Poll Position: How much time is enough for an illegal immigrant to qualify for legalization?

“In the debate, Gingrich mentioned 25 years, although that doesn’t appear to be a hard and fast number for him.” Of course there is no hard and fast number for him. He changes faster than the wind. The next nut case idea is sufficient.

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While I am an open-borders type – think Congress is incompetent to determine the number and type of immigrants our economy needs, and the free market is better suited for that duty – I like Newt’s distinction between residence and citizenship. I would grant citizenship to any immigrant who serves in the US military honorably for four years. All others should pass an English literacy test and a cursory test on the language of the Constitution, after residing here for 10 years or so. Of course, most native-borns could not pass either of those tests, so perhaps I am being too harsh.

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Placing myself in another’s shoes, I think five years is sufficient. I am saddened by the fact that people who have only come to our nation, albeit illegally, to try to alleviate the pain that unemployment has created in their birth nation, are now having to live under additional fears of separation from their families and deportation.

I will be glad when the consciousness of the “Bible Belt’s” Christianity changes from more judgment to more love.

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The problem, as always, is that amnesty leads to MORE illegal immigration leads to more amnesty leads to more illegal immigration…

How many times do we have a “last” or “final” amnesty? If we give amnesty to the 15 or 20 million illegal aliens here now, there will be 15 or 20 million MORE in 10 years.

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This issue cannot be solved unless the root cause is addressed. The root cause is that people move here illegally because they can get a job but they can’t get legal status. We either have to make it much harder to get a job, easier to get status or a combination of both. Until then this entire situation will continue to repeat in perpetuity.

As for the issue of status for those already here…see above…if we fix the root cause that solution will provide the framework to address the current population.

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The problem is, it is nearly impossible to catch and deport every illegal immigrant, so enforcing the letter of the law is out. As carlosgvv states, if your aren’t going to enforce the law, get rid of it. What needs to happen is we have to get rid of the incentives for illegal immigration: no health care, welfare, college tuition (*cough cough* Rick Perry *cough cough*) or any other kid of social support. Criminals should be punished according to their crimes and deported. Unfortunately the best solution to deal with the illegals already in the country if to grant them residence to ensure that they at least pay taxes. However, the benefits of this country should be provided only to its citizens. You have to be hard hearted or the problem will never get fixed.

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As I said, don’t give them the incentive to be here illegally.

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They’re here already. Give them some sort of legal pass, if they don’t have a criminal record, enabling them to work. But no voting privileges until they become citizens thru the legal process.

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“if you take away the social support as you said, they will leave on their own and we won’t have to catch them.”

If they wanted social support they would go to Canada where they actually have social support. They don’t come here for social support they come for a job and thats what you have to take away.

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JDW…that is not the topic of discussion…. Nice job trying to spin the conversation.

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@UGA 1999…”Nice job trying to spin the conversation.”

Not spin…Root Cause…ever heard of Root Cause analysis? To fix the problem you have to fix the Root Cause and in this case that is the job. If you don’t you are just addressing the symptoms and never actually solve anything.

The Root Cause is not the Mexican guy crawling on his belly through the desert to feed his family. The Root Cause is the individual that created the reason he is coming…the job.

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I’d say if the illegal alien is born here in America, on Ellis Island, and swears on a stack of bibles to protect and defend the flag, then after 100 years, he may stay.

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JDW….I am not arguing that is not a BIG problem as well. However there are LEGAL methods to get this done. There are millions of Latinos (and every other ethnic group) that come here legally and find work.

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Mary Elizabeth,

I will be glad when you remove the log from your own eye and stop making judgments against the “Bible Belt”. The people of the so-called Bible Belt are people who obey the laws of the USA. They are simply implementing those laws which are established through our democratic processes.

Illegal immigrants flock to this part of the country because they can find jobs and little hate against them. Many of our later immigration laws are an effort to remove the criminal element among those who come here illegally. Hard working, established immigrants both legal and illegal do not want criminals in their neighborhoods.

