The Republicans, having successfully divided the Democrats over the issue of healthcare, are about to be paid back plus some.
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington and Atlanta Roman Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory were among those to call for immigration reform at a press conference held at The King Center.
Congress should pass legislation that allows the many undocumented immigrants who come to work in the United States to be here legally, on a temporary basis, before they return to their homelands, Johnson said.
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Another bright idea from the brain trust called the Democratic Party…..Please when will it end.
What really kills me and it is a recurring theme is everything the dems want to do to tear down this country has to be “done as soon as possible”.Is it because they have so much to do or could it be they recognize they have reached the breaking point with the American people?
The Democrats are treating their control of the House of Representatives, Senate, and White House like a teenage boy treats the one weekend of the year his parents are out of town. They are going to throw the biggest, loudest party they can before their parents get home and ground them for making a huge mess of the house.
“Congress should pass legislation that allows the many undocumented immigrants who come to work in the United States to be here legally, on a temporary basis, before they return to their homelands.”
I can’t believe anybody would take this statement seriously. My first question would be what is the definition of temporary.
Unless Johnson means that whenever the temporary period is over the government escorts the foreign nationals out of the country, there is no incentive for them to leave. To borrow a 10 year old statement from Milton Friedman,” You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.” Friedman, being a Libertarian, would normally be for free immigration, since it distributes labor in the most efficient manner and makes products and services less expensive. He was not for open borders in conjunction with government welfare programs, for obvious reasons.
The problem is this country is on the verge of implementing additional, massive welfare programs, which will increase the strength of our illegal immigration magnet.
The US gets villified over this, but most countries have far more stringent immigration policies. I have a friend of mine whose daughter was in Austria. Apparently you can stay there for a year as a foreign citizen. After the 11th month, a government official knocked on her door and warned her that she would need to leave during the next 30 days.
Witness Europe, where like the North, everything is better – LOL.
Huge Muslim immigrant issues exist in Europe. In the US, the immigration issue cannot be resolved because we don’t want to resolve it.
In GA, the first major Latino influx began in Hall County. Mexicans from Texas were imported wholesale to work the chicken plants. Corporations will say the follow the letter of the law regarding employment of illegals.
In the construction industry, subcontractors are used and they simply have to certify all their employees are legal. If not, the general contractor is not at risk.
Until we acknowledge that our corporate and other business citizens must not hire illegals, they will come here. Especially if we have free urgent care maternity medical.
If we wanted to eliminate the illegal problem, we would deport them when they are picked up by local law enforcement. Right now, that is not happening, for a number of reasons.
Oh, by the way, the GOP is a culpable in this matter as are the Dems.
Folks always mention the US is founded upon immigrants and this country has had a long history of immigration – which is true. When Irish, Italians, etc…immigrated, while chaotic, it still had a sense of organization through places like Ellis Island. Plus, the US was capitalistic during these periods, now, at best, we are a mixture of capitalism and socialism, heading towards the socialism end of the spectrum.
As we move further towards socialism, it will repel entrepreneurs, and the jobs they create, to other countries more favorable to capitalism and it will attract those individuals who need government social programs and find a welfare state more desirable.
Each new welfare program Obama implements will require the border wall to be built an additional five feet higher.
I don’t have any hatred or problem with the immigrants on an individual basis. Had I been born to poverty in Mexico, and couldn’t get a job, I would probably being doing the exact same thing: bringing my family to the United States to take advantage of all it’s great social programs and job market. Although, I don’t think the job market is currently going so well for them; especially the construction industry.
The United States just needs to understand the signals we are sending to the rest of the world and take appropriate actions.
@GA Judge C’mon man, where is your HEART? Sen. Kennedy is very ill, the Dems want this to get done before he goes is as good a guess why the need for speed.
But I thought we were going to nationalize our healthcare delivery system in Ted Kennedy’s honor before he died…
From the link Erick sited: “Comprehensive legislation is needed so undocumented immigrants who are the victims of crime have enough trust in law enforcement to report the offenses, legislative, law enforcement and religious leaders said Tuesday.”
Now let’s change the word “undocumented” to “illegal.” Now we are describing a type of person who breaks laws. Just for fun, let’s change one type of person who breaks laws for another. Let’s also change the word “crime” to something more specific. I’ll even add options, and you can pick.
“Comprehensive legislation is needed so (bank robbers, muggers, drug dealers, or jay walkers) who are the victims of (theft, arson, assault, or other crime) have enough trust in law enforcement to report the offenses, legislative, law enforcement and religious leaders said Tuesday.”
I am not saying that all undocumented immigrants are thieves, drug dealers, or jay walkers. I am saying they are all here illegally, and they should have just as much protection as another criminal. If a bank robber gets shot, we treat and send him, and the person who shot him, to jail.
Realistically, we cannot send every illegal alien to jail. If we are going to really do something immigration, We should start with securing our borders, and that includes the airports. From there we should adopt a policy that every illegal alien be denied government services and benefits that are not life threatening. Every illegal alien should step forth get registered as admitting they are here illegally, which is not an amnesty program. Amnesty implies that they get away with their crime for free. From our list of registered illegal aliens, they should face a choice of voluntarily returning to their home land within X number of days, paying a hefty fine for breaking the law over time (restitution), or some type of community service for a non profit or under court supervision. From there on, anyone who didn’t register who becomes an illegal alien, should have property seized and sold at auction to pay for their deportation to where they came from.
