These racism accusations are completely dishonest. When people advocate for the enforcement of our immigration laws, people like this guy call them a racist. Our immigration laws are some of our most important environmental laws we have. Population is paramount when it comes to sustainability. Latinos happen to have the highest reproduction rate of any ethnicity. The author should look into it. You can make a good argument against any immigration at all based simply on the facts of sustainability. However we allow thousands of immigrants legally into this country every year. This isn’t enough for this clown. He wants to reward the millions of ILLEGAL immigrants who have disregarded our laws and committed identity theft. The author needs to get his facts straight. People like myself that want to protect our public schools, American jobs, the environment and the rule of law are not anti-immigrant or racist, we are pro-legal immigration

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Go to the Mexican Consultate website or the embassy website and you'll find some fascinating facts including that Mexico:
1) requires you to have auto insurance when bringing a car into Mexico.
2) requires a visa, and often proof of income (financial responsibility) for vistors from many countries.
3) requires health screening for diseases for immigrants (including HIV/AIDS).
4) does not allow one to import drugs or guns into the country.
5) to move to Mexico, even for Americans, you must registers and receive a special visa (FM3 usually) which is renewed EACH YEAR in the city in which you live. This does not allow you to work, usually, that requires more and different paperwork.
6) until recently foreigners couldn't own land in Mexico. It is still a highly complicated process and there are rules about it.
7) all consulates require 'proof of financial' ability to grant visas, especially the visa allowing you to stay in Mexico more than 180 days.
8) most consulates require a criminal background check, and official document proving it, before you are allowed to visit or move there.
There are more rules, regulations but even these basic rules would be a great improvement for the USA system, although their implementation would upset the large corporations and the 'progressives' who, for some reason, are doing their bidding to support illegal immigration and a new American slave society.

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I agree with joshuawelch, except, we legally allow about 1,000,000 people a year to immigrate here. This compensates for the BZPG, (below zero population growth) rate of our naturalized population, to put and keep us up around 300,000,000.

I'm all for debating the number of legal allowances, but find nothing in me, nor that I've heard, to justify the breaching of our border, like an invasion, ILLEGALLY, by millions of un-persecuted people.


These people aren't running from Pinochet, or nuclear fallout from a recently detonated WMD. They're leaving their country's corruption and uncooperative approach to self-governance. Bringing their families and even whole neighborhoods, while refusing to learn English. (as every other (hundreds, including my own) immigrant culture has done.) Some really do believe they "own" this land and that it's their turn to tell us what to do.

I've watched small Mexican children "pulled" into their houses when ever my children come around. I've personally seen lots of gang activity, rudeness, and a pretty-wide tendency toward neighborhood isolation. This does not by any means describe "all", but more so than any other ethnic group I've lived near. (note: I live now, and always have lived in urban centers with European whites being a minority) The African-Americans in contrast, have never shown the same degrees of "white hostility", and I've always been able to talk, in English, my way through conflicts.

This sellout of the law, and the borders, would be better discussed within the framework of whether or not a US-Mexican Border should be there at all. The beneficiaries of this mess are the corporate elite, and the politicians looking the other way. Everybody else pays. Maybe, like the Great Wall of China, it has outlived its intent. But absent this worthwhile consideration, I will not consent to the bottomless pit of blurring our national identity and handing more slave-labor to US Greed, Inc..

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Summary/addendum:

We can debate:

1. The number of legal entries (+/- 1,000,000/yr. = +/- 300,000,000 American Citizens)
2. The worthiness of the US/Mexican Border. (Tax them and strip their Laws, and allow us to buy it up)
3. A Constitutional Convention nullifying all Laws.

We cannot debate that we are a Nation of Laws today, that's the Law under our current Constitution, that's how we hope to save ourselves from the Bush Administration, that's how we show the world how to do it (self-governance)...

standards of living in Mexico or China are not a reason to allow Mexican or Chinese persons un-granted access to our country.

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I think we should "tear down our walls" and let everyone in. If you combine all our outsourced jobs with those taken by illegal aliens that means us "real Americans" can become a leisure class. We won't have to work at all, at all. Happy days are here again.

