U.S. program to deport criminal illegal immigrants has deported high percentages of noncriminals in

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: TWP

Despite vows by the Obama administration to focus its immigration enforcement efforts on criminals, a quarter of those who have been deported through a program called Secure Communities had not been convicted of committing any crime, government statistics show. And that percentage was vastly higher in some jurisdictions, including Prince George's County, where two-thirds of the 86 undocumented immigrants were not criminals.

The Prince George's rate of noncriminal deportation was the second-highest in the country among counties or cities with at least 50 removals, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures through the end of July, the latest numbers made available.

By comparison, 15 percent of the 105 immigrants removed from Prince William County, which has taken a much tougher stance toward illegal immigrants than Prince George's, were not criminals. Even Maricopa County in Arizona - home to Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" - deported noncriminals at a rate of less than half that of Prince George's.

The disparities have left local authorities puzzled and immigrant rights activists outraged.

Immigration officials declined to explain the disparities but defended Secure Communities, which is becoming the nation's central immigration enforcement mechanism.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/20/AR2010122004566.html

[Arctic Dave]

1. Did anyone really think it would be any different than this?

Calling it a criminal sweep was just cover to keep people from speaking up.

[primavera]

34. Exactly

Just another bit of fluff to distract and divert attention. Sadly, it smells just as foul when a Dem administration does it as when a Repuke administration does it.

[Vattel]

2. I understand the idea, but does it have to be so indiscriminate?

Restrict it to persons arrested for violent offenses.

[Unvanguard]

3. Absolutely sickening. One is too many. n/t

[one-eyed fat man]

4. Am I missing something?

Isn't arresting and deporting people who are in the country illegally what ICE is supposed to do?

[ThomCat]

6. Yes, you are missing several things.

1. Our economy depends on illegal immigrants. If they are all deported, or even if many are deported randomly and senselessly it will undermine our economy even more and worse than it already is.

2. Obama promised that this program would be deporting illegal imegrants who had broken some law. They were not going to be deported just because they were here illegally. So these people who have been deported who were law-abiding while they were here represent a broken promise from the President, and/or a violation of the policy mandated by the president.

3. This is happening at the very same time that we are pushing the Dream Act, which offers a way for illegal immigrants to become legal immigrants. It is disingenuous at best to say that we are going to offer them a way to become legal citizens if we are simultaneously rounding them up and kicking them out of the country.

4. ICE has a history of being over-zealous.

ICE has a history of occasionally deporting US Citizens because they don't believe they are citizens, just because they are Hispanic and speak Spanish. Those people are then left in Mexico with no proof of citizenship and have to get someone in the US to come and get them with proof of who they are to bring them back. This happens to people who are disabled and can't defend themselves from ICE. ICE neither apologizes nor does anything to prevent this from happening again.

They have also been known to deport people who had hearings pending to get either green cards or asylum, and ignored that. They didn't care Imigration already knew someone was here and that someone was on track to be here legally. If they could deport someone, that was their only goal.

So whenever ICE is going above and beyond what law and policy calls for to find and deport people, everyone else needs to be concerned about what ICE is really doing, and what rights are being ignored, and who is being victimized along the way in the name of efficiency.

Just because they exist to enforce immigration rules doesn't mean that they exist to do it ruthlessly.

[one-eyed fat man]

7. Came through Ellis Island in 1954

My perspective must be clouded by the fact we had to have a sponsor, visas and all that 'silly legal stuff.' Had a green card when it was still green and resident aliens had to register at the Post Office every January.

Had to wait seven years to apply for naturalization, took a test and everything. Went on to serve 26 years in the US Army.

"So these people who have been deported who were law-abiding while they were here represent a broken promise from the President, and/or a violation of the policy mandated by the president."

Law abiding, except for that being here illegally part. Unless you are saying his promise amounted to a Presidential pardon.

There are immigrants in Mexico, Guatemala, or any of a hundred countries around the globe in line in US Embassies going through the process legally.

But apparently, no need to do all that, sneak past the Border Patrol and you qualify for amnesty.

[EFerrari]

13. The disiplaced Mexican farmers that NAFTA is starving out

can't get "legal stuff" and apparently don't want to let their families drop dead just to suit you. Too bad.

