3M illegal aliens enter US in 1 year

[Robert Oak]

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101040920/story.html

<snip>
In a single day, more than 4,000 illegal aliens will walk across the busiest unlawful gateway into the U.S., the 375-mile border between Arizona and Mexico. No searches for weapons. No shoe removal. No photo-ID checks. Before long, many will obtain phony identification papers, including bogus Social Security numbers, to conceal their true identities and mask their unlawful presence.

[Demobrat]

1. Works for me.

Somebody's gotta pay social security for us childfree ones.

[Robert Oak]

13. dream on to think they are paying into the system

why do you think businesses want them? because
they are paying taxes and illegals are filing tax returns?

It's called under the table money, US tax base doesn't see a dime.

[primavera]

19. Actually, most of them are paying into the system

We may not give them access to health care or education or legal protections, but the IRS isn;t about to let them get by without paying taxes. That's why the Social Security Administration came up with the Taxpayer Identification Number program for illegal aliens who can't qualify for a Social Security Number, but that's okay, we still want their money.

[radwriter0555]

20. US corporations employing illegals sure don't pay taxes on their hefty

profits, so of course they're not going to back a tighter Mexican border.

Why pay an american $8 an hour when you can pay a mexican $3 an hour and pocket the difference? No benefits, SS, FICA, health insurance to pay? SUCHA deal!

CHEAP LABOR ECONOMICS. Thanks GOPers.

[Demobrat]

27. What do you think the fake SS numbers are for?

They pay into the system just like everybody else. The difference is that they'll never see a penny of that money again.

[Kellanved]

2. considering this the checks at the airports are even more ridiculous

I just love being treated like a criminal when entereing the US. And nothing is better than the Homeland-Security "We love you" letter one finds inside the suitcase, next to some opened packages (which were intended to be gifts).

:grr:

[NC_Nurse]

3. So much for

Homeland Security. :eyes:

I guess we're too busy trying to make Iraq more secure.

[The Straight Story]

4. Why

The question is why? Given the current administration (and the rattlings I hear here about people leaving if tele-tubbie-bush steals a 2nd term) and the general negativism I have often seen from others about the US why do they want to come here? Is this occuring in Canada as well? And what about that sucking noise which took the jobs south, one would think people would want to stay there where they can find work (assuming that the article refers mainly to those coming up from the south).

And are these people under the Homeland radar because they don't have the burden of being documented like we have to be and if so why is our government running around after our citizens while ignoring this problem? I dunno, something seems awful weird about it all...

[guajira]

5. Are They Escaping Castro??

According to MiamiCubanos, the only reason people risk their lives to come to the US is to escape "Castro's Cuba".

They memorialize everyone who dies trying to get here from Cuba, but say nothing when Mexicans die in the desert or in a sealed truck. No tears for Haitians when their grossly overloaded boats sink into the ocean.

Cubans from the island admit they come here for economic reasons, just like everyone else does. Our politicians on both sides are selling us out for votes and money from corporations. We Americans don't throw out bad politicians, we keep them in office!!

[cprise]

6. Mostly they are escaping

...the horrendous conditions of capitalist countries under US/World Bank control.

[Character Assassin]

9. Which they're not: they're escaping Mexico.

A feudal take on a modern economy if there ever was one.

[cprise]

11. Yeah well

...we all have creative names/excuses for US economic satellites.

Interesting that our economy would cease to exist without their constant supply of raw material / cheap labor.

[Cravat]

21. You are correct.

These folks die trying to make it to the land of the Great Wal-Mart. They just want a good job and a way to take care of their family.

Not too many islanders make it these days. The Coasties and Navy get most of them. The Cubans are an exception. There is a whole support network for Cuban escapes which the authorities ignore. In comparison to the numbers of Mexicans who die each year, the number of dead Cubans, Hatians, ect is small.

The answer is troops on the border. Most countries do this and it tends to work. Right now I could get a job near Brownsville enforcing property rights along the border. Job specs: ride horse, ATV, drive stick, trained on weapons, able to live in bush for 2 weeks at a time. Now the job doesn't say you will be shooting border jumpers but it happens. Guys on this farm shoot at a few and it pushes the problem down the border a few miles.

It isn't right and it is currently out of control. Property owners should be allowed to protect their property but they shouldn't have to hire shooters to do the government's work.

The National Guard could close the border in a humane way without the wild west crap that is happening now. Of course, we would have to change the laws a bit to allow troops to act as law enforcement but legislators could restrict them to the border regions.

[Bridget Burke]

23. "Change the laws a bit to allow troops to act as law enforcement"

That's a pretty big change.

The Houston Press printed a good article on the jumped up Soldier of Fortune wannabees who want to "guard" the border. "Private property first, foremost, and always. Everything else is not even a close second."



www.houstonpress.com/issues/2001-03-01/news/feature.html

[Cravat]

24. Dead on article.

These guys are shooters. That is the only real qualification. The property owner won't tell them to "blast the wetbacks" but it is understood.

I have worked with guys that did this stuff. They don't shoot many but people do get killed. The coyotes might shoot back but it is usually easier to just go around that particular property.

Now the cattle rustlers are a different story. They are willing to face guns to make off with some livestock. It is right out of a Louis Lamore novel down there.

[Bridget Burke]

25. The shooters are mostly hired by newcomers with "Retirement Ranchettes"

From the article: No one's throwing rocks at South Texas rancher Ray Hutto, but if anyone can claim to appreciate the trials of border life, he can.