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The left fights for .... wait what are the Democrats and Washington Insiders saying?

This clip reveals something that is very true - and is clearly revealed in the debate over the immigration bill. The right-wingers are using "grassroots" tactics to oppose this bill because they're mostly bigots who could care less that it is nearly impossible for anyone to actually get a green card under the proposed legislation - they don't care; they think all undocumented ("illegal aliens" they insist) immigrants should be rounded up and deported, and they will fight tooth and nail to kill anything that falls short.

From a progressive, human rights point of view, however, this bill is horrible. Far from anything we ought to be advocating for and far from what millions marched in the streets for in 2006. Yet many progressive groups support the bill because many Democratic politicians support it, and because they numb their brains watching cable news clips like these. They would rather see Democrats win and Pat Buchanan lose than fight for progressive values.

Yet, if this bill passes, immigrants will still be rounded up and more will likely be dying on the border. AND the right-wingers that have been fighting for their values (while the progressives did not) will have gained that many more supporters. A minority - yes - but a growing minority.

With that said, there are many on the left fighting tooth and nail against this bill (see David Bacon's post from earlier this week on truthout). The corporate media is mostly ignoring them - despite the fact that they are as organized and as numerous as the right-wingers (just not as wealthy or with as many friends in Washington or in the corporate media). Sadly much of the "progressive" media is ignoring them as well.

shoplifters unite

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We can put a man on the moon, but we can't stop illegal immigration.
We can fight all wars around the world, but we can't stop.....
We can accept Cubans, but no Haitians and Mexicans, but we can't stop......
We can help build a wall in Israel, but we can't stop....
Anyway, who really benefits from using illegal immigrants? Always follow the money.....that behemoth called corporate America.
Does anybody remember the Ludlow Colorado Massacre ordered by the Rockerfeller Empire?

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The Republican party has proven itself to be the party of vicious politics and wedge issues. It will do anything and everything to WIN. Now they themselves are wedge-issued around immigration. Their corporate values are wedged up against their southern bigotry. I luv it.
I for many reasons other than bigotry do oppose illegal immigration. Are we a nation of laws or not. If not then open the borders and merge with Mexico.
The rethug party is trying to wedge issue America apart and is quite successful at it. Should they succeed democracy in America will die,
Scalia in a speech he gave in May 2000, called for the END of the rule of law and further, the END of democracy in America.
Scalia is nothing more than another corrupt Republican, little different than the likes of the babbling Chris Mathews. the screaming Bill O'Reilly, Sean O'Hannity, Joe O'Scarborough and Tim O'Russert. These are some of the people who are wedge-issuing America into an end to our democracy. These people are not patriots they are criminals whose Republican devotion is great and for America they care not at all. They intend to turn America into a Totalitarian Republican Jihadist Theocracy.
Immigration is to them just another wedge issue with which to divide and conquer America. Fundamentalist are all the same be they Islamic, Catholic or evangelical. They are bent on ending our democracy.
The problem with Mexico is the corrupt government, army and police force. Corruption is what keeps Mexican citizens poor, not the american taxpayer/citizen. This has been going on since the Spaniards(they were also catholics, like O'Reilly et. al. invaded mexico and their influence controls and governs mexican politics to this very day.
Poverty in Mexico has to be stopped of that there is no doubt. Buit the party of family values is the one that is destroying mexican families and citizens.
Mr. Lopez Obrador was the one candidate, in the recent mexican elections, that was committed to the 99% poverty stricken mexican citizens. The Republican party and republican corporations are committed to more exploitation of mexican citizens. Why and how was Lopez Obrador defeated when he was clearly ahead.
Dick Morris, Karl Rove and the Republican party defeated him. Dick Morris was sent to Mexico and he used the very same strategies there as the Republican party used to influence and destroy our american elections.
Why did the pope say nothing about this. Could it be for the same reasons he and the previous pope, John Paul II, aligned themselves and the Catholic church with the Republican party, the party of war-death-and exploitation for PROFIT.
Why does the pope of the catholic church, my church, use his power to keep people in poverty. could we say that people are MUCH easier to control that way. Could it be that the pope is fully cognizant of the fact that as people become richer they become less catholic than he wants them to be.
Could it be that the popes, past and present, deliberately and have always aligned themselves with the wealthy for that reason since the early days of the church.
If americans are going to ask and scrutinise and discuss the involvement of organizations such as AIPAC on our government than I suggest the american people do the same about catholic fundamentalists and evangelical fundamentalists.
Have the popes and the catholic church sided with the WRONG side before, you betcha they have. Can we all remember Hitler and the Nazi party and the result was the Holocaust. Now the popes, both present and previous are staunchly aligned with the Republican party and the Holocaust in the middle east.
As a catholic I abhor this abomination and conflation between religion, politics and war-death-kill for profit.

