Border Patrol, you are next. After we obliterate I.C.E. and send many of their "officers" to jail, then we will dismantle Border Patrol. Any questions? Good.
After Trump pardoned Latino-profiling Sheriff Joe Arpaio, he pardoned Sholom Rubashkin who was 8 years into a 27-year sentence for bank fraud, bilking investors of $26M.
This article is more proof that an uber-expensive wall WILL NOT WORK! Reagan had the leverage to include HARSH criminal penalties against employers into legislation of 1986 Amnesty. But, it wasn't in EMPLOYERS' INTERESTS.
Even Obama administration which raided Mr Rubashkin's meatpacking plant in 2008 - decided not to prosecute child labor law violations. Seldom do those "rules of law" ever get enforced!
"Authorities rounded up 389 undocumented immigrants, more than 20 of them minors, who described a long list of abhorrent working conditions, including 12-hour shifts without overtime pay and exposure to dangerous chemicals. A spokesman for a food workers union compared it to scenes from Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle.”
Rubashkin and other company executives faced a range of charges, including conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants for profit and more than 9,000 child labor law violations. He was accused of helping workers obtain fraudulent identity cards and paying employees in cash under the table, among other offenses."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/12/21/how-trump-...
8
if ICE will get strickter and crazier, then perhaps people will take them more seriously, and not kill people trying to smuggle their way into the USA.
2
Look at the pictures. How many of these people are single men? Oh yeah, almost every single one. Most illegal immigrants are single men looking for work.
Most illegal immigrants are not women who experienced DV carrying the next future Harvard graduate in tow. Liberals only see the individual cherry picked perfect stories that the media loves to pump out. Some perfect woman with the most heart wrenching story and 4 toddlers is meant to be the stand in for all illegal immigrants.
The average illegal immigrant is a non-skilled man in their 20s or 30s who generally got to about 4th grade. I'm just fine with taking in the woman with the perfect story and all the kids. I'm not fine with all the elementary educated single men that immigration activists never seen to talk about. They come from a machismo culture that is not exactly very enlightened towards woman. My sister got harassed and eventually sexually assaulted in high school by machismo kids whose machismo fathers taught them how to interact with women. I luckily tested out of that high school and went to an IB program at the rich white high school. Then I got into MIT. My sister went to a regional state college. Diversity doesnt always lead to rich and rewarding experiences filled with unity and love. I went to a racially homogeneous high school, I was never sexually assaulted, I went to MIT and now I make a ton of money. Oh but I'm white so I guess all that success just fell out of the sky and into my lap with no work
33
Donald's simple answers for simple minds make it clear that migrants at the border is a problem not so simple after all. who knew it could be so complicated?
4
All this illegal immigration means Asians are going to vote Trump. Most Asians come here legally, work and study, hardly depend on government handouts, pay taxes, cause little violence and generally assimilate into society. They see Hispanics given all the goodies, free money, education and healthcare, they see unqualified Hispanics get into good colleges and preferences for jobs while lengthening the queue for legal immigrants from Asia. Asian for Trump.
17
Border Patrol, thank you for what you do everyday, apprehending tens of thousands of illegals invading our country every month. Americans who love their country are grateful.
33
Catch them and deport them.. There are over 11 million illegal immigrants living here now- Do you mean to tell me every one of them is gainfully employed? There is NO room for anymore illegals. Let them live with Hillary in Chappaqua, NY.
24
The conversation around our Sunday brunch table was enlightening. Everyone...registered Democrats all...believe that the party has abandoned moderate liberal interests in favor of the far Left agenda, which none would support...particularly where illegal immigration is concerned. It will be interesting to see how many moderate liberal democrats will jump ship in November....
23
Anyone entering the Country illegally shojld be returned, not held. They do not have legal rights. Looking for asylumz? Choose any one of 16 States, South of Our border.
17
I'm a Democrat but I do not believe that ICE should be abolished. Modified, yes, but total abolishment, no. ICE does keep our country safe, and is involved in catching drug smuggling as well as sex trafficking. Illegal immigration is a huge, immediate problem. New policies need to be set. So do not equate all Democrats as wanting ICE abolished. By the way, I'm from 'liberal' Brooklyn, NY.
12
It's amazing to me no one seems disturbed by the fact that the Border Patrol operates 70-100 miles inland from the border. And that includes the Canadian border. Same deal.
6
Let me offer a perspective that seems to be missing in the comments here so far. I consider myself more liberal in my orientation, yet I see a big problem here. Illegal border crossing using smuggling rings is a big issue and should be stopped. All this is doing is funneling more money into the hands of smugglers who are associated with drug dealers, cartels and other bad actors that cause the problems in Latin America, which these people are trying to flee in the first place! It is a terrible vicious cycle!
For all those migrants who are trying to flee dangerous conditions, the US government should ideally take actions that will disincentivize them from crossing the border illegally in this crazy fashion, and instead do it more safely! There should be a more sane approach that allows them to seek asylum here (but no, the US govt makes that painfully frustrating, yay!)
For all those that try to cross not due to violence but simply due to economic opportunity, I fully support the efforts to quash such illegal crossings. It is unfair on the part of the immigrants who come in through the proper channels. At the same time, the US government should prosecute the companies and players that benefit from such cheap labor and who employ undocumented immigrants, you know the root cause rather than the symptom. But that is too reasonable, so no I suppose.
18
I'm so glad I was born here and don't have to face emigrating from some strife-torn, war-torn life in a dictator-made hell. I just hope I can still say that in six-and-a-half years.
27
Most are economic illegals
8
I will not vote for a pol who condone or support illegal immigration. Before I'm being racist, let me just state that I'm an Indian lawful immigrant who received his graduate degrees in the US and whose income tax bill is higher than the median income of California. And yes I vote.
Please enforce the law of the land: Prosecute the companies who employ illegal migrants. And all on sudden we will see a significant drop in illegal migration and "asylum" seekers at the US border.
51
Leave it to the US, especially Donald Trump, to create an even more lucrative marketplace for bad things. Would not surprise me if Trump and Sessions have a piece of the action. Like a tariff, kick-back thing for increasing revenue for human traffickers. We've hit an all-time low and there appears to be no let up in the depravity of the administration.
11
You would think that with that kind of money at stake, Trump wouldn't be fighting immigrants coming in. It seems like Ivanka and Jared and Pruitt and all the Swamp People would be in on getting their cut of it.
2
The Democrats could do themselves a huge favor by cauterizing the (self-inflicted) wounds of their left wing banging the drum of "abolish ICE, open borders". This is going to be a major point of contention for the midterms and beyond. I don't know how the narrative gets shifted, or what voices within the party are able to do the shifting, but they need to come up with a plan. What's out there now, the opinions and party thinking disseminated by MSM, is an ill-fated omen. The right is gaining traction politically, and much of the gains could be counterbalanced if Democrats started embracing popular, sensible immigration policy. Those of us in the center are watching; hopefully the Democrats swing right on immigration so they can have a legislative voice to push for healthcare reform, income equality, and other agenda items most of the country wants addressed.
38
ICE doesn't patrol the border. No one is calling for open borders but Trump knows if you repeat a lie enough times, people will start to believe it.
11
I agree completely. Illegal immigration is the Achilles heel of the Democratic party and the disdain for enforcement of existing immigration laws is confounding. However most rank-and-file Democrats seem to want the borders protected-- just witness the many comments to that effect every time the NYT publishes an immigration story.
Yet Democratic leaders-- caught up in the self-destructive folly of sanctuary cities and now calling for abolishing ICE-- seem absolutely determined to loose the midterms. We desperately need a blue wave in Congress but it doesn't look as though the present leadership will deliver it. The Democratic party needs pragmatic leadership in place FAST.
16
The stark truth is within 15 years all lower skilled jobs will be automated. We DO NOT need torrents of unskilled labor. What we do need is highly educated specific skilled people to make our workforce competitive
46
Mexico is such a wonderful and well run exciting country that its hard to understand why Latin Americans don’t move heaven and earth to live in Mexico. And why Amerians of Mexican descent don’t return to live in Mexico. Puzzling.
19
Good grief ... Build That Wall.
19
any wonder why we have these concerns after the many years of our policymaking that has had negative consequences in our hemisphere.
7
The u.s. does not have a great history of intervention in countries south of the border. Otoh, we did not cause the near 4 fold increase in that areas population in the last 70 years. This alone is fueling much of the despair, poverty and instability that is making that part of the world inhospitable to its own residents. Not coming to grips with population will also mean we can take in everybody the left wants to but the problem won't get one bit better.
7
It's common knowledge that the Mexican government allows the train, known as "The Beast," to travel from Central America to the U.S. border with hundreds of people, including unaccompanied minors, riding on the top of the train.
All I can say is: "How can this be?" We in the U.S. don't let people ride on the top of trains.
I read today that the Mexican government is saying that they want to improve their own border patrols. I think a good place to start would be to forbid children and others from riding on the tops of trains!!
32
Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he establish a border-police force to combat illegal immigration as well as drug and weapon smuggling from Central America. Since Mexico’s southern border is much smaller than the United States’ southern border, Mexico border police might be the most effective barrier against Central American migrants headed for the U.S. border, unless, of course, Lopez Obrador follows recent precedent and issues them transit visas on the condition they don’t stop unitl they crossed the U.S. border.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/mexico-to-create-border-force-curtai...
14
If Republicans truly cared about immigration they would institute e-verify for all employers and criminally prosecute CEOs of companies that hire illegal immigrants.
This border control, border protection is a huge waste of money when the illegal immigration problem could be easily solved at the demand level, the employers.
43
Republicans would love e verify, but the Democrats call it a poison pill every time we raise it.
