If the Democrats and the left fight for immigrants and the free movement of labor into this country, why don’t they fight for free trade, an open labor market, and less restrictions on business? I find it hard to believe that labor unions are supporting immigrants when they fight so hard against globalization.

Illegal entry is just the first crime. Then comes false ID use and tax evasion.

Why should anybody be able to break the law without penalty? Why should one group of people be able to jump the line to enter the USA.

Why should the USA be subject to such an invasion?

Secure the border and deport the criminals.

I was just wondering if those playing the race card were also chanting “Viva la Raza” (which literally means “long live the Race”).

“While immigrant rights advocates argue the legislation is discriminatory and would unjustly criminalize some of the most productive contributors to the nation's economy”

I call BS. Just what makes uneducated and unskilled illegal immigrants “some of the most productive contributors”? It would be better for US citizens and LEGAL residents if the ILLEGAL invaders were not in the country. Wages would rise for the most vulnerable members of LEGAL society.

No one is complaining about immigrants, its the illegal ones that are the problem. All these people who are saying its bad were most likely illegal themselves.

LEGAL immigrants are already welcome.

I don’t understand why this wave of immigrants is above the law. Why should they be allowed to break laws that others had to follow?

Why should the fact that they have broken the law put them ahead of all the others that are in line to enter the USA. If anything they should have to get in line behind all those currently in line for entry.

I don’t understand why people are demonstrating in support of cheating line jumpers.

ILLEGAL immigrants are criminals by definition. Enforce the law. End of debate.

How to end the ILLEGAL immigration problems in a few days: Make it a felony for EMPLOYERS to hire them … and simply eject every illegal “immigrant” who dares show his or her head. And please, PLEASE, stop the insane practice of granting citizenship for simply being born here (usually at tax-payers’ expense).

The entire illegal immigration problem isn’t that difficult. Just annex Mexico. Upside: lots of oil at popular prices. Downside: Once the Mexicans are Americans, they will presumably be unwilling to put up drywall or pick tomatoes, since those are “jobs Americans will not do.” So maybe that’s not a good idea.

Try this, then: Build a wall, tall and long. If you really want to horrify the world, put barbed wire on the top; this signals your intention to violate the most basic human right, namely, the right to go to California for dental care at someone else’s expense.

Next step: Make current illegal aliens register, pay a fine and get on the path to legal status. The Amnesty That Dare Not Speak Its Name. Anyone who doesn’t pony up gets shipped to the border. There you have it! Security, compassion, firmness. Drywall.

Unfortunately for the illegal-alien advocates, however, their cause is not helped by angry rallies with inverted U.S. flags and crude signage supporting the “Reconquista,” which would make Los Angeles a protectorate of the Tijuana city council.

This doesn’t sit well in parts of the country where the practical implications of untrammeled immigration are largely absent. You don’t want a wall? Don’t cheese off Iowans who would be happy to pay for it. Don’t wave the flag of a corrupt, oligarchical sinkhole nation. Don’t tell Americans they’re required to house, feed and school people who hate their guts — if that was some international law, France would be the 51st state.

Most immigrants assimilate. The culture changes to accommodate the newcomers; the superficial aspects of the American identity are rather protean. But this doesn’t mean the nation is required to shout ollie-ollie-in-free and provide a free Spanish translation. So yes, build the wall. Control the borders. Welcome the immigrants. Kick out the scofflaws. And if it bumps up the wages of drywall installers and dishwashers? The Republic will endure.

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/lileks040506.html

Well, democrats and the left (well not really democrats) are against free trade because it drives wages down and forces people off their land. In El Salvador, 7 families own the land that the entire population sleeps on, while the workers can barely afford to eat. Globalisation of cultures and ideas is good, but neo-liberal globalisation which uses hegemony to shove detrimental policies down the throats of the rest of the world is bad. Get it?

“but neo-liberal globalisation which uses hegemony to shove detrimental policies down the throats of the rest of the world is bad. Get it?”

Nope, can’t understand the jargon. Plus, who gets to decide what constitutes “detrimental policies”?