If you could stop demonizing the “Bible belt” you might notice the “love” being given by many churches and religious organizations to help all people no matter who or where they came from. Food pantries, shelters, ESL classes, health programs, and much more; all given with few questions asked.

Immigrants have always been a vital part of our country. But they are required to obey the laws of our country just like everybody else here. A country cannot survive without justice embodied in the law. A country does not survive with anarchy. You might consider that in your judgments.

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JDW….you are also a liar….1.1 MILLION green cards were issued in 2009. Great job on that spin there buddy.

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@UGA 1999…there you go again devaluing your degree…check the green card stats…we are talking about immigrants coming to this country for work. Of the 1.1MILLION green cards you managed to locate about 144,000 are employment based and are limited by law. The rest are family members of those already here, investors, refugees, or political asylum seekers.

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Employ the egalitarian predilection.

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Sad that we are to this point. If the Federal Government had followed the constitution and protected the borders, then we would not be talking about this. I say if they stay, then every elected official should have to contirbute to the schools and hospitals that have seen their cost increase due to illegals – $2,500 per immigrant should do it. They can take it out of their war chest, their retirement, their benifits provided by the tax payers. That would fix the problem in a hurry

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How long should a termite live in your house before it is considered part of the structure? The key here is getting a method for illegals to express allegiance to this Country and full assimilation. A termite will always be a termite who is destructive. In days of yore, one leaving Scotland coming to the U.S. for citizenship had to get permission from their Native Country to leave it. Do other countries have no pride in their governments and value their own citizens anymore. It appears that we want to give away our country to anyone who wants it. Our Leaders have failed us and even those illegals who want to get in. It is sad, but we are a declining nation.

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10 years, no citizenship and pay a fine for breaking our law in the first place, say 1,000 per year being here illegal.

In order to become legal the following needs to be done.
Fine paid for each year there here illegal – dont give a free pass on breaking our law in the first place.
No member of the family can be on any type of assistance – that included children born here as us citizens.
Must show proof of employment and pay back taxes.

Then and only then I would give them a green card, no citizenship is permitted ever as they came here illegally.

There , hard, maybe but why should the citizens of this country cater to citizens of another country with our money. We have enough people in this country that need our help, stop giving it all to the illegals. That is what I am sick of.

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Libtards hate the South because we’re more American than they.

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@Streetracer…”The problem is that a fair percentage of citizens would rather live on other peoples money than fend for themselves. That is the “root cause”.”

That is as big a fallacy as this whole “job creators” drivel. If you total up the direct and non-direct spending categories which are all the programs that are meant to help the poor, you will see that the federal government only spent 191$ billion on “welfare” for the poor in 2009. That amounts to about 5% of the budget. If you eliminated the whole category you have not even scratched the surface of the deficit.

If you split it equally among the 35 million poor that is about $5400 a person. Won’t buy much of a lifestyle now will it? People living on the government “dole” in this country is not a significant issue when compared to the others we currently face.

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Getalife….you are right…hahahaha

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Tom….I agree with your entire post….except we should go after the employees and employers.

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Who cares until the Banksters are behind bars.

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TheTruth…good idea, lets just do away with all banks and see what happens to our society. Real intelligent post.

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Billy Bob says “It’s interesting that no one was concerned about this 4 years ago.”

Wrong, BillyBob. After the last amnesty (Reagan, 1980’s), millions of illegals rushed the border. There has been a push (from parts of both parties.) for another amnesty for the last 15 years.

But hindsight is 20/20. We now KNOW what happens when an amnesty occurs…. millions of more immigrants will cross the border and wait for the NEXT amnesty.

Without border control, another amnesty is simply stupid.

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Dusty@10:42 a.m.

Notice that I used the qualifier “more” to say I would be glad when the “Bible Belt” practiced more love than judgment. I did not name this region of the nation; it was named well before my time. There is love in this section of the nation. I see that. I simply would like to see a shift in consciousness to more love than judgment. My writing is not meant to be taken personally; I simply write what I see, and in this particular article, what I see regarding treatment of illegal immigrants.

Have a very Merry Christmas, Dusty. I mean that sincerely.