20
I agree but unfortunately, I don't think employment is the only reason they are crossing our border.
6
There are good reasons to have border controls, but when I think of ICE I think , rightly or wrongly, of camp guards, agents of dehumanization. There are too many examples of horrors to be able to write them off as "collateral damage". Horror is the bread and butter of ICE. My own life was devastated by ICE actions taken against a loved one who was strip-searched, jailed, no access to support or counsel, and deported. Just business. Next.
(Kudos to British Airways, who provided a 1st class seat.)
17
Eric, horror is what the opponents of ICE wants you to think of them. I don't mean to be insensitive about your loved one's troubles, but we're the ICE agents doing anything illegal? Was your loved one here illegally? Who was the real problem in this conflict? They have a job to do, they aren't there to be friendly, yet they are made out to be the bad guys.
45
All government employees have an obligation to be polite and professional. ie: friendly. While, exciting the duties of their job. ICE inclusive.
That said, I've dealt with hundreds of ICE agents and never had a problem.
Had overstayed a visa (by one day) on a previous trip, but it was having a business card from a middle eastern restaurant that they were focused on. Whether that was illegal profiling or not, I don't know.
In any yes, yes, an genuine lawbreaker.
E verify would end the "pull". The push comes from a desire for better wages, the pull comes from the desire to exploit labor. The upper middle class must learn to clean their own bathrooms, cut their own lawns, pay living wages for restaurants and houses and everything else.
63
The “upper middle class” have been doing all that, or paying someone who is not an illegal immigrant, for decades. They can and will do it if we end illegal immigration. For most Americans would choose secure borders over low cost domestic help.
9
Immigration and Illegal-Immigration are two separate things. I am a Democrat and I am tired of Democrats blurring these two issues. The fact that people are calling for the abolishment of ICE is way over the line and is pushing me towards Trump everyday. Knock it off people or you are going to lose in November big time.
118
The abolishment of ICE is NOT a call for open borders. It is a call to end a department that has a cancer and is rapidly expanding. Close the border. That's the CBP's job. Enforce e-Verify. That's the DHS's job. Ensure that no one is likely to overstay a visa. That's the state department's job. Put people who are valuable to the community on a path to citizenship. That's USCIS's job. Jailing, and after jail, deporting criminal aliens, that's the Justice department's job.
ICE's people aren't accountable when given carte blanche to deport anyone and everyone without nuance. That cancer has infected it, and that's why ICE, as it is now, has to go. An agency whose sole purpose is to terrorize, track and deport anyone is not helpful in solving the many problems that lax workplace enforcement has caused.
5
How do the cartels/gangs become so powerful? How are they funded? How do we minimize this funding?
Let's look at what other countries do to get at the root causes of this funding of this violence that drives people out of their American countries.
We need an entire remake of our (USA) approaches to these problems.
10
The cartels have the largest extant market for illicit drugs: the population of North America. The profits from cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine alone are enormous and allow the narcotrafficante leadership in Central America and South America to corrupt and terrorize at will. The reason for their success is the overwhelming and unending American (Yanqui) appetite for their product and the willingness of ordinary Americans to pay for it. Our drug laws are stupid and wholly ineffective; our attitude toward drug use is punitive, hypocritically moralistic and compounds the problem rather than solving it. Pointing the finger south is easy. Looking in the mirror is hard.
31
"Our drug laws are stupid and wholly ineffective; our attitude toward drug use is punitive, hypocritically moralistic and compounds the problem rather than solving it."
Yes and no.
What needs fixing is the underlying cultural and economic ailments that create a large population of people who want to be stoned a good proportion of the time regardless of legality. Solve the problems that lead to demand for drugs and you'll solve the drug problem by proxy.
You hit the nail on the head!
1
What a great fairly-written story. A first for the Times in weeks. It supports the Administration’s strong enforcement policies and educates those who think illegal immigration should not be challenged.
52
Funny how articles that are written that fit the narrative of the Trumplican party is somehow suddenly not "fake" or "bias". By the way, to be clear, no democrat, progressive, liberal, has EVER advocated for wide open boarders, that's just the trope that the GOP has spoon fed the aggrieved babies of the GOP.
24
You do not have to say or advocate "wide open borders" to achieve much of the same effect by working to circumvent immigration laws, resist deporting illegals and encouraging them to enter the country illegally while pushing for yet another amnesty. The lefts dishonesty when it comes to reasonable, control over our borders, as every other country on earth does, is stunning.
9
And yet, who is crying to get RID of ICE. I've never heard people that shouldn't be here, chanting to get rid of a government agency that has been tasked with enforcing the law against them before. People here illegally, have NO RIGHT TO PROTEST ANYTHING. You don't want your kids taken away? Don't put them in that situation. Why aren't they waiting at their own Embassy; making a BIG STINK about their kids being taken away? Shouldn't their Embassy be the organization that is dealing with returning the kids? The only ones that seem to be bothered by it, are the opponents of Trump. I know what, I have a solution. Give the kids back, en masse. Immediately, at the border where they came in. On the other side of the gate. Now it's Mexico's problem, since they are complicit in making it our problem. And why aren't all the people that are sniveling, " WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN", trying to discourage them from not bringing their kids to the border, in fact, they seem to be actively encouraging them?
36
Increase the number of legal immigrants, greatly increase the number of work visas, create a legal foreign worker program that actually serves the needs of employers and consumers, and partner with our Latin American neighbors on improving identification, reducing crime, and increasing economic opportunity in these countries.
The attempt to forbid all immigration, treat every immigrant as a criminal, and build a 2,000 mile wall on our southern border isn't going to work. It is going to create record profits for military contractors and private prisons. Immigrants aren't taking any jobs that actual Americans want to do. How many unemployed coal miners have you seen moving to Texas to mow yards for $8.00 an hour?
28
Its NEVER worked, building walls may keep some out, but it keeps us in (not in the physical sense). As the Who once wrote, "We build walls to keep them out, but it keeps us in, and that makes us dangerous, to ourselves".
5
Ask the Israelis South Koreans and now European countries whether walls work. It's not the only answer but it can certainly be part of the solution.
3
Do Dem literally believe we're not allowed to have immigration laws Central Americans don't like? Are we literally morally obligated to let forty million people move here? Are they going to run on this preposterous proposition?
77
In no comment or article
has any "Dem"
suggested or promoted
having "40 million people move here!"
No "Dem" has suggested Open Borders.
This is a "Rep" "story," AKA a lie.
20
If you advocate allowing in virtually anyone into the country who manages to make it to our borders or shores together will all of their extended family, fight against enforcement of immigration laws, keep wanting a “path to citizenship” even for people are only here for their own economic reasons, refuse to contemplate expulsion even for those who are actually convicted of criminal conduct, then you ARE for “open borders” whether you use the term or not!
9
I am so tired of being told that the basic purpose of this country is to provide low skilled foreigners with a menial job. Our citizenship is not an on demand right for anyone who wants to move here. We cannot and do not need endless population growth. It's environmentally and morally foolish. Tell these people to go home and demand change at home. I will not vote for a pol who believes otherwise.
91
That's too bad, who's going to pick the fruit that can't be machine picked, or work in a fish processing plant for $7.00 an hour. Meat packing plants can't find a white worker to cut the rectums out of dead pigs, or cattle all day. Sorry, no white person would do that for $12.00 an hour, can't find them. No, a white person would say that the equitable pay for that kind of work, is at least $25.00 an hour. When the management at the meat packing plant get's done laughing, white people still won't have a job.
You act as if all fruits and vegetables that can't be harvested by machine, just magically wind up in the stores. In reality, its the migrant farm worker i.e. Who's going to wash our toilets in office buildings, who's going to clean the offices, for minimum wage, and many, many other jobs that whites won't do unless they are compensated well beyond what the job is worth. Mexicans that have done that kind of menial work for decades. You denigrate them, without the slightest idea of what you're talking about.
Whites didn't build this country, immigrants did, slaves did, the Chinese did. White people couldn't be bothered with that, they were to busy committing genocide against real Americans, the Indian.
Even if you deported every single one of them, wages won't go up, companies will move to right to work states, because that's what the GOP and corporations want. It's your own fault that you continually vote against your own interests, over and over.
30
According to NATO, “Today, the volume of the US defense expenditure effectively represents some 67 per cent of the defense spending of the Alliance as a whole in real terms¹. This does not mean that the United States covers 67 per cent of the costs involved in the operational running of NATO as an organization, including its headquarters in Brussels and its subordinate military commands, but it does mean that there is an over-reliance by the Alliance as a whole on the United States for the provision of essential capabilities, including for instance, in regard to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; air-to-air refueling; ballistic missile defense; and airborne electronic warfare.”
In 2014, NATO apportioned each country’s fair share of funding at 2% of GDP. In 2017, only four of the 29 member nations—the Unites States, United Kingdom, Greece and Estonia—met the guideline; only eight are expect to comply in 2018.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_67655.htm
1
The nyts has said labor is 10% of the cost of picked fruits and vegetables. Double their wages. Rich people in Seattle won't even notice. Most of the jobs you mention were in the past done by u.s. citizens. The wages have not budged in decades due to companies busting unions and decreasing wages by often hiring immigrants legal and illegal. Does this mean you are now an advocate of big business using cheap immigrant labor to wreck formerly decent American jobs??
5
Very few, if any, DACA enrollees work in agriculture.
Some commentators have asserted that American farms could not survive without unauthorized immigrants. According to the Pew Research Center, unauthorized immigrants make up 26 percent of U.S. farm workers, but only 4 percent of unauthorized immigrants work on farms. So, we could deport 96 percent of the 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants currently residing in the United State without affecting farms. We could replace the 4 percent who work on farms by expanding the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker visa program or reviving the Braceros program of the 1950s and 60s.