“it drives wages down”

Illegal immigration provides cheap alternatives to citizens and legal residents. It’s especially damaging to the least fortunate and the young when wages are lowered and entry level jobs are filled by criminals.

Rallies across U.S. call for illegal immigrant rights. Rallies for burglar rights, tax evader rights, and drunk driver rights to follow.

Does Mexico practice what it preaches?

First, Mexico put its military and police forces on its porous, zigzagged, mountainous, crime-ridden southern border with Guatemala. Chiapas — the South Carolina-sized southern Mexican state that shares the longest border with Guatemala — is Mexico’s poorest, most illiterate state. About Chiapas, one United Nations human rights commissioner said, “Mexico is one of the countries where illegal immigrants are highly vulnerable to human rights violations and become victims of degrading sexual exploitation and slavery-like practices, and are denied access to education and health care.”

How hard is it to become a legal immigrant? How hard could it possibly be to learn English and get a job and at least make an attempt to learn about the country you’re going to live in? I learned a second language when I was 13, held a job when I was 16, and understand the culture of many other countries. So how much harder can it be for the 11 million who live here illegally?

What liberals don’t understand is Latino illegal immigrants mostly come to this country to live off our system, and if we make everything legal, billions of dollars of welfare will have to be paid out.

Most countries have some restrictions on who enters their borders, why can’t ours? BECAUSE OF LIBERALS. Put up a wall and land mines on the border immediately.

For some Americans, however, illegal immigrants loom as a direct threat to their livelihood. Jobless for three months, construction worker Michael Williams, 49, says the immigrant workers he sees gathered outside Los Angeles area Home Depots will work for half his customary $100 daily wage. “You have a lot of illegal aliens here,” says Williams. “It takes food off the table.”

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But Census Bureau data show that 17 million less-educated Americans work in occupations where immigrants are heavily represented. Example: 1.7 million immigrants and 1.2 million Americans work in building cleaning and maintenance. Replacements for the foreign-born workers could be found among the 362,000 native workers with experience in that field who remain unemployed, Camarota says.

Put another way, there are 2.3 million unemployed Americans who last worked in one of five job categories such as food preparation, farming or construction that currently employ 7.9 million immigrants.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2006-04-10-immigrants-economic-impact_x.htm

IS the United States importing too many immigrant physicists and not enough immigrant farm workers? You might think so, to judge from two provisions that Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, added to the comprehensive immigration reform package that just fell apart in the Senate. Senator Feinstein insisted that the bill call for some fees for foreign students applying to study at American colleges and universities to be doubled, and also demanded that agribusiness get the right to 1.5 million low-wage foreign guest workers over five years. Combined, the two proposals sent a message to the rest of the world: send us your brawn, not your brains.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/opinion/10Clemons.html

“First, Mexico put its military and police forces on its porous, zigzagged, mountainous, crime-ridden southern border with Guatemala.”

That has nothing to do with immigration. Chiapas is so poor because the Anglo political elites don’t care about the brown indigenous population, and because they have essentially had their land stolen by the rich. And the army is there because the people have had enough and are starting to rebel—the Mexican federal government has been occupying Chiapas for some time now, and has sought to squash the Zapatistas. Sounds oddly familiar… white immigrants stealing land from the native population and treating them like second-class citizens…

“Most countries have some restrictions on who enters their borders, why can’t ours?”

But then again, ours is the only country OF immigrants. It’s cool that you learned spanish so young and that you “understand” other cultures. I’m sure immigrants understand our culture. But have you totally discarded your own culture and adopted another? Many immigrants have been shat on their entire lives, and haven’t had much schooling, much less the chance to learn english. But many still do. The problem is that many are self-conscious of their lingual skills, and with all the harassment they get about accents and learning english, I don’t blame them.

In a recent Pew poll, 40% of all Mexicans expressed a desire to immigrate to the U.S.

That would be another 40+ million. That’s what open borders would do.

“But then again, ours is the only country OF immigrants.”

Mostly LEGAL immigrants - big difference.

PS. EVERY country is a country of immigrants - it’s just the arrival times that vary. Ever hear of Hungary? The Huns didn’t start out living there.

PPS. “But have you totally discarded your own culture and adopted another?” YES, that’s what the melting pot is all about.