This weekend posts on AlterNet shows how explosive this issue really is. As the author says there is not easy way to get a handle this issue. People of Color number more than WASPs in many states. This force an be used to change Washington ruling party to also rans. I have no idea on how to change things other than the old fashion mediation process. We did that in the 60s and 70s and it is time to start working towards that end now. No one person has the answers to this question and it will take time to hammer out the right laws to cope with this explosion of energy demanding the attention of our law makers.

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The immigrant uprising, fair and decent wages to live, corporate abuse of illegal immigrants, failures by the United States government to enforce laws sooner resulting in the present chaos, corporations paying CEO's 2500 times more than the average worker, the government allowing monopolies therefore creating systems where the few control more and so on, unfairness in our justice system where the majority is of one race or those who are poor, unfair trade practices or no trade at all with nations of color, ignoring poverty in the U.S and worldwide, neglect of our own poor and middle class for the benefit of big business, politicians being bought out by lobbyists and corporations, politicians giving themselves pay raises while millions are without jobs and 45 million plus are without healthcare, lack of compassion and help for poor nations worldwide, failure to institute campaign finance reform, government corruption, outsourcing of american jobs and more are reasons America is in need of a revolution. It's time for a change in our political, social, and judicial systems in this country.

With so many other important issues we could be addressing, we choose to invade two other countries, spend over 350 billion in tax payers money, and be responsible for over 2500 U.S. Soldiers lives not counting those who are injured emotionally and physically. And also the tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans we have killed and scarred for life. Where are our priorities or is it all about the money.... not the people. It's time for a CHANGE and the sooner the better folks... It's time for a REVOLUTION.

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This wonderful outpouring of people power shows us the way to get the impeachment we so richly deserve. If we could get this many people out for the impeachment movement, the Bushies could be kicked out for sure and soon for their many blatant criminal acts. With Bushies gone we would have a shot at creating a real people power society.

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I'd rather be an Archie Bunker than an limo liberal like Marc Cooper. He apparently doesn't give a fig about the Americans who are already poor and underpaid. What matters to him is the convenience of cheap servile labor cleaning his office. Perhaps this country would be a better place to live if people like him cleaned their ofwn officess.

Perhaps these massive demonstrations do serve an important purpose, which is that the United States has passed its prime and the sumg employers welcome the cheap amenable and endlessly explitable labor force. This is a flase ecnomoy in my opinion.

Rationalizing the sacrifice of our nation's autonomy and self-respect as a stepping stone to international competitiveness is another slippery slope. All things considered, the United States is over the hill and sliding down fast. Heads we lose, tails we lose. Who is winning? The thrid world, China, India, and Mexico. Who'se losing? You guess.

I'll tell you who, the international corporate elite that already has the upper hand here.

Mr. Cooper can you stop your slot-machine brain long enough to imagine what the business people would do if this country was isolated like Australia? Indeed, in Australia the penality for illegal aliens is a $10,000 fine and instant deportation.

At least Australians can concentrate on the quality-of-life and well-being of their legal citizens, which is what we should be doing in the U.S. Without the easy solution of cheap, illegal alien labor, our busineses would have to give up their dictatorial management style and restore Constitutional rights to workers.

Workers would be empowered, and the time spent working would meaningful and worthwhile to the worker as well as the employer. Check out "Here’s an Idea: Let Everyone Have Ideas" in yesterday's New York Times.

Our future must be built by means of our legal citizens and their ample capabilities. Of course creating an ever-expanding class of exploitable labor is the easy way out. Really doing a better job of being Americans is more challenging because it requires a paradigm shift. Perhaps people like Marc Cooper and President Bush are just too wrapped up in substantiating theor own predominating position rather than truly identifying with "We the people"!

I just say no to the status quo mentality of effete and supercilious people like Marc Cooper! Like Archie Bunker, at least I have enough balls to stand up and shout "I'm not going to take it any more"!

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I think the writer is far too optimistic about the results of the marches. I agree with her friends, that Americans who have been in denial about the extent of the problem, will look at the pictures and wonder how can this government really prevent another terrorist attack. And Americans are tired of paying for government and getting bupkus. We have third tier bureaucrats okaying port deals, that even the President doesn't know about. There is a very real sense of who's minding the store? And part of the the illegal wiretapping and surveillance is rooted in the knowledge that the government has no idea who is in the country. Everyday we hear about how corrupt those who are governing are, we know even federal judges have laughed in the face of our immigration laws, by hiring illegal nannies. Prop. 187 was voted on by the people, and gutted by the politicians.

I think the pressure valve is about to blow, and the pro-illegal lobby has no one to blame but themselves. They have tried for 30 years to make Americans believe that self-interest is racist. Americans aren't buying it anymore. This writer and Alternet are doing their constituents a real disservice, just as the tide has turned on the War In Iraq, so it has on this issue. It is time to mend fences not dig motes, your intractable position does not do that.

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It is entirely unrealistic to believe you can keep out the the "illegal" allens without damaging the US. It is a complete head trip to believe that it can be done. Another Berlin wall? Completely around the US? And Alaska? Militarize the US even much more than it already is? Turn all citizens into Secret Police?

Oh well let them starve to death over there. They were not smart enough to be born in the US and who cares anyway?

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I don't see the problem with establishing detention centers where the "ILLEGAL" immigrants we catch can be sent as they wait for their walk back home since that is how most of them got here to begin with. The U.S. will be vilified for exercising it sovereign right to uphold its immigration laws. We will be called racist and inhumane by the world because we'd be doing what the United Mexican States (Mexico) does to its own "ILLEGAL" immigrants. Like Dave Chapelle told the UN in his satire of President Bush, "Sanction me, sanction me with your army... oh, you don't have an army then shut the f*** up!"

I'm becoming more adament about my stance for one particular reason. We treat everyone else better than we treat our very own citizens. It is ridiculous the inequality that ordinary law abiding U.S. citizens have to put up with. Even criminals are treated better than ordinary everyday citizens in this country. I'm sick in my gut about this issue.

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If we need a certain amount of growth through immigration then we can expand the diversity lotto to fill that need. Not kowtowing to a group of people who believe all of our border states belong to them. The Mexican government has allowed their citizens to pour through our borders to force us into submission to basically strong arm us into a symbiotic relationship that benefits no one except business owners and the Mexican government.

We may not be able to deport everyone but we don't have to make it so easy for "ILLEGAL" immigrants to live in this country. They have taken adantage of our helping nature and perverted it into something that is unsustainable in the long run and increasingly unsustainable even in the short run.

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I think that those who have come here after the 1986 Amnesty hoping for another Amnesty should have to pass certain criteria in order to stay.
1. They must speak fluent English.
2. They must either be in school or have graduated from High School.
3. They must have paid into ss and fica. And be able to prove it.
4. They must not have ever been on the public dole.
5. All men of age must register for selective service.
6. All who entered the country illegally or stayed past a visa term have to do 2 years of community service to be eligible for citizenship.

