Let my bleeding heart drip on all of you:
It IS a drag to haul people trying to work out of their jobs and away from their kids. Especially when i see streets infested with droves of white and black (but almost never hispanic) mendicants, each pestering passersby and drivers for money. The hispanics are hard workers by an large, and good people. They won’t insist you wear a burkah, they don’t pray 5 times in the middle of the work day. They work a full day and they enlist in the military in sizeable numbers. We may need their help to oppose other ethnic groups who are not so accomodating and are also giving birth in large numbers.
The time to “stop them at the boarder” was in the past: its gone; Clinton ignored it; so did George W. Its too bad they got here in such numbers: but they are here: they work here; their kids are US citizens. Only a heartless automaton or federal official–OK same thing–would not care. Only an idiot thinks its possible to expell them all.
There is no way the government is going to send “tham all back.” And news flash: we have a sizeable number of US citizens with illegal parents: what do you want those kids to do when they are enlistment age? When they vote? WHo wants to split their loyalties? Not me.
Forget the “old days” –the italians and irish etc were an ocean away: the mexicans are not. The boarder is one big Ellis Island with open gates. The feds let that happen.
Its a problem that might be eased if we taxed remittances to Mexico (its money people send back to their families-26 billion a year to mexico alone). That money could make up for some of the enormous losses imposed on the iddle class here. But no one has proposed that.
They are here: we need to co-opt them into the system; teach english; teach US history; yes, we need to tighten the boarder. But the federal government’s “johnny come lately” approach is absurd; like all draconian efforts, too little, too late. The time to act was in the 90′s and the last 8 years.
This movie sounds about how I feel. And i bet how all you would feel if you saw it in real life. Nothing is going to change the fact that they are HERE; lots of their kids are US citizens; we let it happen (probably all that wasted effort opposing gay marriage and abortion, instead of focusing on immigration).
If the GOP wants to get their votes, let the GOP recognize that it won’t get them by listening to the same short-sighted people that got us into this mess: the ones that diluted conservative voices with religiouos messages– anti-abortion planks decades after Roe, and opposing gay marriage. The hispanic community is socially conservative: 70% of the hispanic parents in LA supported english only instruction. Reach out now tot he parents and the kids; ensure a GOP mahority tomorrow. Keep up this whining about the past and you’ll be whining tomorrow too.
PS: Jack #34: look on the bright side: those movies help ease the balance of payments deficit.
