I know it is a highly touchy issue. However do you really believe the "Illegals" have more rights than you do? I doubt you would want to be in their shoes. I agree we need to get a grip on all of our borders but I also think we have to think long and hard about what we are doing with these folks that do not legally belong here. If they are contributing members of society do we wish to boot them out of the country. These illegals, aside from the fact that they are illegals, have been shown to have a lower crime rate than the "legals" in our society. They contribute to our economy and I need them to pay for my retirement. :mrgreen:
If they're illegal, then are they paying taxes to help pay for their children's education, welfare, healthcare, etc? How are they contributing besides working for less money than most Americans are willing to work for?
Most of the contributing members pay taxes, pay social security and lie low to make sure that they don't get deported. Yesterday's "The Story" on 91.5 went into a lot of this and how most of these folks can't get out of the system what they put in. Remember the IRS even put systems in place to capture the taxes of these "illegals".
It certainly seems as though illegal aliens have more rights than citizens, especially if you watch Lou Dobbs! However, that is not actually the case. I'd like to address a couple of points that keep coming up on this thread. First, #2 and #3 on your list are in fact true in this country, as well, if the word "foreigner" is understood as "non-citizen." I think by the time a person lives here legally the requisite 6 or 7 years and goes through the process to become a citizen, they are no longer considered foreigners, even though, like most of our ancestors, they were not born in this country. A person must be a citizen in order to vote or hold public office. Secondly, on the question of taxes. Every person who works as an employee has federal income tax and social security withheld from their pay. They may claim a great enough number of exemptions to have little or no income tax deducted, but they cannot avoid social security tax. If they are not having those taxes deducted from their pay, it is because their employer is treating them as "independent contractors" so the employer does not have to pay their share of social security, unemployment tax, and workers comp, which in turn means if they get hurt on the job or laid off they are not protected by those benefits. Immigrants, illegal or otherwise, also pay sales tax, just like we do; they pay property tax on their cars; tobacco and alcohol tax; telephone tax; I'm probably leaving out some, but all taxes that are collected at the point of sale. Finally, it seems like we assume everyone with a Hispanic name or Hispanic appearance is an illegal immigrant. Obviously, that is not the case. We use stereotypes because it's easy, and because they prove accurate a good part of the time, but it's not fair to those the stereotype does not fit. I believe we do need to get control of our borders and our ports. I think illegal immigration is a problem for many reasons; if not for the issues of voting and taxes, for a lot of other reasons. I think allowing illegal immigration is unfair to all those people who go to the trouble to come here legally. In my mind, one of the biggest problems caused by illegal immigration is that it depresses wages throughout the country. (Hope this is not tldr for everyone! ) Peace & Love, Pat
Like any good urban legend it has to have enough truth in it to be possible. There are some restrictions on the ownership of land by "foreigners" which should be easily understood as a knee-jerk reaction to being burned in the past. Remember that Texas was once part of Mexico until the foreigners bought land and decided to separate into a separate country and then join the US. http://www.mexperience.com/property/ Foreigners CAN own property in Mexico Foreigners can own property in Mexico - even near the border and coastal areas - and you don't need to have a resident permit in order to be a land-owner. The requirement for investment is not completely true as it is for someone buying their way into the country who will also work there. The US has similar programs where a business owner is allowed residence. As is noted in prior posts the non-citizen cannot vote or hold office in the US either. http://www.mexperience.com/liveandwork/immigration.htm You do not have to surrender your natural Citizenship to be granted full resident status in Mexico. Full resident status entitles you to all rights and benefits of a Mexican National (live, work, claim state benefits and to pay taxes) but you cannot vote in Mexican elections. These permits may also prohibit work in specific industries. These are limited, and relate to bar and waiter/waitress work. This section describes the different types of Non-Immigrant an Immigrant Permits, and also discusses the issue of attaining Mexican Citizenship.
Yes. I don't mean to sound cold, but they have committed a crime by coming here illegally. With immigration it should be black & white with ZERO gray. They either come legally or they don't come, period. And if illegals get caught here, they should be deported, period. How many other countries are as lax as we are when it comes to immigration? :?
Some countries have a "guest worker" program that allows people into the country to work, if an industry certifies that not enough people can be found locally to do the job. We used to have something like that, don't know if it still exists, but I remember many years ago apple pickers were brought into northern New England under that program every year, and when harvest time was over, they went back to the country they came from. Something like that might be part of the solution to the problem. Peace & Love, Pat
They are fellons!!! First and foremost. They use other people social security numbers, they sponge off of our social programs, they demand the same education with benefits. Benefits including indegent meals, language teachers, spanish speaking interpreters, etc. I say get them OUT!! If we have people here on work visas who are not fellons then you are welcome. It is totally unacceptable to have felons around with more rights than I and my family have. They are even demanding free educations from our colleges and universities. We also have house dems supporting that. We are absolutely headed in the wrong direction.
Illegal immigrants are getting jobs somewhere. I think the people hiring them should pay a HEFTY price. It's all about supply and demand.
have heard that if an illegal uses a fake social security number to get a job.. The number comes back as no good =(stolen or already in use) The employer who now knows it is bogus can not by law confront the illegal. The employer still pays the illegal with the bad social security number. All money paid into this social security number is held in a special account by the US Government. It is not used, since the illegal may never collect under this number because it is "bad". He can not identify himself as ever being issued this number. THat money remains part of the US Government. IT does not go to assisting our already depleated Social Security system. Where does it go and who has this money?
All of the money all of us pay into Social Security every year goes into the federal budget. If you think the money you pay into Social Security every year is being held in a special account for you, you are mistaken. Current payments into Social Security have always been used to pay current benefits. The excess over what is needed to pay current benefits goes into what is called the Social Security Trust Fund, which is invested in - guess what - federal securities. Our Social Security System is not currently depleted. Collections exceed payments, in anticipation of the time the baby boomers retire. The Social Security System is projected to remain solvent until at least the year 2055, and could become solvent into the indefinite future by increasing the wage base and increasing the retirement age by another year or two. The wage base is currently around $90,000, meaning that's the amount SS tax is paid on, so if you make over 90K, you don't pay SS tax on the excess. I'm curious about this statement: "The employer who now knows it is bogus can not by law confront the illegal." Where did you get that? Because I'm pretty sure when an employer is told that a SS # is not valid, they have to try to verify it, and employers are supposed to verify citizenship, as well, although many do not. Illegal immigration is a multi-faceted problem, for sure. Peace & Love, Pat
I got my info from someone in a business. He hates the fact that this company has illegals. I know that my social security doesn't go into a special account for me, but what I meant was, that the money the illegals pay under the bogus numbers does not go into our regular social security pool. Too many companys are looking the other way because they want the cheap labor. I think it stinks and they should be fined up the ying-yang.