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We must prevent the employment of illegals at the point of hire.

The solution must combine:

• an effective method to prevent the hire of illegals; the only workable method is biometric Social Security numbers, discussed below.

• sped-up processing of those legally in line now

• the set-up of guest-worker processing stations in various Mexican states and other Latin American locales as a quid pro quo for REFORM there to address root causes for mass departure, discussed below.

• No "amnesty" is necessary. A tightening new-hire system will drive the 12 mn illegals now here home to get their paperwork done, provided the process there is quick, painless and gives priority to English-speakers.

If the system were designed and executed properly, we could reduce border policing eventually.

The biometric Social Security Number

A thumbprint (or palmprint or iris) scanner should be installed in every large Post Office and employment office in the US. This would be updated daily by a central computer maintained by the SS Adm'n. The thumbprint of every person in the US would need to be put into a databank. This should be done when people renew their drivers licenses or change jobs.

To hire a new person, a representative of the employer and the prospective employee must present themselves physically before this device. First the employer would be identified by thumbprint (or palm or iris scan) and the keying-in of their Employer ID #, then the employee would place his thumb on the scanner and key in his SS#.

If the system works the same as those now in use by spas and healthclubs, the true ID of the employee would be instantly ascertained. If the person is fraudulently using the name and SS# of another (legal) person, the system would reject the new hire and the hiring could not legally proceed.

The problem which invalidates the “fix” now being discussed in Congress is: checking the SS# of a new hire on the SS Adm'n website does not weed out the person using the SS# and matching name of another real, legal person. The document mills have already shifted to producing these "good" doc sets as employers of those using unmatched SS#-name sets, unissued SS#s, etc are ALREADY being sent alerts by the SS Adm'n.

The flaw now in the system: the SS Adm'n silently accepts SS payments from two to twenty employees on one SS#. These "double payments are about 5% of SS Adm'n receipts.

Each person would be allowed to process themselves for up to the equivalent of 2 fulltime jobs in the same area.

Then, the machine would issue a card authorizing the hire to be carried by the employee while working. Inspectors of beefed-up workplace enforcement branch of the CIS would spotcheck worksites on unannounced visits, swiping all workers' cards through a machine which would also scan their thumbprints to ascertain that all employees on that worksite were legally hired.

Employers of improperly process workers (or who workers who attempted to flee) would be heavily fined and the employees deported.

"Household employers" hiring temporary workers -- most of this is now done "for cash" -- would be required to do the thumbprinting (and spotchecked) but would not to withhold taxes, SS, medicaid, unemployment, or workman's comp. A "household employer" would be entities exempted by the IRS from 1099ing a contractor -- up to 4 hires per year, up to $2000 per employee per quarter and up to $5000 per year for all employees.

Unless this is done, the "casual labor" market would remain outside the law, where it is today, as "doing payroll" is too complex.

This is the ONLY system which will actually work.

Jan VanDenBerg

Continued below . . .

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Border enforcement is useless showcase violence designed to fail; it continues the status quo, while placating racists. Amnesty without detection of illegals will only invite more illegals in addition to those just legalized. Harsh measures are cruel, hypocritcal and racist and, if they actually worked (which I do not expect as lack of enforcement would be engineered by "the powers that be") would severely damage the economy.

I believe that the biometric Social Security Number is the ONLY system which will work.

Drivers' Licenses are controlled by the 50 states and making them biometric would be much more difficult than the SS number.

We need to combine effective immigration control with an increase in the minimum wage (with exceptions for ex-cons and anyone unemployed for more than a year), remove legal barriers to unionization, use government programs to promote unionization, put in place national health care and enhance enforcement of workplace safety and anti-discrimination laws.

The status quo enables bad government and exploitative labor practices on both sides of the government, while running down wages in the US.

The types of reform we should ask for in return for setting up guest worker processing stations:

* the set-up of free women’s-and-well-baby-care clinics to bring population growth down to match US levels.

* the building of Clerk-and-Recorder and County Surveyor functions adequate that international title companies will issue title insurance on real estate in the state or nation being approved for guess worker processing.

* reforms to local and national legal systems.

We also need to end our disastrous "War on Drugs" which is destabilizing Latin America with huge illicit profits. If we focussed on treatment, rehabilitation and mental health care, not interdiction, the price of drugs would fall, the profits decline and the international mafias would shrink.

Jan VanDenBerg

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The half-million protesters who flooded Los Angeles this weekend are a glaring sign that Washington needs a rational immigration policy -- not more walls and fences.

Is it devisive of me to point out the most of the "glaring signs" that author was speaking about were written in Mexic--err, Spanish?

Really, if the only two English words that one knows are "Bush" plus "any bad word", then I guess I agree with the author. We have a national problem. Perhaps a problem born (on foreign soil) of a fundamental inability to communicate, and a subsequent refusal to integrate into America.

Here, you have a situation where .5M people are protesting, but don't give a damn whether or not the other ~270-290M (out of a total of 295M)of us in this country can understand what they're saying.

Obviously it's because the fringe ~270-290M English speaking people don't matter, but I'll get to that later.

When righties protest, I can understand what they're saying under the accents. When lefties protest, I can make out what they're saying, sometimes even before they put their hair out. I don't always agree with either group, but I always have to the option to ignore, dismiss, or make a concerted effort to attempt to think about what they're saying, and whether or that might help our nation and society.

I can't even begin to fathom what is meant by "Busha el diablo!"? And "Busha va casa!"? Maybe these folks have valid points. Maybe their all idiots. I have no way of knowing. Good thing our president speaks Mexic...err...Spanish!

When a small group of people doesn't bother to give a damn whether ~97% of this country even understands the words they are using in their message of protestation, it indicates that the protesters aren't so much interested in American policy and American legislation, as they are as to how to implement their own policies in America.

But what the hell do I really know about these protests, organized via Mexica...Spanish language radio, and participated in (by some estimates) more foreign nationals than Americans? What could I have possibly contributed to this dialogue over the rightness/wrongness of legislation being mulled by my elected officials in the American congress.

After all, I only speak English, and I only vote.

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We can agree that the times have changed. We cannot seem to agree on how, exactly.

Immigration until now has been a minor matter; so much so, that an open border was taken forgranted. An irritant, at best.

In our declining age (the list of evidence is growing) the appeal to "we need to grow" falls flat because it translates directly into "we need to grow worse, grow more social chaos, more shattered lives."

Yeah, the good old days of an ascending age are gone. 'Success' now means to contribute to the decline. Everything is topsy-turvey. Get used to it.

