Illegal immigrants are blamed for everything these days. They are the new "Republicans" it would seem. I find it distasteful that we are screaming silence in the face of our Mexican-like government - rarely associating the similarities between the two.
This is a multi-faceted issue. It is not only about race. It is not only about human rights. It is not only about economics. It is not only about law. It is about all of the above. It can be overwhelming to grasp all the ways illegal immigrants touch our lives - but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out...
They are important to the future of our nation.
No mattter what side of the fence you have thrown down on, for the welfare of our country, all facets of this situation MUST be addressed.Â
Sporadic legislation is an expensive public relations stunt from a party soon to lose control of our government.Â
Get the facts from something besides a news cast - DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!!
U.S. Census Bureau Reports:
·    Real median income rose by 3.3 percent to $42,040 in 2005 for foreign-born households and remained statistically unchanged for native households ($46,897). Among foreign-born households, naturalized citizen households experienced an increase in median income of 5 percent to $50,030. (The difference between the percentage increases for foreign-born households overall and naturalized citizen households was not statistically significant.)
·    Among the native-born population, 12.1 percent, or 31.1 million, were in poverty in 2005. Both the rate and number were statistically unchanged from 2004.
·    Among the foreign-born population, 16.5 percent, or 5.9 million, were in poverty. Both the rate and number were statistically unchanged from 2004.
·    Among the foreign-born population, poverty rates in 2005 were 10.4 percent for foreign-born naturalized citizens and 20.4 percent for those who had not become citizens – both statistically unchanged from 2004.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthin05.html
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It is no coincidence that during the 1990s the U.S. experienced tremendous economic growth, extremely low unemployment, and the largest influx of new immigrants in nearly a century.
• Today fully 92 percent of the undocumented working-age male immigrants are actively participating in the U.S. workforce.
• Our country's job growth rate is increasing at the same time that our workforce is shrinking. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 18.9 million new jobs will be created by 2014, but the number of people in the workforce will increase by only 3 million during this same time period. By 2030, one out of every 5 Americans will be a senior citizen. Immigrant labor is needed to meet the demands of our growing economy and supplement the aging U.S. workforce.
• Undocumented immigrant labor currently accounts for an estimated 5-8 percent of the total U.S. workforce. One million of the 2.5 million new jobs created in the U.S. in 2004 went to immigrants. Over 56 percent of all immigrant workers in the U.S. are Hispanic (37 percent of these workers are Mexican).
• One in every 7 workers in the U.S. in 2004 was born elsewhere (40 percent from
Mexico). Less than 5 percent of immigrants from Mexico were unemployed in their home country.
• Immigrants act as a safety valve for the U.S. labor market, allowing the supply of workers to increase relatively quickly to meet rising demand. A study by the CATO institute showed that immigrant workers fill segments in the U.S. job market where Americans are either over- or under-qualified.
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Comments: 43
So wanting control of our borders, A NATIONAL SECURITY MATTER, not just an Immigration Matter, is a stunt? From a party that is soon to loose control to a party that has not even given lip service to an answer to any of these problems?
Jackie, I am sure you are smart enough to realize that the Democrats don't have a plan except to criticize the Republicans, who at least have some type plan. You may not like that plan, but it is a plan, more or less.
I happen to think the DNC has lost touch with reality and the real people of this nation. Maybe the RNC has too, but they are trying to offer some solutions, not just "anything but what the Republicans are saying" approach of the DNC.
.I have to wonder what would happen within Mexico if all the money illegals' sometime pay to come over the border, the risks involved, and the energy they have to put forth to get here - if all those elements were put into changing the living situation within their own country! If nothing else but to preserve their beautiful heritage....
Personally I feel the Mexican government is allowing this just as much as ours is looking the other way...No one in our government or the media seem to want to address that part of the problem...but I grew up being taught there is a right way and a wrong way...and illegal is simply illegal. And having been raised Catholic, makes this whole idea of entering as an illegal immigrant hard to understand from such a Catholic traditonal country...Where are the clergy and leaders of the church guiding in this scenario?
