Thread: Do You know any Illegal Immigrants ,personally?

Welcome Penguin. Please understand that many of the people here have been working on this for over a year.

And some have been working on it for about ten years (me) -- some even more.

In 1997, I was turned down for a job at Wal Mart because I can't speak Spanish. Yet dozens of people who can't speak English work there.

There is no recourse-- they print it right in the newspaper ads here. I checked into that. Supposedly because such a great percentage of their customer base is Mexican, they have the right to hire only Spanish speaking employees! I lived on the border then. I went away for a few years and wound up right back here again in 2001. It's worse now than it was then and there are even more Spanish speaking people here now than there were then and even fewer Americans.

I'm hearing from the people in here that little towns all over this country whose main industry has anything to do with food or processing of food are over-weighted because of those illegal workers.

Is your town next?

And Penguin, yes, hitting the employers and hitting them hard would help. But if we don't stop them coming and we don't stop making the offspring of those already here into instant citizens, what good will it do?

Originally Posted by ObserverUSA

So did the roaches somehow hop on their vehicles and hitch a ride to their next homes? Do they crawl in their hair? I can understand ticks of fleas, but roaches? Did they have motor homes?

The most common place roaches are brought into a home is paper shopping bags and moving boxes. The eggs are layed on the piles of shopping bags at stores or warehousees then given to you. The boxes same thing.

Lisita_Guapita

I'm totally shocked with this thread! What is up with you people???

You shouldn't be. This is our country and we would like to keep it that way.

First off I watched all the debates on MSNBC and the most validating comment made tonight was the fact that alot of the soldiers fighting for the US right now carry Hispanic last names. Recruiting materials are even printed en Espanol! Need I say more, I feel I must.

And hearing that, I now don't want Illegal Hispanics in our military. If they can't speak our langage, they make it more dangerous for our soldiers. Therefore, I now withdraw my long-time support for service in the military as a legitimate path to citizenship for willing foreign nationals. Thanks, I needed to be shoved off that fence anyway.

Mexicans work crappy jobs whether it be in the fields harvesting food, construction work digging trenches or in dangerous factories that pay next to nothing where Americans will not work. Some are payed more than other but for the majority, minimum wage or less is what is taken home.

Oh well. They wanted those jobs. And I vehemently disagree that Americans wouldn't take many of those jobs if it weren't for the fact that working with people you can't communicate with in a factory is dangerous. Nearly 40 years ago, I worked in a factory with a bunch of immigrants (legal ones) who just didn't happen to feel like speaking English. There was machinery involved. Need I say more?

Mexicans are not allowed a drivers license, like the rest of the population ... they need to get from point A to point B. When they drive, usually they're caught and forced to pay high fines

And they should be deported when they are caught in addition to being fined. Now they are compounding the laws they broke by living here illegally.

Mexicans are not allowed the luxury of health insurance or Medicaid. When they're hurt on the job ... they don't get workers compensation, they bite the bullet and pay for services rendered.
Mexicans don't get paid vacations, sick days and if an employer chooses not to pay them, there's nothing they can do.

That is what happens when you work illegally. It isn't the fault of the American people. And the employers where these people got hurt working should face even stiffer fines than the illegals working there. We have got to stop this practice of hiring illegal aliens once and for all!

YET ... those that are paid with a paycheck usually use a fake S.S. #, taxes are taken from those paychecks, taxes that they will never be able to claim, taxes that the government gets, taxes that no one knows what the government does with them.

What do you expect? Fake SS #'s make a hornet's nest for Americans whose numbers they just happened to borrow as well. How would you like your credit ruined because someone started using your social security number? That is, if you were married to a legitimate citizen.

YET ... Mexicans pay for local taxes because like the rest of us when they buy a car they must register the vehicle with the DMV and insure the vehicle. If you've never tried to get coverage using a Mexican license then you've never really saw outrageous rates!