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Well I guess that says it all. To hell with American workers and 'up' with the elite classes who want their asses wiped by others.

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I am not against LEGAL immigration! Legal is the key word! I live in an area with a lot of Mexican farm workers, rural North/Central Florida. We are one of the poorest counties in the State.
Of coarse someone who has entered this country is NOT entittled to have a court hearing, they have no legal statues they entered ILLegally!
Some of you may be well off enough to have 'others' mow your lawn, care for your kids, and clean your house or office, but I've always done those things for myself, Thank-You!
The Non-Persons, who benifit the most, are Corporations, and business, who because of the flood of people willing to work for lower wages and NO benifits, are forcing wages down, and thereby everyones (in the middle-class) standard of living!

This is a matter of supply and demand, if we started REALLY enforcement of our Existing Laws, and went after the businesses that hire people without the LEGAL Right to work here, have non-negotiable fines per person sufficient to cover the cost of enforcement, detention, and deportation, so that it acted as a deterint, companies would stop hiring them and without the ability to work here they would stop coming!

This argument that Americans won't do these jobs, is 'Hog-Wash', we won't do them at the wages, work conditions, and benifits, being offered! Most do NOT pay taxes! Most do not come here to make a better life here for their family, but to live in squaller (6 & 7) to a room, to send money back to Mexico! I've read somewhere roughly 40 million a month is sent back to Mexico! All the while 'we' the American tax-payer ends up subsidizing their health care, schooling their children, and subsidizing their housing and food!

The ILLEGAL Immigrant and the American Tax-payer are being Victimized! For Corporate Welfare!

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Post Note:

By the way, anyone who thinks we can go to their country, Mexico, Brazil, ect. and work there after they take all the jobs here, and send the money back home; Forget It! They have LAWS PREVENTING anyone from going there to go to work!

To go to live in Mexico, (and most other foreign countries) you either have to have a job skill in demand, or sufficient money to live on without working!

Just like our Import/Export Tariffs, they're NOT equal!

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This group describes the various immigration bills and helps people write congresspeople. Its website shows that it has been primarily blue collar workers and those who have no more than a high school education who have been hurt by the influx of low wage workers.

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Dear Marc Cooper . . .

While writing my own missive on the current immigration issues, I realized I wanted to include a photograph of the glorious Los Angeles demonstration. I “googled” and stumbled upon you essay.

Hooray! You too feel a need to remind Americans of their own migration history. I am elated to discover that you, Mr. Cooper, also struggle with the hypocrisy that exists. We each recognize the need to assess America, past, present, and future. We are all citizens from elsewhere.

I believe we agree, there are similarities between those that immigrated here, to now work, in hopes of bettering their lives and our parents, our grandparents, and our great grandparents.

It seems the irony of division baffles you as it does me. I thank you for your brilliant treatise. I linked to it in my own post.

Please feel free to read my calm rant, IMMIGRANTS TO AMERICA, PEOPLE WITH OR WITHOUT PAPERS ©

Sincerely . . .

Betsy L. Angert
Be-Think

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This article is not accurate. I just returned from Tucson, AZ, where Dick Cheney appeared on Thursday. People in southern AZ are NOT in favor of opening the border and supporting illegals who manage to sneak in. There are two sides to this argument, but because Dems want latino votes and Repugs want slave labor, Americans are only hearing one side. 3/4 of all the people in Mexico want to come into the U.S. (PEW poll). If you want to be living in "New Mexico USA," then you'll love the open border policy. If not, better think about the other border: Canada.

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Also, I wonder if a lot of "liberals" want an open border because it will be easier to get dope from Mexico.

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And what's more, in the 1960s, American activists and government officials tried to talk to the Mexican government about limiting population growth and limiting pollution and creating a better economy and society. Mexico chose to reject these ideas. Their religion forbade birth control and the government chose to be corrupt, caring only about the wealthy. Now, Mexico is exporting the result of their unreasonable policies into the U.S. at a time when our own economy is in shambles and citizens are facing elimination of our own benefits. Americans object to entitlement programs for American citizens, so why would we support entitlement programs for people who are in the country illegally? FIX MEXICO.

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The data from The Center for Immigration Studies shows that immigrants take jobs from Americans who need jobs the most, the working poor and Americans without college education. The Center "reports that immigrants account for almost 26 percent of construction and extraction workers. The unemployment rate for native-born Americans in those industries is 12.6 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively."

Here are some additional facts you may want to ponder:

"• Looking first at all workers shows that between March 2000 and March 2005 only 9 percent of the net increase in jobs for adults (18 to 64) went to natives. This is striking because natives accounted for 61 percent of the net increase in the overall size of the 18 to 64 year old population.

• As for the less-educated, between March of 2000 and 2005 the number of adult immigrants (legal and illegal) with only a high school degree or less in the labor force increased by 1.6 million.

• At the same time, unemployment among less-educated adult natives increased by nearly one million, and the number of natives who left the labor force altogether increased by 1.5 million. Persons not in the labor force are neither working nor looking for work. "

http://www.cis.org/articles/2006/back206.html

As Cesar Chavez showed us years ago when he fought to protect farmworker from union-busting cheap foreign labor, all real leftists need to start defending the American working class and working poor.

The easy, obvious and humane way to do this -- by the way-- is to hammer employers with huge fines, no "ifs, ands, or buts" allowed.

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American corporations will never give up their slave-labor force of undocumented immigrants from Latin America.

Ever since their wings got clipped in the first half of the 20th century, the robber barons have longed for a return to the heady days of the Industrial Revolution when Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller OWNED their laborers.

They will never give up undocumented slave labor because the minute these laborers become legal the fat cats can no longer pay them next to nothing and treat them like animals.

This is what's really at stake here, but most of us are so fixated on calling each other racists and wetbacks we can't see who the real enemy is.

The robber barons are using this race-baiting business to keep us divided against each other instead of going after the real enemies of the working man.

Force the corporations to pay ALL workers a living wage and treat ALL workers equally, and this problem will take care of itself.

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BUT... there is no way in hell we could get 500,000 to march on DC to impeach Bush or try him for war crimes. PLEASE ask yourself WHY this is? If you figure it out, get back to me. Post here. I'm curious and frustrated. Surely the impeachment of Bush is every bit as important to all of us as this issue is. Where are we?