Immigrants act as a safety valve for the U.S. labor market - agreed - NOT illegal.
I've now read several of your articles. I appreciate your interesting and thoughtful approach to topics that are controversial and cause such provocative discussion. Thanks for your insights and for sharing information I didn't know about.
Pamela
Having said that, I have to tell you that your wage statistics are totally false. RFYI, rght now illegal immigration is actually killing the wage scale in this country. Check out Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan and you'll get the real facts.
For that reason, I'd like to ask you to hold of on that invasion for at least one generation. As a taxpayer, I simply can't afford to support your drain on our hospitals, schools, welfare services and jails while my real wages are actually declining.
BTW, in the mean time why don't you fix your problems in your own country? Why should Mexico's poverty problem become America's poverty problem? If we let you people in then we let the corrupt Mexican government off the hook. No way! America is about accountability. Show some accountability and then we'll see about letting you in "legally".
So, before you spout misplaced anger - KNOW THIS - these are INVITED GUESTS - by default. There is a reason so many have been allowed in. THINK ABOUT THIS - we are NOT THIS stupid. WE KNEW.
Google: social security suspense fund and Congress. Follow the leads to know the truth.
As for how our government chose to deal with our need to supply labor to this country: Take it up with them - not the majority of third world, uneducated people who have faced enormous challenges in this country - and overcome.
The downside is the criminal element that came with them - but, again - we refuse to acknowledge where the accountability begins, and until we do - nothing changes.
YOU tell us how an UNDERFUNDED border fence helps our nation? YOU tell us how deportation of farm workers HELPS THIS NATION; you explain HOW MUCH this administration HAS HELPED US view this situation critically and HONESTLY.
THEN...WE'LL TALK.
You know, then, that they are not all Mexican.
They are from several different countries, many of whom overstayed visas.
They are from Guatemala, El Salvador, South America, Panama, Dominican Republic, Europe, etc.
It is against the law to commit adultery in many states. This law is criminal and the person can be prosecuted.
It is against the law to be homosexual in many states. This law is criminal and the person can be prosecuted.
Passing into our country without the proper paperwork: a civil misdemeanor - not even as severe as the examples above.
SO, if we allow adultery and we allow homosexuality - even though there are laws against both....AND you don't regularly hear of prosecutions.....well, you draw your own conclusions.
We are a nation of laws - manmade laws - and guess what - SOME DO NOT WORK.
>>>>>>>>
As for the government of Mexico: They receive billions in remittances each year. Their government is, by our standards, corrupt.
But.......it's a little difficult to scream about another's government when the world has more than enough proof to define the corruption in our own government.
Thank you for your insight. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
JB
Sigh....we need to be informed on our own - there is too much dangerous propaganda out there and this issue has extremists that everyday citizens do not want to be associated with - spouting supposedly credible rhetoric. The most dangerous aspect is that some of these individuals are politicians, police officers and others who hold power locally.
I encourage everyone to investigate on their own. Look at the references the articles cite; take some time to research source data and draw your own conclusions.
It's important.
/pi20060407_072803.htm
Each year, for example, the U.S. Social Security Administration
maintains roughly $6 billion to $7 billion of Social Security contributions
in an "earnings suspense file" -- an account for W-2 tax forms that
cannot be matched to the correct Social Security number. The vast
majority of these numbers are attributable to undocumented
workers who will never claim their benefits.
If those funds could be earmarked for local support, they would
make a sizable dent in education costs. Local school districts
are estimated to educate 1.8 million undocumented children. At
an average annual cost of $7,500 (averages vary by jurisdiction)
per student, the cost of providing education to these children is
about $11.2 billion. That means roughly half of the education
costs for undocumented immigrant children could be met if these
Social Security funds could be redirected.
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You don't want to pay: Tell the feds to release the $519 billion dollars payed by illegal immigrants into social security.
