Thread: Illegals Not A Top Priority

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Illegals not a top priority
Posted: Thursday, Dec 18, 2008 - 09:31:48 pm PST
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Cracking down on Idahoans who employ illegal immigrants might mollify the masses.

Question is, will it work?

Two veteran North Idaho legislators announced their intention to introduce legislation this coming session that would penalize employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens.

That sounds good, as it did the last two years when similar legislation was rejected. And in truth, any argument suggesting that someone should be rewarded for breaking immigration rules rings hollow. But let's look at the issue objectively.

Illegal immigration should be far from the list of priorities for the 2009 legislative session. We have a full-blown economic crisis on our hands, and what negligible savings might come from punishing farmers who hire illegal immigrants would likely be offset by costs incurred in pursuing and punishing them.

We understand that many Idahoans are passionate about the problem, but most estimates put Idaho's illegal immigrant population between 16,000 and 19,000 people, with a fraction of that grand total being of working age. Compare that to California, with well over 2 million illegal immigrants, or even much less populated Arizona, with 283,000, and it's easier to understand the impact on their economies and need for reform.

More relevant numbers locally: 44,000, the number of jobs already lost in Idaho, with another 13,000 expected to go in 2009; and 70 percent, the increase in what Idaho employers must pay in 2009 for unemployment insurance increases. Next year already stacks up mightily against those striving to provide jobs. They need fewer obstacles, not more.

This feel-good legislation is neither urgent nor fair. In fact, the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation predicts its implementation would hurt Idaho's farmers and, ultimately, increase the prices people pay for food. A big part of the problem is that there's no way for employers to know if immigrants' work credentials are fraudulent. Until the federal government solves that issue and establishes a reasonable guest worker program, it's wrong to punish employers who believe they're doing the right thing.

We encourage the 2009 Idaho Legislature to focus instead on ways to help employers and consumers. Legislation that runs counter to that simple and urgent agenda should be shelved until we weather this financial crisis.

http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2008/1 ... edit01.txt

That's why the laws MUST be ENFORCED! Reform is not a priority, but enforcing existing laws on illegal immigration are an absolute must!


We MUST increase raids.

We MUST increase penalties on those who hire illegal aliens.

We MUST check legal status and deport those here illegally.

We MUST stop all welfare benefitting illegal aliens thru their anchor babies.

We MUST correctly interpret the 14th amendment.

We MUST seal the border.

mol·li·fy
Pronunciation: \ˈmä-lə-ˌfī\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): mol·li·fied; mol·li·fy·ing
Etymology: Middle English mollifien, from Middle French mollifier, from Late Latin mollificare, from Latin mollis soft; akin to Greek amaldynein to soften, Sanskrit mṛdu soft, and probably to Greek malakos soft, amblys dull, Old English meltan to melt
Date: 15th century
transitive verb
1: to soothe in temper or disposition : appease <mollified the staff with a raise>
2: to reduce the rigidity of : soften
3: to reduce in intensity : assuage , temper
intransitive verb
archaic : soften , relent
synonyms see pacify
— mol·li·fi·ca·tion \ËŒmä-lÉ™-fÉ™-ˈkÄ

This bill will do more than 'mollify' the Idahoans, it will show we are enforcing our laws. I think this author is a member of one of the Ag groups here, one who employs cheap labor.

We understand that many Idahoans are passionate about the problem, but most estimates put Idaho's illegal immigrant population between 16,000 and 19,000 people, with a fraction of that grand total being of working age. Compare that to California, with well over 2 million illegal immigrants, or even much less populated Arizona, with 283,000, and it's easier to understand the impact on their economies and need for reform.

Idaho best be implementing somehting NOW to secure jobs for Americans or it WILL turn into California within the next 7-10 years (I've heard it predicted).

Thanks for clearing up "mollify". Heard the word before, but didin't know what it meant-and this is coming from someone who used to read the dictionary as a kid.

Let's see: these stats are based on nothing concrete, and so the predictions are also based on nothing if they use these stats as a basis.
Why are we spending money to study things that are unknown and produce best guestimates--What do the researchers do?--Hi are you here illegally?
Lambasting one NC writer for citing statistics based like these, this writer finally admitted that while estimates were between 300,000 and 1,000,000, this writer picked the lower number for the sob story that was published.
For anyone citing stats like they really have a handle on the illegal population numbers, since I do not believe anyone knows who walked across the desert, swam the rivers, landed by boats or slithered across from Canada.
Apparently there is not as much concern about feeding the public proven facts as there is interest in swaying opinions on behalf of those who should not be here in the first place--for humanitarian reasons, of course.

I have been trying to get into the link for this article where I posted it at the top, but can't get in. I have also been trying to access this newspaper online since yesterday. It's not working. I called the paper and they said their website is running fine, yet I can't get into it. Will someone else try the link and see if it's happening to them?

Here's the link.

http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2008/1 ... edit01.txt

Tinybob,
Link works fine for me.

Thanks, Populist. I haven't been able to get into this newspaper since yesterday, but I've been having some computer issues and I probably have some blockers up that I don't know about.

[quote="ALIPAC"]mol·li·fy
Pronunciation: \ˈmä-lə-ˌfī\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): mol·li·fied; mol·li·fy·ing
Etymology: Middle English mollifien, from Middle French mollifier, from Late Latin mollificare, from Latin mollis soft; akin to Greek amaldynein to soften, Sanskrit mṛdu soft, and probably to Greek malakos soft, amblys dull, Old English meltan to melt
Date: 15th century
transitive verb
1: to soothe in temper or disposition : appease <mollified the staff with a raise>
2: to reduce the rigidity of : soften
3: to reduce in intensity : assuage , temper
intransitive verb
archaic : soften , relent
synonyms see pacify
— mol·li·fi·ca·tion \ËŒmä-lÉ™-fÉ™-ˈkÄ