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/11/03/occupations-of-unauthorized-immigr...
54
Right, but there are many, many other menial jobs that Mexicans do that whites simply won't do. The Pew center has yet to ask business when they post a job opening at a meat processing plant, how many whites apply for the job of cutting the rectums out of dead pigs all day, for $12.00 an hour. No whites will work at an egg farm for $12.00 hour either, so they smuggle in workers.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/trafficked-in-america/
5
@James Young, This American Life recently did a story about a town in rural Alabama whose lifeblood is a meat processing plant. It used to have a white work force that has since been replaced by Mexican labor. Why did these white people work at the meat plant generation after generation? Because it used to be a union meat plant that paid its workers enough that they could own their own home and retire with a pension. (It is no long a union plant because the Mexicans refused to join the union.) So, yes, white people will work at meat packing plants when they are union shops that allow for home ownership and defined benefits pensions.
8
I grew up with white people working at fish canneries, poultry farms and picking tobacco. The pay needs to increase.
6
I agree with some of the commenters who have pointed out that this article relies too heavily on outdated photos and "shock value" arrests/discoveries. Kind of lazy reporting. As another noted, these checkpoints are nothing new. They are a normal part of life along the southern border, at least in Texas. But, back to the quality of this article, my head about exploded upon reading the last paragraph. To sum it up: Trump is getting tough on catching immigrants at the borders, while Falfurrias is redoubling efforts to stop illegal activity by building a new checkpoint facility. There is the implication in that last paragraph that Trump is somehow responsible for this new checkpoint facility, as part of his new policy of strongman toughness. Given that they broke ground on the new checkpoint before or around Trump's inauguration, it is worth noting that Trump has nothing to do with this new checkpoint, and obviously it was approved during the Obama Administration. Give credit where credit is due.
35
ICE is dangerous! ICE officers have stripping breastfeeding babies from their moms, and were ordered to destroy documents AND followed through with those orders.
Now consider the 100-mile zone that ICE controls.
It’s DANGEROUS for us to accept this zone as AN ANSWER to immigration and undocumented workers, because once these checkpoints prove that they can "Capture The Unwanted,” State and Federal governments can easily argue for expanding the zone.
This leads to the “ICE Police-State Zone” being:
100 miles today,
200 miles tomorrow,
500 miles next week,
1000 miles next month
and then of course, we'll need checkpoints for the Canadian border too, and by the time we're at 1000 miles, the ENTIRE US has ICE checkpoints.
Then ICE won't just look for illegal immigrants, they'll check every person and run every car license.
We can’t allow any more of our country to become a Police-State.
Making callous and degrading comments about people who cross the border illegally, overlooks the most important fact, that these people are being smuggled because they are coming here FOR JOBS!
Jobs you would not do, that you benefit from THEM doing, every day!
Undocumented workers fill vital jobs in US industries (like agriculture, and more), and we need to ensure that these workers can come here, without being smuggled, putting their lives at risk!
Then we need to lighten up, and ignore the rhetoric that “America First” benefits our country in any way, and allow immigration.
9
We do allow immigration, and it's time for those advocating for illegal immigrants to stop telling the lie that Americans who want a stronger southern border are against immigration. The United States has the most generous immigration laws on earth. Canada's and Mexico's immigration policies are more conservative than ours. It is illegal immigration that the vast majority of Americans oppose, because the first thing a country has to do for its self defense is to control its borders. This is just common sense. ICE wouldn't be necessary if we didn't have a porous southern border and sanctuary city policies, which prevent local law enforcement from reporting people to the federal government when it encounters illegal immigrants. A simple way to avoid the "police state" that you fear is to support more resources to repel illegals near the border.
23
"Now consider the 100-mile zone that ICE controls."
Um, it's the Border Patrol that has jurisdiction over the 100 mile wide border zone, not ICE. If fact this whole article is about the Border Patrol. No ICE here.
Liberals need to update their calls to abolish ICE by including its very evil twin - the Border Patrol.
After all, you can't effectively eliminate immigration enforcement by getting rid of just one agency. Right?
17
For anyone that has set foot outside this country, and not just to a posh resort, but real life visit to places in Mexico and overall central America would immediately understand why these ijlegals will do anything to get here. Their kids are just a prop for American Media to disseminate and create some bogus uproar. Millions upon millions have immigrated to the US from all over the world over time and will continue to do so, but to pretend that this border problem is not real, everyone is being disingenuous. Border needs to be fixed, and we can then deal with orderly immigration... as we always have.
19
A couple questions that I'm genuinely interested in hearing responses from the commenters and readers of this article:
1) Do you believe we should have an open border policy and allow anybody who wants to work and live in the USA to enter at will? If so, why do you think this is a good policy?
2) If you don't believe there should be an open border policy then what ideas do you have to enforce border security differently than what is used today? Or do you think the current system is fine?
39
In the first place no democrat has EVER said that they want an open boarder policy, if they did, it was their view not the view of democrats in general. So no, obviously an open border isn't what is wanted.
Border security is, arrest and deportation, you simply can't build a wall, then have what, armed guards pacing back and forth. Arresting and separating, and holding for long periods costs hundreds of millions of dollars. There has to be a better way.
Since you're asking the questions, what's you're answer(s)
Leave children with their parents. Fund adjudication so a go-no go call is made on every family within 30 days. Deport those not allowed in immediately. Jail time for employers of illegal immigrants. Use eVerify in every state. Jail time and deportation for illegal immigrants who steal SSNs. Fix guest worker visas so that the actual guest worker holds his / her own. H1Bs must be paid what a US engineer is paid and may not be allowed in unless they really do have special expertise. These things are already known. The oligarchs don't want them.
10
Ok, I'll bite.
IF workplace health and safety laws were fully and properly enforced AND IF all workers were permitted to be unionized AND IF all c-suite remunerations were tied DIRECTLY to a firm's average wage rate AND IF dividend payouts were also tied to a firm's average wage rate, then ANYONE who, after vetting to ensure they aren't undesirable, could get a job offer from an employer, should be allowed to enter and take that employer up on his/her offer. Without all the IFs, then no one should be allowed in to work. Applying for citizenship and benefits is a different matter. For that, you'd need to prove your worth to the community.
If you cannot enforce all the required IFs, then e-Verify should be mandatory, and the supervisors, managers, employers AND SHAREHOLDERS of firms should be liable for jail time if illegally employed workers are found on premises -- and the liability should ultimately attached to the owner of the premises. Jail a few scions of Sam Walton and everyone would quickly ensure that their whole workforce was e-Verified. That fixes illegal employment pretty quick. Build the family detention centers. Hire the judges. Ensure that asylum cases can be heard in 6 months with yes/unsure/no. If you receive an unsure, you get a five year work permit, providing A) you stay employed, B) commit no criminal acts, C) do not marry, D) have no offspring while in the country. At the end of the five years you either voluntarily self-deport or be jailed.
2
All the border patrol agents, sniffer dogs, and walls are not going to totally stop desperate people from entering the US. What has been in the federal statutes for a long time and which have not really been enforced are the statutes making it a criminal offense to hiring persons not legally able to work in the US because they are in the country unlawfully or are in visitor visa which don't include holding down a job. Why? Because there are a lot of employers who knowingly turn a blind eye to the applicants who should not be hired because they cannot prove they can legally work. It is understandable in past decades that the law was not really enforced because checking with the government was onerous. But there is no excuse today. The would be employer can quickly check the applicant's I-9 status online. If employers stop hiring these person who are not legally qualified to work in the US, then the lack of jobs would result in a drop in the flow of illegal immigrants with the possible exception of those seeking asylum due to serious threats they face in their home nation.
15
As it is right Now, nearly all of the illegal border crosses are claiming asylum. Just like when they were told to bring children, and given the right answers to tell the border patrol or ICE agents before , now they are being instructed to sat they want asylum and why they want asylum.
43
So now you have a problem with them asking for asylum, well, isn't that what they are supposed to do. You can't have it both ways, they can legally ask for asylum, that IS the law.
Asylum laws are specific on what they cover, not just being poor or having an abusive spouse...it seems that many of these poor people have been told to just ask for asylum whether they’re entitled to it or not.
6
Really can live without all the moving photos/videos? in the story. Information is enough for me without visuals.
4
The pictures show, basically, that all the people being smuggled are Hispanic. At the same time were told "racial profiling" is used in these investigations. Are we to assume that we are expecting mostly swedes to be crossing our southern border and the INS is just picking on people who look Hispanic because they are racist?
36
Not exactly “Hispanic;” they would all look out of place in Spain or Portugal.
And they would not be welcomed there.
7
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Diversity made us great and all the xenophobes are dragging us down.
Since we came out of Africa humanity goes where ever we will. Check the DNA on both sides of the Great Wall of China and tell me how effective it was in keeping the northerners out.
The only effective way of slowing migration from the south is to improve living conditions and the economy there. When Central and South America go through their probable economic booms what will they do about Northern migrants?
Our mobility keeps growing and the world keeps shrinking.
8
Lady Liberty welcomes immigrants to a legal port of entry. She doesn't invite immigrants to enter the country illegally.
During the 1880s when the Statue of Liberty was dedicated, America accepted about 525,000 legal immigrants per year. Today, it accepts about 1.2 million legal immigrants per year while absorbing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants per year.
51
A bit misleading, since some targeted groups have seen dramatic changes.
Muslim Refugees entering the US:
2017 total 22,900
2018 (first half) 1800
1
Another often overlooked detail. In 1880 the u.s. population was ~1/6 what it is now. This is not an empty continent and hasn't been for almost 100 years. In my lifetime our population has doubled. In the same period Mexico and central Americas population has quadrupled. None of this can go on indefiniftely.
