The Cost of Illegal Immigration

[Jkwas]

Click here if you want to get stocked up on Amero's....

Great. Thanks for scaring the he** out of me!
To quote Taggart from blazing saddles  "I am depressed"

[Teresa Heilevang]

Awwwww.. I'm sorry~~~ don't be depressed.....


(((((((But be aware..... their coooooominggggggg])))))

 

[Teresa Heilevang]

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2008/january/0118_id_rules1.shtml

Chertoff: Tougher ID Rules for Borders
By EILEEN SULLIVAN and DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press
January 18, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- New border-crossing rules that take effect in two weeks will mean longer lines and stiffer demands for ID, including for returning Americans, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.

A driver's license won't be good enough to get Americans past a checkpoint at the Canadian or Mexican border, Chertoff said. That will be a surprise to many people who routinely cross the border with Canada, but Chertoff bristled at criticism that such extra security would be inconvenient. More than 800,000 people enter the U.S. through land and sea ports each day.

''It's time to grow up and recognize that if we're serious about this threat, we've got to take reasonable, measured but nevertheless determined steps to getting better security,'' he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Thousands of people enter the U.S. through land crossings every day. The biggest effect of the change will be at the Canadian border since it applies to both Canadians and Americans. Non-Americans coming in through Mexico already need extra documentation.

Congressional critics representing Northern border states were anything but impressed with Chertoff's rhetoric.

His department has proved incapable of implementing a 2004 law on border security, and Chertoff ''frankly has as much credibility on telling people to 'grow up' as Geoffrey the Giraffe,'' said Rep. Tom Reynolds, a Buffalo-area Republican.

Added Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, ''Secretary Chertoff's comments that those objecting to the plan need to 'grow up' indicates that the department still doesn't understand the practical effects of DHS policies on the everyday lives of border community residents.''

Sen. Patrick Leahy, Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the move does nothing to enhance security and will only hurt the economy. ''When it comes to the Northern Border, the muddled thinking and poor planning at DHS seems to have no bounds, and the agency that botched Katrina seems to have no shame and no memory to boot,'' Leahy said.

Under the new system, which takes effect Jan. 31, Americans and Canadians who are 19 or older will have to present proof of citizenship when they seek to enter the United States through a land or sea port of entry. A passport will be fine. Or a birth certificate coupled with some other ID such as a driver's license.

Chertoff said he had been surprised to learn that simply stating ''I am an American'' and showing an ID card has been sufficient to get back into the country. ''I don't think in this day and age we can afford the honor system for entering the United States,'' he said. ''Regrettably, we live in a world in which people lie sometimes about their identity.''

For people other than Americans or Canadians, the rules at the northern border will be unchanged -- passports and visas will still be required. The same goes for non-Americans at the Mexican border.

Chertoff said longer lines at the border in the early days of the new policy are inevitable. ''Until people get the message, there will be some delays,'' he said.

He predicted that would change once people got used to the new system, and he said border agents would be flexible in applying the new rules at the beginning.

Not moving to the new restrictions would be a tragic mistake, Chertoff said. ''I can guarantee if we don't make this change, eventually there will come a time when someone will come across the border exploiting the vulnerabilities in the system and some bad stuff will happen. And then there'll be another 9/11 commission and we'll have people come saying 'Why didn't we do this?'''

More than 8,000 different documents have been used to enter the United States, in some cases even library cards. The proof-of-citizenship requirement will greatly reduce the ability to sneak by border agents with fake papers, Chertoff said. Border agents will now accept about two dozen types of ID.

Chertoff complained as recently as a year ago that checking birth certificates placed an ''enormous burden'' on agents because such documents come from thousands of jurisdictions and are hard to verify.

The Bush administration envisions an eventual passport requirement for everyone crossing the border into the United States. Congress passed a travel requirements law in 2004 but is having second thoughts, particularly as Northern-state lawmakers argue the passport requirement will hurt tourism and trade.

The law's requirements for air travelers in 2007 were followed by a massive backlog in passport applications, and some fear that will happen again this year as Homeland Security tries to go forward with the changes for land and sea crossings.

Also beginning in February, people can apply for a passport card that will be smaller than a regular passport but will include security features.

The 2004 law, passed in reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks, is called the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, designed to ''get control'' of the borders by verifying the citizenship and identity of everyone entering the U.S. by land, sea or air from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

In June, Chertoff delayed the law's passport requirement for land and sea crossings until next summer. Congress has since pushed it back even further to June 2009, and Chertoff has been forced to settle for birth certificates combined with other forms of ID as proof of citizenship.

