immigration splinken "...an all i could see was america, stretchin' away in every direction. i got this mad idea---if i jumped off the empire state buildin' i could land anywhere in america i wanted..." ***Proinsias Cassidy, illegal alien from Preacher: Proud Americans, by Garth Ennis 001017 ... Miner Is far too hard, all the places worth living are impossible to get into. Well probably apart from England, but it’s not really much of a place to emigrate to if you already live there. Oh well I guess for now at least, I will have to make do with holidays. 010508 ... destructed my friend and I were really wasted one nite and decided we were gonna grow a feild of weed and hire....IMMIGRANTS to pick our buds. :) 010605 ... Phil Mexico and other countries South of the border are what make us rich. They trade with us in a way that benefits our economy and damages their own. Also the culture of Mexico is beautiful and vibrant in our cities and is an integral part of our culture, without this mingling of cultures our culture would have no value. Mexican culture is the traditional culture of the U.S. Spanish settlers to Mexico did not wipe out and round up the native population like we did, perhaps some wanted to, but they blended with it and have a mixed culture as ancient as the original inhabitants, and they have a valuable culture. This is something Americans have always been missing. We may have financial wealth, but they have a deep and rich culture we do not have. They are the native population we chased out of the south west, and we mistreated them the same way we mistreated other native populations. Today we can do something to heal the wounds of the past, or we can learn nothing and ignore the guilt and the promise we have made to heal these wounds. We are ignoring the fact that we lied and stole this land. We send our hearts out to repressed people around the world, and ignore our own ugly past. At least we are ignoring it now, when faced with the reality of the poverty we helped create, as it is coming back to our country. This is not a simple one side is right one side is wrong issue, we have to face the facts. Without understanding the reason we have a problem, we are unable to stop the problem, as you have seen. Erecting a fence along a border is not a rational solution! Citizens of the U.S. are seeking to fortify our strengths, and separate it from Mexico. Who did the necessary farm labour in this country during World War 1? Who sent money to their families from Mexico during the depression? Most of us do not appreciate anything about Mexico, except tacos. United States citizens feel their government is just as corrupt as Mexicans feel their government is. If you went to Mexico you wouldn't understand their way of life, their laws, or language. When foreigners come here, they do have a hurdle to get over and are easy targets for egocentric viewpoints to start attacking them. How we treat our foreign invasion is a reflection of our values and our past, it is not about how the invading foreigners treat us. They know crossing the border is breaking a law, if we lived next to a rich country many of our citizens would do the same thing. What makes us any different from them? Nothing. There is nothing a fence can do to stop this problem. Deporting criminals to another country does not solve any of our problems, but we can look at our past and learn to not make those mistakes a second time. It is better to look at the situation we are in with a sobering perspective, and we can't say illegal immigrants are anything more than our own fault. How are we improving the situation by returning Mexicans to Mexico City? Pretending we are separate nations, with separate people, and separate problems. We are very much intertwined, and although these are illegal, non-citizens, we are talking about, there are many among them who are simply desperate men. For every one of them that crosses the border in desperation, we believe that makes us poor. We forget the legal residents we sent over that border illegally in the other direction, to make us think we are rich! I hope this helped you, however you feel about it. 100521 ... Phil People like to bash on the little guy and blame all our problems on illegal immigrants, but it is just not the case. You get dirt poor people who only want a job and can't afford to learn English, don't trust our government enough to pay $500 dollars just to get denied Visa, or get deported when they are no longer welcome. It is going to take 5 years to earn our rights, and our government has not always treated immigrants fairly, and they deny many people for various reasons. I do know that what is reported on the news is going to be the most alarming statistics possible in order to get attention. So you have to take those statistics with a grain of salt. I also know some people simply enjoy lying about immigration and love supporting bigotry. Money is the big reason for illegal immigration. For one, they can't afford to travel back and forth to visit their family and it costs so much to bring your family. If they just want to work, the problems with employers in the United States should not be forgotten, or that government that stole land from legal residents. They may falsely believe with coming over illegally is a better choice for them but that is as much our fault for discrimination and we are still being discriminatory only this time with illegal immigrants. People who want you to only focus on the problems that illegal immigrantion causes instead of the problems we are causing immigrants. Then we try to solve it by building a big fence. Wow, way to show them how much money we are willing to waste to accomplish nothing while their country remains and undeveloped and interfered with mess. Damage to the economy, lowering our morals, and criminalized areas cannot be udnerstood let alone blamed on any one source. None of these accusations can be proven, and no illegal immigrant has the time or the rights to disprove them either. For those that commit trafficking crimes, its worth the risk because they are paid by the U.S. citizens, and you can do it because they are already criminals with no way to make money. Maybe if we were not wasting our time, money, and intelligence on illicit substances we wouldn't be in this financial crisis. The real reason immigrants are illegal is that they are poor, misinformed, intimidated, and untrusting. It is easy to fault them for immigrating illegally, because of that we can take advantage of them, not only making money off of them but also blaming all our problems on them. The reasons why you might be an illegal can be understood without the witch hunt mentality people in this country are forming. They are also, Mexican, a discriminated minority, and we demand they speak English, which only makes matters worse. So all these factors come into play, you shouldn't lump all illegal immigrants together and say they are causing a myriad of problems they do not actually cause. Hurting our economy and stealing our jobs, whatever! If they work, then there is nothing wrong with them and they should be considered a blessing. The arguments clearly show that all we value is money, and not the work that gets done. If they come over here to work and make $3 an hour, you kind of have to wonder what the hell they are doing here without first becoming citizens, trying to feed themselves? They also work for less than we do in their own country, which we benefit from in the form of low cost merchandise. When they come here and make that much money we don't benefit. It is greedy. Accusing them of hurting our economy shows the world we are wealthy American pigs who do not understand that people around the world are poor and it shows we expect to help everyone without working ourselves. Even though we are all the same people. 100522 ... f thats what happens when you think you can own land. thats what happens when you fancy yourself. 100807 ... f to what planet? 100807 ... f to what planet? 100807 ... Phil Mars it would seem 120105 what's it to you? who go blather from