JD, how should we solve the immigration problem?
608024
Not Too Bad grim reaper\n\nI Guess Im Gettin My Point Across :-)\n\nFIRST - I Would Station Troops Along The Border With AUTHORIZATION To Use Deadly Force\nTo Prevent ANY UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY Into The United States\n\nSECOND - I Would Implement The Third Provision Of HR4437 As It Is Written\n\nAnyone or any organization who “assists” an individual without documentation “to reside in or remain” in the United States knowingly or with “reckless disregard” as to the individual’s legal status would be liable for criminal penalties and five years in prison.   This could include church personnel who provide shelter or other basic needs assistance to an undocumented individual.   Property used in this act would be subject to seizure and forfeiture.\nhttp://www.justiceforimmigrants.org/HR4437.html\n\nThat Would Cover The Employers - \n5 Years In Prison And Loss Of All Assets For Hiring Illegal Aliens - NO EXCEPTIONS\n\nTHIRD - I Would Reform The HEALTH, EDUCATION, And WELFARE Systems So That Those Services Will Be Available ONLY To The CITIZENS Of The USA - EMERGENCY Services Only To All Others\n\nFOURTH  - I Would Empty The Prisons Of All ILLEGAL Aliens And Deport Them To Their Nations Of Origin\n\nFIFTH  - I Would DEPORT ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS UPON DISCOVERY\nNo Jails\nNo Judge\nNo Jury\nYou Have The Oppurtunity To Prove You Are Authorized To Be In The USA\nIf You Are NOT AUTHORIZED To Be In This Nation, You Will Be DEPORTED\n\nSIXTH - I Would ENFORCE The 14TH Amendment -\nThe key to undoing the current misinterpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment is this odd phrase\n\n"AND SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION THEREOF."\n\nThe whole problem is caused by the fact that the meaning of this phrase, which was clear to anyone versed in legal language in 1868, has slipped with changes in usage. Fortunately, there is a large group of court precedents that make clear what the phrase actually means: \n\nThe Fourteenth Amendment EXCLUDES the children of aliens. (The Slaughterhouse Cases (83 U.S. 36 (1873) \n\nThe Fourteenth Amendment draws a distinction between the children of aliens and children of citizens. (Minor v. Happersett (88 U.S. 162 (1874)\n\nThe phrase "subject to the jurisdiction" REQUIRES "Direct And Immediate ALLEGIENCE" to the United States, NOT JUST PHYSICAL PRESENCE. \n(Elk v. Wilkins 112 U.S. 94 (1884)\n\nThere is NO automatic birthright citizenship in a particular case. (Wong Kim Ark Case, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) \n\nThe Supreme Court has NEVER confirmed birthright citizenship for the children of Illegal Aliens, temporary workers, and tourists. \n(Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 211 n.10 (1982) \n\n\nThat Would Be A START - Give Me A Little Time\n\n\n****In The Mean Time... I Would Have The Following Individuals (AMONG OTHERS) REMOVED FROM OFFICE And Tried For TREASONOUS CRIMES Against The United States Of America\n\n-- Antonio Villaraigosa \nMayor- Los Angeles, California-"\n\n-- Mario Obledo \nMexican American Legal Defense\n\n-- Art Torres \nCalifornia Democratic Party chairman - \n\n-- Jose Baca \nCalifornia State Senator - \n\n-- Richard Alatorre \nLos Angeles City Council - \n\n-- Gloria Molina \n Los Angeles County Supervisor\n\n-- Cruz Bustamante \nFormer Lt. Governor, California \n\n-- Fernando Guerra, \nProfessor, Loyola Marymount University -
796449
Punish employers who hire illegal immigrants with jail time and/or huge fines. The same for people who rent housing to them. No jobs and nowhere to live will stop them from coming.
540381
Jewish people do discuss their opinion on the immigration issue.  I don't live in the United States at the moment so I'm a bit out of the loop on this issue, but I tend to be very compassionate towards illegal immigrants.  I think it's important to remember that we were all created in the image of G-d, that all people are entitled to live with dignity, and that we should try to think of what is moral and what is just, and then make that into a legal reality.  Sometimes laws are not just.  One of the central ideas in Judaism is that it's our duty to create a more just world.
610781
The best thing to do would be to heavily fine and then imprison any employer hiring illegals. It's against the law to hire illegals and the law should be enforced.\n\nOf course, we know this won't happen. I don't know what's wrong with our elected politicians and law enforcement. They're putting illegals above American citizens.
