Thread: Illegal immigrants face growing backlash across US

Illegal immigrants face growing backlash across US :P

By Tony Czuczka Jun 30, 2007, 11:56 GMT


Nashua, New Hampshire - Bustling around his tiny Mexican restaurant, Jesus Hernandez briefly pauses his 10-hour workday to complain about Americans who say illegal immigrants steal US jobs.

'I think Americans don't want to do those jobs,' says the 29-year- old, who opened his business this year. 'Mexicans work harder here than in Mexico. You can't take a siesta when you're in America.'

Few would dispute that. Yet Latin American immigrants face an increasingly chilly mood across the United States - even in states like New Hampshire, 3,000 kilometres north of the Mexican border.

Some Republican presidential candidates have turned the nation's 11-12 million illegal immigrants into their signature campaign issue for 2008, supported by conservative talk show and television hosts.

A private group best known for patrolling the Mexican border, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, is expanding northward. It set up a state chapter in New Hampshire last year to recruit self-appointed guards for the rural border with Canada.

Equally frustrated by what they see as the federal government's inaction, a number of state and local authorities have passed laws and rules designed to get rid of illegal immigrants.

How to deal with illegal aliens has bedevilled US politicians at least since the 1980s. After President George W Bush this week failed to win over Republican lawmakers for a plan to legalise all migrants, some activists worry about the emotions whipped up by the debate.

'It's already pretty bad,' said Michele Waslin, spokeswoman for the Hispanic rights group National Council of La Raza. 'We've seen this growing anti-immigrant sentiment for quite a while.'

'People are being told 'Go back to your country,' and they've been in this country their entire lives,' she said in an interview.

Immigration hard-liners charged that Bush's plan gave amnesty to illegal immigrants and too little attention to border security, such as a planned 1,100-kilometre fence along the Mexican border.

But emotions run deeper, cutting to the core of US identity - the ideal of the melting pot, where successive waves of immigrants were welcomed and assimilated. The backdrop: Hispanics have increased to 14.5 per cent of the US population from about 6 per cent in 1980.

Tom Tancredo, a US lawmaker from the western state of Colorado who is running for president, says 'enough is enough' and suggests halting even most legal immigration to the US.

He points to the huge proliferation of customer telephone numbers in the US that let callers choose between English and Spanish.

'The process of assimilation is not going on,' the grandson of Italian immigrants claimed during a recent presidential debate in New Hampshire.

'It will take this long: Until we no longer have to press one for English and two for any other language,' he said.

Yet the system Bush says is 'broken' has served both sides: migrants who come to the US seeking a better life and overstay their visas, and employers who gamble they won't get caught using illegal labour in sectors such as construction, hotels and meat-packing.

Polls suggest that the US is torn on the issue. A June survey said only 27 per cent of Americans believe that illegal workers 'take jobs away from Americans who need them,' but another poll found them evenly split on whether immigration helps or hurts the US.

In any case, US public sensitivity is so high that several Cabinet nominees in past years withdrew after it emerged that they had employed undocumented household help.

Former New York police chief Bernard Kerik ended a bid to become Bush's homeland security chief in 2004 when questions arose about the immigration status of a housekeeper and nanny who worked for Kerik.

Hispanics make up just 2 per cent of New Hampshire's population. Still, immigration is certain to remain on the radar in the small state, where the two big US parties hold the first preference votes on their presidential candidates in early 2008.

In the reviving former textile mill town of Nashua, Hernandez's unpretentious place is steps away from Brazilian and Colombian eateries.

All of his US documents are in order, he says, and he has paid his dues working in kitchens at Chinese and American restaurants in town. He left behind life in Colima state on Mexico's Pacific coast.

'I wanted to do better,' he says.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/usa/ ... _across_US

With visa overstays, you are miles ahead because these people have been checked out. They know WHO they are and HOW to find them. If they ever wanted to start giving people a break, these people should be first in line. At least they QUALIFIED for a visa. That's what I tell people when they harp on visa overstays and want to ingnore border jumpers.

I say "about time"... IF there is a backlash at all , I don't see it.. I see people standing up to a government that wants to spend generations of money on illegal behavior.. Enough is Enough....

Originally Posted by gofer

With visa overstays, you are miles ahead because these people have been checked out. They know WHO they are and HOW to find them. If they ever wanted to start giving people a break, these people should be first in line. At least they QUALIFIED for a visa. That's what I tell people when they harp on visa overstays and want to ingnore border jumpers.

Nope, no line at all.... The line starts at your home country, The Right way..Why would you what to reward any type of illegal activity ???
Visa overstays or Border Jumpers I see know difference.. If you steal with a knife or a gun you still are a thief... A guy who knowingly drives with the body in the trunk is just as guilty as the guy that killed him...

Originally Posted by Cigar

Originally Posted by gofer

With visa overstays, you are miles ahead because these people have been checked out. They know WHO they are and HOW to find them. If they ever wanted to start giving people a break, these people should be first in line. At least they QUALIFIED for a visa. That's what I tell people when they harp on visa overstays and want to ingnore border jumpers.

Nope, no line at all.... The line starts at your home country, The Right way..Why would you what to reward any type of illegal activity ???
Visa overstays or Border Jumpers I see know difference.. If you steal with a knife or a gun you still are a thief... A guy who knowingly drives with the body in the trunk is just as guilty as the guy that killed him...

First of all, I agree with you. It's the fact that some people want to divert attention from border jumpers by throwing up the visa overstays. I tell them I least we know who they are! One entered the country illegally and one entered legally and let their "permission" expire. I rather have people with an expired "drivers" license, than one NEVER having a license if I had to choose between two evils.

Originally Posted by gofer

Originally Posted by Cigar

Originally Posted by gofer

With visa overstays, you are miles ahead because these people have been checked out. They know WHO they are and HOW to find them. If they ever wanted to start giving people a break, these people should be first in line. At least they QUALIFIED for a visa. That's what I tell people when they harp on visa overstays and want to ingnore border jumpers.

Nope, no line at all.... The line starts at your home country, The Right way..Why would you what to reward any type of illegal activity ???
Visa overstays or Border Jumpers I see know difference.. If you steal with a knife or a gun you still are a thief... A guy who knowingly drives with the body in the trunk is just as guilty as the guy that killed him...

First of all, I agree with you. It's the fact that some people want to divert attention from border jumpers by throwing up the visa overstays. I tell them I least we know who they are! One entered the country illegally and one entered legally and let their "permission" expire. I rather have people with an expired "drivers" license, than one NEVER having a license if I had to choose between two evils.

I am no longer going to settle for the lesser of 2 evils.... We can't afford it anymore... The libs don't why should we??