For the record: I'm a white female, the photo is one of many who harvest our crops and who could be deported while our crops are rotting in the fields.
Do you sleep well knowing that you can pay less to an illegal immigrants? Do the children of the Illegal immigrants work in your fields to? I now you will say no but that is another layer of this issue that has been kept quiet.
Illegal immigrants SOME TIMES ignore the child labor laws so the children can work. Your statistics don't show that either.
Are you the Fox guarding the Chicken coupe?
Lawd, have mercy. What *are* they filtering through the air ducts on Gather these days?
I will stand by my belief, that Immigrants FROM ALL OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD, act as a safety valve for the U.S. labor market - agreed - NOT illegal.
WE ARE INDEED A COUNTRY OF IMMIGRANTS –that's not what this mess is about.
My family came from Germany and Ireland - with the right paperwork...my great grandfather was only 12 and came over from Germany alone...thru Ellis Island...my Irish ancestry when arrived could not get a job because they were Irish...some even changed their names so they could get jobs working for the railroad in PA....so their entry was not a piece of cake - but they did it the right way. Because we are a country of immigrants dose not give anyone from any "other" country a rubber stamp that says " Go straight to the United States get in free card"
As I remember from history class in school, the studies showed many countries in this world had to battle to gain what ever independence and freedom they decided they wanted - and when it wasn't what they wanted they rebelled....including Mexico...
Illegal is illegal and until the "man made - voted on" laws are changed - that's the way it is. The church and its leaders in that country have been silent and far too political for way to long at the expense of their constituents...that includes fair wages, decent living conditions, health assistance, and an honest legal system...they need to deal with the corruption from with in....WE cannot change that. I truly have empathy for their situation, and they are the only ones who can change it....
Don't know if I answered your question Jackie, just a small persons opinion in a large world of tragic events.
This is a gross misrepresentation.
Foreign born does not mean illegal immigrant.
The statistics you show are a reflection of the very educated professional workers who are here legally.
Follow the links provided.
THIS IS NOT A GROSS MISREPRESENTATION
This affects US, directly. WE need to WORK at this, people.
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No, I have misquoted, the 519 billion represents the amount of income created by mostly illegal immigrants, which is then taxed by the SSA. I stand corrected.
Allow me to offer you a consolation prize:
FROM HERE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html?ex=1270353600&en=78c87ac4641dc383&ei=5090&partner=kmarx
…The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990's, two and a half times the amount of the 1980's.
In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.
In 2002 alone, the last year with figures released by the Social Security Administration, nine million W-2's with incorrect Social Security numbers landed in the suspense file, accounting for $56 billion in earnings, or about 1.5 percent of total reported wages.
Social Security officials do not know what fraction of the suspense file corresponds to the earnings of illegal immigrants. But they suspect that the portion is significant.
"Our assumption is that about three-quarters of other-than-legal immigrants pay payroll taxes," said Stephen C. Goss, Social Security's chief actuary, using the agency's term for illegal immigration.
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56 billion in 2002; another 56 billion (conservatively) in 2003; another in 2004; another in 2005; another in 2006 = 224 billion (very conservatively) in wages since 2002.
Hmmmm….if they are paying social security taxes…then they are paying Medicaid and federal and state taxes…..Guess they aren't quite the drain you would like to believe they are – huh.
I find it embarrassing that we, the greatest nation on this earth, cannot ask questions first and form an opinion later - when we are satisfied with our own investigation.
Illegal immigration is a non-issue. These people will be deported in mass over the next 24 months - then given a pathway to citizenship or amnesty.
Those of you who cling to your prejudice - no matter what it is based upon - need to pull up that upper lip - because these are permanent additions to society.
Jackie, you may take a break now and then, but you don't go far, and you don't provide information regarding illegals, you simply plug in information on immigrants. No matter what words you choose, you cannot make an illegal LEGAL!!