It is a slap in the face to the millions of people who came here without breaking laws to give illegal aliens a free pass straight to citizenship.
Right on GOP, exactly!
Yes, yes. Let’s fight over semantics. Always productive.
You only need one “yes” Grift.
Forgot to add what is always productive?
Now your being anti-semantic.
I gues it would have been nice if the GOP passed some type of immigration reform about 10 years ago. Maybe even tasked Homeland Security with reforming the whole visa mess. Well maybe the next time some of the idiots vote the GOP back into power they can study the issue again for another 10 years!
No question, as previously stated, the GOP has some responsiblity in this mess. Although immigration reform was passed in 1986, under Reagan, no administration seems willing to enforce the law. Of course the legislative branch has some responsiblity in this and we should be holding the few Senators, like Kennedy, who voted for Amnesty in 1986 accountable.
Chuck,
No need to go all the way back to 1986. Immigration enforcement now clearly falls within the realm of the executive branch. The GOP under G.W. Bush should have enforced the law and cleaned up the visa I form mess as we know it. There is no doubt that Pres. Obama will tackle immigration reform. We have no right to complain about the solution he comes up with!
Tinsandwich,
You must be dreaming! If there is a problem and President Obama comes up with a solution, we can’t disagree with it?
If your house is on fire and President Obama’s solution is to throw gas on it because it’s an old house, will you agree to that? You can’t question the size or cause of the fire. If someone in your house smokes, and the cigarette is still burning, and president Obama throws gas on it, will you be ok with that? Obviously so, because we all agree that cancer is a problem and it’s President Obama’s solution.
Yes, rewarding those who abuse U.S. laws and generosity is the way to stop/fix this. Just as all the past amnesties have….
Let me clarify this a little bit.
When the Fed’s reorganized the various departments and created Homeland security, the immigration issue should have been tackled. Instead it was put to the side.
Now the current Pres. will tackle the issue and come up with a solution. Maybe it will be better, maybe it will be worse. The point is those who walked around the pile of sh*t instead of picking it up, can’t complain about the scooping process!
Since you repeated so will I.
Tinsandwich,
You must be dreaming! If there is a problem and President Obama comes up with a solution, we can’t disagree with it?
If your house is on fire and President Obama’s solution is to throw gas on it because it’s an old house, will you agree to that? You can’t question the size or cause of the fire. If someone in your house smokes, and the cigarette is still burning, and president Obama throws gas on it, will you be ok with that? Obviously so, because we all agree that cancer is a problem and it’s President Obama’s solution.
How about a better analogy? The problem isn’t fire, it’s termites. Your company has been on the phone for the last month telling me you will exterminate the pests but you never showed up. The O B pest company ain’t very good, but they are standing on my door step and what they are offering may destroy my house in 40 years or it may take care of the problem.
What your proposing is that I keep waiting by the phone!
No what I am saying is if you have termites and you haven’t gotten good service getting rid of the termites, it’s still Ok to ask questions of the Hope and Change company walking in with flamethrowers.
I am not saying don’t come up with a solution, I am saying not to take everything you are handed without question. I am all for problem solving, regardless of who the President is. I just want to make sure we don’t burn down the house in order to save it.
I threw out some ideas to talk about solutions: border enforcement, restitution, no amnesty. I will listen to what President Obama says when he talks about an issue. I just won’t agree with him automatically just because it hasn’t been solved until now.
Opening up our border to anyone and everyone who wants to come without question and making them all citizens will have consequences. That is not a solution I will agree with.
Law and policy are two different things, and often the twain never meet. We saw immigration enforcement measures passed and tightened while Bush II was prez, but without the funding and directives to implement the measures, hire the border agents, whatever. This weakening of law was deliberate and clear to anyone familiar with the behavior of the Bush II administration. The charade has continued.
Under Obama, Janet What-Border? Napolitano is now homeland security secretary, and Hilda “We are all Americans whether you are legalized or not” Solis is labor secretary, while Cecilia La-Raza-Suckin’-Up-Your-Tax-Dollars-Reconquista-Fanatic Munoz is director of intergovernmental affairs.
We don’t know what actual enforcement of our immigration law is, because it’s never been tried! We don’t know what actual securing of our borders is, because it’s never been tried!
They don’t need “reform”. (which would probably bite us in the ass the way these politicians operate these days) What we do need is a team of “lean economists” to identify the bottleneck and fund (rather than defund) what’s needed to enforce the law. And what’s up with this “catch and release” idea? The best way to make an “illegal” legal is by exporting him or her to wherever he or she is “legal”.
When Politicians use the word “reform” it’s usually time to run for the nearest jar of Vaseline®.
Thank God, just like the Carter era, the Obama era can be reversed. Keep up the good [sic] work so the furor builds to a crescendo. The next President can always sell all the newly government acquired industries.
China loves Buick so much why not let them own it.
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