The Justice Department has set up a hotline for the public to report potential civil rights concerns regarding the Arizona law that requires police to check the immigration status of those they stop for other reasons.
Hard to see this as anything other than trolling for votes in November.
Look, I get that business wants cheap labor to remain competitive (while passing off the lifetime costs of it to the consumer), that illegal rights activists need someone to advocate for (along with the power that brings) and that Democrats see a group of one-day voters in need of representation (pretty damn fine if they remember who made that "one-day" a reality), but I can't see the gain here. Neither societal nor even any to our national interest.
Pretty darn expensive votes, all things considered, but that's always the problem when somebody else is toting your credit card.
I also think that BO's. executive order is directed more towards the educated/knowledge based illegals. A lot of eastern Europeans and Asians who are very capabable could eventually go the H1-B (?) route for eventual PR and citizenship route. The Hispanics still got the hurdle of getting a job after college, else take the much harder approach of forming an successful enterprise.
Congress can't do too much. Split Senate-House. Maybe the best situation our Nation could have. No more of those special measures that favor the local MOC district. Let the Student Loan Program die (we got ours, and ours is costing the taxpayer money), although I doubt it would happen.
As for the undocumented, the best cure seems to be a bad US economy, a tightening of laws forcing employers to document and personal documentation-ID.
Seems to be fewer "authentic" Mexican restuarants in our local economy. (I find Mex/Hispanic food bland, without variety and over priced. And definitely fewer construction jobs for them.
That congress wouldn't do it makes it all the more odd that the president did, regardless of what hispanic activists looking for sheep to herd have managed at the municipal level.
That Reagan went along with what turned out to be an amnesty that solved nothing is usually brought up when this subject arises but the context isn't:
Which brings us to what we know for certain, item two: The grant of amnesty represented only one aspect of the 1986 legislation Reagan signed into law. The rest of the Immigration Reform and Control Act spelled out provisions—aggressive provisions—for bringing illegal immigration to an end.
"The amnesty dealt with illegals who were already here," as Edwin Meese III, then attorney general, recently explained to me. "The rest of the '86 act was intended to get control of the problem so we didn't have any more coming in." The legislation mandated an increase of 50% in personnel guarding the border. And it made hiring undocumented workers a crime, requiring employers to attest to their workers' legal status.
And hurtfully xenophobic context it is... which is probably why it's ignored.
IMO, is that BO's stance is already a pretty much accepted position at the local level. If you give them access to education and services through college, then why not give them access to a work permit?
RR had an amnesty program. BC and GB the lesser, had proposals but had too much push back from industries that needed cheap labor.
I'm not convinced that a comprehensive immigration reform is necessary. Besides a Presidential proposal is not going to go anywhere, and for a legislative bill is a no brainer in an election year.
The grounds long been staked out, lp, and it's that compassion demands we don't repatriate kids for the sins of their fathers, or mothers as it may be. The only question is whether his courageous pander was for votes today or votes tomorrow.
Can't separate mom and dad from their kids. They will get amnesty, next. It's lame and going to bite us in the ass. Just wait.
Yep. A slippery slope right down to de facto blanket amnesty for all.
That kitten analogy is right about perfect, btw --- compassion does have a price tag and you shouldn't ought to bite off more than you can chew.
Living in one of those border states, it's a big issue and not one that is easily set aside as no big deal.
It's a huge f*ing deal, to quote Joe Biden.
You can be sympathetic and understanding and feel bad for those that have no papers through "no fault of their own", but it's only going to make a bad situation worse. Until we come up with a comprehensive and enforced immigration policy, you are basically opening up the candy store.
Every other billboard I see in the greater metropolitan area of Los Angeles is in Spanish. My favorite one that I saw the other day on the way to a tournament was "Amigos y Carne Asada". For those that don't speak Spanish, that translates to Friends and Grilled Beef. It did make me laugh.
Jobs are tough to get, still. Our public university system, all the way from Community colleges through Cal States and University of California schools have largely abandoned their mission statement. Too many people vying for the same spots, and all.