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It depends on what “legalizing” them means. If it means letting them have some kind of legitimacy, then that is okay with me after a certain period of time with no other laws broken. But if it means giving the vote to someone who has demonstrated no respect for this country’s laws, NO WAY, no matter how long they have been here.

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The elected officials have somebody to answer to [ well, kinda sorta ]. It’s the bureaucrats that are killing this country. They do their deeds out of the spotlight.

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If someone has been in this country for 25 years illegally, they have had plenty of time to go back to their home country and apply for a visa to re-enter here legally. They also could have become a naturalized citizen by now as well. We have a process in this country to enter legally, work legally, and become a citizen legally. I say no “free rides” for anyone. What do we tell those immigrants that are following the process correctly? Too bad for you, illegals get the same considerations as you?

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If really is already too late, Latinos are the majority minority now and as more and more “illegals” have children and those children go to the polls one of two things will happen…the Democratic party has great days ahead or the Republican party platform will be altered significantly. Those are really the only two things that will happen here especially given Congress will outsource its legislative responsibilities to the executive or judicial branches.

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Merry Christmas to you, too, Mary Elizabeth. But I am afraid that I don’t believe you have much exposure to illegal immigrants nor do you read or believe the effect they have on many of our institutions. That includes hospitals, schools, our legal system, and the privileges we have set up for those who fare badly in our country.

You have blinded yourself to these things and called any recognizance of those facts as a lack of love. You demean the South aka the Bible Belt without merit.

I believe we follow the laws of our country which are administered with justice. Now that is another form of love.

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No citizenship!!!!

NO!!!

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Billy Bob
Taxes, that’s another issue. Politicians and others rant about immigrants not paying taxes. Has anyone actually documented this and the amount of money lost ? We know they pay sales taxes, can’t get out of that. If they work, many pay income taxes, perhaps with illegal SSN’s but they do pay. How many actually don’t pay? At minimum wage, we’d probably get very little taxes anyway.

++++++++

You are my hero today! You said everything I planned to say. When will people stop with the hyperbole? When will people look at the fact that those who originally came here would be considered “illegal aliens” today.

Remember, there were people already HERE when they arrived. Did they ask permission to stay? And good old Columbus, whom we have a holiday for, was Italian, came to America for the Spaniards. Should our official language really be English? People really get me with these modern days biases and selective amnesia.

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Rough Rider
Reagan legalized 3 million. Now the total is up to between 11-20 million. If Newt legalizes them, then in 20 more years we would have around 50 million new illegal immigrants. Might as well add Mexico as a new state.

+++++++++++

Why not just give Texas back to them? Remember, they had it first.

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If you think GrinWitch is anything more than an establisehd kook then you cant even read.

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Dear Dusty @ various times, Merry Christmas. The blogger who willfully offends notes that our region has judgment and love, Given the absence of sound judgment on the east coast and west coast, I suppose we do have noticeably more judgment here than elsewhere. Not sure that is a problem. Those without any real judgment usually approve of a solution relying on empowering overlords to take more private wealth to spend on their predilections.

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@“The Obama administration had deported about 1.06 million as of September 12, against 1.57 million in Bush’s two full presidential terms.”

As usual the lies continue non-stop out of the corruption-bloated Comrade Obama Regime. One of the reasons the deportation number appears to be higher is that the Comrade’s minions included “voluntary returns” in their final number. VRs are not deportations. Very little that comes out of this loathsome regime is truthful.

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Obozo recently announced he was going to ignore 300,000 deportation cases, allowing these illegal aliens to stay in the US. Turns our his support among Hispanic voters was dropping, don’tcha know.

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Good to hear from you, Ragnar

I always value your opinion. I believe your last sentence was another version of “wealth envy” or take money (fines) from the job producing wealthy people as a solution. I never was good at playing Robin Hood but thought he was pretty sharp when I was young and innocent!!

Alas! I am neither of those things now and declare that stealing in any form is BAD. “All are equal” and that good stuff sounds right to me.

It is really too early for Christmas but best wishes all the time from this lover of our delightful Bible belt ! Yes sir! Come more often..