6
If you oppose immigration and immigrants, believe you are an American citizen, but have no proof that your European immigrant ancestors came to these shores legally (because they probably didn't), ferme la bouche, s'il vous plait. Or maybe go back to where your ancestors came from.
8
Funny, a Sioux Chief once said, "my home is here, it has been for 10,000 years. Whites, their home is across the great waters, they need to go back to their home, and not try and take mine". Red Cloud, last of the great Sioux war chiefs. He also said that "whites are the interlopers, they wanted land, I gave them room, then they wanted more land, I gave it to them, they've killed all the buffalo. Now the whites want to put us on a small piece of land. All this land, and whites want it all".
8
I can only wish. My family immigrated from Norway.
6
So many articles written about migrants and illegal immigration are written either in favor of the migrant, or in favor of immigration enforcement. I think this article is interesting because, in my opinion, it is a balanced article that fairly shows both sides of the story. The article outlines the great lengths migrants will go to in order to gain access to the United States and a better life. It clearly shows the incredibly dangerous situations they get into at the hands of smugglers. I think it also shows a fair assessment of immigration enforcement as well. Of course, the main job of immigration enforcement is to stop illegal immigration. However, I think the article points out the humanitarian side of enforcement as well. Enforcement officers who find hidden migrants are in some cases also getting them out of very dangerous situations, which could continue long after they enter the country. This is a hot topic issue for sure, but I think this article offers some balanced reporting on the matter.
26
The far left's take over of the Democratic Party is evident in Trump's win and the right's takeover in Europe. The far left favors illegal immigrants over the suffering poor and middle class citizens. Ignore the far left's cry of "the rise of Nationalism." The far left is made up of globalists whose only interest is maintaining power (though votes from immigrants) and cheap labor (for their corporate masters). The middle class are nothing to the far left or the far right. Wake up America.
P.S. The far left's continued flooding of the U.S. with immigrants who are in poverty (who get free benefits) is a slap in the face to struggling middle class Americans (who get no help) and will turn America into a 3rd world nation. If I were the Republicans I would point to San Francisco (the Democratic Utopia) as the cesspool of America, extreme wealth right next to extreme poverty and homelessness. Ever notice kids how the worst cities for homelessness, drug use, etc. are all Democratically controlled? Follow the benefits, follow the benefits...
40
Actually, I have not noticed that. If you take a look at any list of worst states/drug useage you find that the states that voted for Trump top the list.
10
that's because these states are ignored just "fly over states" the "squeaky" ( those that donate to campaigns the most, the coastal states) get the grease but there was another wheel got real squeaky and voted in trump, here's a hint don't ignore the working people
1
You are aware, that the biggest beneficiaries of welfare benefits, is whites, in red states. Want to know why, because the republicans that control those states have bankrupted them, by lowering corporate taxes.
And I think that you have your parties mixed up, it's the GOP that just gave corporations a 1.5 trillion dollar tax break, along with foreigners that own a large chunk of US equities.
P.P.S. You need to get your facts straight in terms of far left and far right, because it's the far right wing nuts that have given 1.5 trillion in tax breaks to corporations. No Democrat voted for the tax reform package. When progressives tried to take companies like Amazon who have created a much larger homelessness issue, they had to repeal the tax.
4
By and large, it’s illegal immigration that has brought us, and a growing number of other countries around the world, to where we are today. No one to blame but ourselves....!
24
And where are we that you seem to think everyone knows that it doesn't bear saying? Blame for what? I'm confused as to what problems you're having with immigration up in Washington.
Well, in Yakima one can start with the Surenos and the Nortenos.
1
for all that money, wouldn't it be easier to fly in?
11
A ride-along, ooooh,
Let’s solve the problem once and for all.
All these limousine liberals who want to spend my money caring for every illegal alien who illegally enters our country, and who believe a country should not enforce its immigration laws or protect its borders - move.
Really, please just leave.
We finally have a president putting Americans needs before Guatemalans - and we like it.
Please relocate to a country where there are no immigration restrictions, or where they don’t enforce their immigration laws.
Open borders and no enforcement - it would be liberal paradise. You can raise taxes there as high as you want until every poor person from Somalia, Honduras, Libya and all third world countries are enjoying your providing them free education, housing and medical care.
Problem solved.
Then those of us who love America, appreciate the quality of life we enjoy, and hope to avoid being the world’s largest refugee camp, can continue supporting and defending the USA.
By the way, let us know if you find a country idiotic enough to have implemented those open borders you find so enticing.
57
Excellent idea!
1
You are a true voice of reason
7
No one is advocating what you described; more right wing nonsense from the peanut gallery.
2
"Border patrol" stops and harasses thousands of US Citizens every single day who are not anywhere near a border and are simply travelling within the US. It is an extreme invasion of privacy.
13
Have you eaten any fresh fruit or vegetables that were grown in the US today?
If so, thank an illegal immigrant!
If you think there’s something wrong with that, then I dare you to become a migrant worker!
Then you too can move, in one year, from California, to Oregon, to Washington, and then back to California, and your children can attend school in 6 different school districts in one year, and the benefits are great… (that’s sarcasm).
In areas where GROWING FOOD FOR PEOPLE is a large part of the economy, we already know and accept that our country relies on people who will work in the fields, and while many are US citizens, we KNOW and ACCEPT that many are not.
If you’ve eaten fresh produce from the US, any time this year, you need to thank an illegal immigrant, because somewhere between the field and you, it was handled by a person who’s here without documentation, to WORK A JOB that you, yourself, would not.
The ever increasing Police State that this article describes is not the way to go. It’s not in line with our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
And since religion is infecting every part of our politics and political debate, I’ll include that these Police State tactics are not in line with the Christianity that the majority of US citizens believe in, that promotes caring for everyone, without prejudice.
The more we turn the US into a Police State, the more dangerous the smuggling becomes, and the answer is to reverse the Police State tactics!
15
I love when the left says stuff like this "Have you eaten any fresh fruit or vegetables that were grown in the US today? If so, thank an illegal immigrant!"
What the left is really saying "we need people who work for slave wages to bring me my food that cost's so little!"
14
While in school, I spent a summer working 7 days a week on an agriculture farm in Canada. Yes, it was very hard work, but then again, so are many other jobs.
There would be no problem finding sufficient American citizens and legal residents if the employers offered better wages. Yes, that translates to higher prices for fruits and vegetables, but that's a correction that should have been rectified decades ago.
The e-verify program should be mandated and all employers who hire illegal workers should be charged accordingly.
13
We are often told American farms could not survive without unauthorized immigrants. According to the Pew Research Center, unauthorized immigrants make up 26 percent of U.S. farm workers, but only 4 percent of unauthorized immigrants work on farms. So, we could deport 96 percent of the 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants currently residing in the United State without affecting farms. We could replace the 4 percent who work on farms by expanding the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker visa program or reviving the Braceros program of the 1950s and 60s.
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/11/03/occupations-of-unauthorized-immigr...
9
Semi-annual raids - like one per state per year seems half-hearted. But when you understand only political enemies get raided...the beautiful, beautiful immigration plan can be understood.
2
People paying $10,000? $6,000? However do they afford that? Because they expect to earn enough to pay off the debt.
Prosecute employers who hire illegals, not illegals. When employers have the "freedom" to hire illegals, but the illegals don't have the "freedom" to come here, it isn't really about illegal immigration. It's about cheap and docile labor.
37
They get loans, planning to repay based on their under the table earnings in the US.
If they get caught and deported they can't return home because they have not earned the money and their lenders will send gangs to force it out of them and their families.
Thus, they will do anything they can to get into the US and earn the money to repay their loans, including claims the gangs are out to get them so they need asylum.
Stop the employers from hiring illegal immigrants, build the stinkin' wall and get the word out so the whole process stops.
8
Why are we wasting all this time and resources investigating the the last election ?
America doesn’t want to enforce its laws - just read all these comments from people who don’t want to enforce immigration or drug laws.
Surely they don’t suggest that enforce only those laws that liberals find acceptable to enforce.
Aren’t liberals always demanding equal treatment for all - why would they want some people allowed to break the law ?
Surely they wouldn’t demand President Trump be investigated and maybe even prosecuted while demanding illegal aliens and those violating narcotic law be given a free pass.
Just asking ?
18
Right on!
5
Let me get this straight.
Possible collusion with foreign power hostile to America to get your job as president and use that power to stir dissent in an attempt to keep said job = OK.
Trying to get in to America to build some garages or whatever = TO JAIL.
Am I reading your comment correctly?
2
Dear Simon - with all due respect you have no idea why people are illegally crossing the border. You do not even know their names, where they come from, police records or anything.
Does it make sense to claim that one is fleeing from violence and then illegally make one's way to Chicago to build garages? It would make a lot more sense to make one's way to Costa Rica or even Belize.
1
What an outstanding infomercial!
Just one brief paragraph mentioning any criticism to CBP. An agency that regularly violates the basic human rights of asylum seekers, and destroy life-saving water supplies left for migrants.
I guess that's the price to pay to get that wonderful stash of dehumanizing pictures, soon to be featured in myriad alt-right memes.
1
An important point to be made about illegal immigrants is that they are willing to take on dirty jobs in which the natives have no interest. The farming business in this agricultural area would crater without them. Despite all of our other national problems, the Trump group devotes an inordinate amount of time to the immigration problem. A lot of that can probably be chalked up to racism. Any immigration problem could be alleviated to a great extent by enforcing criminal laws against the hiring of illegals. However, that would probably cost the hypocritical politicians a few votes so they don't do it.
3
"Any immigration problem could be alleviated to a great extent by enforcing criminal laws against the hiring of illegals. However, that would probably cost the hypocritical politicians a few votes so they don't do it."