[one-eyed fat man]

20. Whatever blows your skirt up!

Take a number, take a seat, wait your turn is the system. Why would you want to penalize those who follow the law and encourage those who don't?

Just because someone sneaks in and isn't caught at the border he should get a pass?

The Mexican farmer wouldn't be displaced if you quit smoking that shit or at least demanded dead Mexican free dope.

It worked for tuna.

[EFerrari]

28. No. That farmer was displaced by NAFTA. n/t

[Rage for Order]

8. Say what?

"Our economy depends on illegal immigrants. If they are all deported, or even if many are deported randomly and senselessly it will undermine our economy even more and worse than it already is."

Our economy does not depend on illegal immigrants. There are millions of Americans who will do "the jobs Americans won't do". Do you know how hard it is for an ex-con to get a second chance in society? They don't get hired as bank tellers or accountants. They have to take "the jobs that Americans won't do".

"Obama promised that this program would be deporting illegal imegrants (sic) who had broken some law. They were not going to be deported just because they were here illegally. So these people who have been deported who were law-abiding while they were here represent a broken promise from the President, and/or a violation of the policy mandated by the president."

You support the executive branch picking and choosing which laws have to be followed? You must have been extremely pleased with the last administration.

"This is happening at the very same time that we are pushing the Dream Act, which offers a way for illegal immigrants to become legal immigrants. It is disingenuous at best to say that we are going to offer them a way to become legal citizens if we are simultaneously rounding them up and kicking them out of the country."

As of Saturday the DREAM Act is no longer being pushed for.

"ICE has a history of being over-zealous."

ICE has only existed for 8 years. There isn't much history there.

[boppers]

10. "the jobs Americans won't do"

http://www.ufw.org/toj_play/TOJNEW_12_JAL.html

Go ahead, they need more folks.

[Luciferous]

32. Right, because the only jobs that illegal immigrants do are manual

labor on farms :eyes:

My sister in-law is here illegally, and she works quality control. She makes $14/hr. in a part of the country where the cost of living is relatively low... are you telling me that there aren't any Americans that would like to take her job?

[Rage for Order]

37. Already done it

I've washed dishes and peeled hundreds of pounds of shrimp in a steamy kitchen in August in the Deep South, done lawn maintenance all summer in 95+ degree heat with 90% humidity, and I've done construction demolition in the same weather. There aren't many jobs I wouldn't do.

[EFerrari]

11. No, the poster is exactly right.

Our economy does depend on illegal immigrants to do things like keep Social Security afloat.

Obama did promise to pick up criminals, not working people.

And ICE is abusive, negligent and maybe criminal. Search for deaths in ICE custody.

[one-eyed fat man]

18. I might almost buy that one.

The administration is quite happy to keep the taxes they collect from bogus people with bogus documents. When an employer sends in payroll taxes and the SSAN numbers of all the folks he is paying on the government can tell you which numbers belong to dead people or which numbers are being used by 42 other chicken pluckers in six other states.

Contractors are quite happy to pay "cash" under the table to people digging ditches and pushing wheelbarrows.

That part of the economy that takes advantage of the illegal by screwing him on pay because he can't go to the law should be thrown in jail.

[EFerrari]

21. Illegal Immigrants Are Bolstering Social Security With Billions

Illegal immigrants who worked in a vineyard in Clarksburg, Calif., paid taxes for Social Security and Medicare, but will not get any benefits.

By EDUARDO PORTER

Published: April 5, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html

It's quite a scam, isn't it?

[one-eyed fat man]

22. Once again

"Starting in the late 1980's, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect - sometimes simply fictitious - Social Security numbers."

Let's put the blame where it belongs. Any business which has a payroll to meet, even if it is a one man operation has to make tax payments to the government. When they make those payments, they have to show the SSAN of the person those taxes are against.

Don't you think the dimmest bureaucratic drone would have enough initiative to ask, "Hey, vineyard owner, Manuel Labor has got a social security number from some geezer in Tupelo whose been dead since 1949, you wanna check that out?" So while the fake documents might fool the guy doing the hiring, someone in the government knows that something is wrong, and doesn't inform the employer.

