State Action on Illegal Immigration
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-10-05/state-action-illegal-immigration
There is an exodus going on from the state of Alabama. The country’s strictest immigration law went into effect over the weekend. Among other things, it is the first state law to require schools to check the status of children. Alabama’s schools are now reporting a huge increase in absences among Latino students. The justice department is suing Alabama and Arizona because of their statutes and is reviewing similar laws in four other states to make sure they don’t supersede federal government law. Guest host Laura Knoy and guests explore the situation in different states that are taking the lead on U.S. immigration policy.
Guests
Angela Kelley
vice president for immigration policy and advocacy, Center for American Progress.
Campbell Robertson
national correspondent for the New York Times
Jonathan Turley
professor of public interest law at George Washington University Law School
Steven Camarota
director of research, Center for Immigration Studies.
Comments
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The constitutional 3rd amendment says [enemy] soldiers shall not be housed... This likely relates more to criminals, and our prisons are full [plenty of non-english speakers inn... there]. Terrorisim or culturalism [los chichenista'$?] often results from people/persons going to the Wrong Location and SEEING contradictions, that are [culturally] absent from their own [poverty] geographic realm, correct that imbalance [13 norte or 14 sur] and spirituality will replace economic poverty.
It's always when listening to the show's topic that I want to share a comment and it's always too late. However, the topic of immigration will come up again as it's a very sensitive subject. Before making these suggestions, I'd like to call attention to the fact that formal application to enter this country is extremely difficult and the quota for any of these countries is always full as it is for many other countries in this world. So...this is what I offer as something to think about.
First, eliminate the emotion when addressing this problem and stick to what is true and factual. Second, all Hispanic families who have lived in the US for 5 years or more, no felony criminal record and paying taxes, legitimize them with a green card or other.
Third, negotiate with the countries of origin to register those who want to come to the USA, transport them to work at jobs that no one else will do (view the unemployment rate) for 6 months and then transport them back. That would give them enough time to earn sufficient money to live the rest of the time back in their country and would enable us to keep track of who is here and where they are working. It would also stop or slow the illegal crossing that is costing lives and a great deal of taxpayer money trying unsuccessfully to stop it.
Somewhere, along those lines has to be a solution and draconian laws are not the answer. Just remember the last time we had that and the result therefrom, i.e. the Volstead Act.
We don't have to believe the comments of Steve. As for bringing down the educational level of the US through illegal immigration, the basic truth of immigrants to the US throughout history is the upward mobility of their children. The parents coming here believe in opportunity based on hard work and education. The problem we have in our country is that too many of our "native born - a loaded term if ever there was one - have lost that initiative. Those are the facts, sad but true. We should not be looking immigrants, legal or illegal, as a source of problems for our own poor, but rather looking at ourselves and why we fail so miserably to change that reality.
FOR ALL THE LEGAL IMMIGRANTS: People do not immigrate illegally to follow a romantic adventure. This is the most horrible endeavor you might have and people do it because they do not have much choice back home. They bring their children, babies, through the horribly difficult path and many die. You LEGAL IMMIGRANT, you are so lucky you had the option to skip that trip. DONT complain you had to pay, because you pay but you were also safe.
FOR THE CITIZENS AND RESIDENTS: All those illegal immigrants came here to work doing whatever is possible to subsist. They work as hard as ever and YOU ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THAT when you eat tomatos on your salad, who think pick them and at what price? YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT YOU PAYING TAXES BUT YOUR LIFE IS CHEAPER ACCESS TO GOODS THANKS TO A ILLEGAL WORKER THAT WORKS FOR PENNIES in order to keep his/her family alive.
FOR ALL THE LEGAL IMMIGRANTS: People do not immigrate illegally to follow a romantic adventure. This is the most horrible endeavor you might have and people do it because they do not have much choice back home. They bring their children, babies, through the horribly difficult path and many die. You LEGAL IMMIGRANT, you are so lucky you had the option to skip that trip. DONT complain you had to pay, because you pay but you were also safe.
FOR THE CITIZENS AND RESIDENTS: All those illegal immigrants came here to work doing whatever is possible to subsist. They work as hard as ever and YOU ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THAT when you eat tomatos on your salad, who think pick them and at what price? YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT YOU PAYING TAXES BUT YOUR LIFE IS CHEAPER ACCESS TO GOODS THANKS TO A ILLEGAL WORKER THAT WORKS FOR PENNIES in order to keep his/her family alive.
There is no reference to Libel in the US Constitution, perhaps you should get a copy.