"I been there always. I'm 80 years old, and hell I was born here." Hutto's ranch is near Del Rio, and he says it receives a "good amount" of illegal traffic.

"I been here all these years, and you know I never really have had any trouble with the wets. Oh, we've had 'em steal, yeah, but all these Del Rio ones steal too. They're worse than these wets. They come out here and case these damn ranches and then drive up here when you're gone and steal everything you got."

As to Ranch Rescue, Hutto says, "More I think about it, we don't need them kinda people in there. And Border Patrol, they're doing a damn good job, and that's their job anyway. And these other people, I'm not interested, I don't think. Especially if they wasn't from around here, and carrying guns."

Guess you didn't read the whole thing.

[Cravat]

26. No, I speak from experience.

The article talks about the newcomer's who feel that they need security. The real paying jobs are working for the large ranches that border Mexico. I can make near six figures for riding the range with a gat and taking a random shot or two at border crossers.

[kikiek]

7. Sounds like a dream for a terrorist. But don't fund the border patrols.

Don't allow them to really stop anyone from entering.

[primavera]

22. Are you kidding?

The Border Patrol is probably the best funded agency in the US, with a force of men under arms second only to the military. As for their ability to stop people from entering, we've given border agents with barely a high school education the authority to expel without a hearing pretty much anyone they like, with or without cause, with the main result being that a lot of bona fide asylum seekers fleeing persecution and long-time permanent residents who made a minor mistake on a tourist visa application twenty years ago are being expelled without due process. So you can rest assured that the Border Patrol is heavily funded, armed to the teeth, and is busily violating people's civil rights on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, you can not be confident that national security is being improved as a consequence. None of the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center would have been denied admission even under the most restrictive of admission criteria. Nobody, not the INS, not the FBI, not the CIA, not even Interpol had any record on any of these guys. Terrorists aren't idiots: if they're going to send operatives into a country, they're not going to send people with mile-long rap sheets on every terrorist watch list. They send people with clean records who aren't on terrorist watchlists.

Short of closing the border entirely to everybody, including all tourists, family relatives, international business, I mean everybody, and suffering the hardships that would result from that extreme isolation, you can't expect to make the country safe from terrorism through border control. The more you restrict entry, the more terrorists will simply shift their tactics to enable them to enter legally. With a steadily growing membership and a wealth of funds, do you seriously imagine that al Qaeda can't find anyone with a clean record and an ostensibly valid reason for entering the country? All you're going to accomplish is to hurt innocent people who don't have the organization and resources to prepare a perfect visa application.

[mbperrin]

8. OK, so no one's checking. Then where do these numbers

come from?

[barb162]

10. Census Bureau and Immigration (INS)

and they also estimate 75000 people from the Middle East are here illegally too.

[mbperrin]

14. OK, so these numbers are speculation.

In Texas, with no income tax, everything you buy is subject to sales tax, so anyone who eats, drinks or sleeps is paying into the Texas system.

[Bridget Burke]

15. And anybody who pays rent is paying property taxes.

I rent a cute little house & the rent goes up every time taxes do. Not that I mind, but income taxes are not the only ones around.

And many of the undocumented will stay, become part of the system & have kids who are native-born Texans.

[barb162]

30. what about federal income tax

other states, like mine, have income tax. What's your guess as to whether illegals are filing and paying these taxes.

[Robert Oak]

12. where numbers come from

They capture 1M illegal immigrants right now and they conservatively
estimate 3 get across for every 1 they catch...

but higher estimates are 6M...

Realize this is just the Mexico border...

and yes they have caught Middle Eastern illegals with terrorist
ties trying to cross the Mexican-US border.

[radwriter0555]

18. oh please,... no one has caught any middle easterners with

terrorists ties at the Mexican border.

That sounds as silly as the the story about hoards of muslims massing in mexico ready to storm and invade us.

No offense. Your reading materials might be a little less than accurate.

[barb162]

28. I have read this too; it is an easy way for terrorists to get it

[Cravat]

16. Screwed up system

While working in Kabul, I met a variety of locals who were trying to immigrate to the US. One of our translators was a very intelligent and likable young man. He was the oldest son of one of the local warlords but his father had insisted on him getting the best education the Taliban would allow. He wanted to become an air traffic controler for the new airline industry in Afghanistan. He spoke perfect english. Probably weighed around 100 lbs. The Afghans are small people except for those with a bit or Russian in them.

I checked around for him. There was no possible way for him to legaly immigrate. Not happening. State Dpt was cherry picking everyone and his dad didn't have the pull to get his son overseas. My advice to him was to fly into southern Mexico. Don't go through Mexico City. That is where 70% of Mexican enforcement is focused. Take a bus to the northern border and hire a coyote. He is a smart guy. He could learn to say, "No speka Englais, Senior." Brown skin equals Mex to most southern staters.

He asked me what would happen if he was picked up. I said they would most likely send him back to mexico. Just act stupid and nod.

He was a good kid. Was I wrong to advise him this way? Yes. But at the time it was the only way to get to the states. Still is as far as I know. Our southern border is wide open. We could stop the flood in a day if the administration would take a stand.

We still have enough reserve capacity in our national guard to stop this.

[radwriter0555]

17. This is called MIGRATION. People going back and forth, working, living

staying with relatives, etc.

And oddly, not a single frickin terrorist in those millions.

Strange, eh?

[barb162]

29. but we don't know if some have already come in that way

and are just waiting to be "activated"