If you had illegals working for you with fake papers would you want to know? Maybe your social security number is picking grapes in California, skinning chickens in Alabama, laying concrete blocks in Illinois, and bending tacos in Brooklyn. You might make out like a bandit collecting off 4 jobs when you retire.

Employers are required to report their payroll tax obligations and to deposit payroll taxes in a timely manner. Reporting requirements include:

* Making federal tax deposits
* Annual federal unemployment tax return (Form 940 or 940EZ)
* Employer's quarterly payroll tax return (Form 941)
* Annual Return of Withheld Federal Income Tax (Form 945)
* Wage and Tax Statements (Form W-2)

Every 90 days an employer submits the SSAN of every employee on his payroll. ICE could easily come and check every bogus number at every employer. If they are not, it's not because they are too dumb to think of it. Someone has made a policy decision for them not to.

[ThomCat]

17. Telling me that I would have been pleased with Bush is an Ad Hominem

attack. It is a sign that you don't have anything logical to say, and it's against the rules. Grow up.

Your entire post shows that I'm right. You don't have anything logical to say.

I never, ever used the term "jobs Americans won't do." I have worked some of those jobs too. I don't think there is any such job that Americans won't do.

Realistically though, the restaurant industry here in NYC would collapse without undocumented workers. They would lose almost everyone who words in every kitchen and at ever deli counter. There just aren't that many people who could take over those jobs without all needing extensive training in everything.

The construction industry and contractors would lose a hell of a lot of the flexible labor who are available when jobs suddenly need people for just one day, or just a short period of time. Many of them who skills that are not easily replaced.

And, the job of harvesting fruit goes to undocumented immigrants by default because, seriously, nobody else has been lining up to take seasonal jobs. They are physically brutal jobs, far away from home, and the horribly low pay is based on performance, not on any hourly rate. Even among unattractive jobs, it's the unattractive job. But it isn't the migrant workers preventing you or anyone else from working in the fields. Feel free to go out there an apply with them.

Yes, you are right that The Dream Act got voted down yesterday. But that doesn't mean it isn't still being pushed for. Many acts get voted down, get resubmitted, and come back up for a vote many, many times before they become law. This might not come back around again this term. It might take a year, or two. But it isn't dead. It still has a lot of people on the Hill pushing for it.

Do you really think that by saying an agency is only 8 years old that this somehow means is really doesn't have a history yet? If you incorporated 8 years ago and you are looking for financing, should the credit agencies look at your payment history, or should they give you their lowest rating because 8 years isn't enough time to have a history yet? What total nonsense you are spewing!

[Rage for Order]

38. You didn't specifically say "jobs Americans won't do"...

However, when you say that the restaurant industry would collapse without "undocumented workers", you are implying that "documented workers" (aka legal residents) would not step in to fill the void. I call BS on your assumption. Rather than making a profit of $350,000 a year, the restaurant owner would have to offer a higher wage and "settle" for a profit of $200,000 a year. The same is true of construction and agriculture jobs. I'm certainly willing to pay $0.50 more for a head of lettuce, or $1.00 more per pound for tomatoes. Contrary to popular belief, some things are more important than getting the absolute rock-bottom price on every single item purchased.

[ThomCat]

45. I call BS on your understanding of restaurants.

Most restaurants skate on the edge of profitability as it is. The margin isn't very high. You think there is enough of a margin to instantly raise wages for everyone in the kitchen? How much?

And how about the cost of training all those new people?

And, while you say you are willing to pay $0.50 more for a head of lettuce, or $1.00 for a pound of tomatoes, every time there is a real vote on raising the rates on produce to provide better wages, those votes fail. Every time. So obviously there aren't a lot of people like you voting, or else you're just saying that because you can on the anonymity of a message board. If/when it really hit your wallet, would really back that up?

And, no I didn't imply anything. Don't get a job as a mind reader. You're lose that job as an incompetent very quickly.

[Rage for Order]

47. And you would be wrong

I've worked as a busboy, waiter, prep cook, and dishwasher, and one of my brothers is a chef in New Orleans and has been for over 20 years, so I'd say that my understanding of restaurants is rather thorough.