[DDMac]

Where does one go for the subsidized, embedded microchip line? I'm afraid I might lose my "papers" and be detained. Who among the candidates is for this plan and who is against? What happens if, in let's say, Kansas, a government official interviews a suspect who has no new, high tech ID and can't speak English? Will anything actually be done, or will the individual be given gas money to get to his next landscaping job? It is already illegal for undocumented people to be here. Like gun control laws that only affect the law abiding, this is just layering. And it's not immigration, it's invasion, in the guise of Free Trade.  Mac.

[jerry]

I have bypassed this thread and bypassed it..
Buuuttttt....
Try as I might.. I just can not seem to keep my mouth shut on this topic.
 It literally infuriates me.. 

Just last week, I was arguing the illegal immigration issue with a person who was visiting a friend of mine. I pointed out that every other country in the world guards its borders, and that definitely includes Mexico, which protects its own southern border while violating our own on a daily basis. He said he didn’t care what other countries did. He believed that America, being America, should have a welcome mat out for anyone who wants to enter. He didn’t want to slam the door in the face of poor people. I told him he was a hypocrite. After all, I knew for a fact that he had locks on the windows and doors of his home. Why shouldn’t poor people be allowed to enter his dwelling and set up housekeeping in his living room?”

I have such strong feelings about this subject that if I get started, I won't ever stop.
Maybe I can say this in less than 1 billion words...

I think that there are different countries for reasons...
You may visit a country..any country...coming in the right and legal way..( not with a back pack on and 17 family members trailing behind you wading across the rivers border.........

Visit our country... BUT if you are not willing to go through ALL the red tape and legal paper work to be a permanent citizen... take on our English language as the one you will speak.. abide by our laws and customs, have work so you can support yourself, and pay U.S. taxes....
Then stay the hell out!
We don't need or want any more people to have to subsidize!

 The United States is literally busting at the seams!
You can not over crowd the stew pot with the too many different kinds of vegetables..
after awhile.. you don't have stew.. you just have a mushy mess that  isn't worth anything.
 
Everyone wants to come to America and do what? Do they want to be Americans and act like Americans? No!
80-90% collect food stamps, have housing, and medical cards..and who pays for it? WE DO.. and we have people who are American citizens who can't afford insurance and are living in less than desirable housing..and working full time!
We have children that are abused and hungry and old people that can't afford a/c in the summer or heat in the winter.. We have homeless people on our streets and we want to allow every other country to dump their homeless and poor on us?
 I don't think so! 

America IS NOT a giant welcome mat! And what really chaps my hide is that when they sneak in here illegally.. we coddle them.. They are breaking the law!~~and we give them money and food and housing and benefits and they commit crimes and we know that they are not legal citizens.. and we still coddle them, and give them more money for lawyers etc..
 WHAT in the hell is wrong with this picture!??!
 And do we send them back immediately? Noooooo... we let them stay!
They refuse to speak English.. they bash our customs.. they want their own churches and their own grocery stores etc etc etc... the list goes on and on and on.....
If they want everything that they have in their own country then why in the name of  the Lord don't they just STAY in their own country!?

If anyone thinks I am heartless, their wrong. I care about people as much as anyone.. but we can NOT save the world.. and to try to save the world we are going to destroy ours...In fact we are on the way  down.. We can not support everyone.. it's killing us.

There! I've had my say... ( as usual) 

AMEN SISTER

[Sponsor]

[Rastus]

The cost of illegal immigration, that's a simple two word answer!


Our Nation.

[Hazcat]

Cost of illegal immigration?  About .24 per round for my 45LC.

[wisconsin]

My Grandparents immigrated from Germany after WW1 and gave me the freedom that I enjoy to this day with absolutly no effort on my part. I was born into this land a US citizen simply by birth. They did something I'm not sure I would of had the guts to do. Leave a life in a country that you were born in. Travel to a new land on a boat with your life packed into two suitcases,learn a new language, its customs and earn the right to become an American citizen.He did this all by himself with no help from others.Then sent for his wife. Then the two of them hacked out a life in this land with my mother in tow. I often wonder what he would of said about what is going on in this land regarding immigration considering he had to earn the right to be come an citizen of this great country.I have to agree with Jerry on his posting regarding this issue. And I don't believe it to racist in any form. But it seems that lately in our country that if you express your opnion on this subject the way we are doing here today you must be a racist. Wrong! To my grandparents William & Elizabeth I thank you for the sacrifices you had to make so that I can get up every morning with a cup of coffee, watch the news and bitch about whats going on in this great land.

[cookie62]

But it seems that lately in our country that if you express your opnion on this subject the way we are doing here today you must be a racist. Wrong!

They call it POLITICALLY CORRECT.  What it means is, Agree or you area racist for not agreeing with me.

[DDMac]

A host can only support a certain number of parasites before the relationship proves fatal to both. They aren't all parasites, I suppose. Some may actually want to stay and participate, a good thing, but those aren't the front page news around here.  Mac.