I took in a few stray kittens a few years ago. I couldn't bear the notion that they might be destroyed. They are absolutely divine creatures, yet they cost me money, all the way from food and vet's visits, to paying to replace stuff they have destroyed (and yes, they seem to hate curtains quite a lot!) As much as I would love to take in more kitties, I simply cannot afford it. They are a drain on my wallet, even if they are freaking adorable.
It's hard to detach the sentiment of helping those who can't help themselves and have come here seeking better opportunities to coming to the realization that we are printing money and racking up debt for things we can't afford - that's on a local, state and federal level, I might add.
I am not trying to simplify the argument that all illegal immigrants are strays - but the sad reality is that we are stretched thin.
Instead of dealing with this Executive order, executive decision, whatever it was - the Obama Administration should have come up with comprehensive immigration policy. Make a guest worker program that would have benefitted our country, as a whole. Instead we ignore this entire subgroup - millions of folks who live and work here.
I don't always agree with the notion that illegal immigrants want to be US citizens. I have seen too many things over the years to make me think that many think of themselves as temporary visitors, here to earn a buck and send home in wire transfers to Mexico, etc. I have seen families who go back to Mexico and take their kids for a month or two at a time and then come back, god only knows how, when they are illegal. I suspect the fake papers in downtown LA off of 6th Street, that make the trip across the border a little easier the second time around. I have seen kids come and go from my schools for these extended absences with one foot in each country. Some of these kids you just worry about, knowing that they aren't getting a solid education and that when they go home at the end of the day and have a question on their homework, aren't getting the help they need to succeed.
So we absorb a million kids and make them citizens. What then?
Can't separate mom and dad from their kids. They will get amnesty, next. It's lame and going to bite us in the ass. Just wait.
Maybe there isn't a vote-getting rationale for these ground-breaking stands. Maybe O sees things falling about the same as you do and these are just parting gifts to the party. A new normal, presidentially speaking, one that Romney will have to walk back amidst all the squealing and crying that he and his party are heartless, neanderthal bigots.
Often the politic discourse is not to stake ground or attract votes but to frame the issue to one's advantage or to direct the issue into a something that one can defend and be in a position to attack.
BO's pronouncement on stating policy for undocumented aliens who were brought to the US as underage minors, is not a new issue. Many border state governors have explored and proposed this-including the past/present governors of TX. I doubt that we will hear too much more about this.
Many Eastern European and Asian undocs will applaude BO's stance, and they are probably working at nonwage jobs (business owners/job creators) that demand proof of residency.
-- Edited by longprime on Tuesday 19th of June 2012 09:37:28 PM
I'd say you're on the money about he appears. The unilateral move is exactly the kind of thing that should have coaxed up a few huzzahs! from at least one or two that lean that way but ain't nothing but crickets chirping around here. No matter: I'll just bang a pot all by myself for a while, since it's such a strange move for a guy who claims to want to be reelected.
.... which, among other things, points out that whites appear racist enough to more than cancel out any votes he might get from pro-illegal Hispanics. What it doesn't address is how adding 1+ million illegals to the legal workforce is going to play out with african-americans, being they suffer the highest unemployment rates of all. Personallly, I wouldn't think they'd be too keen on it but maybe his advisors are privy to some really, really top secret info. That or the assumption's that they'll hold their nose and vote.
What with his gay evolution and all, the assumption must be they'll plug both nostrils for sure.
And there really are Hispanics who came here legally who resent this deeply. And they vote.
It broadly plays against his entire 2008 schtick---a different kind of politics (as did the gay pandering). It makes him look craven and amoral. Which he is, of course, but this puts it on display and it could all backfire bigtime.
Well, not exactly since "we" didn't do it. Probably because we didn't want it and as such didn't elect a congress that felt up to it, but no matter: the president did it for us, all by his self.
I don't think his gay evolution is going to translate into votes (money and praise from the media, yes but not net votes) and this one doesn't look like much a win either. --- for every pro-illegal immigration hispanic that decides this change trumps a dismal economy, I imagine two voters are going to make a point of hitting the polls to express their opinion of it.
), although I doubt it would happen. 