Your argument is the same one used by those who oppose increasing the minimum wage: "You think there is enough of a margin to instantly raise wages for everyone in the kitchen? How much?"

Were you against increasing the federal minimum wage? If not, why not? If a restaurant owner's business model is so bad that the only way they can stay afloat is by employing illegal aliens at below-market wages then they should find a new line of work.

"Don't get a job as a mind reader. You're lose that job as an incompetent very quickly."

I would recommend that you not take a job as proofreader; you're (sic) lose that job as an incompetent very quickly.

:hi:

[ThomCat]

48. Wow. Every time you post you seem to have worked

more and more low payed, low skilled jobs. Most people eventually work their way into a career somewhere, either through on the job training, or education, or the military, or something. It's unusual to see someone who only works an endless number of minimum wage jobs in so many different fields. Not that I'm saying that this implies anything...

Your comment about Minimum wage increasing is apples to oranges. Raising the minimum wage would be raising wages while keeping all your skilled staff, as opposed to raising wages while also replacing most of your staff and having to training all of the new people all at once, which costs down-time and additional money.

If you really have worked in a restaurant then you know that safe food-handling skills, food prep skills, and even the level of constant and thorough cleanliness needed in any restaurant are all things that people have to be taught. You don't bring any of this this with you if you have never worked in a restaurant before. You only either learn these things either through training at work or by going to a culinary school.

As for having a brother who is a Chef, good for him, but that's hardly relevant to you. I had a chef in my family too. My favorite uncle who taught me how to cook. But who we are related to is only that, unless you worked in the restaurant.

Congratulations on being the spelling police. I have a disability that now affects my use of my hands, so I now make occasional typos unless spell check catches them. If it makes you feel like a big man to make an something about it, have a ball.

[Rage for Order]

61. Right you are

I did eventually move into a different career. I started in the restaurant industry as a busboy when I was 16 years old, worked in the kitchen as a dishwasher and prep cook for a couple of years, then decided I preferred working with the public so I went back to bussing tables and eventually moved up to waiting tables (more money). I got out of the restaurant industry at the age of 23, after 7 years. It was Chappy's Seafood Restaurant on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It's no longer there; Hurricane Katrina wiped it out completely. The owner took the insurance money, moved to Nashville, and opened http://chappys.com/html/history.html">Chappy's on Church. Any other questions about my bona fides?

Would some restaurants face difficulties? Certainly, but only the ones that employ illegal workers almost exclusively. However, given the fact that the http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/unemployment-rate-dips-again/">unemployment rate in NYC is at roughly 9.4%, I think it would be easier that you think to restaff those kitchens. The core knowledge would remain, and those people would pass aling their knowledge to the new hires; that's how it's done in all businesses, and the restaurant industry isn't rocket science. Not at the lower levels in the food chain. If you really know anything about working in a restaurant, you know that almost all restaurants face the same problems so the language is universal among people who have worked in the industry.

And yes, I did work with my brother in a restaurant for a few years. We both got our start in the restaurant business at Chappy's. Would you like to guess how many illegal aliens are working in his kitchen in New Orleans? Zero. However, he does have a couple of ex-cons working in the kitchen. It's simply amazing that they're able to keep the doors open while having to pay legal residents.

[AngryAmish]

23. ICE has a history of occasionally deporting US Citizens

[Iggo]

5. Because it was never about criminals.

It was about brown people.

And it's working perfectly.

[EFerrari]

12. Brown people and the prison industry. n/t

[getthefacts]

9. And Gov. Patrick

Just signed Massachusetts up for it. He promised he would not do it just thirty days ago when he needed all of those Hispanic and Brazilian-American voters in Boston.

[DissedByBush]

14. "immigrant rights activists"

Huh? You're here illegally, you get deported, what's the problem?

Sometimes I think we should just adopt Mexico's immigration laws verbatim so everybody would shut up.

But I wouldn't do that.

I'm not for laws that are that draconian against not only illegals, but legal immigrants too.

[EFerrari]

16. You know that even undocumented immigrants have human rights, right?

[one-eyed fat man]

24. Yes

They have the right to a fair hearing, and if here illegally, a plane ticket home.

They are not undocumented, most of them have forged, false, bogus, documents...they are ILLEGAL as their paperwork.!

