A Swedish vodka maker thinks this is what Mexicans view as a perfect world:
Considering the number of Mexicans that risk their lives to escape Mexico and live in the United States I think this would be more realistic:
I spent lunch at the Mimslyn Inn, a fine establishment in Luray, with a little under 100 old Democrats, elected officials and community leaders, and one “unemployed former governor.”
Don’t smirk: that line got the biggest laugh.
Warner didn’t have a stump speech, he just re-introduced himself and took questions. The questions were tough - mental health, Iraq, I-81, immigration - and Warner gave wonky, long-winded answers that rarely demonstrated bold ideas (other than on energy). And neither Jim Gilmore nor Bob Marshall had anyone taping him.
Now I’m not saying Warner appeared to be a flaming liberal; in fact, other than his calls for energy independence, he never once sounded like a progressive. When he talked about climate change, he specifically said he was more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than Al Gore. Were he still running for president, he’d be to the right of Hillary and just to the left of McCain.
No, the reason Gilmore or Marshall should have been taping Warner is his indecisive answer on immigration. Continue Reading »
A high school Spanish teacher assigned her students the task of pretending to be an illegal immigrant and figuring out a way to survive.
Forge your documents, find a way across the border. Then, research real ads and find a place to live in Columbus. Figure out what it would cost, how to get food. Plan how to survive.The students had to go to real businesses and ask for Spanish-language job applications. They had to visit a bank and ask for new-account documents written in Spanish.
Vieyra promised them that the process — even in make-believe — would frustrate them. But they would gain, she hoped, an understanding of what is one of the most important political and humanitarian issues facing the U.S. government today.
This appears to me to be a one sided understanding of that issue. (I’ll leave it at that so I don’t get called a racist.)
“I can’t begin to fathom how they can survive here. Everywhere you turn if you try to become legal or help yourself, there’s a roadblock.”
Apparently it isn’t too difficult since anywhere from 7-34 MILLION people have managed so far.
“A Boston firefighter is mending from what could have been deadly stab wounds he suffered early yesterday morning when he was allegedly jumped in East Boston while off duty by a group of Hispanic males who told him they “don’t want any gringo here.” Though police are not classifying the incident as racially fueled, the Boston Police Department’s Community Disorders Unit is investigating.”
Not racially fueled?! If that had been white men attacking a Hispanic while saying we “don’t want any beaner here” it would likely be called a hate crime.
Can you say double standard?
If you learn one thing from me, ever, it should be this: immigration matters. Regardless of what the Democratic spin machine - whether in the press or RK or dKos - might say, immigration mattered in the 2007 elections and it will matter in 2008.
I’m not saying that immigration was a winning issue for Republicans - it wasn’t. What it was, and I will show this in a later post, is the bandage the Republicans needed to get their base to the polls and keep working-class whites from voting Democratic. In short, immigration stopped the Republican bleeding.
I will also write a post detailing how inaction by Gov. Kaine’s administration and the Democratic caucuses probably lost 3 Senate seats that were very close, but I want to spend this post looking ahead to next year and the U.S. Senate race.
Right now Mark Warner is the favorite to win the election because his only known opponent is Jim Gilmore, and Gilmore alienates moderate Republicans. Also, Democrats who question Warner’s commitment to progressive values and initiatives are unlikely to mount a Ned-Lamont-type challenge for fear of helping Gilmore win. So Warner looks like he can continue showing up late to events and still be our next U.S. Senator.
But there is one Republican candidate who could give Warner fits and possibly re-align Virginia politics.
So what’s an illegal immigrant to do when the place they’re living cracks down on illegals? Flee to Canada of course. Only Canada isn’t too pleased, and recognizes what some here in the US still don’t want to admit–an influx of immigrants puts a huge strain on social programs and burdens the taxpayers. Eddie Francis, mayor of one over run town, puts it this way.
“When there is a possibility of adding thousands to the local social assistance system as a result of refugee claimants crossing the border into Windsor, we will become overwhelmed and our current resources will not suffice.”
 I also find this interesting:
“This is a problem the U.S. has allowed to create. It’s really unfair for Canada to have to face this,” said MP Joe Comartin (NDP — Windsor-Tecumseh), his Party’s public safety and national security critic.
“This is very much being driven by (the U.S. Department of) Homeland Security,” he said, predicting that, “with few exceptions,” most of these “economic claimants” will eventually be sent back.
 If Canada doesn’t want to have to deal with this then they need to do a better job protecting their boarders than we did. I also what to know where “back” is. Back to the US or back to Mexico? If Canada can send people back, why can’t we?
Got this release from the Roemmelt campaign today. I wonder how Marshall will respond. Marshall’s biggest problem seems to be his church, which is holding him back from coming out too hard on immigration issues.