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People talk about "illegal aliens" all the time, which implies that immigrants that enter the country with no documents are criminal, other-wordly beings. Yet no one talks about the fact that they are simply Economic Refugees; human beings that have ventured to seek out a better life for themselves. To put it simply: they are NOT criminal evil extraterrestials as a group. They are your gardeners, the ones that wash your dishes, that take care of your kids when you go to work, the ones that serve your food, the ones that pick up your harvest, the ones that serve and die for your country in the U.S. Military. They are also your kid's best friend, boyfriend/girlfriend ... even your own friend. Many families are mixed with members that have green cards and others that don't. The father might have a greencard but the children might not. Or the children might be "legal" but the parents are not. The husband might have one but the wife might not. Even more horrendous, a kid with a green card might have just received his orders to deploy off to war and his mother might have just received a deportation order. So to pit "legal" immigrants against "illegal" is a total waste of time. It is the same issue: the issue of Economic Refugee crisis.

The only permanent solution to deal with the influx of Economic Refugees coming into the United States would be to raise the standard of living of their original countries. The United States could use its power to help, encourage, influence, and/or force those countries to offer better socio-economic opportunities via progressive social programs for their citizens. To reduce the discussion to a soundbite of "those that break our immigration laws must be punished and must not be rewarded for the criminal behavior" frankly leads to nothing productive. If you want to talk about doing illegal and/or wrong things then maybe you should talk about how the United States has oftentimes contributed to the economic woes of many countries. If you want to talk about taking responsibility for your own actions, then maybe the United States should take responsibility for what it has done with the International Monetary Fund's interventions in third world countries. If you want to talk about wrongdoing maybe you ought to be talking about American companies like WalMart and its low wages/cheap labor practices. Maybe you ought to look into how some American business interests have gone into many countries, sucked them up dry, and bailed out; adding to their economic woes. People love to bring up how "illegals" are overwhelming the Healthcare system yet no one talks about how the Healthcare system itself is a joke. Instead of blaming the Economic Refugees, people should be talking about the things (like Universal Healthcare) that the U.S. government could implement to alleviate the situation. It is time for the United States to take responsibility for its own actions and for it to be once again a shining beacon of hope that sets the example for others to follow.

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posting a story about no parity in representation of facts, when they have never, ever, ever posted an article that explores anything other than the plight of illegals. Not once have they written anything that acknowledges the inherent racism in what they continue to call a sweeping immigration bill. They never speak to the issue of the back end of the bill that ignores a world of immigrants in favor of guest workers coming from one country. And they won't acknowledge illegal immigration's effects on the working and middle-class. They have never posted anything from CIS regarding the effects on the economy. And since George Borjas, the Harvard economics professor has begun to write about the negative effects of illegal immigration you won't see him here either. ALTER-net is the Karl Rove of progressive journalism when it comes to this topic. They have one mandate, to force feed their pro-illegal immigration stance on their readers, and never respond when confronted with this basic truth. If it weren't for the readers this site wouldn't have one word written that isn't pro illegal immigration. Now I would be willing to bet good money that MSNBC has given NCLR and Frank Sherry plenty of airtime.

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