[EFerrari]

25. They also have due process rights and rights as prisoners.

Whether they have docs, no docs or fake docs.

[one-eyed fat man]

26. The right to due process does not mean

they have the right to be here. It does not mean that they have the right to forged documents. It does not mean they have the right to steal your identity to trick someone into giving them a job.

Due process means if they are determined to be here illegally through a fair immigration hearing, then they get deported.

Due process does not mean they get to avoid deportation just because except for the being here illegally part they haven't done anything else illegal too.

[EFerrari]

27. These people really get to you, don't they?

No, that's not what due process of law means. :)

[one-eyed fat man]

30. What precisely is it about the words due process?

I maintain that due process means that they are entitled to a fair hearing, and to be treated fairly under the law.

You insist, "No, that's not what due process of law means"

Then explain it to me. What part of being in the country illegally qualifies as due process?

If I sneak into your house how long do I need to stay there before I have as much right to be there as you do?

[AlphaCentauri]

29. driving in some cases is the reason for deportation

not necessarily crime

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4668489

[one-eyed fat man]

31. Being in the country illegally is reason enough.

the case you mention the guy was caught and deported once before.

"He was arrested and deported in 1995."

I see a reason to have a way out for little kids who were brought into the country illegally to have a path to citizenship. The shouldn't suffer for what their parents did. But blanket amnesty just to reward those who broke the law is an affront to all those who played by the rules and immigrated legally or are still trying.

[AlphaCentauri]

33. Under the law you are not a criminal for crossing the border without supervision

nor driving a car nor not stopping at a red light.

Why not clean the house, make them all legal.

[MikeW]

35. pretty simple ... take care of our own first

When Americans return to employment then we can worry about someone else's children.

Right now Mexicans should be working to fix their own country.

[AlphaCentauri]

43. They won't be able to fix their country as long as we keep using drugs n/t

[ThomCat]

46. We broke the Mexican Economy.

Why shouldn't we bear some responsibility for fixing it?

As to your whole absolutist notion about taking care of our own first, how about you apply that Native Americans first? This was their nation first. We took it from them, with force, with disease, and by breaking every single treaty we ever signed.

We broke every treaty!

Clearly, we should be owing them some kind of reparations to fix their economy. After all, they no longer have the means to even have an economy any more separate from ours because of what we did. They are now entirely dependent upon us, and deliberately made them that way.

So you really think that America should take care of America first, then let's take that seriously, and take care of the First American's first. Then take care of the First Immigrants, the established America, and our people, our needs and our infrastructure.

So what do you say?

[one-eyed fat man]

49. You are right.

"They are now entirely dependent upon us, and deliberately made them that way."

Actually, the intent was to make them completely dependent on the government. What the reservations and the BIA did for Pine Ridge, the Great Society did for the Ninth Ward. Took a once proud people, destroyed the culture, the traditions, and reduced them the complete dependence on the the handout.

Consumers could stop the killing! Dopers just need to demand "dead Mexican free" dope!

It worked for dolphins and tuna!

As long as dopers spend this kind of cash:



They are paying for this level of armament:



(As an aside, anyone who thinks cartels with access to that kind of money are buying their weaponry, one gun at a time, retail, over the counter in Houston has smoked a couple tons of that shit already!)

and funding this level of butchery!



You smoke it, you buy it, you pay for it and you underwrite the trade and all that goes with it, with your cash.

Grow your own or get the law changed!

The same criminal organizations that smuggle the dope smuggle desperate people across the border too. That is if they just don't take their money and leave them dead in the desert.

Let's put the blame where it belongs. Any business which has a payroll to meet, even if it is a one man operation has to make quarterly tax payments to the government. Every 90 days an employer submits the SSAN of every employee on his payroll. So even if the bogus documents fooled the employer, the government knows they are bogus. They do not tell the employer, but he is at risk at being arrested, fined, or jailed, if he is found to have illegals working for him.

ICE could easily come and check every bogus number at every employer. If they are not, it's not because they are too dumb to think of it. Someone in government has made a policy decision for them not to.