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Supporters of amnesty who are: illegals, related to illegals, profitting from illegals, screwing illegals, or just garden variety psychotic libtards are beating a dead horse. Even the filth in Washington know any attempt at amnesty will trigger a civil war.

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Kyle,

Don’t pay much attention to your poll, i.e. 53% against Gingrich’s position. That 53 count is mostly those who disagree with anything that has Gingrich’s name on it. The liberals are afraid of his growing popularity while conservatives are beginning to think he is the best choice from those in waiting. But…who knows about next week. AJC will tell us! Right?

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ZOO 3:14

Back to your cage! Calling those who work for us in Washington as “filth” is beyond the call of decency. We elected them.

They may not do what we like many times, but they are working to appease great dissension in this country. That’s hard to do.

LIghten’ up. I doubt that you could do any better.

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John Bowman@3:33

“Mary,
Hate to tell you this, but 90% of illegals had jobs in their birth nations before they broke into the USA.”
———————————————-

Please cite your source for this information, as well as a breakdown of which nations are included and what time span you are speaking of. As a retired teacher of 35 years, I worked with immigrants, some of whom were probably illegals. Regardless of the previous job situations of some, I simply am making the case for reaching out to them, now that they are here. Many, according to news reports, decided to flee from Georgia after last year’s illegal immigration law was passed in the General Assembly and many school children were left in much fear because of that law. According to some legislators, that was the real purpose behind the law, anyway – to have illegals move away from Georgia. That is not humane treatment, in my opinion.

For an eye opener, try to view the award winning film entitled, “Sin Nombre” (Without a Name) which is in Spanish with English subtitles. It was produced a couple of years ago by one who knows first hand what illegals from Central America, passing through Mexico, risked to get to America. Most knew before they left their birth countries that well over half of those fleeing would die in the process of trying to get to America. You don’t risk your life to that extent unless conditions are pretty bad from where you flee.

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China is hiring, and young Americans are going
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32937628/ns/business-world_business/t/china-hiring-young-americans-are-going/#.TuKDn7JFtRc

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What is really amusing is the fact Americans have no idea what goes on with the corrupt system called the INS or DHS what ever they want to switch their name too…

These scam artists take fees from applicants approve everyone then take fees of them on a continuous basis and NEVER process their applications because that would stop the fees flowing; off course Americans do not know this because who the hell are they going to complain to..

You get ripped of as an American in america and you can take the business to court but immigrants who can they complain too when they are ripped of for thousands of dollars whilst their applications are never processed..?

Like that department on the East coast that erased 90,000 paid applications so they could catch up and off course never notified anyone just stated their application never existed..

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Lamar Smith’s (R-TX) ‘THE LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT’ is also a zero-tolerance bill, that if past can outlaw illegal aliens from the workplace. Businesses that are violation of the law will be audited and the owners harshly fined and even sent to prison. It is better recognized by hundreds of thousands of candid companies that E-Verify will red flag illegal aliens, opening payroll jobs for lawful residents and the citizenry. E-Verify is a progressive disincentive that is being continuously upgraded by the Homeland Security and ICE. Just like H.R.140, titled the Birthright Citizenship Act, E-Verify ‘THE LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT’, H.R. 2885, is a innovation to stop this travesty of our immigration laws?

Today with the failure of the numerous administrations to construct the real 2006 Secure fence, consisting of two fences with a wide expanse in between for the movement of rapid interdiction of Drug, weapons and the massive influx of illegal migrants. What is already been built is still incomplete and droves of illegal aliens cross, including terrorist who are impersonating Mexican individuals. Neither the 1986 Immigration nor its 1974 version of these laws after enactment were enforced. The 1986 Immigration reform and Control Act was rife with fraud, and both laws have been neglected and abused. One huge lie played on the US taxpayer by politicians, who sold their souls to the huge abhorrent special interest lobbyists and open border radical entities.