I thought they couldn't get drivers licenses? Last few cars I bought, I had to prove I had a license to even test drive them! And, living in a border town, I can fully understand why the insurance rates are outrageous. Those people either drive five miles an hour or eighty. They don't seem to realize that there are other people on the road and many obviously don't care.

YET ... Immigrant children attend school, most do not speak English and even though their parents pay local taxes the children are not accomodated in any way, they're simply thrown into a classroom and expected to miraculously learn English unless they live in Texas or Chicago in highly populated Hispanic areas, rural America does not have accomodations for these kids. It's

a sad scenario.

Their parents pay local taxes how? Sales tax? That has nothing whatsoever to do with schools. Property owners pay for the schools and property owners should, in my opinion, be able to say who goes there and how many extra teachers we are going to be forced to pay for to accomodate those kids who can't speak English.

The list goes on and on, it's endless.

you are absolutely right. and the longer the list gets, the more disgusted I get with all that whining over the injustices served upon people who are illegal in this country. Go home and appy for legal status.

I have a stake in immigration reform because my husband is Mexican, he's been in the US illegally for ten years and his only wish is to see his mom one day. He misses his parents and it's so hard for me to come to grips with that.

Ten years, huh? He has known for ten years he's illegal and has done absolutely nothing to try to become legal. And we are supposed to feel sorry for him?

The immigration process is ridiculous, most people think that when an 'illegal' marries a US citizen that they automatically gain the right to live in the US ... that's so not true. Things have changed.

Boy am I ever glad things have changed. And the next thing that should change is the education system warning our young people to steer clear of marrying illegal aliens!

We applied over a year ago and still have no word on our case. According to immigration standards my husband is classified as an EWI, meaning that he "entered without inspection". That means that if our petition is approved my husband will travel to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico for an interview where he will be denied because he is EWI.
Then I'll file a waiver where my husband will be forced to reside in Mexico for 6 months to a year hoping the waiver will be approved, all the while paying hundreds of dollars for each immigration process.

So? He is an illegal alien. What do you expect? And six months is nothing! How do you think mothers whose husbands are sent overseas for years at a time to fight some war for people who don't even like us while our own country is being invaded by illegal aliens feel? At least your husband has a better chance to survive and come back uninjured than our soldiers do! You act like you are the only mother who ever had to face separation from a husband due to circumstances.

My family can't be separated, our 4 year old would literally die without his daddy, he's crazy about him! Our children were born here in America, they attend American schools and they speak English ... are we supposed to pack up and go to Mexico too? Our home is here in the US.

Don't be ridiculous! Your kid won't die for being away from its father for six months.

It's so complicated and to be quite honest, when I think of my husband's interview it scares me to death to think of the choices we will have to make at that time and it's not fair. I love my husband, I love my kids and I've dealt with snarly looks and ignorant comments for years. Why should I be forced to validate my marriage because my husband is Mexican and why should I be discrimated against in my own country?

But you think it is fair to the rest of America for him to be here illegally? Just because he's your husband? Get real.

I get discriminated against in my own country by Mexicans--many of whom aren't even citizens-- every single day I have to go out of my house to try to conduct business on this border. Life goes on.

Sometimes I feel like a second class citizen in my country. Then when I read posts like some of the ones in this thread, my heart drops to my feet when I think of the challenges my mixed children will experience in their lifetime. If I had've married a black man, would things be easier?

Well. You married an illegal, we didn't. And are you implying that a black man is something less than a Mexican man? That is interesting. I'm sure that Black Americans will love that philisophy. Would the black man have been an American? Then I guess it wouldn't be any problem at all. Happens every day in this country and has for years.

America was started from the dreams of immigrants that traveled remarkable distances to get here and I think it's a real slap in their face to continue punishing immigrants.

We have no intention of punishing immigrants-- just ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS and the people who hire them illegally.

Immigration has to change, instead of griping about the problems ... why not live with what is and unite to make compromises to solve the problems our great government has created for us.

Yes, it does have to change. We just want it to change with a little more justice for the American people who put those capricious jokers in office.

