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04-10-2007, 09:27 AM #1
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Just play fair with immigrants
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyo ... 887.column
New York City
Sheryl McCarthy
Just play fair with immigrants
April 10, 2007
We love them. We hate them. We need them. But we want them to leave.
That's the essence of our conflicted national debate about illegal immigrants. We rely on their cheap labor. But we accuse them of burdening our schools and hospitals, and of failing to pay taxes.
With immigration officials stepping up the number of workplace raids on undocumented immigrants around the country, I wanted to see how the city's immigrants are being affected by this rancor. So I visited the storefront office of the Latin American Integration Center in Woodside.
About 30 neighborhood residents, all of them Spanish-speaking immigrants, gathered one evening last week to discuss the anti-immigrant wave that has hit the country, and how they feel about the proposed immigration reforms.
There were young women with barrettes in their hair, young men in jeans and sneakers, serene-looking mature women, and men with graying mustaches in puffy down jackets. Many of them - because they've lived here for years, have worked hard, raised families and formed ties to their communities - feel they deserve more than to be legally invisible, prey to exploitation by greedy employers and unscrupulous lawyers.
"We all made America, not just the Anglos," said one woman, defiantly.
My sentiments range from empathy for people who are in this situation, to annoyance with those who knowingly came or stayed here illegally, and are now claiming squatters' rights and saying they shouldn't be separated from their families. But I'm also offended by the hypocrisy of those who use illegal immigrants' cheap labor while wailing about what a menace they pose.
What I heard last week, translated to me from Spanish, was concern about family breakups caused by laws that subject even longtime green card holders (legal residents who are not yet citizens) to automatic detention and deportation for committing even minor criminal offenses, like smoking marijuana or shoplifting a bottle of Tylenol. I learned that the so-called STRIVE Act, the 700-page immigration bill now before the House of Representatives, is a step in the right direction, but contains some major flaws. I learned that many of the people there have been preyed upon by lawyers who promised to help them become legal, but gave bad advice and took their money.
Pedro Flores, 48, a Mexican, typifies the immigrant whose family is part-legal and part-illegal. He said he came here twice, first for nine years, then went back to Mexico before coming here again 17 years ago with his wife and daughter. They overstayed their tourist visas. Both of his sons were born here and are American citizens. A longtime restaurant worker, he also runs a party supply business that caters primarily to other illegal immigrants.
As a young man, he said, he was defrauded by two lawyers who promised to help legalize him. A law passed during the Clinton administration allowed his former employer to petition for him to become a legal resident. But the company went bankrupt. Now his options are to find another employer to sponsor him, or to see what immigration law reform brings.
It's hard to see what purpose would be served by sending Flores and his wife back to Mexico, and by refusing to legalize them. But I'm not impressed by claims that some of the recent workplace raids were outrageous because they occurred on the illegal immigrants' religious holidays. Nor am I convinced that legal residents who commit felonies resulting in prison time should be spared deportation on the grounds that it would break up families. Requiring someone to obey the law is a reasonable requirement of conditional residency.
However, immigrants who have American family members and who are facing deportation for crimes should be allowed to make the case to a judge that there are circumstances that should permit them to stay here, whether it's family ties, contributions to the community or the minor nature of the offense. A bill that Rep. Jose Serrano (D-Bronx) has introduced in the House of Representatives would give immigration judges that kind of discretion.
Under the STRIVE Act, the six-year waiting period for current immigrants applying for permanent residency status seems awfully long for people like Flores, who've been living here for many years.
And the bill's "touchback" provision, which would require applicants to return to their native countries and re-enter on a visa, appears to be mostly a symbolic gesture that is terrifying to immigrants, who fear they won't be let back in.
Whatever reforms Congress ultimately comes up with should strike a balance between controlling illegal immigration and recognizing that the illegal immigrants who are already here are human beings, and not just labor.
Sheryl McCarthy can be reached at mccart731@aol.com.
Email: mccart731@aol.comJoin our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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04-10-2007, 09:40 AM #2
It doesn't matter why the illegal aliens broke the law, only that they did.
They are not being singled out because they are non-anglo, because every American citizen who commits a crime, if caught, is prosecuted. If anything, the illlegal aliens, have for years gotten away with their crimes, as the government looked the other way.
The illegals like to say that their only crime is coming to work, so they can feed their families, but in doing so, they commit many more crimes, such as, using forged documents, stolen identitities, driving without a license, or insurance, and of course, working, which is itself, a crime.
There can be no defense of their crimes, and only one punishment, DEPORTATION, just as the law prescribes.
Anything less would be unfair to American citizens, who have always been held accountable to the law.REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!
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04-10-2007, 10:15 AM #3
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I play fair with them. I see them on my property, I call Border Patrol and they come out and arrest them, seems fair to me.
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04-10-2007, 10:34 AM #4
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We need them
Unscrupulous employers & politicians need them.
Illegal alien advocacy groups need them.
But we don't.Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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04-10-2007, 10:44 AM #5What I heard last week, translated to me from Spanish, was concern about family breakups caused by laws that subject even longtime green card holders (legal residents who are not yet citizens) to automatic detention and deportation for committing even minor criminal offenses, like smoking marijuana or shoplifting a bottle of Tylenol.
If I really wanted to be apart of this country and new because I was illegal and would get deported for any minor crime, I would not do it!! I am a citizen and would not dream of walking in a store and stealing a bottle of asprin, it is not mine, it does not belong to me. period.
By one person getting deported it sends the message, do not steal you will get deported. Thats what laws do avert crime, and no one should be an exception to the rule. This is the United States not Mexico!!!Please support ALIPAC's fight to save American Jobs & Lives from illegal immigration by joining our free Activists E-Mail Alerts (CLICK HERE)
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04-10-2007, 10:52 AM #6
If you break the law, YOU HAVE TO EXCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES!
American's play by the rules. Not every America is rich, we have working poor and middle income Americans that NEED THESE JOBS. We don't appreciate lawbreakers taking our jobs, changing our language, making demands that they have NO RIGHT TOO! We don't appreciate being called names, and racists for standing up for the rule of law!
American's have had ENOUGH!Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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04-10-2007, 11:09 AM #7
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play fair with immigrants
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04-10-2007, 11:11 AM #8Just play fair with immigrants
April 10, 2007
Fair would be to fine and throw them in jail (crime = punishment), but we just deport them back to the country they came from. In my book, deportation is not a punishment!"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**
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04-10-2007, 11:33 AM #9
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That's the essence of our conflicted national debate about illegal immigrants. We rely on their cheap labor. But we accuse them of burdening our schools and hospitals, and of failing to pay taxes.
And they DO burden our schools, our hospitals, take advantage of all of our resources, and get paid under the table.
PLAY FAIR? IT WOULD BE FAIR TO DEPORT THEM HOME.
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04-10-2007, 11:38 AM #10
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"We all made America, not just the Anglos," said one woman, defiantly.
Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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