No they can't, actually. For the vast majority of illegal immigrants, there is no "legal immigration" option - that's why they came/stayed illegally.

The economic benefit these people provide is pretty clear. We need to decide as a country what to do about it in terms of immigration policy.

Not only do we need a policy, but we need to recognize basic laws of supply and demand. But more importantly, we need to stem the flow, no matter how politically incorrect it may seem. Yes, take advantage of the mutual economic benefits, but not at all costs.

I'm not suggesting a pogrom or loading illegals into boxcars, but when a house is burning down, you call the fire department, not your decorator.

I arrived too late and agree with Acella's opener...In totality. I'll give my version of the bottom line:

Massing in the hundreds of thousands and even millions doesn't display the 'power of the people' or some self-interpreted right to be here. It only displays mass ignorance and arrogance.

Do they honestly think they advanced their cause yesterday?

If I robbed Acella's house and then stood outside of it with a sign proclaiming my felon-existence, I would be in the back of a squad car in no-time flat...And deservedly so.

We must go into LOCKDOWN-mode on the border. If that means a Berlin Wall, then so be it. We have to protect our soverignty and our security. We must do this at all cost. Anyone doubting this need only be reminded of 9/11 or see United 93 (the latter due to the fact that memories are painfully short in this country). I don't care the cost, secure the fu*king border. Use the military as it is a national security issue. Do whatever must be done.

As for those who are here ILLEGALLY I congratulate you for having the audacity (wevos?) to thumb your nose so blatantly at a country you proclaim to love. Fu*k you. I appreciate that the backward-ass country, from which you hail, didn't hold any financial promise for you. That being said, I could care less. Not my (our) problem. And if your indiginous immigration policies do not allow you to come here at all, legally immigrate to a different country where you actually have a legal shot at legally immigrating here. There's no argument, at all, that justifies the fact that you have broken our laws to get here. The pompous, laughable and arrogant way in which you think that massing, at all, gives you some kind of strength would be ridiculous if it weren't for the fact that the media would have us believe it meant something.

Go home.

I say this not in anger, spite or in hatred. I say this as a law-abiding citizen of America who would be put in prison if I blatantly broke your immigration laws and illegally jumped into Mexico from anywhere south of it.

Leave.

I barely have the time, in this memorandum, or the inclination to stipulate that your existence, somehow, is benefitting me. The normal one hour and 10 minute commute I make daily took a mere 14 minutes yesterday. I didn't suffer one iota with your gathering downtown yesterday and I'm certain I would make due without all of you--and while this may be a rant (primarily) against Mexicans, it should be understood that I know they aren't the only ones here without the approval of our law.

We, as a nation, got along fine before you. We got along based on immigrants who legally migrated here and made us what we are today. Your presence here disgusts the very fabric of our history and how immigrants made the U.S. the U.S. And these were LEGAL aliens. Not ILLEGAL and therein lies the difference.

There are no shades of gray. You are either here because you followed our laws or you are not. Period.

We have laws on the books to combat this infestation of criminals. We don't need more (McCain/Kennedy) laws to this effect. Enforce the ones that are in effect. Don't make a mockery of your political predecessors, or worse yet, the Bill of Rights and The Constitution by going into political spin now. Sadly, voting districs (which equal power) are decided by a census on population...Not whether or not the actual voting bodice of the population is here legally.

...Which brings me to our political whore of a mayor here in Los Angeles Antonia Villaraigosa (if I spelled his name incorrectly, I don't care). I voted, not for him, so I have a singularly unique perspective in complaining about this sh*t-ball. I watched as he pimped himself before the massed community--himself a radical Mexican by heritage--proclaiming before hundreds of thousands that without illegal immigrants "...who would clean 'their' toilets..." Fu*king ingrate. While he is absolutely an ingrate, I thought this was particularly funny: Nice of him to further-bastardize the cause of the illegal immigrant who claims to be here for noble objectives (earning/learning/bettering). The good mayor, in his ridiculous diatribe, decreed that what illegals are really here fighting for, is for their own bottom-of-the-barrel social class in which their aspirations for being here revolve around the cleansing of my cammode. Woooonderful. Why don't you continue to perpetuate the myth that all illegals are good for (beyond breaking our laws) is for manually-demeaning labor.