884211
I wouldn't call your suggestion the solve all but I would call it a start.  Taking jobs away from American workers simply because they can accept a lower wage is no path to citizenship in my book either.  Fighting for a legitamate cause through our military would do much more towards gaining my resolve, yet joining our armed forces under Bush seems more like a death wish to anyone including illegals rather than a statement of loyalty.  What we need is an enforcement of existing laws and prosecutions derived therein in order to curb the existing illegal subterfuge that persists to this day.  Stay tuned..
586165
JD - At first, I didn't agree with you entirely on here, but over time, your views make more and more sense. You seem so dedicated to this cause, and so I hope you are doing more than just posting on this website. You have got the facts and figures and the reasoning. I hope you are managing to get this info into the government where it can make a difference. Thank you for persisting in your stance on this topic. Your dedication gives me hope that the rest of the USA will wake up and smell the coffee regarding illegal immigration, before it's too late.
1162740
well, this illegal problem has been brewing for yrs, even since the last amnesty. this has been an issue that politicians hav avoided for at least 10-15 yrs, but since no one wants to focus on IRAQ & GAS prices, the immigration prob will do for now. this problem has been the cause of our gvmt & employers who indeed make it easy for illegals to work & stay here. ppl r just p*ssed off cuz it has been blown up & its easier to hate & assimilate than it is to hav a voice & an open mind. personally, i think that the honest, hard working non-recipients of public assistance should b able 2 stay if they pass a background check, etc.. after all, the blame should b placed on the American gvmt & Americans. people will treat u the way u allow them to treat u- & dam we've let it go on 4 so long we as americans r to blame. but that's me & we're all entitled to our own opinion-or lack there of.
429339
The new immigration law is as close to facism as I've ever seen in this country (next to the Patriot Act).  There are blatant civil rights issues at stake here.  For instance, the new immigration bill would criminalize any act giving assistance to illegal foreigners - making churches, charity organizations, and other worthwhile enterprises felons!  If you are a legal worker, and then lose your status somehow (say, through an administrative mix up or some such incident) you would be charged with a felony as well.  It needs to be changed, at the very least.  However, throwing the immigrants out is NOT the answer.  Making them registered, tax paying legal residents is the answer.  This would bring in revenue for the government (which it desperately needs).  It would cost billions of dollars to find them, process them, and deport them.  We are talking about 12 million people here!  People need to put their racist attitudes aside and focus on a real solution to the problem.  And by the way, we are all descendants of immigrants in this country.  Its a good thing that our great-grandparents, or however far back you would like to trace your lineage, weren't tossed out of this country like so many of their descendants wish upon the illegals in this country today.  Remember your roots, and the fact that NONE of us would be here if not for immigration to this country.
677074
I think you could deport quite a few out of the proceeds we would save from having few illegal immigrants.  I think that is what we will be doing with the felons, etc.\n\nIf border security works to a large extent, that will let us work on the backlog over a period of time.  If the ID cards go into effect with biometric data and an enhanced database to check legal resident status, that will not only mean new illegal immigrants will have a harder time finding jobs, it will make it easier to catch current illegal immigrants who do not fit the 'qualification' status.  \n\nAs for me, I wouldn't deport the current, qualified illegal immigrants with roots.  I think we need to focus on stopping the problem going forward.  \n\nHowever, I would say that the new legal status of current illegal immigrants should not give them status to 'bootstrap' in family members.  I would say the family members could get in by other legal means including the planned legal immigration rate increase. However, if we allow the current illegal immigrants to use their new legal status to bootstrap family members in, we will be talking about 60 million people, not 12 million people.
603198
The problem is that in order to get a perpetual stream of low wage workers, big business has tangled the amnesty concept up in the guest worker program.  A Senator projected immigration under the guest worker program, including the increased legal immigration going forward, as bringing in an additional 217 million poor immigrants in the next 20 years on top of those already here.  There is no provision for employers to offset the impacts on schools or other services.  \n\nI think the guest worker plan in this form has to go.  I would be OK with legalizing current qualified illegal immigrants so long as I really felt the border was secure and employers could be held accountable.  I would combine the House Bill provisions on border security with the Senate Bill employer database and penalty provisions.  \n\nHowever, an increase in legal immigration assumes that we have really stopped the illegal immigration.  I think we need to make sure the border is actually secure before deciding whether and how much to increase legal immigration rates going forward.
247787
It is not up to a political party to do something about the Illegal Alien problem.  It is up to us as a people to tell our Representatives what we want to have done about the problem.  We should learn from 9/11 that this is a serious problem that affects us all.  However many including the 9/11 terrorist's entered the country legally and then did not leave when it was time for them to.  Our INS Department does not have the staff to honestly see the job through in most cases.  We have people who have come to our country on a student visa and remain here for many years after it has been expired, and many of these people go to the INS daily trying to get some sort of status to remain here.\n\nYes we have each day people who sneak into the country, but one must realize that many Illegal Aliens came here legally and just never left.  Sometimes it is just a clerical error and others have to do with quota's.  There is a lot more problems with the illegal immigrants than most people know and understand.  The problem needs to be explored and new legislation developed to meet the needs of our country as well as be fair to those who came here legally.