Currently it needs serious action by all patriotic Americans. This can be done by the voter contacting Washington 202-224-3121 and giving your name, address to the political aid and insisting your representative in the Senate-House uphold the law and co-sponsor both laws. More and more legislators are moving to co-sponsor both laws, to begin enforcement by Attrition, or self deportation, as jobs being commandeered by illegal aliens are returned to the rightful American workers. The website of NumbersUSA can be Google’d, where you can send free faxes and read in detail about the corruption at the highest levels of federal and state government.

Right now, a bunch of polling firms and news media have used this as a chance to do polls that manipulate questions in a way to seem to show that most Americans want most illegal aliens to stay, showing that pro-amnesty doesn’t hurt a candidate and causing rumblings through Congress that maybe it does make sense to reconsider amnesty over the next couple of years, after all. The pollsters are doing this with the Big Trick of never offering voters an option of Attrition through Enforcement (forcing them to choose either mass deportations or mass legalization).

In short, Mr. Gingrich has revived the whole national debate on amnesty which had been essentially dead after you/we defeated the DREAM amnesty last December. Any chance for amnesty votes was essentially dead until Gingrich revived the idea. Whatever you may think of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich or his recently announced legalization plan, the fact that he has broken the 4-year Republican taboo against amnesty has unleashed pro-amnesty efforts everywhere. Any mass amnesty will ignite CHAIN MIGRATION that will be more billions of dollars, taken from your taxes. Gingrich amnesty calculated by ‘The Heritage Foundation’ could cost us $2.3 Trillion dollars, that is not including CHAIN MIGRATION of following family members and further attracting even million more to these shores or through borders—adding even more—POVERTY– to American low income bread lines we have now. This is Dire Poverty unseen since the Great Depression of 1929? This country is broke, from corruption, attributed to both political parties and we are facing a upward spike in the 15 Trillion dollars we have already.

The pollsters have a single “Big deception” that skews all the results:
The polls don’t give voters the option of Attrition through Enforcement.
Instead, they make voters basically choose between mass deportations or mass legalization. In the case of a National Journal poll just released, voters were given a third choice of half-mass deportations and half-mass legalizations (which is essentially the Gingrich Amnesty).
But nowhere do voters hear that there is an “ATTRITION THROUGH ENFORCEMENT” such as the E-Verify option that doesn’t involve mass deportations or mass legalization. What Attrition does do is:
• Quickly (over a couple of years) moves illegal aliens out of their payroll jobs.
• Quickly takes away taxpayer-provided benefits
• Gradually over perhaps 10 year period, will cause illegal aliens to go home.
• The Tens of Millions of TEA PARTY members should not fall for this clever ruse.

Attn: Keep an eye on Democrats as they are intentionally pushing non-citizens to vote in all coming register and immediately vote, using groups like the fraudulent canvassing of the ACORN group, that’s reappeared under another name. Additionally the Left is introducing legislation, so you don’t even need a picture ID; this to me is as close to fraud as you can get? Already there has been instances of Voter Fraud, including an Indiana forged signatures registration for Obama before he became president, that is being investigated currently.

In conclusion, insist that Obama and his cronies expedite the ‘Keystone’ pipeline, as it will bring cheap oil into America and less need of petroleum from unfriendly countries. Its installation from Canada to Texas will require the hiring of 20.000 US Workers. Unless the present administration gets its finger out, our Northern neighbor will quite possibly sell this commodity to Communist China. Use the phone number above and tell the Democrats in Washington to do something for Americans.

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Lost n time,
Yes you really are lost, the average waiting time for a green card is three years, OK a few extended family immigrants have to wait up to 20 years, but that’s because these categories are oversubscribed due to past illegal alien amnesties. Before the amnesties average wait for an extended family green card was five years, see the data at Immigrant rights foundation.org.

Mary and Dusty, sorry AJC won’t post the other links I put up to answer your questions.

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@Carol…”When will people look at the fact that those who originally came here would be considered “illegal aliens” today.

Remember, there were people already HERE when they arrived. Did they ask permission to stay?”

The word “illegal” means to do something that is in violation of an existing law. Since there is no evidence that the Native Americans had any type of immigration laws in place when the first Europeans arrived in North America, those Europeans violated no laws by coming here. Thus, they were not illegal aliens.