I'm a Republican and proudly admit it. I love our president. However, I do not support some of his policies which includes any mention of 'an amnesty' or 'guest-worker program'. This is political pandering at its worst and clear evidence that while he is strong in many of his convictions (against terror) that he is willing to be a sell-out when it comes to big-business. After all, big business is the only group that really stands to profit. Someone mentioned earlier that they would gladly pay more for their lawn/pool-maintenance and berry picking, et al. I'm down with that. I'm two weeks away from having my first child. I would gladly allow my son or daughters' first job to be picking grapes, washing cars or house cleaning in exchange for the understanding in life that nothing is free and a living must be earned.

While I'm not Mexican, I grew up as a foster child in California, living in a foster home where the parents were Mexican/spoke-Spanish. Ironically, my first job at the age of 11, while in this foster home, was to pick avocado's and raisin's on the farms of their relatives in Fresno and Reedley, California. Granted, I didn't have a choice. I was 'free labor' for the relatives of these foster parents. Most-importantly I learned that if I wanted to succeed in life, it was going to be through hard work. If I wanted to earn more than $5/week or minimum wage, or even less than minimum wage, I would have to get a formal education--which I did and paid-for on my own.

I've digressed: Go the fu*k home. My use of asterisk-laced profanity, while a depature from civility, should convey how I truly feel about this nuisance-issue.

I could go on and on, but it would only get more vitriolic as "Chapter 2" may hold clues to how I really feel about what illegals are doing to our community from an image and financial standpoint.

I welcome anyone who has a differing opinion.

If illegal immigration is demand-driven (and I happen to think that a lot of it is), then focusing on the supply (which is what we do when we talk about border-enforcement, deporting illegals, etc.) is not addressing the issue, IMO. Instead, we need to figure out what factors are causing the demand, decide which are "good" and which are "bad" then develop policies which encourage the good factors and discourage the bad ones. I know this sounds simplistic, but it is not what we're currently doing.

For example, there are employers who are hiring illegals because they can't find anyone else to do the work. We should probably allow foreign workers to come to the country legally to do these jobs.

There are other employers, however, who CAN find U.S. workers, but who hire illegals simply because they are so much cheaper. We need stronger/more effective enforcement measures to crack down on this type of employer.

The problem, of course, is separating the "good" employers from the "bad" employers and nobody seems very interested in doing that. Immigration protagonists think all employers who employ illegals are "good", while antagonists think all employers who employ illegals are "bad". Both sides are wrong, but neither is very likely to admit it.

And I haven't even mentioned family-based immigration yet.

It's a real political mess - and it's been that way for a very long time.

Seems to me the immigration issue has been whipped up as of late simply to gain postitioning for the upcoming elections, nothing will be done.

Where the hell was the INS at that parade. It would have been the biggest illegal alien bust in history. They basically told then they were illegals and hung out all day in the same place. Why did our govt just let them do that. I thought the INS actually looks for illegals. It doesnt get any easier than that to find them.

That statement, more than any other, shows that you have a lot to learn about this country's immigration history.

Also, I'd like to gently point out that, if your objection to illegal aliens is that they are "illegal", you, as a Republican, should not have a problem with enacting a law that helps them become legal so long as they benefit the economy. Since you are NOT in favor of such a law, your whole "they're bad because they're illegal" argument sort of falls apart.

Since I'm actually in favor of comprehensive immigration reform (as opposed to enforcement-only measures), I would have LOVED to see this happen. Peaceful demonstrators, including women and children, being arrested by Federal Agents on national television. It would have been a political death-blow to the enforcement-only faction. It would also have been politically disasterous for the GOP which is obviously something they don't need at the moment.

INS no longer exists fwiw. It's "successor" regarding interior immigration enforcement is "Immigration and Customs Enforcement" ("ICE") - part of DHS.

Fnelson: What are you talking about?
 

Fnelson: What are you talking about?

Read what I wrote again: No further laws, of any kind are necessary. I specifically stated that we have existing laws and do not need any other legislation. Any further attempt to pass any kind of new law in this regard is political pandering and politically spinning to gain approval.

Simple enforcement of our existing rules would suffice. DinanM3 just mentioned that we have an INS...Why do we have an INS? Because of the mandate in the law which set that department in motion. A mandate which allows foreign nationals to legally immigrate here.

Feel free to debate me, but don't suggest that my viewpoint falls apart because I'm unwilling to support new laws where laws already exist. And there's a hell of a lot more too it than "they're bad because they're illegal" which, by the way, wasn't even remotely the essence of my posting.

Chris

Wagner...
 

Sadly enough, you are probably right. There are few, if any, politicians (with clout, no less) willing to take the hard-line approach that is necessary to eradicate this problem...Doing so could be politically suicidal.

Chris