens but able to work here without rights (just for money) or they may be given the choice to return to whence they came from. If they choose to stay, they can work their way up to citizenship; it's not slavery because they can choose at any point to leave freely.