It would only cost votes indirectly. Almost every working person is in favor of enforcing e-Verify and keeping illegals out of the workforce. Almost every employer -- and they are the ones with the big checkbooks -- is not at all keen on that at all. And money talks, especially in terms of campaign finances. And a candidate without money is rarely if ever elected.
5
Immigration is a useful issue for politicians, it never fails to get people angry. But here's a fact to consider: 80% of undocumented immigrants work in agriculture. Also, 80% of farm workers are undocumented immigrants. Call it the 80-80 rule.
Are they taking American jobs? Not really. Very few Americans aspire to a career picking tomatoes in the hot sun. Meanwhile, US unemployment is at 20-year lows, so even jobs that are easy to reach and which pay better are harder and harder to fill. Imagine how hard it is fill jobs for seasonal labor, hundreds of miles from the nearest city.
A visa system that accepted the reality of the need for immigrants in certain sectors of the economy would solve 80% of this problem.
6
Your statistics are false. There is no 80/80 rule, because
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/11/03/occupations-of-unauthorized-immigr...
Roughly 4% of illegals/migrants/undocumented persons work in the farming sector. They represent roughly 25% of farm laborers nationwide.
11
Another article that dehumanizes the reality of migrant workers coming to pick fruit and vegetables for your plates. I don't get it. What is it that we do not understand about the truth about WHY migrants come into the farmlands of the US and leave when the work for your cheap consumption is done? I live in the agricultural west. The hardest workers are the ones picking apples, peaches, grapes, greens and much more in Eastern Washington. Most migrants have families located here; many of them return to the southern continents at the end of the season. Why are we making things so hard for people who are willing to serve a vital role in our society? I just don't get it. The solution to this problem is a no-brainer but somehow we have made the problem so complicated with the assumption that climate change recognizes borders, the assumption that migration is "illegal", the assumption that movement is invasive. That's not true! Crop growth is changing along with every other life adaptation; all species migrate; and movement is survival for us all!
8
The U.S. is one of the most generous countries in the world with immigration. But there has to be limits. The income gap that hurts low skill workers is the major result of globalization and illegal immigration. No ones pay is based off of the CEO's pay it is based off the lowest payed jobs. I'm not saying we should close ourselves off from the world and not allow any immigration as the later is what has made this country great. But our politician have dealt us the short end of the stick as far as global trade agreements. As far as immigration I'm all for it but it can't be immigration without limits. You can't increase the low skill work pool by 25% and expect wages not to stagnate for 30 yrs.
14
Only three percent work in agriculture. We don't need their labor.
1
You might want to take a gander at this article in the Seattle Times about the Hispanic community in places like Yakima and Ellensburg calling for help against the latino gangs that rule the streets.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/farming-town-fights-back-again...
5
1) guns are smuggled from the USA, not to the USA;
2) money from drug sales and illegal aliens generally smuggled from the USA, not into the USA;
3) people are smuggled into the USA, that’s why we have the Border Patrol and ICE, to try to protect America’s borders from hordes of illegal aliens;
4) drugs are smuggled into the USA, that why we have state and local law enforcement, the DEA and ICE.
God bless our law enforcement officials who daily risk their lives to protect us.
13
the problem has never been illegals. It is the employers who pay no tax or minimum wage and the landlords who rent substandard housing to them. They file no tax so the rents they pay and the wages they make are tax win falls for the owners and employers while we spend billions of our taxes on border control.
The money and property these thieves have are ill gotten gains, and should be forfeited. they are no better than the drug dealers or smugglers they need to spend months if not years in jail.
If there is no job or no apartment they will stop coming here.
16
NYTimes I love you, but it really doesn’t help matters when you sensationalize information. For example in this article the photo and text about a stash house with over 115 people inside, crammed together occurred in 2014, 4 years ago on President Obama’s watch. As were the photos of people in washing machines. Some photos were from 2015. But the most sensational photo of a man sewn into a car seat(!!) was 17 years ago! Really? Your “investigative “ journalism would be well served to report on the results of the current destructive policy this administration is enforcing on desperate humans.
32
In my regular three-mile freeway trip between Murrieta and Temecula, CA, I sometimes spot Border Patrol cars poised on a hill beside the freeway about every mile. And this is more than 85 miles from the Mexican Tijuana border. Maybe they are just taking a nap? Is this where my tax dollars go?
3
They are probably looking for illegal immigrants trying to skirt the checkpoints by walking around them. They probably are closer than 80 miles to some part of the border, just not the part of the border you think of as being the closest point on the border.
17
So let me see if I understand these so called Checkpoints..
As an American Citizen I'm driving down an American Highway and the Gov't can stop me and question and search me for no reason.
Wow - Say Goodbye to Freedom - Freedom it was nice knowing ya...
10
If you want your freedom back, better support verify, and cracking down on employers.
21
I wasn't aware that I had to support some Gov't program in order to retain my civil rights...
Must have missed that day when they taught that in "Civics Class"
I get tired of the argument that we are all immigrants or my grandfather was an immigrant so I have to accept that over 20 million people need to be taken care of. There is a major difference between now and then, a hundred years ago there was no social safety net. There were no WIC programs, no prenatal care, no free hospital stay for people who just showed up on our borders or shores. It was sink or swim if you didn't have money you missed meals which is a far cry from today simply showing up entitles you to benefits that US citizens have had.
88
Migrants, lacking SS #s cannot access those benefits.
2
They get illegals SS cards
14
There also were no satellite dishes or cell phones for my ancestors in the 1700 and 1800s. They came with little choice but to assimilate in the dominant culture where they settled.
10
Heavily fine anyone who employs an illegal alien and make them fit the bill for repatriating the people they employ. If there is a second offense, jail. This means everyone who employs a maid, a gardener, a laborer, a roofer, a babysitter, a factory worker, a manicurist, a dishwasher, a farm worker...anyone. I could walk around my old neighborhood and within 5 minutes identify 20 illegals and their employers. Until it costs employers more to employ illegals, the problem will continue. Business people factor this in, it is the cost of doing business. Why isn't this administration screaming about e-verify? Why is Donald Trump hiring foreigners for his business? Really, he can't find any 'qualified' waiters and waitresses? There are contractors that supply the bodies and the papers, creating a layer of plausible deniability. I worked in a factory that hired illegals and they were treated like dirt. Americans regularly came into apply for these factory jobs, and their applications were filed in the garbage. But that's not what this administration cares about, they carabout talking about the wall, when the whole problem would end the minute a few men or women in business suits were thrown in jail. Everyone says they do jobs, Americans don't won't, no they do them for less. Concerned about lettuce prices going up? No worry, tariffs insure you will pay more anyway and Trump doesn't seem to care about that, so stop whining about a 15 cent rise in the price of a tomato.
32
Many of these people being smuggled are escaping brutal conditions in Central America. Instead of addressing the symptoms, why doesn't the U.S. bring influence on El Salvador and Honduras to turn around the conditions. If we can waste the taxpayer's money on trump's trips to go golfing and babble to his followers, we can send resources in the form of military LEO, etc. to lessen the flow of immigrants north.
18
Yes, if there is one thing that Central Americans want, it is US boots on their ground to help them to fight crime. I can just picture it, a twenty first century version of The Magnificent Seven, with our armed forces playing the roles of Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner.
5
They are not migrants. They are undocumented immigrants, illegal immigrants. How do you stop them? I don't know. But I do know my grandparents came through Ellis Island and had a sponsor in Cleveland. They learned English without television and they became part of the community. My grandfather owned several general stores and became quite prosperous. Even at Ellis Island they rejected many with physical or mental defects and they were deported. I am certainly not against immigration but something must be done to halt this situation and sending them back is the answer.
75
Liberals lost their way regarding illegals. Most are economic illegals now throwing them at asylum courts. Most will be deported
16
Most will not be deported. They will be let go into the country to await a court hearing they will not attend. As parts of this country resemble their own more than the u.s. they will dissapear into a community that they can easily hide in forever.
1
On a "60 Minutes" segment recently, an officer at an immigration border station inside Texas said they didn't have time to open the back of every big truck that came through to check for humans being smuggled, although they had time to talk with the drivers.
They have x-ray machines for the trucks to pass through, but the machines were broken.
It should be required that the officers open the back of every truck that comes through.
Wait in line, like we do at security in airports.
26
I watched a video of the UK border patrol and they had a device that detected carbon dioxide in the trucks indicating that someone was breathing in there. They had lots of tricks and devices to catch people trying to smuggle themselves over the Chunnel. There are thousands of people mobbing the access roads to the Chunnel every day. They use knives to slash open the tarps on trucks and climb in while it is moving slowly to the entrance. There is a huge camp where they live which was broken down by the French government but it has been built up again. The traffic is all one way because the UK provides the best benefits. The "refugees" aren't treated as well by the French.
That's the reason they all bypass safe countries to get to the US, the benefits. These people who do that are not asylum seekers they are looking for better benefits.
8
If more Americans had to pull off the highway, sit in line, answer questions while a dog sniffs around their car with no probable cause they would be angry. I am driving my car and not violating any laws. Don't tell me (Border Patrol) you are protecting me, you are not. More often than not you are just a bunch of schoolyard bullies given badges and guns. Ninety plus percent of you are unprofessional in my experience and should be fired. As just about anyone who lives along the border and they would tell you life would be much better without these bullies.
9
Go ahead and grab the smugglers, but leave the mothers fathers, and children ALONE, and give them their constitutional, and international law legal rights to seek asylum. Stop calling these fearful, struggling families criminals. They are not criminals; they are refugees.
13
What do you call one who breaks the law?
10
Donald Trump.