I'm not angry with anyone that has expressed their views in this forum, I just want you to understand our situation and what immigration reform means to my family. It would be nice if my husband could just drive me to work one day or pick our children up from school, drop off the payment for the light bill or run out at midnight for a bottle of Tylenol at Walgreens for me!

Well if he would do what he's supposed to do to get citizenship then that wouldn't be any problem. In fact, I don't think he's prohibited from doing any of those things now. Illegals shop and pay bills every day here and they pick their kids up by the hundreds in the schools.

If we could claim the earned income credit on our taxes, maybe we could take the kids on a vacation, buy a new lawn mower or build on to our house.

And if someone were working with a legitimate social security number, you could do that, too. Gee, what a surprise!


And I have nothing against you posting your concerns here, either. But you are the one who needs to see the "bigger picture." The first law was broken with illegal entry into this country. Every year that goes by, the broken laws compound. Wouldn't it have been easier to have taken it the legal way to start with? That is what WE want to change. Granting amnesty to the illegals already here is a slap in the face to ALL Americans, native born and naturalized. Further, it is like writing an invitation for fifty million more to come. No thanks. We have to draw the line and it has to start yesterday.

Originally Posted by Lisita_Guapita

I'm totally shocked with this thread! What is up with you people???

Let me give you a crash course.

Everyone wants to scream 'Illegal', as if no one has ever broken a law here in the good ole US of A.

Let me give you a crash course.

An elderly lady crossing a street in Arizona was ticketed $114, an American Citizen, for crossing her own street because of her age and difficulty WALKING, she couldn't get across the street before the light changed. A motocycle cop saw her and gave her a ticket.

Here in the "good ole US of A", IF you are an American Citizen, you break the law, you pay the fine and do the time.

Even if you're elderly, even if you can't cross the street before the pedestrian light changes because it's set to change too quickly.

What the hell is wrong with you?

You think this is the Wild Wild West Where Anything Goes?

Not since the beginning of our nation.

The first US Naturalization Act was passed by the US Congress in 1790, the first year of its existence as a representative body of the American People.

Now get these people out of our country in accordance with existing US Immigration Law and shut up!

That's our law.

That's our way.

That's always been our way.

NO EXCEPTIONS FOR ILLEGAL CRIMINALS sucking our nation down the toilet into a Third World Police State.

NO WAY JOSE!!

Not now, Not tomorrow, Not next week, Not Ever Again.

As to the family not being separated, as to the four year old DYING if her Daddy were sent home....simple solution...when he is deported, the rest of the family can go with him....END OF SEPARATION ANXIETY.

"No Child Left Behind"

When parents are deported, all children under 21 depart with them. PERIOD.

When they turn 21, have a job; learn English; have money; no criminal record and if we haven't revoked their illegally spawned "citizenship" retroactively then they can come back.

PERIOD.

Lisita_Guapita -- If your husband is deported the family should follow UNLESS let me see. In Mexico "illegals" aren't provided an education so no school for your kids. In Mexico "illegals" are deported ASAP... I could go on but you catch my drift.

If your husband is deported, you should all follow to keep your family together.

Guapita's argument about people serving in the armed forces does not hold water. Mexicans are America's largest minority; they make up a very large percentage of the population. Given that why shouldn't there be Spanish surnames in the service. I've read statistics that show that Hispanics are under represented in the services. Some myths never get laid to rest.

First off I watched all the debates on MSNBC and the most validating comment made tonight was the fact that alot of the soldiers fighting for the US right now carry Hispanic last names. Recruiting materials are even printed en Espanol! Need I say more, I feel I must.

1. What difference does a last name make? My last name is of German origin, but I am not German.

2. Just because one has a "hispanic" last name does not mean that individual is here illegally. Additionally, everyone who is in the US military is here legally. There are many safeguards in place to ensure this.

3. I personally believe that recruiting materials shouldn't be posted in Spanish.[/i]