03-30-2006, 10:47 AM
You spoke well from a societal perspective. From a political perspective, this is going to be very interesting subject. I think it will have consequences for the Republican party. Especially in the House they are driving this issue to hard. Why is this an issue? Basically two reasons. First your talking about this means your not talking about Iraq. Second, I believe Republican think this is a way to recapture the "We are tough on Security" issue.
But looking at the House plan I have to shake my heads. Bill Frist says we need to know who is in our country. But making it a Felony offense is suppose to make people willing to come forward? Build a fence must be the answer. Didn't they just find a tunnel under the border that was like a highway. The wall won't even go across the whole border. Who is going to patrol the wall? What about people going around the wall over the waters, whats the plan to stop them? What about the northern border. The only terrorist coming across the border that im aware was up in Washington State. Its not about security. Last time I checked I didn't see a large population of Muslim living in Mexico, Canada on the other hand does have those population. I would think that the northern border would be a much greater risk for terrorist to cross on.
The other great idea you hear is, "They should all be required to be shipped out of the country and made to legally reapply". I live in Minneasota and the airline I work for actually has done work for the INS in deporting people. We aren't like San Diego we just can't load people on a bus and an hour later drop them off in Mexico. Its estimated that we have 200-300k in illegals in Minneasota. We fly up to 173 total passengers on our planes. You do the math how many flights will that take and who is going to pay that cost. How and who is going round up this countries 11 million illegals? Who is going to pay that cost? Where are we going to hold these people until we can get them deported? What court is going to conduct these hearing, the immagration court is already over burden?
I could go on with other problems and unanswered questions to the Republican plan. When you cut to the end of all this, its election year politics of trying to prop the Republicans up as tough on something that really isn't an issue to the vast majority of American. Most polls show that issue garner about 7-8% of people believe this issue is important. They like the Republicans tough talk once this becomes an issue. But I bet if you asked people if they were willing to pay higher taxes to really make this plan happen you would get a resounding HELL NO.
What do the Republican really want out of this issue. Pass a immagration crime bill. Do a few perp walks maybe hit an employer in California sinse they can't win there in 08 and give them a Were Tough on Security Issue" going into the mid-term election, because they need something to counter there botched handling of the Dubai Ports deal. If the ports deal hadn't happened you would never have seen this issue come up. But they figure they can make this into a single issue vote getter that will out weigh any of the lost Latino vote. The places that they will lose votes in were places they couldn't win in anyhow.
What can really work. The stuff you talked about Van, I agree with you totally. Making it a Felony will not agarner participation. Having local law enforcement officials become Immigration Agents isn't a job they want and merely takes away there time from responding to crime an other emergencies. Give the people a path that can get them to a legal status. I agree especially about the English issue, make that a part of the deal. You want to be a citizen then become a part of the society. This is what will help security in the long run. The Republican plan isn't a real solution, its about scoring short-term political win.
But looking at the House plan I have to shake my heads. Bill Frist says we need to know who is in our country. But making it a Felony offense is suppose to make people willing to come forward? Build a fence must be the answer. Didn't they just find a tunnel under the border that was like a highway. The wall won't even go across the whole border. Who is going to patrol the wall? What about people going around the wall over the waters, whats the plan to stop them? What about the northern border. The only terrorist coming across the border that im aware was up in Washington State. Its not about security. Last time I checked I didn't see a large population of Muslim living in Mexico, Canada on the other hand does have those population. I would think that the northern border would be a much greater risk for terrorist to cross on.
The other great idea you hear is, "They should all be required to be shipped out of the country and made to legally reapply". I live in Minneasota and the airline I work for actually has done work for the INS in deporting people. We aren't like San Diego we just can't load people on a bus and an hour later drop them off in Mexico. Its estimated that we have 200-300k in illegals in Minneasota. We fly up to 173 total passengers on our planes. You do the math how many flights will that take and who is going to pay that cost. How and who is going round up this countries 11 million illegals? Who is going to pay that cost? Where are we going to hold these people until we can get them deported? What court is going to conduct these hearing, the immagration court is already over burden?
I could go on with other problems and unanswered questions to the Republican plan. When you cut to the end of all this, its election year politics of trying to prop the Republicans up as tough on something that really isn't an issue to the vast majority of American. Most polls show that issue garner about 7-8% of people believe this issue is important. They like the Republicans tough talk once this becomes an issue. But I bet if you asked people if they were willing to pay higher taxes to really make this plan happen you would get a resounding HELL NO.
What do the Republican really want out of this issue. Pass a immagration crime bill. Do a few perp walks maybe hit an employer in California sinse they can't win there in 08 and give them a Were Tough on Security Issue" going into the mid-term election, because they need something to counter there botched handling of the Dubai Ports deal. If the ports deal hadn't happened you would never have seen this issue come up. But they figure they can make this into a single issue vote getter that will out weigh any of the lost Latino vote. The places that they will lose votes in were places they couldn't win in anyhow.
What can really work. The stuff you talked about Van, I agree with you totally. Making it a Felony will not agarner participation. Having local law enforcement officials become Immigration Agents isn't a job they want and merely takes away there time from responding to crime an other emergencies. Give the people a path that can get them to a legal status. I agree especially about the English issue, make that a part of the deal. You want to be a citizen then become a part of the society. This is what will help security in the long run. The Republican plan isn't a real solution, its about scoring short-term political win.
Biggrol
Shammie of Vallon Zek
Shammie of Vallon Zek