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The reason illegal immigrants come here is because employers will hire them and they can make more money than they can at home. Employers hire them because they are cheap labor and don't ask for benefits. It is quite simple and it's human nature. Here in California, it is almost impossible for an American citizen to get any kind of laboring job, period. I know because both my husband and my daughter tried when they were not able to get anything else and we desperately needed the money. Every possible job landscaping, doing construction, housework or even walking dogs is taken by illegals. I used to make extra money cleaning houses after construction and move-outs. All that is gone to illegal immigrants now, and most of the money goes out of the country and back to places like Mexico. My slum landlord is finanacing his adobe hacienda in Mexico on our rent payments. I'm generally progrssive in my politics, but in this case, I think all those arguments about how business desperately needs the labor are BS. The illegals are human beings and deserve decent treatment when they are caught, but they are a drain on our state, which can't even provide for the citizens who are here. Punish the employers who hire illegals and fine them and the flood will stop. If agricultural workers are needed, let business bring them in under strict supervision. America is for Americans and for legal immigrants who want to make a new life here. We are not a cash cow to be milked by hit and run illegals who take the money and run and businesses who are looking to exploit cheap labor.

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Democrats might well lose congressional seats and maybe even the presidential election because of the immigration issue. The Dems are clinging to a very touchy-feely, liberal position on the issue, while the majority of Americans are increasingly hostile toward illegal aliens.

I'm a liberal, but I -- and many more liberals -- agree that the borders have to be made secure and most illegals deported. The Dems had better get a better grasp of the situation, or they could lose big.

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All the focus is on the person who has crossed the border
as if they magically appeared at the point of making it
over the line and never existed before.

Why is no one concerned about the causes that we might
be able to do something useful about?

For several generations multinational banks and corporations
have been ripping peasants from lands that families and local
communities have occupied, since before the Conquistadores.

The 1954 overthrow of a democratically elected government
in Guatemala to install a military dictatorship favorable to
keeping Chiquita brand bananas cheap in the US, was about
forestalling land reform that would have restored peasants to
their lands. The ensuing years of civil war saw tens of
thousands of Mayans killed or forced to leave for the north,
where they become low wage workers in the US.

This process has been repeated all over central America until
now the flood of immigrants has become a large issue. But
the history behind it is ignored as if there is no importance
to it.

We have to recognize that the best way to deal with this large
and growing issue is to face up to our involvement in the
causes of the exodus. It would cost a lot less to engage with
the people of the countries to our south and invest in ways
to support the local populations so they can stay local instead
of forcing them economically to uproot and struggle to make it
to the US through all the obstacles.

Legislation that only focuses on "after the arrival" misses the
need and the opportunity for dealing with the real and true
condition. It's obvious why Republicans want to ignore this,
but it is really quite amazing that Democrats don't seem to
have a handle on the big picture questions.

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http://home.hamptonroads.com

This article tells the story of immigrant families that have served in the military, raised their children, then emmigrate to their country of origin to enjoy retirement with their military pensions. .
For many the U.S. is a place to live a desired lifestyle support family in other countries educate their kids etc. Joining the military is a fast track to accomplish the above. I wonder how many will be enlisting now that we are in Iraq.
This scenario just doesn't jive with the argument all immigrants desire to come here with the same intentions as many that founded and immigrated here in the past.
If you don't assimilate into the culture or even speak the language it's impossible.
The corporate culture appealing to these immigrants is going to pay the price in years to come.

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Mr Cooper and all the rest on the on the leftist ( or should I say reinvented communist) bandwagon: Should the legislators in Washington have "trepidation" because of this orchestrated demonstration of boat rockers. My grandfather used to always say " Those trying to rock the boat usually are not rowing it."

No rather the legislature had better get a pulse of the silent majority that works like h$!! all the time and could not get a Saturday off to do such a protest like the convenience of people on welfare that do not pay for it.

The silent majority in this country has always been under estimated so the antagonist and boat rockers get comfortable and get over confident. But there is a quickening pulse in the silent , law abiding, legal citizens of this great America and once you folks have pushed us, free loaded off of us taken advantage of us long enough and that time is very near , the demonstrators are going to wish they had never walked those streets. The political, legislative, and civil backlash that is coming is going to make them wish they were neighborly, and cooperative and assimilated legally and respectfully into this country.

In areas of of concern, trepidation and conflict, The person or enemy you see is not the one you need to be worried about , it is the one you do not see , you do not hear.

We see the demonstrators, the boat rockers, we see and here them loud and clear -- thank you .. Your answer will be coming.

The legislators do not see the silent unseen bulk of our populace they do not hear it creating raucous in the steets, about them, that is who the legislators had better have trepidation for if and when they are forced to act there will be no going back; so the legislators if smart and wise will remember the silent majority they serve and protect their pursuit of life, liberty and happiness against corporate greed and border invasion by law breakers.

For it is the founding fathers themselves that said: It is the government that should fear the people.

"When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny." -- Thomas Jefferson

The legislature would do well to fear the common people of this land. The 100s of millions of adult workers, voters and law abidiing citizens that are not demonstrating that are not protesting because if and when they do it is not gong to be pretty or peaceful.

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read Joan Roelofs' book _THE MASK OF PLURALISM. There are large excepts on the net. She shows how the plutocrats, the business lobbies and the megacorporations poured hundreds of millions into think tanks and nonprofit foundations in order to generate propaganda that could be used to divide america up into identity politics factions.

Also they created race guilt propaganda and open borders propaganda so as to be able to manufacture consent for the mass immigration scam that has flooded our labor markets and driven down wages.

Mass immigration, both legal and illegal, is a globalist scam, a way for the elite at the top to make ever more money.

They created a false left, a pseudo left, a faux left, a left that would be built around ideas that would let the elite build ever more exploitation machines like the mass immigration scam Alternet is promoting right now.

Look at how many lefties like me recognize mass immigration for what it is. A BIG PERCENTAGE of us know what is going on. We aint rightwing; we are leftwing. I believe in universal healthcare, high wages, progressive taxation, a strong social safety net, and strong worker protections, such as a 35 hour week.

I am strongly against all forms of mass immigration, as that drives down wages, and strips wealth from middle class and lower class American citizens.

America is for American citizens. We and our ancestors built this land. We had better fight our elite for it, or they will take it from us and reduce us to 3rd world status.

FIGHT, my fellow leftist American citizens.

FIGHT!

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People who have entered the U.S. improperly and who stay here have, in fact, not violated any criminal statutes but are instead in violation of civil codes -- even though they are commonly called "illegals."

On NPR just now, they interviewed a lawyer from the INS who stated that the act of crossing the border and entering the country illegally does constitute a misdameanor crime in criminal court. People who overstay their visa are in violation of civil codes and not criminal codes.

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"Jesus would never use government surrogates to force the people to 'help others'." -- Philip Freneau

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My grandfather came here as a LEGAL immigrant and worked, lived and died in FL. One of my uncles was a LEGAL migrant worker who traveled with his family around the country picking fruit and vegetables. They both paid their taxes and voted as their citizenship was achieved.

This is not a racial issue as demonstrators and some politicians would have you believe. Caesar Chavez was a LEGAL immigrant who organized the Farm Workers Union and opposed illegal alien workers.