Chief’s Proposal Reasonable, Pragmatic: Should be “Model for the Commonwealth”
Haymarket, VA - Bruce Roemmelt - a candidate for the 13th Virginia House of Delegates district seat - issued the following statement regarding Prince William County Police Chief Charles Deane’s presentation Tuesday to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors:
“I fully support Chief Deane’s plan to implement the County’s agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Chief Deane has nearly four decades of experience in the Prince William County Police Department, including nearly twenty years as chief. In that time he has epitomized public service and has demonstrated time and again his commitment to the citizens of Prince William County.
“Chief Deane has developed a plan that will put criminals behind bars and - if those criminals are illegal aliens - hand them over to the federal government. He respects the law and strives to be fair to everyone affected. His plan is reasonable and pragmatic and should be a model for the Commonwealth.
“I pledge to develop state legislation to institute a paper trail that will aid the federal government in ending the ability of employers to pay employees ‘under the table.’ Together with the common sense program Chief Deane has introduced, this initiative will crack down on all criminals, including employers who hire illegal aliens.”
Letting people sneak in and then deporting them!
“The United States is the one who broke the law first. By letting people cross over without documents. By letting people pay taxes. For me it has been very hard. But I know I am not alone.” ~Elvira Arellano
You see, it isn’t the illegal immigrants that are at fault. It’s all our fault for letting them sneak in without documents. I guess our options are to give everyone documents and turn the United States into Mexico or set up motion sensing machine guns at the boarder. Or maybe people could stop sneaking in and immigrate in an orderly fashion.
We could just let everyone back in that has been deported and call them a “peace and justice” ambassador.
Everyone that isn’t a terrorist come on over.
I missed one and scored a 95%.
In a strange twist of circumstance, it seems that members of the US national guard ordered to help protect our border against foreign invaders have actually assumed the role of the infamous coyote and helped smuggle people into the United States. Thereby, essentially taking jobs away from Mexico.
It’s funny to think of the complaints we here about illegal immigrants “stealing” jobs in America, or conversely “doing the jobs that American’s refuse to do,” when in this case good ol’ American ingenuity recognized a niche market and jumped right in to help turn the wheel of supply and demand.
The officers have admitted smuggling dozens of illegal aliens from Mexico in various trips across the border. They charged the immigrants $1,500 to $3,500 and ordered them to stay down and be quiet inside the vehicle. One of the guardsmen would easily drive the packed van through another’s border checkpoint in Laredo. The officers face sentences of 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.
…This is hardly the first time that U.S. agents are caught taking hefty cash bribes to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country. In California at least nine border agents have been arrested or charged in the last year and a half and in Texas at least 10 agents have been charged or sentenced.
A few days ago Yesterday cvllelaw had a post up on Democratic Central trying to figure out what it would cost to deport all the illegals. I think he/she(I will use he for the rest of the post just to avoid confusion) figured high on some costs and low on others. For example, I don’t believe each illegal would need their own personal guard to escort them back to their home country. I also think he figured the court costs on the low side.
After all the supposing and calculating, he arrived at a huge number– $128 billion to deport 12 million illegals or just a little over $10,5oo each. That was the “our government runs perfectly and economically” number, so in reality cvllelaw feels it would be more realistic to double the number. Fair enough. $256 billion, or about $21,000 each. I will use this number because we all know the government can’t do anything in an efficient manner.
That’s a lot of money. Makes it look like we would be better off just letting them stay since it would cost so much to send them back, but cvllelaw left one very important number out of his equation. What an illegal immigrant costs the taxpayers each year.
In 2002 it was estimated that they cost the federal government about $10 billion more each year than they pay in taxes. I wonder what that number is now, five years later. Using cvllelaw’s doubled number it would take about 25 years to break even on the expense of deporting them.
But wait, there’s more. That $10 billion was only federal; what about state expenses? It costs our states $36,283,000,000 just to educate the children of illegals, pay emergency medical care and incarceration. By 2010 the number is expected to rise to $61,480,000,000.
So $10 billion federal + $36 billion state = $46 billion each year. Now it only takes a little less than 6 years to break even. After that we save American taxpayers $46 billion EACH YEAR.
France has come up with an interesting idea. Pay them to leave. Although is seems kinda wrong to give people money for leaving a place they never should have been to begin with, it could make economic sense. Under the French plan a family of five would receive $8,750 to leave voluntarily. Thats much less than the $105,000 it would cost cvllelaw to deport them. Since Americans are so generous, we could even decide to give each illegal who leaves on their own accord $10,000 and still come out ahead.
Of course, all this would do no good if they could just come back the very next day, but with all the money we would be saving I think we could do something about that.
VA Political Blogs Feed