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John Bowman@3:05 a.m.

John, try posting only one link per post. If have found that only one link, not two or more per post, is allowed. I would still appreciate seeing your source. Thank you.

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It’s rather remarkable that the 25 year number cited by Gingrich was made in the month of the 25th year anniversary of the 1986 amnesty that continued for a decade or two after that in the courts. It’s more remarkable that people who call themselves journalists could ignore that juxtaposition.

At what point isn’t it inhumane to expect those in the country illegally to leave as opposed to rewarding that illegality with a legal right to live in this country? What about those who have been here for 20 year, or 15 or 10? Any line will be arbitrary. Those on the wrong side of it will argue, rightly, that the distinction from those on just the other side is without a convincing moral basis. Furthermore whatever line you draw will wither under legal and political pressure. There’s a history of that.

People have to decide if they want immigration limited and illegal immigration controlled. If they don’t care then get rid of the laws that limit people’s ability to immigrate here. But if they do care then they have to accept that enforcing the laws against people illegally in the country is required and reject the notion that doing so is unreasonable or inhumane.

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Immigration reform would generate $4.5 to $5.4 billion in additional net tax revenue over three years,” the letter says. “The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office scored the bi-partisan 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill that was proposed in the Senate as increasing federal revenues by $15 billion over the 2008-2012 period and by $48 billion over the 2008-2017 period.”

Studies from groups across the political spectrum have proven the economic and fiscal benefits of comprehensive immigration reform. By requiring illegal immigrants to register with the government, pay fees and back taxes, and correct their status, we can drastically expand our tax base. A report by the Center for American Progress found that passing comprehensive immigration reform would generate $4.5 to $5.4 billion in additional net tax revenue over three years. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office scored the bi-partisan 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill that was proposed in the Senate as increasing federal revenues by $15 billion over the 2008-2012 period and by $48 billion over the 2008-2017 period.

In addition to expanding our tax base, economists have proven that comprehensive immigration reform would also increase wages for native workers, thereby boosting tax revenues generated by all workers. The CATO Institute found that forcing undocumented immigrants to get right with the law by registering with the government would boost the incomes of U.S. households by $180 billion in 2019, which would also lead to increased government revenues, without increasing tax rates.

Just like our budget deficit, immigration reform is an issue that we cannot afford to ignore. Bipartisan proposals that are tough, fair, and practical have garnered support from across the ideological spectrum in Congress, as well as from President Bush and the current administration. Comprehensive immigration reform would clearly help us reduce our deficit and debt, and would do so without raising tax rates.

US economy largely unaffected by illegal immigration

WASHINGTON — A study released Wednesday concludes that illegal-immigrant workers do not drain jobs or tax dollars and have a neutral impact on the U.S. economy.
Because illegal immigrants occupy a small share of the work force — about 5 percent — and work low-skilled jobs at lower wages than other workers, their overall influence on the economy is trivial, according to the report, sponsored by the Migration Policy Institute, a pro-immigration think tank in Washington.
“The fate of the U.S. economy does not rest on what we do on illegal immigration,” said Gordon H. Hanson, author of the report and economics professor at the University of California-San Diego.
Illegal immigrants contribute a tiny 0.03 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, with that gain going to employers who save money on cheap labor, the report says, while their cost to the economy is 0.10 percent of GDP, which mainly comes from public education and publicly funded emergency health care.
The net impact at minus 0.07 percent of GDP means that illegal immigrants have an essentially neutral effect on the economy, Hanson said.
The report does not factor in the spending or entrepreneurship that illegal immigrants contribute to the economy, said Marc Rosenblum, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.
Where illegal immigrants do have a substantial impact, Hanson added, is in specific labor-intensive and low-skilled industries such as agriculture, construction, hospitality and cleaning services, where the share of native-born workers has dropped precipitously.
Because the U.S. has dramatically raised the education level of its adult population in the last 50 years — going from about 50 percent of all working-age adults without a high school diploma in 1960 to just 8 percent today — the native-born, low-skilled work force has shrunk, while employers continue to require low-skilled workers.
This leaves room for illegal immigrants to take such jobs at a low cost, the report says.
Illegal immigrants now account for 20 percent of working-age adults in the U.S. who don’t have a high school degree.
While the influx of illegal immigrants is one of the factors keeping low-skilled wages stagnant, the biggest losers in the current system are legal low-wage workers, both native and foreign born, who compete with the illegal immigrants, Rosenblum said.
Meanwhile, employers reap higher profits because of lower labor costs and more productive businesses.
The solution to this imbalance, proposed by the Migration Policy Institute, is to provide more visas and legal channels for unskilled workers to enter the U.S.
Today, low-skilled workers must have a green card — effectively requiring them to have close family members in the U.S. — or obtain a temporary work visa.
“We really need to approach migration control comprehensively by both strengthening enforcements and creating legalization mechanisms that will control the unauthorized population and improve the economic outputs that we get from immigration,” Rosenblum said.