657173
Never!  Americans by our very nature are immigrants.  I think that illegal immigration is a problem, and there are solutions.  But to deport every person who is an immigrant is not only impossible, it is wrong.  All of us are immigrants.  I think the question should be about illegal immigrants and what we can do to solve the problem.
956941
It's an extremely complicated issue, and I don't think you're going to find a good solution asking here.\n\nHere's an idea, though that sounds good but still probably won't work.\n\nRaise the minimum wage more and enact harsher penalties on anyone hiring illegal immigrants. Simple, but effective. After all, extending the fence all the way could cost billions of dollars.
555622
full amnesty is not the answer. Setting quotas for each country is what the immigration policy has been about ever since the early 1900's. Didn't work then, won't work now.
645422
First, we all should stop the hating, even saying the world and focus on solutions.\n\nDon't you think that to redirect that hate toward the people that hire undocumented workers is not the solution either? \n\nMany of that people that hire undocumented are concern, just as all the indocuments immigrants are, and as i have heard they have been supportive to the immigrants. \n\nI believe they see that part of the phenomeno, about the need of labor, that many USA people don't get.\n\nIt is not correct to take it against the mexican people, even if they are legal immigrants, that's not an answer either, and is completely unfair. \n\nAgain, let's give ideas and proposals, and not questions and answers that would increase the hate, wich is not helping anybody.
253968
I think that the problem is the perception that it is okay to come here illegally.  We need to secure the borders, and allow legal immigration.  We need to raise minimum wage so those we allow in will not be unemployed, poor, and taking more from the society than they give.  This should go to ALL Americans!  \n\nWe need to amend the constitution to change citizenship to be for children born to LEGAL immigrants or that have one CITIZEN as a parent, otherwise they are not American.  This would eliminate the "Anchor Baby" issue.  \n\nWe need to NOT make all services available in any language requested.  We need to help folks learn english, and we should not disparage those that are learning.  If governement programs, driver license tests, IRS forms, and many others, were not made in Spanish, primarily for illegal immigrants, the need to learn english would be more important.  That being said, English classes should be taught for free by charitable organizations supported by the government.\n\nWe need intelligent, sane policies.  We need to be willing to pay the cost of farm products picked and handled by legal workers.\n\nIf we do all of this, MORE legal immigrants could come to America, because we would not be paying for and hunting down so many illegals!
482232
Problem #1: Population \n\nThe first problem I see with the current state of the immigration laws is the significant rise in population that has, and will, continue to occur over the next fifty years. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an estimated 1.1 million immigrants, both legal and illegal, enter the United States every year. 700,000 of these are legal immigrants; 120,000 are refugees, and between 250,000 to 300,000 are undocumented or illegal “aliens” ( Baldwin, 1995). The United States population at the moment is roughly 288 million people. If this trend of aliens is not decreased, the population will reach 400 million by 2050. How many people can America hold? \n\nProblem #2: Benefits Illegal Aliens Recieve \n\nCurrently, under federal law, undocumented foreign citizens are eligible for emergency healthcare, free schooling from kindergarten through high school, and W.I.C. or Woman, Infants, and Children nutritional program ( Baldwin, 1995). This is important to note because there are currently between eight and ten million aliens currently living illegally in the United States. An estimated 2.5 million of these illegal aliens currently reside in the state of California alone, due to the agricultural jobs that are readily available for cheap labor (Kadetsky, 102). It should not be surprising then that the residents of California were outraged over the amount of money that they were being forced to spend, and the amount of resources that were being used to support aliens that are not “allowed” to be in the United States in the first place. \n\n \n\nProblem #3: Homeland Security\n\nIn the Fiscal year of 2002, which runs October 1 through September 30, the United States Coast Guard, which is the country’s primary maritime, or sea going, law enforcement agency, intercepted 4104 immigrants from various South American countries (USCG, Para 2). Since then, the numbers of immigrants intercepted by the Coast Guard, has continued to climb at an alarming rate; jumping to almost 11,000 in 2004, 9,500 in 2005, and currently with less than two months into the 2006 physical year, there have already been 1,000 migrants accounted for and processed through the Coast Guard (USCG, Para 1). Illegal immigration can potentially cost American tax payers billions of dollars a year. The United States Coast Guard, whose primary obligation is to prevent the loss of life at sea, can not stop this problem by its self, it is mearly the first line of defense. It is up to the rest of America to join the fight and help put an end to this awful practice.