Why can't the rest come here legally? It is essential that they do not break our laws and that we have border security so we know who is coming here and why.

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The battle shouldn't be about illegal immigrants, who like it or not, are coming to this country for the same reasons the pilgrims came to these shores hundreds of years ago - in search of a better life.

The problem is Mexico itself. One of the most corrupt governments (next to ours of course) in the world. If there's a middle-class in Mexico, it's rather hard to tell. One sees either extreme wealth or bone-crushing poverty. At least for better or worse, America still has a middle class (though dwindling rapidly thanks to the anti-family agenda of the far-right wackos).

President Vincente Fox, instead of criticising blacks and making blanket and ignorant statements such as Mexicans will do the jobs blacks won't, should set about reforming his own country to make it a place everyone would want to live in. That's just the beginning to solve the issue of illegal immigration. Of course, Fox is probaly beholden to the drug cartels and those who ferry illegals across the border, so it's probably not in his best interests to clean up his own backyard.

On our side of the fence - if those like No-Sensenbrenner and the Less-Than-Minutemen are interested in putting a halt on illegal immigration, they may want to start by not purchasing their guns and ammo at Wal-Mart, not eating any produce picked in the San Joaquin Valley, or wearing clothes not made in the U.S. They may want to march down to Mexico City and demand that Vincente Fox start taking care of his own people better.

Oh wait, none of them will do that because it's easier to scapegoat.

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I am a legal immigrant, who has jumped through all the hoops, and paid my dues. I believe that fairness is a key American value, and those who jump the queue should not be granted amnesty. Illegals provide corporate America with right-less slaves who can be played off against Americans and legal immigrants. I am puzzled by soft-hearted (but soft-headed) leftists who support amnesty for illegals.

The penalty for unlawful presence in the US is banishment for 3/10 years. Illegals need to be deported, and the borders need to be secured to prevent their return. Employers of illegals need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If we need workers to pick crops, or clean bathrooms, then they need to be brought here legally, and cheating should not be rewarded. These legal immigrants need to be paid a living wage, and if that means that the price of many goods and services rises, then so be it. We should be paying more for goods/services currently delivered by virtual slave laborers.

The author wrote: "Our national economy easily absorbs and desperately needs about a million-and-a-half immigrant workers per year to grow and compete".

Wow... this from the left? Is growth always a good thing? How about the growth of migrant worker shanties across the Southwest? This is a race to the bottom, pure and simple.

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What does this say to me?

Americans can accept an illegal war, torture, murder, and protest a bit, but take away their maids, pickers, and burger flippers... 500,000 march! ;p

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The author of this article is plain wrong. I'm a liberal, a Democrat and I am dead set against letting all these desperate, uneducated, unskilled people into a country that is already at the breaking point economically and politically.
NEWSFLASH: The Senate just decided to accept a bill to make all the illegals legal and make it easier for more to come into our country. Democrats framed the bill, some Republicans were hesitant to support it.

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The answer to illegal immigration is simple. Every Illegal Alien, men and women, should be drafted into the Army or Marines for a minimum of six years to earn their citizenship by serving in defense of the USA. Those who refuse to serve are immediately deported and take their entire families with them. Let them earn their citizenship with their bodies and blood. This will quickly separate the freeloaders who dodge taxes and scam for government paid services from the honorable illegal aliens who truly want to become part of the USA.

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One big point this guy is missing about America NEEDING a million and a half illegals a year to compete, is that most of those millions are being paid below the federally mandated minimum wage. Lots of construction companies are making lots more money by paying Paco $25 for a 10 hour day of work that the same legal citizen that actually has a right to work here and the papers to do so would be getting anywhere from $7-11 an hour for the same work(this is but one example of many). Coin the term...in-sourcing(def:giving job priority to people that don't know any better because they aren't from here). Now, we outsource a good deal of jobs, and even more prevalent is in-sourcing. Try to get a job in most restaraunt kitchens in Texas, or construction, or homebuilding, textiles, landscaping or any number of other jobs that pretty much require Spanish as at least a second language, if not first. These are the jobs that our welfare stricken masses should be doing. Instead, one family may have several people working these jobs AND still collecting welfare for the one legal resident in the household. I live in Texas, and I have long defended immigration because well, we are all in fact immigrants, hell we flat out stole Texas from Mexico while they weren't looking. But at some point this became a nation, one with borders and laws and processes for new applicants. It's not our fault(not always at least) that the nations illegals come from are poor. I'd like to refer you to a process in history that has taken place in our own country and ask what good leaving a problem behind does. Rich people did this in the early days of New York when the crime rate went up, the "Exodus to the Suburbs" or something like that, masse atrition. Did it help? The people that got out I'm sure, but those left behind faced an even worse situation. So these people leaving their countries and families behind aren't exactly the best people in my book though I can understand their plight. Why not try to improve or create something? That's what we are supposed to do here when we don't like policy or something is going wrong....do something. I hate our government, but if everyone that hated our gov't left what good would it do? We'd be unpopulated with a shitty gov't. Leaving doesn't change anything, that's being a uninventive sissy and turning tail to run to better conditions. And if you don't think that illegal immigration has a negative effect, I'd kindly refer to a lot of areas I myself grew up in. Putting it nicely, they went to shit since I was a kid, and if I asked someone in those neighborhoods what happened, the response would be "Que?".

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I've read every single post here, but I have a question.
If so many hundreds of thousands marched this past week, with seemingly little effort to organize and peacefully take to the streets, in fervent belief for their cause, what's stopping all of you from doing the same?
It's painfully ridiculus to call them stupid, uneducated, lazy, shiftless, incapable of delivering the message in the lengua franca of the majority, blah - blah - blah - blah - blah.
Yet - there they were!
Meanwhile.......back at the ranch!
Oh, I get it! You're waiting for the next elections to demonstrate your solidarity with one another on this hot topic.
Or, are you waiting for the weather to improve?
Or, are you waiting for your hiking boots to arrive from L.L.Bean?
OK - Gotcha!

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I can see both sides of the issue and from a personal standpoint. I'm in the process of immigrating myself and can't imagine how horrifying it would be to suddenly be taken away from my husband and not allowed to come back, and I know they're just looking for a better life for their families and for themselves. On the other hand though, I am also close to the disabled community and a lot of the jobs taken by immigrants are the only types of jobs some of them can get (so when it is said that they'll do jobs that no American will do, it is not true, there are many disabled people for whom these jobs are one of just a few options), and it takes away their chance of independence and leaves them unemployed. This is a very frustrating situation and leads me to believe that opposition to illegal immigration has little or nothing to do with racism and more to do with economic and personal hardship, and I can certainly sympathize with that. I also see a very large, complex issue, and I agree with what others have said about seeing the big picture and addressing the question of why so many people are immigrating rather than simply focusing on the immigrants. They are really just regular people who've had to suffer from the actions of corrupt governments and corrupt corporations and doing what anyone in their position would do. The solution, if one is possible, lies in addressing the problems associated with government corruption and corporate greed. If it can ever be accomplished, it would be a win-win situation for everybody involved.