1
Economic refugees are not allowed
17
ok, after we dump ICE, let's get rid of the border patrol....takes the pressure off the smugglers and child (ab)users...
assign each a guide from the "migrants advocates" community, who will no doubt volunteer in droves to "endure exhaust fumes," staff "stash houses"
converted to welcome centers and accompany our new neighbors past our own homeless citizens and scarred inner cities, to sanctuary...but not in bel aire, beverly hills, martha's vineyard, greenwich or disneyland.
25
Oh, how's the wall going? The US is never going to get control of its border. Mexico and Central America are projected to add about 45 million more people by 2050. Ongoing political turmoil and a worsening physical climate (yes, global warming) are going to make things hot hot hot down there. Texas and California will be majority Latino; the US will be 30% Latino overall. Trump can bluster all he wants, but he'll be gone soon; mass immigration is here to stay. Get ready for change - whether you like it or not!
3
And once again, and presumably deliberately, the immigration patterns are being distorted in such a way that the only way thru is over the Sonora. The Sonora kills.
1
A lot of this administration’s policies are intended to be as harsh and cheap as possible.
'The Sonora kills'
Sadly, that is indeed the idea.
If every last person attempting illegal entry died, there would soon be many, many few attempts.
'Catch and release' is despised by the Border Patrol, because it equals a loss. Catch and deport is despised because a subsequent attempt is soon forthcoming. Catch and detain is despised because detention is expensive and a pile of paperwork. Catch and execute is just not legal -- so that leaves forcing migrants to traverse the Sonora and die.
1
The illegal immigrants are desperate and see themselves as having little to lose by trying to come to the U.S.
the obvious solution is to focus on the employers, the vast majority of which are U.S. citizens, business owners that do have a lot to lose.
if our government actually put pressure on the side that is susceptible to it, illegal immigration would reduce dramatically.
The only thing our current policy is doing is providing jobs for Republican voters, who make up 100% (or close to it) of the enforcement personnel, and those working for the vast infrastructure that supports enforcement and incarceration.
5
The laws need to be enforced, but not to wastefulness and disruptiveness. The problem with rural jobs isn't illegal or legal immigration, it's Republican greed. We're already the richest nation in the world implementing the greediest policies. It's exploitation - that's how illegals get employed to begin with.
Where are all the Republican employers being arrested? Where are the Republican states enforcing employment rules?
20
of the 4 things crossing the border illegally - people, money, guns and drugs - the PEOPLE are the least dangerous. so why the focus on the least dangerous problem?
4
Do the guns and drugs bring themselves?
13
Who do yo think is being used to smuggle the stuff? Many of the illegals pay off their debt to the smugglers by carrying drugs across the border where they are picked up by a prearranged car.
They aren't the least dangerous, they're the people who make it all possible.
7
All ICE has to do is walk into Flushin meadows park or the bike path along the west side highway on a weekend where thousands of illegals are having barbecues with their families. Add the bike food delivery people from manhattan restaurants and their busboys, and you have tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of illegals to deport - as they should be.
The question is: does the country have the will to do what it should, and must?
19
How do you know the people in the park are illegal immigrants? So many look like you and me or our friends and acquaintances.
1
The brave work of the men and women who are helping these migrants move north is truly inspiring! It almost reads as a description of a new Underground Railroad.
For white liberals like me, who hate the fact that white people make up a majority of this country, I wonder if there are opportunities to volunteer to help out with this new Underground Railroad.
Is there a more anti-America First, anti-MAGA, anti-Trump cause than helping migrants? Is there a more humane cause than fighting for these migrants' fundamental human right to live here, to have their children with them, and to have economic well being, healthcare, and a quality education? For the left right now, I don't really think there is a better issue to stand by.
The Courts as an issue lacks the human element. Raising taxes is noble, but equally cold. And I'm afraid universal healthcare and job guarantees aren't as appealing when unemployment is at record lows. But seeing the brave and ingenuous work that good people are doing to help these migrants come north, and hearing their amazing stories and love of this land, is truly inspiring!
I think we should definitely make this our number one cause. Sustaining the move to abolish ICE is another good and related strategy. This is about the future of our country! Border enforcement Is Not Who We Are!
1
What is wrong with white people? That is just as wrongly biased as hating black people. If you lived in Nigeria would you hate the fact that the country's majority is black?
18
The people helping other people cross the border are human traffickers not heroes.
16
Great satire- you should look into becoming a comedy writer full time!
11
Supply and demand, as long as there is demand for cheap unskilled labor in the US and a lack of security / opportunity south of the border, there will be a supply, one way or the other. Everybody would be better off if we all just accepted basic economics and took a constructive approach to the entire issue.
This is just like the related war on drugs. All the extreme enforcement has accomplished is to industrialize and concentrate the activity in the hands of criminal syndicates. Smart, really smart.
4
"One woman...told officers she was expecting $6,000 to drive them two hours from Kinney County to San Antonio. She was sentenced to eight months in prison and three years of probation."
Why do we never see prison time for the business owners who hire illegal immigrants. Last week's NYT ran a story about an Iowa meat packing plant where dozens of undocumented workers were arrested. Doesn't that fall under Trump's zero tolerance policy? Or are businesses pardoned from the policy?
55
But of course. That effort might force some companies out of business and have a reverb effect on other, better-paid parts of the supply chain. Republicans aren't going to pay more... they'll simply move the jobs off-shore where possible. You can get even cheaper labor in India and Asia!
Why aren’t we turning the tables on these smugglers, profiting from misery, dysfunctional governments, and yes, breaking our laws. We should offer citizenship to any immigrant with cell phone video, audio recordings of these smugglers. Special awards of...money, for proof of smuggler connections to government officials, drug cartels, etc. where are the undercover operations to catch these dealers in human desires to live better lives. Where are the incentives to real immigrants to out these traffickers.
As an aside, are we using any audio equipment to detect human heartbeats inside those semi trucks? And why aren’t those border patrol agents given face masks for the auto fumes??
If ever there were a use for facial recognition, catching the smugglers in the miles before the border...would be it. Once again, focusing on the immigrants, allows the real profiteers to escape, continue. And more and more, you have to ask...why. Who else benefits.
8
It would be far easier to take the approach of this article more seriously if the organization it features was not engaged in sweeping up long-time residents who pose no danger or threat to others or if that organization had not signed on through its union to support the administration that encourages its current activities.
1
When the outgoing British Ambassador to the United States was asked on NPR what was his impression of Americans, he answered without hesitation, “You’ve got no sense of humour, for one thing.”
He was right.
C’mon. Don’t your (presumably intelligent) readers recognize irony?
Do the get the idea behind a “modest proposal?”
1
Within the 21st century global warming will cause sea levels to rise in countries South of the border. Not only will much of the coastline disappear, much of Central America will be underwater, but the heat and desertification of this area will make it impossible for people to live there. A better solution would be divert illegal aliens to other parts of the world. I'm also surprised the US has never done any advertising or broadcasts into the 3rd world, telling potential illegal aliens that they won't have things that much better here.
8
That’s a good point. Australia posts large billboards at various places around the South Pacific with the words, “You will not make Australia your home. No way. “ I suspect that does deter some migration.
I have heard that governments south of our border actively encourage their people to migrate illegally to the U. S., and provide instructions how to do it.
It’s a safety valve that ensures their own corrupt regimes will not be challenged by an unhappy population.
During the Cold War I think we abetted this in order to prevent a socialist revolution close to home.
It wasn’t an entirely bad idea. I remember that the border was much easier to cross and the migrants would simply work here, send cash to their families, and go back back home.
It was also easier for us to walk over to Nogales or Agua Prieta, eat some good food, and buy my in-laws their prescription medication for less money than we would have to pay in Arizona or New Mexico, and then walk back, pick up the parked car and drive home. Somehow, none of this was considered to be a problem.
5
I recall as a kid in NY, visiting family friends, an Air Force family in San Antonio, when we traveled, two carloads of family and friends, no passports, down to Mexico via open roads and the Border patrol was a single toll booth; that was the early 1960's before the human population of the world reached over 7 billion and the US population was then 200 million.
I say we need more ICE agents please.
We are full; we don't need more people.
2
If the country with the Statue of Liberty, the worlds largest economy, a functioning government, many states and towns losing population and a lower social safety net than many other countries will not welcome immigrants or refugees, exactly who will? Closing our own borders will give the rest of the world license to do the same.
Having two tiers of people in the country is a bad idea, whatever the reason for the split - in this context, illegal vs . legal is the problematic split. Not that we need to eat meat, but when the food industry hires illegal workers, the employees cannot report unsafe or unsanitary conditions to anyone, so everyone is potentially affected. More generally, this is a recipe for exploitation and distrust.
If we let more people in, kicked our collective drug habit and treated everyone here the same, we would grow the economy rapidly and sustain many of our small towns. It would make us wealthy enough to help most of the western hemisphere establish legitimate governments so that their citizens want to stay or would be willing to go to a neighboring country.
Lifting the world out of poverty has been our most effective immigration control. The job is far from complete.
1
The Trump administration's zero tolerance policy is coupled with an effort to likewise make legal immigration more difficult. Keep the foreigners out to appease Trump's base! What is forgotten is that every supporter of anti-immigration is either herself an immigrant or has ancestors who were immigrants. President Trump's own grandparents were immigrants. Even Native Americans' ancestors "immigrated" over the land bridge at the Bering Straits.
Forgotten also is that in hard times Americans have emigrated to other lands in search of jobs. During the Great Depression a number of unemployed Americans found jobs in Soviet Russia.
We have come through an era of unprecedented prosperity, but the economic boom and bust cycle is inexorable. The time may again come when Americans have to leave the country in order to survive. Will we be welcome as immigrants, or will our shameful behavior toward our own immigrants be held against us?
