On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 2:04 AM, Leo Mauler webgiant@yahoo.com wrote:
My freedom not to get sick when an illegal immigrant brings over a communicable disease needs to be celebrated by keeping immigration laws in place to try and prevent him from doing so.
I see now where you get your news. I recall that a year ago or so was when Fox News was running the scare story over and over again about illegal immigrants bringing over Consumption. A lot of blogs were as well. It's not as big a deal as folks make it out to be, and tends to be used by small-minded folks as an excuse for discrimination. I'm not asserting that you are one of them, so please don't take offense.
The odd thing, though, is that I think most folks _agree_ that illegal immigration should be curtailed. The problem is that there are many folks taking extreme positions (most, unfortunately, on the Right side of the political spectrum). Last year's attempted compromise was very flawed, but it was a start. We need to find a real solution for the problem and it's not "kick 'em all out and build a giant wall". The problem is much more complicated than that.
I would like to see illegal immigration numbers to drop, dramatically. However, to do that we need to reform our immigration laws to make them less biased against working class folks and to reform the quota system. This will make it easier to secure the border by reducing the influx. We must put teeth to the labor laws that prevent abuses of illegal immigrants, which will dry up the jobs for illegal labor. Finally, we must offer some solution to the millions of illegal immigrants that are already here - and no, "deporting them" isn't an option, as we simply can not capture and deport 15 million people, we don't have the manpower, the money, the time, nor the detention centers necessary. Folks can argue about it all they want, but it simply won't happen - we need to find a compromise.
Leo, your Paris Hilton example is absurd. Please stop justifying it and use something cogent. I understand what you're trying to say, but it's so out there that I could probably make a similar comparison involving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You can do better. :)
Jeffrey.