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Why Is Cost of Illegal Immigration Ignored In Debt Ceiling Debate?
By Bob Dane
Published July 18, 2011
| FoxNews.com
Print Email Share
While the debt ceiling debate rages and Congress is busy haggling over who should be taxed and what programs should be slashed, they’ve promised to consider all options except…one.
Lawmakers have chosen to forget that immigration is a discretionary social policy that by definition is designed to be adjusted to serve the nation’s broad national interest, particularly during difficult economic times. This discretionary policy is a powerful economic tool, but only if it is brought out and used.

No comprehensive financial fix can be complete without Congress demanding increased enforcement against illegal immigration and reducing legal immigration to sustainable levels.
Reforming immigration would tighten the labor market, open up jobs for legal U.S. residents, and reduce the overall fiscal strain that immigration imposes on health care, education and other social services.
Doing so is an urgent mandate and a legitimate, justified use of policy.
If not now, then when?
Here are four ways that Congress could get to work… now!
1. Increase Enforcement and Reduce Costs
American taxpayers spend $113 billion annually subsidizing illegal immigration and padding the pockets of businesses addicted to cheap labor. Taxpayers at the state and local levels bear the brunt, providing $84 billion in services annually while the federal government spends $29 billion. The latter figure is – incidentally — almost exactly equal to the interest payment on the total federal debt this past April. Of course, the debt continues to grow uncontrollably because the government must borrow to keep up with, among other things, the growing cost of illegal immigration.

In some states, reducing the fiscal burden of illegal immigration would represent nothing short of an economic miracle:
- California’s budget deficit is now $9.6 billion yet the state spends $21.8 billion subsidizing illegal immigration, more than double their deficit.
- Massachusetts could almost clear their books by ending illegal alien subsidies; the state’s deficit is $2 billion while their annual cost of illegal immigration is $1.86 billion.
- Maryland and New York would enjoy much needed surpluses; those state’s expenditures on illegal immigration actually exceed their deficits!
The savings can’t be realized overnight because much of the expense is mandated by law requiring the education of the children of illegal aliens, many of whom are U.S. born, and for emergency medical treatment. But it is a responsible step in the right direction.
Reducing these costs requires the administration to actually enforce existing immigration laws, complete border fencing, allow states to participate in the enforcement process, and otherwise deny benefits and incentives to illegal aliens.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/07/18/why-is-cost-illegal-immigration-ignored-in-debt-ceiling-debate/#ixzz1gA0ONjfG

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No time period at all! Jail everyone of these invaders at Sheriff Joes tent city. Give a six month notice for all illegals to self deport or go to jail, easy as that, and dont cost the government any money. If we have to jail these P.O.S. then so be it. Line them up in rows of twenty and let the military march them back across the border from tent city, arizona. free transportation. I love it!!! First thing is to oust obuma, and then we can get to work. Stop anchor babies from receiveing us birth certificates(mexico lotto tickets) and give them a certificate of birth abroad, and when they go home they get a mexico birth certificate. Thats what other countries do. And thats what is right!

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