Debbie, you seem to have no difficulty in typing until your fingers are twisted. You should take your own advice. In fact, are you not from AZ? No one is turning against any people, we are simply fed up with those who think they do not have to abide by our laws, and they think they are entitled to whatever they want.
Many of us do NOT obtain our information from "mainstream media". Many of us have lived with the results of what an influx of illegals can do to a community. Others of us have family that came here LEGALLY, and they don't like the illegals that didn't. Still others of us just don't care to continue carrying the financial burden that these people place on our families and communities.
I have been compiling research on this since 1992, and NOT from the media. The media serves as a good jumping off place to begin a search for people who are just getting involved, but anyone with a brain, knows that you cannot take that information as gospel truth or unbiased.
As for a party losing power, that's why you are probably against having to prove you are a REAL citizen before you vote. So they have it rough down south.In alot of countries $100 a month is big pay and they live quite well so if they have a problem thay should migrate south to Mexico City and demand the right to live a decent life and stop messing up our which this so call corrupt government has given us. How much money is spent just putting everything in Mexican. I hate reading directions for everything and you first have to find the english version.
And this non-sense that we need their help in our workforce. If we should find out later that we need more workers we will simply ask " Who in the world would like to come to AMERICA and share in our freedoms and perks". I really don't think we would have to look too hard for a bigger and better workforce since we will pick the cream of the crop around the world instead of being stuck with unskilled,uneducated,unappreciative(as demonstrated in their waving the Mexican flag and singing our anthem in their own words.) and you can bet the new workforce will speak english. SO that put a fork in that reasoning of yours.
FIRST OFF, READ AGAIN. THESE ARTICLES DISTINGUISH BETWEEN ILLEGAL AND LEGAL. THANKS FOR READING BEFORE ATTACKING....SHEESH.
Anne: You appear to be extremely ignorant to comment on an article without even reading it. Is this typical behavior for you? Afraid you may actually have to THINK about this issue?
THANK YOU FOR CONFIRMING WHAT I ALREADY SUSPECTED - YOU CLING TO RHETORIC AND YOUR PERSONAL BELIEFS WITHOUT CONSIDERING RAW DATA THAT YOU CANNOT DISPUTE.
CLING TO YOUR PREJUDICE, MANY MORE OF US CHOOSE TO CLING TO THE TRUTH.
****
MIKE:
How about a government who knew illegals were here 14 years ago? How about a government who lies to its people, creates wars, ignores genocide because it isn't profitable, and generally allows civil unrest on its soil because it is serves to remove concentration from the war. How about a President who can CREAT HAVOC WITH THE ELECTION PROCESS AND magically make gas prices DROP $1 ON THE GALLON JUST BEFORE ELECTIONS?
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN MORE CORRUPTION, JUST LET ME KNOW - I'LL REFRESH YOUR MEMORY.
As for your remarks about the "cream of the crop," LOL.....European countries suffer the same plight as the U.S. - an aging workforce. You need to research more before thinking it is that easy.
We're already barely tolerated - we start taking people from the countries who need their workforce and we'll really create more allies.
Get a clue, Mike.
Oh but, no.....we aren't the least bit CORRUPT.
Get real. there have always been illegals because we have a thing in these United States known as FREEDOM (that why you can spout your lies)AND we don"t creat wars WE stop them AND as for genecide, we never lined our streets with hanging citizens like some country we both know just because we didn't get they biggest worm in the glass.AND sure (ha ha) we blow up the levy cause we want to devert the attention away from doing what right by ,guess what ,spreading freedom and blew up the towers too, Thank God (,or do you even believe in onebesides yourself) we have a President who doesn't through the RACE card everytime he needs a new soundbite OR let children continue to be harmed just because he wants to wait until he can hurt his adversaries the most before releaseing information of child pedphelia right before an election. OR say you need to get our allies involved in our process and when he does they change their rederic and say he should have been talking to our enemy alone.
