Thread: Cubans On Immigration Reform

We do not need to give temporary protected status to people as many of those who have it now don't renew it or remain if a renewal was denied. We also don't need all those immigrants who are taking work away from Americans. If we let them stay we will only get more of them coming as they will think they too will get to stay.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/em ... 596440.htm

Herald News Alerts
Posted on Thu, Feb. 01, 2007email thisprint thisS. Fla. lawmakers: Fix immigration nowBY CASEY WOODS
cwoods@MiamiHerald.com
Two of South Florida's Cuban-American members of Congress called on the Democrats to push for comprehensive immigration reform and for the Bush administration to grant temporary protected status to Haitians in a program that already benefits people from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

''We're concerned because the Democrats . . . have given no signs of giving any importance or priority to immigration,'' said U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart. ``It's time for the Democratic leadership to put up or shut up.''

Diaz-Balart and his brother U.S. Rep Mario Diaz-Balart spoke on the issue today at Miami Dade College's Wolfson campus in downtown Miam.

Several local immigration advocacy groups also attended the event, and echoed the congressmen's urgency.

''This is an unlivable situation, with the raids, the detentions and the deportations,'' said Jose Lagos, the head of Honduran Unity. ``This hurts our economy and it hurts our community, and we can't continue like this.''

The legislators and advocates were also very critical of a recently announced Bush administration proposal to dramatically raise the fees for immigrants applying for citizenship or temporary work permits. Comprehensive immigration reform could alleviate the need to raise the rates by providing millions of dollars in new fines as undocumented immigrants from across the country go through the steps to legalize their status, the congressmen said.

''This hike is unfair,'' said Lincoln Diaz-Balart. ``I think it is appropriate to wait a year or more before hurting the working immigrants of this country and raising fees in this scandalous manner.''

A Senate proposal that would have legalized millions of undocumented immigrants became stalled in Congress last year. Instead, the president signed into law a U.S. House proposal to build a fence along part of the U.S.-Mexico border.

South Florida's three Republican members of Congress -- as well as the region's six House Democrats -- support the legalization proposal. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not include immigration on her list of priorities for the first 100 hours of the new Congress, though immigrant advocates are hopeful that Democrats will take up legislation on it soon. ''Temporary Protected Status'' is a humanitarian program that allows undocumented nationals to remain in the United States legally because of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, or other crises in their homeland. However, it is not a path to permanent residence, and the U.S. government must renew the designation every year or so for qualified Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans to be able to stay here. There is no TPS program for Haitians, although advocates say Haitians have had to deal with several crises in their impoverished country.

Florida politicians are a waste.

So far it looks like Nelson is on our side at this moment. The Cubans are pushing for this stuff for their own best interest. If Castro dies the government will have the Coast Gaurd, Border patrol and others stepping up their patrols. That means their relatives won't make it here and with the possible threat of the wet foot/dry foot policy being revoked they are becoming more concerned about others. Lets face it before Castro was ill and handed his brother the power to control the country, they didn't care about the fate of Haitians or others.

Gee, I wonder what side Martinez will come down on

That's a given.

Florida politicians are a waste.

I hope that everyone around the country will take your words as being sincere, honest and the truth based on your experience of living in this section of the country. And it is so bad here that in many ways I think that the few native Americans who are still here are simply afraid to speak out anymore.

What do you think, dlm and Swatchick?

I speak out. I do not care anymore. I was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale. I have to say growing up it was a great place to be. But as an adult I have slowly moved my way up the state to escape the insanity. However that is not good enough any more. Our house is on the market and if we can manage to sell it we are gone, never to look back. We do not want to raise our children here and they are still very young. We would have been gone long ago but I have mom and dad and 5 siblings still in this forsaken state. But we all agree now it is time to leave. So there are 7 families getting out. There is an exodus from Florida. It was in our paper last week that one of the big moving companies (forget which) for the first time moved more people out of Florida than in last year.

I personally would like a secluded mountain top somewhere but my husband wants to be around civilization.

swatchick wrote

So far it looks like Nelson is on our side at this moment. The Cubans are pushing for this stuff for their own best interest. If Castro dies the government will have the Coast Gaurd, Border patrol and others stepping up their patrols. That means their relatives won't make it here and with the possible threat of the wet foot/dry foot policy being revoked they are becoming more concerned about others. Lets face it before Castro was ill and handed his brother the power to control the country, they didn't care about the fate of Haitians or others.

Yea, heard that those agencies had a meeting in WPalm with those two about what the feds plan to do when that ol rattlesnake dies. When IT dies, there won't be any more reason for political asylum which is what the cubans have been enjoying for 40+ years.

I personally would like a secluded mountain top somewhere but my husband wants to be around civilization.

I am willing to bet that once you found the perfect secluded mountain top, there would be at least one illegal immigrant there. I'm just saying...

Thank Neese, you made me spit coffee on my monitor. Very funny.

If it is my own secluded mountain top I think I could chase said illegal off of it, I will just tell him that there are no jobs on my mountain top that Americans will not do.