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if we got out and marched we'd be arrested. BushCo doesn't have any vested interest in our right to free speech.

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I guess it is just too damn bad if anyone on the planet wasn't lucky enough to be born in an American hospital, or with enough money to become a citizen the "right" way.

Fuck em. This country is ours. We own it, right?

Not me, I'm just taking up space that could be better occupied by folks that just as soon run me out because they own it, or because they thought it halarious that a white man thought he could own it.

All these people are looking for a fair shake; I thought we were to.

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I am concerned that Bradley, the writer, the commenters, are missing a vital down home dollar point. A dollar means the difference between chili and vienna sausage. If you make about 7.00 you get chili.

We are talking about slave labor. Unless a redress of income, beginning with something above 5.15 versus 4,500 per hour comes into being, you nice liberals are singing into the wind, singing John Denver when you are confronted Aspen Developers. Manufacturers, employers, shitheads like myself, presidents, halliburton. You are going to have to pay you little people more. We see you; Exxon.


I may make it through the economic devastation that follows, and with a smile. I told you so. (Damn, that feels good.)

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...in upholding our laws then I'm not interested in following them either. Why the fuck should anyone bust their butts trying to do the right thing when the giveaway is going on across the street?

Shit, I'm joining the underground economy.

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The United States immigration policy needs a complete overhaul. My question is this. Why are Cubans allowed to come ashore to the U.S. and Haitians are sent back at sea? This blatant act of racism is shameful and disgraceful and should be changed immediately. The United States is so set on trying to maintain control of its super power status that it doesn’t care who it tramples on the keep it. But what is the reason for not allowing people of color to enter into the U.S. other than racism. What is the reason it has allowed illegal immigrants to come in the U.S. and work for wages well below minimum wage? For businesses to continue to prosper while keeping the bridge wider between the rich and the poor, which is a new form of present day slavery by big business with the U.S. Government’s approval. Haven’t we had enough of free labor? I think 400 years of it is quite enough and by the way, where is that 40 acres and a mule you promised those slaves?

While the republicans were spending millions of dollars of tax payers money to investigate and impeach President Clinton, we could have been focusing on issues such as illegal immigration, poverty, jobs for Americans, campaign finance reform, political corruption, the outsourcing of jobs to other countries, the environment, overpaid CEO’s, outlawing lobbying, outlawing monopolies, corporations taking advantage of citizens with ridiculous late fees on credit cards, bank teller fees and more

It’s time for a change in our political, social and judicial system. The time has come. I’m ready, are you?

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The geographic region currently under contention WAS Mexico and not very long ago! These people are just coming home. Hey, why not take a tip from the colonial explorers? Our "new" immigrants could simply "discover" the territory, plant their flag, y'know like old times? They are being far nicer about this than the Spaniards were. Think about that! We should be grateful.

We are a world of immigrants. Immigrating is what human beings have done since upright walking became the thing to do.

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The recent articles on this subject on Alternet and their pro-illegal immigration stance, and also many of the replies---show why the Progressive movement has failed in getting the support of the majority. The general tone of the articles and many of the posts only reinforce the perceptions that many people have about Progressives: elitist, whiney, pie-in-the-sky perceptions of the world's problems, and out of touch with the concerns of the "ordinary Joe". And also a disturbing tendency to petulance and name-calling when challenged on some of their beliefs.

On certain issues like this, Progressives (of which I am one) need to take a look at the "other side of the fence". This is an economic and social issue that affects many ordinary people struggling to make a living in a very up-close and personal way. We shouldn't dismiss their anti-illegal immigration feelings out of hand.

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I for one am going to change the way I do business with small businesses. I think the only way for an American to create change is to withdraw as much capital as one can from the mainstream (tax base). If they listen to illegal immigrants who send the majority of their money home, imagine what the government would do if the majority of the population decided to sit on the sidelines while they try to stage a war, rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq, and absorb people who enter illegally.

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The central dissonant theme in the neocon agenda and the neoliberal agenda is this: NAFTA and related agreements open the borders to cash - companies can move their money across borders like nobodys business - into and out of in hours or seconds. Meanwhile, people are hemmed in behind barbed wire.

Why should cash flows across borders be restricted? It is a basic economic theme; if investors are tied to their investments (as in a 401(k), you can't just pull your money out without penalty, can you?) then they might be motivated to see those investments do well. However, most internationalists in this country operate on the absentee landlord principle: get as much as you can from the renter while doing as little maintenance as possible.

These deliberate actions tend to result in bankrupt economies, which produces a tide of immigrants and refugees who don't have the $100 or more it takes to apply for 'legal immigrant status' - these people might own nothing besides their clothes and shoes.

Of course, there is another face to all this - totalitarian states, whether communist or fascist, have always relied on race hatred and severe population control methods (German 'purity' laws of the 1930s are one example; Soviet mistreatment of satellite state populations is another).

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...on busting this corporate wage-slavery is to educate the illegal aliens on what is going on and organizing them to demand better wages and conditions. This would bust some corporate butts and get rid of the 'jobs that Americans won't do' bullshit.

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Or is that whole beginning forum, of the society owes this, or that mantra, the problem, since we are first individuals who have the right to care where our tax dollars go.

The whole struggle is people are fed up with the state, the government, society -- as if they were ever the same thing, as if they ever had some mandate of actual control of individual resources and money-- telling others, telling individuals with families of there own to support as citizen's of this country that you are going to paying X amount in taxes and 70% of it is going to go to social service you will never get to use because you actually work you ass off for a living this tax money we are taking from you will be increased though to offset the need of the millions of illegal immigrants migrating here and we do not care what you think about it or that you may want to save some of it for your own children. Who is serving who now, who is the master and who is the slave?

Immigrants and
"...too many children and people have been given to understand 'I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!' or 'I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!' 'I am homeless, the Government must house me!' and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first." -- Margaret Thatcher

All of you who are so eager to accept the millions why do you not first set your home as a homeless shelter and make it a mission statement of yours to use every ammenity and room and couch that you have and all the food you can afford to buy to keep and house feed and clothe the homeless in your community in your own home before you are so quick to demand that as a moral obligation of others in this "society".

We all know that for the most part that is not happening and will not happen so then you are hypocrites, and are nothing more than the tyranny of communism, socialism, collectivism in the sheeps clothing of moral relativism to suit your own agenda and not the purported needs of others.