[MikeW]

56. hmm where to start

First of all to be honest most ordinary people could care less what happened to the Indians (far too long ago). But there's always a screamer at DU that wants to go back in history WAY BACK. But I say FAIR is FAIR ... lets go back all the way to the ROMANS !!! My people were slaughtered THEY OWE ME MONEY!!!!

Secondly, Indians got lots of land, tax free, they are allowed to start Casinos without normal regulation and a host of other businesses.

We have a tribe near where I live, for the most part they all are hard working people, some are losers not unlike the rest of society.

I have a neighbor whos a member, I didnt even know it until he said he was taking his kids there for a cultural event.

Other than that he owns his own very successful business.

I dont see what you expect to be done, are you suggesting we pay reparations? Then fine you can do it, my relatives had nothing to do with Indians and their conquest so I dont owe them a dime.

See its not as easy as you make it out to be.

[ThomCat]

62. Native Americans were given "lots of land?"

Are you kidding?

The idea of reparations is based on penalties for broken treaties. Breaking treaties is essentially breaking the law on a national scale. Treaties become law once they are signed. The US broke Every Single Treaty we ever signed with Native Americans.

Your family might not have personally done anything against Native American's but they chose to become Americans, for good and bad. So if America violates treaties and then has to make good for those violations, your family is now part of America and is part of the America that would have to make good for having violated those treaties.

As far as I'm aware, we never violated any treaties with ancient Rome, so your analogy doesn't make any sense.

So far, the attitude has been that the US is so powerful that we just don't care that we have broken our treaties. It is because of our strength that we were able to break treaties, and because of our strength that we could ignore the fact that we broke them. But one way or another, eventually, some type of justice may come due.

[one-eyed fat man]

36. Run that by me again?

If coming into the country illegally is not illegal then why do we have a border patrol at all?

If as you say, there's nothing wrong with running a red light, why will you get a ticket if they catch you?

It might not rise to a felony like bank robbery or murder, it is still against the law.

It's been almost 55years since I had to study Latin, but 'lege' is the Latin for LAW and and the root of 'illegal' which still means AGAINST THE LAW.

Why reward the scofflaws?

[AlphaCentauri]

41. Illegal refers most specifically to an action there are no illegal people

nobody has an illegal child, it could be illegitimate but not illegal.

So running a red light doesn't make you illegal or criminal neither crossing the border.

[one-eyed fat man]

44. Silly word games.

Running a red light, crossing the border, reusing postage stamps, using forged documents, are all against the law, by definition that makes those acts illegal.

People who do things which are illegal are scofflaws and criminals.

If I sneak into your house, how long do I need to stay there before you can no longer throw me out?

[ProudDad]

53. Being undocumented in USAmerica

is NOT a crime (yet)...

Not even here in bat-shit crazy Arizona (yet)...

It's a civil offense...

[one-eyed fat man]

54. It's a civil offense...

is that somehow different from being against the law?

No, it's not bank robbery, which is a crime. Smoking indoors in many places is against the law, is that a rude offense?

Is being "undocumented" with faked, forged, or bogus Social Security numbers, driver's licenses a civil offense too?

It might not be a CRIME, but it is still illegal.

We are not talking about tearing the tag off your mattress.

Illegal immigrants are people who are in the country unlawfully. They are not the same as the immigrants who got visas, applied for entry and did what they were supposed to do.

Some folks don't think it's right to "cut" the line.

Just because illegal entry is NOT a crime does NOT mean it is legal, quit pretending it does!

[DissedByBush]

39. We tried amnesty before

We're right back in the same boat now, even worse.

[MikeW]

57. finally someone who sees the light

[DissedByBush]

40. And they get due process

They're caught, they're determined to be illegal, they're deported. That's their due process.

Full disclosure: I am married to a LEGAL immigrant.

We went through the process and even had to endure a separation because of it.

So, no, I have little if any sympathy for those who didn't bother.

But you'd have to be an idiot to claim I'm anti-immigrant.

[DissedByBush]

42. Of course, that's why I don't like the Mexican laws

I fail to see where human rights were violated here.

BTW, you mean illegal aliens, right? I think that's the proper legal definition for the euphemism you're using.

Alien = Any person not a citizen or national of the United States

Illegal = In violation of the laws of the United States

Thus illegal alien, a non-citizen in the US who is here in violation of the laws of the US.