5
American citizenship is not a civil right. The left needs to stop pretending otherwise or it will lose elections.
9
"But many smuggled migrants are caught at highway checkpoints like the one in Falfurrias, nearly 70 miles north of the border and one of the Border Patrol’s last lines of defense."
Nice job announcing where our last check point is. On purpose?
35
Dude, it's not a secret. Everyone traveling north from the RGV goes through these checkpoints. The checkpoints have been around for decades now. They are permanent buildings. They are marked on Google Maps, have TxDOT warning signs to slow down when you approach, etc.
I really wish more Northern people would visit our border areas to see they are not the war zones depicted by this administration.
4
I'm sure everybody already knows about it. It looks like a fixed check point, not some kind of pop-up check point.
2
Not to worry. The border cops are everywhere in Trump's America. Falfurrias is no secret to anyone in the area. Some of the "pop ups" are.
The real issue on our southern border is that we Americans are more than willing, actually demanding to spend in excess of $10-Billion annually on "illegal" drugs. It is Americans who fund the drug cartels that have destroyed civil society in other nations.
We the People do not want to acknowledge or accept that simple fact - we are responsible for our own problems. Until we do, and actually do something about our national drug problem we will continue to have drugs and the gangs that come with them crossing our borders. $10B/year is a serious inducement to keep producing and shipping the drugs.
11
We are not responsible for all the problems in Latin America.
7
'We are not responsible for ALL the problems in Latin America.'
Right.
The narco-terrorists who have set up shop from one end of the cocaine foodchain to the other (Peru to the Arctic Circle) are in no way shape or form the responsibility of the people paying for the cocaine by the gram. Definitely not true.
There ARE more problems in Latin America than the flood of drug money that destabilizes societies, undermines government and destroys legitimate economies -- but that's the main one.
Build an American society where so many people weren't so interested in being stoned out of the minds as much of the time as possible, and Latin America's other problems could start to be addressed.
1
Nick67, et al.,
Please explain how "narco-terrorism" could exist without the billions of dollars that they get from the sale of drugs.
Examine the history of prohibition and the resultant growth of "organized crime" syndicates.
Yes, there are more problems in the Americas than just drugs. But, at the root cause of many of the crime problems we find the abuse of drugs is almost always present.
Of course drug abuse used to be a crime, until it hit the white suburban communities where it became a public health crisis.
Dealing with symptoms will never cure the real problem. At the root we find the potential for a cure.
Most illegals I have met over many years in the hospitality world have little desire to live in the US. The family home and the family is in Mexico. Just no jobs. So they work two jobs here, live frugally to support their families, and go home several times a year. Their dream is to retire in their country. An appropriate guest worker program would provide hard working employees to businesses that can't find adequate workers within their own country.
66
Especially if it required paying everyone at least the minimum wage above the table.
6
[[Roberta S
San Antonio
Most illegals I have met over many years in the hospitality world have little desire to live in the US. The family home and the family is in Mexico. Just no jobs. So they work two jobs here, live frugally to support their families, and go home several times a year. Their dream is to retire in their country.]]
We should have an honest discussion about the range of jobs taken up by "illegals" and the role industries play in facilitating illegal immigration and wage suppression.
Construction, meat processing and hospitality to name a few.
As a consumer, I want to pay a fair price for a product and know that workers are being adequately compensated. I don't need chicken at 49 cents a pound or beef at two dollars a pound if that means workers are in unsafe conditions or are being robbed of wages and benefits.
I'm not satisfied tipping the cleaning staff at a hotel if their wages are being stolen.
20
We have guest worker programs, which maybe should be increased, but in general I think the idea is and should be that any year round work should be done by citizens or legal residents and seasonal labor demand in excess of what the existing workforce can supply should be met with guest workers. The problem is that a lot of year round jobs are being taken by illegal immigrants keeping wages low and killing the economics of automation necessitating ever increasing numbers of workers because of the stagnant wages.
8
Republicans are constantly reminding us about the virtues of the free market and how the private sector can always operate more cost-effectively than the public sector. So why haven’t they come up with a free market solution to the illegal immigration problem? Why so much reliance on the government? Every Republican knows the government can do anything right, right? Ronald Reagan, Himself, said so. Right?
4
Perhaps because the "free market" is totally skewed off kilter when you toss in hordes of illegal aliens, willing to work at below market pay and in unfair and poor conditions than those more knowledgeable (and willing to speak up in safety) in what is properly allowed to employers. It's not the free market that has failed, it is the government's failure to keep out millions of illegals that puts the machinery of the market out of proper operation.
33
"willing to work at below market pay and in unfair and poor conditions"
There is this thing called government, that is SUPPOSED to enforce pay rules, and working conditions, safety and worker eligibility. If the government did its job and enforced the ground rules of the free market, there wouldn't be a problem. But the 'free market' has captured its regulatory authorities, and now only what employers want gets enforced
When the main argument in favor of legal immigration from central America is "we need those uneducated immigrants to work in the fields, in slaughterhouses, and to cleanup our backyards" and the main argument against legal immigration from China and India is "we don't need cheap engineers who take jobs away from our kids", it's time to wonder whether the liberal American middle class is not little bit racist.
40
The border checkpoints are nothing new ... they have operated in much the same manner for over 25 years. Having lived in McAllen TX in the early 1990's I experienced them firsthand as we passed through them on our way north from the Rio Grande Valley.
For those unaware of the local geography, the logical question would be "why don't they just take the back roads to avoid the checkpoints. There are no "back roads" through the area and going cross country on foot is very dangerous due to the climate, cactus & underbrush and widlife (i.e. rattlesnakes & other dangerous) animals) that make travel extremely hazardous.
The smugglers have become more sophisticated as have the Border Patrol agents who deal with it on a daily basis. A secure border is the only way to ensure that persons entering or seeking to enter the United States do so in an orderly and legal manner. As much as I understand the of people from other countries to desire to live in the United States, we cannot or should not just open the borders to all comers without condition or this country will become like the one they seek to escape instead of being the oasis they seek to reach.
65
All of Florida is in the border zone, so perhaps checkpoints might be appropriate somewhere inland from us.
8
We created this mess. We subsidize corn production to where it can be sold below the cost of Mexican farmers can grow it. This cutoff the livelihood of up to millions of people.
We use the drugs that finance the drug cartels. They made billions off of our illicit drug use. They have increased their empire and branched into smuggling people.
We destabilized Central American governments. Contra's, Sandinistas, pro-Castro, anti-Castro, dictators, banana republics, CIA interference, all had our fingerprints on it and turned that part of the world into a crime ridden disaster. We built it.
So now the people are so desperate that they risk their lives and cough up $10,000 to come to America.
Instead of spending 25 billion dollars to build a wall (which will end up costing easily over 50 billion because these gigantic projects always cost twice as much as estimated), we should use that money to:
1) Get our people off of drugs.
2) Make large investments in the region to spur economic development so people can stay there.
Trump can use this to his advantage. As soon as the region becomes self sustaining, he can levy tariffs against their goods which he will claim protects the American worker. It wont, but it will give him a new group of people to blame.
27
Don’t forget that US gunmakers sell guns that end up in Mexico/Central America. In fact, Congress is considering loosening the exportation laws and transferring responsibility from the State Department to the Commerce Department, so the pressure on those countries’ people can grow.
2
The fact that many smuggled migrants are caught at highway checkpoints like the one in Falfurrias is due to simple ignorance. And this is because there are maps that show all of the border patrol checkpoints. There is even a Wikipedia page dedicated to stating where all of those checkpoints are. And when you look at the maps you can clearly see the highways that can take you to the same destination, but without having to run into border patrol checkpoints.
What is more of a problem is that the border patrol also sets up the same type of checkpoints on highways within 100 miles of the northern border even though there is no problem with the smuggling of people up north. The one thing that they are most likely to find are small amounts of illegal drugs possessed by US citizens. And since under the definition of border in regard to the 100 miles where they are authorized to set up checkpoints includes the sea, this means they can technically set up checkpoints with drug sniffing dogs in areas that cover where 200 million Americans live.
4
I support Trump's efforts to end illegal migration into our country and to deport anyone here illegally, including those who overstay visas, regardless of age.
101
Why?
2
duh, it's the law!
1
Stopping illegal migration into the U.S. is definitely a Trump thing. It has been on the books for practically ever.
Fascist/raciest donald's thing is to stop that "vermin" trying to legally enter the U,S,
Maybe i'm missing something, but for $10k, why wouldn't they get a passport, and book a vacation to Disney by plane and just stay?
46
I’m guessing they owe the ten k. You can’t borrow for plane tix, but you can borrow from the dealers and pay back by working as a slave when you get here.
19
Because the likelihood of getting a tourist visa is slim to none.
14
You don’t pay it ahead of time. You pay back the “loan” once you’re here. Check out Mexican gang (and state but same thing in many cases) involvement in the sex trafficking world. Grim.
9
I know from past reports, smugglers of drug shipments will direct a group of migrants toward the border as a diversion for drug shipments into Texas. Pairing up children with human trafficers, appears to be a new tactic that is not reported: only the parental separation hysteria, by the media is the issue. Niciragua, the largest Central American country is headed fo economic collapse. Its not going to get better at the border.
46
What ‘reports’ are you citing? Facebook? Fox News? The vast majority of migrants from Central America come from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala —countries with the highest murder rates in the world where 90+% go unpunished. These people risk suffocation and other unimaginable horrors because they are obviously desperate; and the promise of a job in the USA makes the decision easy. The drugs come across in many ways (tunnels, drones, catapults and even submarines); but the bulk comes across hidden in 18-wheelers, only a fraction of which can be searched. Stop the demand for drugs and cheap labor, and both will go elsewhere
14
And these pictures are just awful, and they don't make me feel sorry for these people. This is why Trump will win in spite of separating families. Our handling of illegal immigrants is harsh and stupid; it could be done much better if we funded it like we mean it. But it must be done. We cannot have these criminals here.
