Solving the US immigration crisis

The US media led by Fox News and Lou Dobbs on CNN are foaming at the mouth today (1 May) about the Mexican "illegal immigrant" rallies in the US. By all accounts they have been huge.

We Americans need to face up to the one single point that complicates this entire issue - we have to get over the idea that if you're born in America you belong in America and automatically get citizenship. No US government, federal or State, is going to deport US citizens and - if they are children - their parents, whether their parents arrived legally or not. So the No.1 priority is to phase that law out. There should be a 10-month phase-out period from an announced date. After that the US will have the immigration policy that every other country in the world that is a magnet to immigrants now has - a child born in the US would be entitled to US citizenship only if his parents are in the US legally.

The next step is to grant an amnesty to every "illegal immigrant" member of every family unit (i.e. mum, dad and the kids) that includes a US citizen born in the US. Then we can decide, probably on a case-by-case basis, who gets deported.

At the same time, tighten the border - but let's not build a Berlin Wall.

this "problem" has been decades in the coming with al US administrations turning a blind eye to illegal immpigration or imposing selective punishment ie: as long as you don't get caught at the border it's OK !

It's yet again one of the really great problems of unchecked capitalism and an economy that thrives on cheap labor whilst pretending it doesn't exist.

Add in the corprate pirates who want to globalism labor in it's pursuit of unchecked profits.

It's not a matter of building a wall after the horse has bolted..at this rate it's whether we will be able to slip into China unnoticed to get a job. Americans need to wake up and realise their system will collapse soon unless they begin taking reality pills..without or without King Goerge's help. :drunken:

Who is surprised that Fox news or indeed some editors, reporters and anchors on CNN are foaming at the mouth over illegal immigration. I am from the UK and only get to see these channels when abroad. At first I was shocked by how little news actually was broadcast by these channels and how much was right wing rhetoric forced down the throat of any unfortunate viewer in the guise of home spun, oldy worldy, traditional, hand on the heart, looking back at the golden age tosh and nonsense. Unfortunately, the right wing idiots that appear on the show seem to be ever more popular in the US whilst doing a disservice to the country by showing how bigotted and uneducated much of middle America is.

Unfortunately the rich people who run businesses (such as Fox News) do not see past their own small, narrow minded self interest. They are happy to attack and destroy union labour, they are happpy to get the cheapest employees in minor positions, they are happy to have the immigrant gardner, cook, maids, chauffeur and pool cleaners, but they do not want to know where they came from and how. However, on a less personal scale, when talking about immigrants (illegal or otherwise) in society as a whole, they will decry how the US (or any other country) cannot sustain immigration, how the government must do more to send back home those people who are taking 'American' jobs away from 'true' (in other words white) US cicitzens. Of course, they would not be willing to pay the going rate for the job and many us citizens would not even dream of doing these jobs.

America needs to wake up and see the value of the millions of illegal and legal immigrants, talk of building walls should be replaced with talk of building bridges. If the US is to be significant in the world in years to come, it's politicians have to stop looking inward at how it can keep others out and start playing it's part in the world, opening it's doors, supporting countries in trouble, writing off more debt and avoiding military conflicts in favour of peaceful and negotiated solutions. The US is currently the worlds only superpower (debateable), however, give it 10 years and you will see China take over this title or at least join the US at the big boys table. Look at what China has done in terms of world trade, look at its influence in Africa, India and the developing world. The US has given up on these areas or is showing little concern as it goes after the oil rich middle east whilst China makes friends and inrodes into markets. Give it 20 years and you could well see India also at the big boys table too with the US becoming less and less significant. I won't say capitalism will be dead then, it will just be that China's version and India's version of capitalism will predominate as the Us crumbles ever more.

Is this the "real" Hedda speaking, or the evil Jane Marple?

Is this the "real" Hedda speaking, or the evil Jane Marple?Stick to your knitting, dear.

[Davey612]

The couple of times I came back from Asia, my plane was full of pregnant Indian (i.e., from India) women coming to the U.S. Everyone knew why they were travelling while pregnant.

That issue aside, I still have problems with the notion of another amnesty program. Reagan did it in 1986 and the problem is worse today. An amnesty program will only encourage another wave of illegal immigrants because they are conditioned by the notion that somehow, sometime, the U.S. government will relent and legalize them. As much as I don't like the current administration, I feel that it is going in the right direction. That is, create a program that will ultimately allow a pathway towards citizenship. But also make the program so difficult and unique that it will discourage future waves of illegal immigrants.

Further, immigration laws should be reformed. The U.S. is actually quite generous in terms of allowing a huge number of persons coming in legally. However, it is the quality of the people that I question. As it is, the family unification side of the program allows a huge portion of uneducated and old people that actually utilize a lot of the social services. I would favor the Canadian/Australian system, which is based on points so the the best minds of the world come over.

In any event, the latest demonstrations serve as a debate of what is an American. There is an element among the ethnic immigrants that want to be just hyphen-Americans. They claim that they are not Americans, but hyphen-Americans. I don't support that notion. Canada has shown that it is difficult holding a country together when there are entrenched separatists movements.

The couple of times I came back from Asia, my plane was full of pregnant Indian (i.e., from India) women coming to the U.S.And they still had seafood on the menu?

I guess the Native-Americans are Hyphen-Americans. I bet they're chuffed. I wonder what they thought of the first post in this thread, coming as it does from someone who doesn't even live on "their" plains.