I would tell you to pull your head out of the sand but the country would be better off if you left it there. Corrupt?? We may have our moments BUT at least we try when no one else does. and Jackie if you have such a problem with America. you also have the freedom to LEAVE. It's not like you have anything vested in this great land.
REMEMBER THE ALAMO!!!
FACT: I'm WHITE, FEMALE and MIDDLE CLASS.
And as to the rest: WHATEVER
Say something worth responding to and we'll chat.....maybe....
As far as "clinging to my prejudice", perhaps you should read all of what is posted. If you had read all of mine, you would be well aware that my eldest daughter is married to a FULL LEGAL Mexican, and I will have a 1/2 Mexican grandchild in a few months from them, my second daughter has a 1/2 Mexican daughter and her fiance is full LEGAL Mexican as well, that information has been submitted in several of my posts. In addition, my son has been dating an African American girl for nearly 2 years, and she would also be more than welcomed into our family. Perhaps the prejudice you accuse others of, is simply your own prejudice.
I do not just think, I actually do extensive research on this, and as I've stated in previous posts, I have compiled a considerable amount of valid information since 1992. How long have you been taking on bleeding heart "poor me" hand out cases?
Why are you so quick to post information compiled by the interest groups that twist the info to suit their purpose? Why don't you do complete research on the stats you do post, and instead of taking only the info that says what you want it to, and begin posting the full story.
Illegal is illegal and most people in this country do not WANT to help someone who has already committed a crime, stay here and bleed us dry.
As I and many others have said, instead of turning their feet north and making demands on a country that owes them nothing, they should be heading to their OWN capital and demand that their government make the changes that will make Mexico as appealing as they say the US is. Then they can wave their own flag in their own country and sing their own anthem in Spanish.
Instead of telling us what we should be doing to GIVE more to these people, you should be telling them what they should be doing to fix their own country!!!
Hey, I have a wonderful idea, go down their and make those demands on the Mexican government and those people!!! You live there and try to bleed them the way you try to bleed us!!
Since when is the CENSUS BUREAU "so much garbage" and an "interest group?"
You have GOT to be JOKING.....????
The other article is from a leading business NON-PROFIT.
Ya know what Anne: you're doin' just fine, darlin'.....LOL....
I think you've said enough - any rebuttal from me will just take away from the enormous idiocy of your statements.
Good luck with all of your misplaced anger - I hope you aim it a little higher in the future - traditionally we U.S. citizens don't care much for the label "BULLY."
Wow.
NON-PROFIT does NOT mean impartial or unbiased. The Census Bureau itself has had to correct its own figures, BECAUSE of the illegals. If an illegal is constantly living in fear of being found and deported, what on earth makes you think they are going to provide ANY sort of accurate information.
You spew YOUR idiocy on several article posts, and as you have said in the past, you can't even keep up with all your own articles, it wouldn't be possible to post as much as you do, and still do the research to validate it.
I don't have misplaced anger, I have a definate valid fight, and as any mother, will fight for the rights of my children and grandchildren to be protected from you and YOUR misguided battle.
If telling you to take your battle to where it belongs makes me a bully then I will gladly accept that title!!!
Funny thing Jackie, you were told something similar by someone on Senobias article, and as I recall, by others in other article posts where you and I have had the "pleasure" of debating.
Take your fight to the people who are responsible, and it is NOT American Tax Payers in the US. Mexican nationals are the responsibility of the Mexican Govt. and that is where you should be plying your "trade".
Oh, and don't be insulted when someone assumes that the image posted is you. Most people posting photos here post photos of themselves, unless they are scenic images.
Once again, instead of replying to my questions you avoid the truth by ignoring it, and then stating that you will not reply to my post. That is the same response you have given to me each time the heat became too hot for you.
How Long Have You Been Doing Your "Work"?
I don't expect a reply, just wanted to point out a specific instance, so you cannot accuse me of making another idiotic statement.
For some reason you get angrier when the truth hits you, then you run and hide.
Let me see if I understand you correctly. The Census data is flawed, the Non-Profits are flawed.