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Today’s furor over undocumented Hispanic workers may appear to be a racially charged, clash-of-civilizations struggle, but pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. It’s really just the same old union-busting.

Consider how the love-hate relationship between undocumented immigrants and everybody else who works for a living in this country looks a lot like the conflict between union and non-union workers during a strike.

Management can bust the union by sneaking in non-union workers to keep the factory running while the union workers are on strike. Sometimes financially strapped union workers will also decide to cross the picket lines. Those who cross the picket lines are called “scabs.” When the players of the NFL went on strike, for example, Randy White of the Dallas Cowboys crossed the picket lines and played with the scabs.

Nobody blamed the “scab” players for taking advantage of their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play in the pros, and some of the better scab players even remained in the league after the strike ended. But NFL owners had successfully humbled the union by fielding scab teams.

Major League Baseball’s union was stronger and their strike crippled baseball. It was the year without a World Series, the year that could’ve been for the Cleveland Indians, the year that drove the fans away.

All American citizen or legal resident workers belong to a “union” of sorts. They are the “protected, unexploited” union, which (supposedly) guarantees they will be paid a living wage; will be taken care of by worker’s compensation if they get hurt, and can form a union and bargain collectively with management.

Undocumented alien workers are the “scabs” in this scenario, because they are both unprotected and exploited, and will accept whatever pay they’re damn well offered because who are they gonna complain to, the Border Patrol?

Don’t believe the corporate propaganda that says undocumented aliens do the jobs Americans won’t. They are the “scabs” in an ongoing, nationwide “strike,” who will do the job for less money than their “union” counterparts, and put up with abuse that no “union” worker would ever endure.

They are the slaves of corporate America, which will lie, steal, kill and turn us all against each other to keep their supply of “scab” slaves flowing across the Rio Grande River. And they won’t stop until they turn all of us into slaves.

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Respective to the context of the thread of this discussion define:

Immigrant -- one who comes to a country of which he is not native to take up permanent residence

Itinerant-- one who travels from place to place without establishing a permanent residence

Native -- ...by birth...

Alien-- a foreign-born resident who has not been naturalized and is still the subject or citizen of a foreign country.

Illegal (1) --not according to or authorized by law
Illegal (2) circa 1939 -- a illegal immigrant

Law--a binding custom or practice of a community: a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by controlling authority.

Constitutional Republic-A form of government which has a chief of state and in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is excercised by elected officers and represenatives responsible to them and governing according to law that is regulated by or ruling according to a constitution.

"Law is reason without passion" (Famous smart person Ill let you look it up just for fun)

For a primer after we understand those definitions, we are not a Democracy in the United States of America, we are a Constitutional Republic. Notwithstanding that we use democratic processes and principles in our electoral procedures but, We the people are not represented or founded upon a democracy because as the ancient sages note all pure, true ,democracies devolve to tyranny. They are run by majority opinion, passion, and whim and our countyr if you read the Federalist Papers, The Constitution and the readings and writings of the founding fathers was created and only intended for this to be a Constitutional Republic meaning it is ruled by law not by the passions, or power or lack thereof of men or women.

In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1799

So how many of these that have been all lumped together are immigrants as the founding immigrants who once they moved because of modes of transportation and cost did establish permanent residence and how many are Illegals, Aliens, or Itinerant labors who have no intention of joining the community of citizens or residents and contributing from there earnings but move where ever the work and benefits can be found and then criss cross back and forth over the border where all that cash they where paid under the table makes them wealthy for a season back in their motherland, their native land. But I feel this way or I feel this way because of one agenda or another...

That being said it does not matter what anyone feels from their passion or what socialist , collectivist spin you put on it. The reason of law states that the illegals are enemies of the Republic and to the health of its State and violators of its laws. Enforce the laws on the books, secure the borders to stop the lawbreakers and then once the businesses are charged, judged, fined and clean of alien employees, the neighborhood hospitals and schools are fiscally healthy and we can actually pay the bills we have and debts we have now at the State and Federal level, after that is done, then we can think intelligently and discuss properly the present laws and codes to see if adjustments can be made that can actually be worked into a budget. Otherwise we will be the next "Mexico" in 40 years, insolvent, economically unable to support its own citizens and unsafe and all the other reasons given as an excuse of pardon for those sneeking over our borders now.

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In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the stronger individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradnally induced, by a like motive, to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful. The Federalist Papers

If they come of themselves, they are entitled to all the rights of citizenship: but I doubt the expediency of inviting them by extraordinary encouragements." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.VIII, 1782. ME 2:118

According to the Federalist Papers we are in a state of anarchy. We citizens should act accordingly.

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I am for one .... going to stop buying from major corporations and start doing business with small business.

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I'm looking to recruit a website and logo designer to launch my new website "WeMustChange.org"

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...a new party, centrist, progressive, inclusive & heck we'll even let the rednecks in if they promise to get along & go along with others?

The new:
American Revolutionary Movement

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Want to see how the government will respond to Americans expressing their displeasure in our government in a non-violent way? Don't go to work on 4/15/06 the day taxes are due. That is the wake up call they won't ignore. They can't fire everybody, so spread the word. If the illegals can use the internet and civil disobedience to send a message surely citizens can do to.

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kapasa? ....until corporations are held under control of their outsourcing behavior, immigration will continue to occur in this country: build a wall, watch the borders, --it ain't going to work...nada...

nafta was constructed by good ole bill clinton under the idea that it would be good for mexico...well mexico outsources it's 3$/hr jobs to china and sits back and watches the cash flow.....

until we get a functioning government, a job like a wall to detain immigrants is to me, is a really scary tactic, a low priority, and doomed to drag this country in ruin...just look at hurricane katrina and the sucess we had on that one, why homeland security is not even up and running .....

this problem will not be solved by shutting our borders, it will be by securing them, and it will be by sitting down and demanding good governance on the part of dual nations...hey don't you wish now morales or chavez were our border neighbors?

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The business community wants cheap labor and so they love illegal immigration.Illegal immigration is just that illegal.We have 12 million people working for wages so low they eliminate the possibility of an American doing the job.I say we stop the demand by making it so expensive for an employer to hire illegals that they are forced to pay for Americans.There is no job and American wont do;this is a myth by rich stupid Americans who never worked a crappy job.There is a reason that the number of illegals and the number of unemployed Americans is always so close.

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And the day has been changed to 4/17/06. If one can make a movie "A Day without Mexicans" why not "A Day without Americans" as well? And since our government keeps telling us we don't want to work why not show them what it looks like when we don't? In case you aren't aware the census shows there are supposedly 21 million legal and illegal immigrants born outside of America living here. If Americans (numbering in the hundred millions) don't show up to work or school that would be more awesome than 500,00 people marching in LA.