[Downwinder]

15. The last time we did this we had the Dust Bowl.

People from the Dust Bowl states filled the migrant worker jobs. Perhaps nature will take a hand this time with climate change/global warming to force a cultural revolution getting people out of the cities and back to agricultural and manual labor jobs.

[Lance_Boyle]

19. Illegal border crossing is a crime, so most likely those who are deported *are* criminals.

If they overstayed a legal visa so that their illegal presence here is only a civil matter, I still have no beef with deporting them. That's what immigration enforcement is all about. Illegals need to be deported. Period.

[Cutatious]

50. It is criminal to come into America illegally

But what I really don't understand is why Mexico's best and brightest don't stay there and work to make THEIR country better instead of illegally coming to America? If half of their efforts to run away from the problems of Mexico were focused on bettering conditions there then it would be a win for them and their country.

[ProudDad]

52. No, it's not...

It's a civil offense...

And to answer your question because NAFTA, GATT and other policies of the rich people (here and there) have taken away their resources and their ability to sustainably live in their own country... :shrug:

They are just coming up to where their resources went to get a little back...

[one-eyed fat man]

55. Resource reallocation specialist

"They are just coming up to where their resources went to get a little back..."

I have been looking at it all wrong!!

I am sure if you go home this evening and find your home broken into you will have nothing but admiration for the thieves who had the initiative to 'redistribute your wealth' without waiting on a government program to do it.

What it is is the Mexican economy is held up by two exports, dope and sweat.

Mexico has no incentive to stop illegal immigration from their side because a big chunk of the money that gets sent back from the US is spent in Mexico.

And it's not all migrant workers or cash day laborers hodding bricks. There are a lot of bogus W4s and taxes collected and sent to the US government on all those phony papers illegals use to get jobs.

[MikeW]

59. id say your wrong, if your cuffed and arrested Id say you committed a crime

[bitchkitty]

64. LOL

They should just pull themselves up by their boot straps and tell those mean old cartel killers and police who are just as bad as the cartel to STOP! Stop messing up Mexico!

The American dream doesn't work in Mexico. It doesn't even work here anymore.

[ProudDad]

51. How can you keep on movin' unless you migrate too?

(Agnes Cunningham)
(C) - (F) - (G)

(C) How can you keep on moving un (F) less you migrate (C) too
They tell ya to keep on moving but (G) migrate, you must not do
The (C) only reason for moving and the (F) reason why I (C) roam
To move to a new lo (G) cation and find myself a (C) home

I can't go back to the homestead, the shack no longer stands
They said I was unneeded, had no claim to the land
They said, "Come on, get moving, it's the only thing for you"
But how can you keep moving unless you migrate too

Now if you pitch your little tent along the broad highway
The Board of Sanitation says, "Sorry, you can't stay"
Come on, come on, get moving it's their everlasting cry
Can't stay, can't go back, can't migrate, so where the hell am I

How can you keep on moving unless you migrate too
They tell ya to keep on moving but migrate, you must not do
The only reason for moving and the reason why I roam
To move to a new location and find myself a home

[MikeW]

58. Id like to know this ...

Why is it that people want to treat Mexicans / Hispanics any different than any other nationality that wants to come to the US.

I mean if you listen to the Hispanic Caucus they think their people should just be able to stroll into the US and plant themselves down

and we are supposed to ignore law and policy and give them Amnesty.

What about the Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Irish and anyone else who wants to come here.

Oh thats right, in general they do it the legal way.

I want to know why the Hispanic Caucus things any one group is more important or should rec. special treatment over another.

[tabasco]

60. OMG! Illegal aliens deported! The horror!

We should give them medals for avoiding immigration and making it through!

[panzerfaust]

63. "not been convicted of committing any crime" .. BS! This is America.

I'll bet they were all Hispanic - crime enough in Virginia.

"Immigration officials declined to explain the disparities but defended Secure Communities ...
Launched by the George W. Bush administration and expanded dramatically by the Obama administration, Secure Communities ..."

? More Change you can Believe in

Virginia's State Motto: Sic Semper Tyrannis (Thus Always to Tyrants).

You just can't make this stuff up.