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A number of immigration protests are planned for today across the country. From the AP:
Though this year's turnout will likely be lower, organizers say immigrants feel a sense of urgency to keep immigration reform from getting pushed to the back burner by the 2008 presidential elections.The NYC rally, which is being organized by the New York Immigration Coalition, will involve immigrants pinning leaves on a paper tree, per the AP, "to symbolize the separation of families because of strict immigration laws." It will start at 2PM, with an interfaith prayer service at Judson Memorial Church (on Washington Square South), then a rally in Washington Square Park between 2:30PM and 3:30PM, culminating in a march to Union Square at 3:30PM."If we don't act, then both the Democratic and Republican parties can go back to their comfort zones and do nothing," said Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "They won't have the courage to resolve a major situation for millions of people."...
The [White House] plan would grant illegal immigrants three-year work visas for $3,500 but also require them to return home to apply for U.S. residency and pay a $10,000 fine. It has been roundly criticized by immigrant groups.
The NY Immigration Coalition's website says, "Support: A path to citizenship for ALL undocumented immigrants; Family reunification; Restore due process and stop the raids; New worker program with a path to citizenship; Workers rights for ALL workers! FAMILY UNITY IS A HUMAN RIGHT!"
Photograph from an April 2006 immigration rally by themikebot on Flickr
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fine employers of illegal labor so that it no longer becomes cost effective to employ them
I don't have a solution to the immigration issue; however, asking these people to pay $13,500 seems a bit unreasonable seeing as they usually earn around $2 per hour after working for 1 month without getting paid at all.
Since we are demanding that yhe government changes laws to suit our needs, can we please make it legal to rob banks?
I could use some extra cash right about now.
Note to illegal immigrants: WTF gives you the right to come here and dictate what our laws should be? I don't go to my friends house for a visit and then proceed to rearrange their furniture even though they didn't ask me to.
I wish Gothamist would make their pictures a little bigger, how do you expect us to see these tiny photos!
So they want a path to citizenship, as well as a living wage, for anyone who wants it? Send these idiots back where they came from.
The only way to combat illegal immigration is to start at the top: go after big corporations and agribusinesses that employ illegal immigration. It's symbolic to go after the little guy earning $4.00 an hour under the table, but it's only just that and it tears families apart.
Also, realistically, how are you going to deport 10s of millions of people? And are you willing to pay an extra $1 or $2 for every single item you buy because it's no longer being manufactured by cheap, illegal labor?
The only way to combat illegal immigration is to start at the top: go after big corporations and agribusinesses that employ illegal immigration. It's symbolic to go after the little guy earning $4.00 an hour under the table, but it's only just that and it tears families apart.
Also, realistically, how are you going to deport 10s of millions of people? And are you willing to pay an extra $1 or $2 for every single item you buy because it's no longer being manufactured by cheap, illegal labor?
What is the BFD about illegal immigrants being in the country in the first place? Most of them have jobs, pay taxes and live quietly.
As me (#1) said, the only real way to stop the supply pull of illegals is to fine the employers up to wahoo. When the cost to benefit of employing illegals gets too high, employers will shift away from hiring illegals.
At the same time, though, you need a way for illegals in the country to become legal... otherwise you'll see a huge spike in crime. That 15m freshly unemployed people will try to get money somehow...
On a more pragmatic front, I'm glad they moved away from the "No person is illegal" crap... never did it make any sense.
This debate is becoming outrageous. Enforce the laws as they stand. Which means, enforce them against the illegal person and also the employer to the fullest extent of the law. if people want change, work on it, but you can deport millions of people, we've done it before in the 50s... I suggest we do it again. As much as the media loves to come up with sob stories about illegal immigration (not legal, which is absolutely fine), the absolute majority of the American people are against this abuse of our laws and social systems, period.
"asking these people to pay $13,500 seems a bit unreasonable"
Okay, I'll grant you that one if you can maybe see how asking them to understand that there are repercussions to breaking the law is, in fact, highly reasonable. Get off your high horse, there are paths to citizenship and there are legal ways into the country. Maybe they aren't as accomodating as you'd like, hell, they're stricter than I would like. But that doesn't change that that is the law. So I'm completely in favor of working to change immigration regulations, but that doesn't mean we hand out citizenship like its candy.
What is the BFD about illegal immigrants being in the country in the first place? Most of them have jobs, pay taxes and live quietly.
Because they don't all pay taxes, they use up medical and educational resources, and they drive down wages for the citizens of the US. All this talk about them doing jobs Americans won't do is bullshit. Americans will do the jobs, they just won't do them for less than minimum wage.
The US is the most welcoming country on the planet. The rest of the world dumps their unskilled labor on us. The people rallying should have a rally in front of their home country embassies and ask why they aren't doing anything for them back home. Mexico is a good example. They are bolstering their engineering colleges so they can steal high tech jobs from the US. What are they doing for the poor?
#8 Illegal immigrants put a lot of strain on our healthcare and educational system. Economically speaking, their employers are passing the cost of doing business (paying for legal labor as illegals come at a discount) onto all tax payers. Ultimately we're the ones footing the bill for failing schools and hospitals.
Imagine, protestors waving U.S. flags proudly instead of burning them. Looks pretty good to me.
Why must certain "Groups" make simple issues difficult ? If you want to live in this country you should have to go through whatever protocol necessary . I agree with the policy the White house is trying to implement here . It's a measure to try and stem the tide of illegals coming into this country straining our resources . I admit it's going to be hard for them to enforce without fining employers for hiring them in the first place . Once they get pass that hurdle then it will most likely workout fine . Illegals have no say in this country and that's the way it should . If you want the freedoms afforded to Americans you have to earn them .
I would think that the war in Iraq -- the brainchild of some very blueblooded DAR-types, to be sure -- are much more a strain on our "resources" than this bogeyman flood and tide of immigration. I've never seen any statistics to explain where, exactly, we're "straining" or even what we're straining. All these Minutemen have are anecdotes, the same instrument of fear-mongering that led to lynchings and the mythology of eugenics.
And this question had to have been asked of you before, SNA -- what did you do to "earn" your freedoms?
come on juan, you have upwards of 20million people using services (hospitals, schools, etc), with very few paying any taxes as all and its not costing anything? give me a break. you have 20 million people working illegally for below minimum wage and it doesn't affect the huge amount of our own domestic unskilled workers, again, get real. this issue has real implications and needs to be fixed, not by blanket amnesty which they did in the 80s that caused this mess, but more of the old school method of deportation and the end of sanctuary cities.
This was happening in sister locations as well -- there was a big procession along Broadway in Washington Heights.
What kills me at the moment is that we're completely freaking out about these immigrants living in the US and taking our jobs, yet no one is screaming about the fact that in the last 5 years millions of white collar American jobs have been outsourced to India, leaving millions of Americans without an income or the benefits they depend on for their families. Living in the middle of this, I see the havoc this is wreaking on the economy. I think we need to be a little more worried about the fact that while it might be illegal to employ an illegal immigrant to sweep your floors, companies are farming out technical and customer service jobs to Puerto Rico and India and paying their employees about the same rate they would hiring an illegal that didn't speak English and had no training whatsoever. With college costs on the rise we're looking at millions of students entering the workforce and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of student loan debt who aren't going to be able to find jobs. We need to get our priorities straight and get our jobs back in the United States before we start worrying about who's doing the grunt work that very few Americans really want to do anyway.