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AND IF THEY DO NOT CHANGE QUICKLY, IT WILL BE THEIR DOWNFALL, in 2006 & 2008! Whatever "good-will" voters will have given them out of their hatred for Bush, will be "washed down the drain" because of their hypocrisy on the ILLEGAL immigration issue! I watched some of the senate Judiciary Committee machinations on this issue, and it literally made me sick to my stomach! Seeing Spector and Schumer collaborating on how they could get "illegals" to
work in their respective states as cheap farm labor, made my blood boil! Diane Feinstein seemed utterly enthusiastic for her share too! I WISH I COULD HAVE HEARD SOME OF THIS ENTHUSIASM AND PASSION FOR THE FILIBUSTER AGAINST ALITO, OR THE CENSURE AGAINST BUSH!!! WHAT ARE WE BECOMING? No one spoke on the floor of the senate about the poor CITIZENS of our country, whose jobs are frequently "outsourced" to these ILLEGALS for a fraction of the salary, & who if lucky enough to be working, have their wages "SUPPRESSED" BY WHAT THESE ILLEGALS ACCEPT & the GREED of THE CORPORATIONS WHICH EXPLOIT THEM!

It is time that we hold our elected officials ACCOUNTABLE for this total UNJUSTIFIABLE nightmare, which gets worse each year! I write to my 2 DEMOCRATIC WIMPY NJ SENATORS, (with NO RESPONSE,) on a routine basis, and will NOT VOTE FOR THEM AGAIN, IF THEY DO NOT DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS! THEY ARE WORSE THAN REPUBLICANS! THEY ARE HYPOCRITICAL LIARS & CORPORATE SHILLS!

I HAVE NEVER VOTED REPUBLICAN BEFORE IN MY LIFE, BUT ON THIS ONE ISSUE, I IDENTIFY WITH THE HARD-CORE HOUSE REPUBLICANS! I DO NOT WANT TO VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN, BUT I WILL IF I HAVE TO! DEMS TAKE NOTE!!!

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Illegal Immigration - One World Nexus

I just ran to my word processor from watching the United States Senate trying to pass a bill dealing with immigration reform. The majority, (temporarily) want to criminalized 11,000,000 people, (480 of whom are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan). The minority (Democrats) are frightened about the word amnesty that has been used as a pejorative by the Republicans.. None of the overheated speakers mentioned NAFTA or the WTO. It has long been a dream of good thinking people to end war and unite all of the people into one world community--a world tribe. We have supported the League of Nations as a step in this direction. Globalization today has become a dirty word. The reason being that the international finance community and the giant mega corporations with more assets than most countries see this dream as a paradise of cheap slave labor where clear cutting the worlds forests, poisoning the worlds water with cyanide from gold mining, global warming from oil as an energy source and evasion of taxes contributes to their bottom line. NAFTA and CAFTA and all of the other corporation one world organizations make damned sure that none of the world labor unions join them.

Within one week I have seen on television and in the press spontaneous demonstrations by millions of French youth and American Latino’s. Could it be that they are connected by the same phenomena? Borders between countries are for the purpose of each nation tribe being able to manage the affairs of their own people. When the needs of our own people are disregarded by our politicians in favor of big business going offshore the border disappears. NAFTA destroyed the fragile agricultural economy of Mexico. For decades corn, beans, sugar and rice have been staples for Mexicans. NAFTA allowed the importation of cheap maize and frijoles, subsidized by the US government. This is the reason for the increased demographic movement of peoples looking for a better life. Illegal immigration is not just an American problem, it is a French problem, and a Danish problem, and Turkish immigration to Germany has been a problem. Congress has tossed into the discussion the fear of terrorists being able to be among the poor people who die on Southwestern deserts. But all of the known terrorists who came here had legal passports and credit cards. Illegal immigration is a world problem.

Evidently it is only serendipity that accounts for the meshing of all of our problems war, illegal immigration, health care, education, and rampant corruption in government. In every case you will find the greasy hand of corporations. If our lawmakers were not dependent on corporation money they would recognize that they are the ones that are responsible for the millions who have taken to the streets. We can only hope that in November there will be enough progressives elected to change the direction of a government that is like a truck going downhill without brakes. This is a trend that is not going to wait until 2008. If they persist in their attempt to steal elections they will all find themselves out of a job. The verbal flatulence of these careerists is not going to solve anything. It is going to take a demographic shift of the American people to the streets to solve the problems that the World Bank, WTO, GAAT, NAFTA, and CAFTA have presented us with. Instead of illegal immigrants we are going to have illegal demonstrators.

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One day these immigrants will be in uniform here. They may be ordered to intern us, should we make the time to protest.

But something interesting might just occur.

There's the potential for there being a small problem in getting them to force us NOT to do what they themselves did to better their own lives, so many years ago.

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I'm a legal immigrant to this country. I waited in line, paid the fees, had the medical exams done, etc. and I was very happy to move to in my opinion the greatest country on this planet.

You know what I admired about the US, their strength, their unity and most important putting their own citizens first, over everybody else.

Now putting your own citizens first doesn't mean, attacking another country and take over their oil supplies so that your citizens can drive their 5 miles to the gallon SUV's as cheap as possible. I'm not talking about that kind self-serving policy.

What I'm talking about is preserving a legal and just system determined by the will of the people, NOT SELF-SERVING POLITICIANS AND GREEDY BIG BUSINESS CEO's.

Allowing illegal aliens to stay here is a crime, period. Any argument that any illegal alien has any rights in this country is absolutely insane and will lead to the total destruction of this great country.

Just think, if we allow foreigners (illegal aliens are foreigners) to dictate what laws are good and what laws are bad where does that leave the average American citizen?

What? Foreigners know best? Americans are just not open to change? That is another insane idea.

Why do you people think you have such a high standard of living? Because many brave soldiers gave their life to defend our way of life and we used to have a controlled immigration policy.

Do you realize that probably at least 70% of the rest of the world would like to live in the US? What, they can't come because they are not lucky enough to be located right next to us and can't just illegally cross the border? Talk about racism.

To call protecting your borders from illegal alien’s racism is another proof of complete insanity, and it was surely invented by rich people who would only profit from cheaper labor or illegal alien’s themselves.

The fact is that our system only works because of hard working, law abiding, and tax paying American citizens and legal immigrants to this country. Illegal immigrants are doing nothing but take from us, essentially stealing from us and dragging down our valued standards of living.

To imply that we can support millions of illegal alien’s is just as insane as saying that we can easily support 10 Billion people on this planet. By enforcing our borders we not only protect our own citizens and legal immigrants, but also force countries like Mexico to put a stop to uncontrolled population increases way beyond the countries ability to provide for. Also we send the right message to law-abiding people, that crime DOES NOT PAY.

As it stands right now, it sure pays big time for those illegally in this country.

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