So, we can take that further to assume you believe that the SSA and IRS are flawed as well? TRUE or FALSE ANN?
On WHAT do you base your DATA when you speak of ALL illegal immigrants? What, for you, is valid?
Is it the anti-immigrant groups data? Which data specifically leads you to believe in what you say and speak solely about every illegal immigrant on our soil?
Because, I'll tell you, I don't care how many LEGAL IMMIGRANTS your children marry - you aren't citing data - you are citing emotion. And that emotion is hatred, separtism and fear. YOU could care less - in reality - the economic consequences of mass deportation.
You could care less about our food supply.
You could care less about the legacy of extreme population crises we would leave our children.
You want to scream that they're all in gangs, their all criminals - BAH. And you are???? Perfect? You've never committed a civil misdemeanor in your life? According to federal law - THEY ARE TRESPASSING.
According to the federal government, due to their unenforcement, they have been PERMITTED to live and work here unharmed.
A far as the hours I keep - you could never keep up. I work 8-10 hours each day and function on 4 hours sleep during the week to keep up with all the RHETORIC - you want me to take a break? I'll take a break when people like you stop spreading your nonsense and grow enough backbone to start aiming where it counts - the feds.
All you do here is increase misplaced anger and the force of your words, if left unquestioned, could potentially truly harm someone whose head is filled with the garbage you spout. Yeah, cheers for helping your fellow citizens - the ones you get so riled up that they actually go out and KILL or MAIM another human being.
Your words are a weapon. You CHOOSE to use them to harm AND I AND MANY LIKE ME HERE AND ELSEWHERE CHOOSE TO MINIMIZE THE POTENTIAL DAMAGE. You must be incredibly proud of yourself...
LOL...The picture serves to prove the stereotype you and others have; I'm bait automatically, aren't I? Hypocrisy is alive and well and many, just like you, have pointed that out literally.
And Anne...sigh....if I don't reply it's because you're words are so completely off topic and such a verbal attack based upon what, exacty?
There are several articles posted about my work - I've been writing for three years so there are many, many, many more still to come.
I've been employed for six years with this particular program so naturally, I have TONS of true events to recount - as I am certain you could about your daily life. What exactly do you find distasteful, Anne? How normal is it that you readily attack when someone gives the poorest of the poor a voice?
Everything you fight against - all of your credibility - about jobs, rate of pay, etc. is being systematically destroyed.....LOL.....and Columbia University has been extremely helpful of late! A NOBEL PRIZE - WORLD RECOGNITION - for the economic explanation of WHY the U.S. isn't in a depression or slowing significantly in time of war! A theory that PROVES that raising wages does not help workers. A theory that PROVES, new labor in an economy, LIFTS and ENHANCES the lives of all.
Get off your damn soapbox. Stop blaming illegals for every ill you have ever suffered. You think I'd let ANYONE, ANYWHERE, TELL ME HOW I CAN'T DO SOMETHING BECAUSE OF SOMETHING ELSE? NEVER - ANNE. NEVER.
Have I answered your questions, Anne?
Because if not, LISTING QUESTIONS FOR ME TO ANSWER TENDS TO HELP OUT.
Well I see there are 4 now. If you were not so laughable you'd be dangerous. most would agree with that if they wanted to waste thier time with you.
I don't
See you at the polls
People who make the 'illegal immigrants are breaking laws' argument are probably conveniently leaving out how many times a week they break the law. Almost everyone breaks a minor law now and then, one that would be considered a misdemeanor. Just as, as you said, coming here without illegal paperwork is considered. How many of them smoke marijuana on a daily basis? That's the only example I can think of at the moment, but I hope I made a point.
And another thing I wish people would consider... a very large amount of illegal immigrants DO PAY TAXES, I know this for a fact. And most of them can't even file tax returns, so that's money the government gets to keep!
Anyway, I mainly just wanted to offer my support, people like you keep me sane in a world full of hypocrites!
Don't be a stranger!
JB