I do hope the DRShow comes back to Alabama for hour long discussion soon. I suggest UMC Bishop Willimon, the former Chaplain at Duke, Rachel Johnson of American Values and Bama Gov Bentley's pastor Rick Lance as panelists or the Alabama Catholic Bishop; and or UVA professor Robert Marsh, native Mississippian and Bonhoeffer scholar who is well tuned to Baptists fretful turning away historically when a much needed plumbline for character is needed
At Willimon's Peculiar Prophet Blog he is pushing for Dream Sabbath across Methodist Churches in North Alabama. Will be a Sunday focussing on the Dream Act for promising Hispanic Students who have been grand citizens in the state for some time.
Rachel's piece recently posted at Huffington Post, was published in full in the October issue of Baptists Today, a monthly read of President Carter among some of the best Baptists have to offer the national common good.
The Religious quotient of this matter has been fascinating indeed. The State Representative who is member of a Methodist Church in Albertville has taken issue with Bishop Willimon in the Press--see Willimon's blog. And reputedely many students from Birmingham Southern College who protested at State Senator Scott Beason's Gardendale Baptist are products of churches in North Alabama.
While Rachel Johnson has a commendation of sorts for the national Southern Baptist Convention Resolution last summer, in the state, the SBC leadership has been tepid or out to lunch. See Abpnews.com for that story.
Meanwhile Deacon Gov Bentley seems to have been driven to this law by Tea Party fundamentalists. One in particular, Eunie Smith of the State's Eagle Forum, widow of the late Bircher Albert Lee Smith has been most sinister. Her roots are in the White Citizens Council margins of Bull Connors day, and with her husband she was active in the national network of Jesse Helms and Ed McAteer to turn Southern Baptists toward the far right.
Today Steven Camarota director of research, Center for Immigration Studies stated flat out that being born in the USA does not necesaarily mean you are a citizen as this issue has not yet been addressed by Congress or the Supreme Court. How could he be allowed to say this with no one pointing out that the 14th Amendment decided this issue more than a century ago!
"kd_boston wrote:
@StLouis:
The reason those trades (plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, etc.) or being done more and more by immigrants (legal and undocumented) is not simply because employers want to save on wages by hiring people who will work for less. It's much more complicated than that. It's education policy, where there is a paradigm in place that assumes every student be prepared for college, as if that's the only path to a satisfying professional life; the only exposure to these trades are the woefully pathetic "shop" classes in secondary education, if they still exist at all. Further, the systematic dismantling/disempowering of trade unions begun by the Right during the Reagan administration has removed much of the wage-protection these trade workers enjoyed; since these trade unions were also responsible for much of the training that was never being supported by education policies and programs, through the age-old system of apprentice to journeyman to master, we've also lost the very system that trained our next generation of tradesmen (or tradespeople, if gender-correctness is important to you)."
Kd_Boston:
Don't understand your drift when you mentioned those "Shop"classes. It so happened that I used to deliver cookies for fund raisers at HS in poor areas and they had some great trade classes. I asked one of the the instructors who was in charge of fund raisoing around the time of Katrina I, if these kids straight out of HS could get good electrician jobs afterwards. He told me you bet they can at around $45,000. I asked this question because in the garage they worked in, I noticied they had all these wires hanging from the wall and tools of the trade.
I posted this on my Facebook profile, and on The DR Show's Facebook page, I'll post it here too - yes, I'm that proud of it: "Man, people who are concerned about illegal immigration should check this out. When I'm old and infirm and I need somebody to take care of me, do I want some Mexican or one of these intelligent, articulate well-mannered US youth taking care of me? It's a pretty easy call. http://vimeo.com/29589320
"American Juggalo is a look at the often mocked and misunderstood subculture of Juggalos, hardcore Insane Clown Posse fans who meet once a year for four days at The Gathering of the Juggalos. We went to The Gathering of the Juggalos and let the Juggalos..."
Laura,
It's HOMED in, not HONED. You could look it up.
Others, which you might be using correctly,
JURY rigged
JERRY built
Thanks.
@meanconser:
meanconser wrote:
"Don't understand your drift when you mentioned those "Shop"classes. It so happened that I used to deliver cookies for fund raisers at HS in poor areas and they had some great trade classes. I asked one of the the instructors who was in charge of fund raisoing around the time of Katrina I, if these kids straight out of HS could get good electrician jobs afterwards. He told me you bet they can at around $45,000. I asked this question because in the garage they worked in, I noticied they had all these wires hanging from the wall and tools of the trade."
Thanks for pointing this out. I could have said it better. When I said "woefully pathetic "shop" classes", I was pointing out the fact that, in most technical programs in High Schools across the country, these programs (as well as art and physical education) are increasingly feeling the pinch; shrinking resources are funneled to "teaching to the test", in order that school's student's scores on standardized tests meet requirements that ensure continued funding. In many places where these programs haven't been eliminated, the money to run them is, well, running out. The operative phrase in my statement was unclear, but was "if they exist at all". Sure, I'll posit that there are some successful programs being run in various public districts, but I'll venture they are anomalous. Any plumbers or cabinetmakers out there?