9
Why ard these migrants allowed when they are millions of Asians suffering actual pursecution in Myanmar living in tents. The Central American governments are aiding the movement of their poor to t he US as a social welfare program and income for human trafficers.
US laws allow foreigners (aliens) to seek entry and citizenship. Those who do not follow these laws are in this country illegally (i.e., illegal aliens) and should be detained and deported; this is policy in other countries, too.
We cannot afford to support our own citizens: the poor, the ill, elderly, disabled, veterans, et al. It is therefore utterly impossible for US taxpayers to support the millions of foreigners who would like to come to the US.
The cruelty lies not in detaining and deporting illegal aliens, or forcing those who wish to enter the US to wait for processing. What is cruel, unethical and probably illegal is encouraging parents to bring their children on the dangerous trek to US borders and teaching them how to game the system to enter the US by falsely claiming asylum, persecution, abuse, etc.
Abolishing ICE makes sense only to advocates of open borders, a policy no nation will ever approve. We will lose the mid-terms and 2020 elections if open borders becomes part of the Democratic platform.
134
"We cannot afford to support our own citizens"
I disagree. We choose not to support our own citizens.
That said, I do not support illegal entry to our country.
34
During Obama's two terms as President we also chose not to support our poor, disabled, elderly, etc.
This "can't afford to" / "choose not to" problem is found in both Republicans and Democrats.
It is only the socialists who believe we can tax Americans enough to give everyone free money (universal basic income) AND allow open borders to millions who will make additional demands on American funds and resources.
Open borders will never be a Democratic platform because NOT ONE DEMOCRAT wants open borders! As others have said, find a way to allow those who come to work to work legally and consider respectfully those who claim asylum.
1
And just why do folks cross our southern border? No GOP asks this. Most cross for prosperity. There is no other good reason to do so except legitimate ones such as asylum.
The answer, GOP, is to make hiring a person without papers a real crime and not a wrist slapper. Put a few hundred white businessmen in jail and confiscate their businesses and the potential to “steal our backbreaking labor jobs” is gone.
Then you won’t have a platform to run on! Tough choice, eh GOP?
106
Your solution is unworkable, and somewhat laughable.
Those migrants are not stealing our "backbreaking jobs" as many of those jobs are not exactly sought after jobs by Americans, you know, agriculture and some construction trades.
Now one would counter and state there are no positions to be filled as all of the positions are taken by migrants. But, that is a fallacy as many farmers have watched their crops rot due to a shortage of labor.
3
Agreed. (1) really beef up E-verify and conduct widespread raids on businesses that tend to hire illegal immigrants. (2) the illegal immigrants get immediately deported; the business owners/ managers go to prison for a few years. My daughter-in-law from the Philippines has already spent thousands of dollars trying to LEGALLY become an American citizen, so my sympathy with these illegals is very limited. Yes, they are human beings but they are also human beings with no respect for our laws. The United States is rapidly disappearing and I blame our disgusting President, our do-nothing Congress and a breakdown in the rule of law and respect for our shared American values.
21
Number 2 - immediate deportation - not constitutional - due process.
Also, your daughter-in-law has a viable path which many of these undocumented individuals do not.
Given the nature of this article, it is astounding how so many completely miss the point. Look at the methods these people are willing to endure in order to cross the border. What type of person does this - the type of person who sees this as their last chance for survival.
We are treating the symptom, but not the disease.
Illegal migration is almost totally demand-driven. Remove the demand for cheap, unregulated labor, and the migration of the laborers to fill this need will concurrently drop.
If the Federal Government was actually interested in stopping, and reversing, illegal migration into the United States, it will have to start by severely prosecuting the businesses and individuals employing illegal migrants, and publicizing these prosecutions.
For a text-book case of how this works, we don’t have to go too far. Check how Canada does this: It has visa-free entry for Mexican citizens but has no illegal migration of Mexican citizens into Canada. The gentle, business-friendly Canadian Government comes down very hard on anyone employing anyone without work authorization.
243
Therein lies the problem-the lack of red-blooded Americans to perform the work the migrants are willing to perform-agriculture, particularly in the fields where the produce is picked by hand, in the slaughter houses, in some construction trades forces the employers to find a labor force that will do the work.
4
Yeah, no. Pay is the key. We could have a decent economy booming on the basis of good wages paid to all workers if we paid above-the-table wages to everyone and taxed appropriately. Too much money goes to the owners of capital and not enough to labor.
11
Perhaps it's the lack of red-blooded Americans unwilling to work for slave wages. Tackle corporate greed and the illegal labor problem will diminish.
6
This illustrates the phenomenon of a law enforcement bureaucracy assigned to deal with social problems for which government has organized fundamentally flawed solutions.
As more and more resources are poured into enforcement (bigger walls, more agents, harsher treatment, etc.) the price for being smuggled (humans or drugs) merely counter compensates.
The 40-year immigration study organized out of Princeton and Brown Universities confirms - this has increased the level of illegal immigrants residing in the United States by at least a third. People who used to return to their country of origin now remain due to increased transit difficulties.
Why do people come to the US? Mostly to seek gainful employment. The runner-up reason is fleeing social instability generated largely by a legacy of American government (CIA) interference in Central American countries.
A sensible solution would involve controlled access to American jobs. These are people who do valuable work and these migrants should not be used as whipping boys (and girls) for politicians seeking advantage based on xenophobic and racist appeals to backward sections of the electorate.
Drugs? The US should take the same path as Portugal and Switzerland - legalization. Both countries have experienced remarkable success in addressing drug traffic by putting issues of addiction in the hands of those who can successfully address it - the medical community.
Simple-minded law enforcement is no solution. It's insanity.
123
They could have calm countries but climate change will assure that we have a steady flood northward from the hot zones.
2
Drugs? Wow, are you informed? It's heroin now, not marijuana. This must be stopped. Also, these countries have severe problems with their corrupt governments that are run by puppet governments. The cartels run the show. It must be stopped!
1
To Roodoo - yes, I am informed. The reference to Portugal and Switzerland (not to mention the underlying phenomenon of addiction) is a specific reference to heroin. Treatment is under the supervision of a doctor and both addiction rates and the problem of illegal contraband have been significantly reduced. Treating addicts as criminals is what has led to the rise of the cartels. Addiction is a disease and the one-sided emphasis on law enforcement has proven to be a completely counter-productive non-cure of the problem.
As a former long-time resident of Texas, and a so-called sancturary city of Austin, it is clear the demands placed by illegal immigrants on state and local resources, including the schools, hospitals and social services are very significant financial drains. Quite simply, the States and the Nation must control the borders and the flow of immigrants into our country. We can be both compassionate and smart about immigration.
162
It actually is not that clear. Most undocumented people ("no person is illegal-Elie Wiesel") are far more exploited than likely to exploit. The constant fear of deportation makes them prime targets for wage theft, physical and sexual abuse and the like. I have seen far more proud Texans take advantage of these people than the other way around.
2
Illegals are exploited not only because they broke the laws but because they lack the skills to succeed in our society. The majority don't speak English and don't even have a junior high school diploma. Making them legal will only further increase their subsidies and access to our welfare state.
People pay -and risk- so much to come to the US illegally for two reasons. 1) there is no legal way for them to emigrate to the US. 2) they are desperate to escape the violent gangs in their home countries. With the price of smuggling so high, it isn’t really about escaping poverty any more because the poor can’t afford to make the trip. Many sectors of the US economy depend on these uneducated but skilled workers, and would hire them legally if they could. We need to fix the immigration system to make it possible for people from Central America to come here legally and work. Another commenter said we can’t afford to support these people because we can’t even support our own children, elderly and disabled. But these immigrants are not here for handouts, they are here to work. And if hired legally they pay taxes and contribute to social security and Medicare through payroll deductions. They also pay sales tax, gas tax, etc. and contribute to our economy as consumers as well as workers.
76
"Many sectors of the US economy depend on these uneducated but skilled workers..." This myth needs to be put to rest - the idea that all of these migrants, illegally crossing our borders, are all oh so "skilled", enabled with knowledge just not possessed by our own people (including LEGAL immigrants here in the US) is sheer nonsense. Really? They can clean hotel rooms better than ANYONE from the US, or operate a leaf blower better or any of dozens of other jobs commonly given to these disparate people.
The problem is NOT their supposed skills, but their willingness to work at substandard wages and conditions.
And please, enough with the taxation - even for those who do pay - often with stolen and false SSN's and identity, which harms us all - it does not cover the cost of educating their children, providing medical care, etc. We're not talking CEO wages!
49
Immigrants are hard workers and relied on for crop picking in California. In some areas the pay is as high as 13.25 an hour. The growers have said that American citizens don't apply for these jobs because they are seasonal.
1
Voter, I agree that most are hard workers (something that generally applies to the domestic variety as well), and yes, the agricultural work is usually not popular with non-immigrants, a situation that has been true for decades. That is one reason why I think a guest worker program for that particular industry makes sense. Though none of that means that the alien workers are actually more skilled than anyone else.
But I was specifically responding the the generalization in RB's post, which was far more encompassing, and is frequently heard, i.e, that all of these foreign workers, regardless of the trade involved, are "highly skilled", something which is readily seen as untrue.
Undocumented migrants pay thousands of dollars because it's a decent investment. They get jobs. The simple solution is to require national ID cards and punish employers who hire illegal workers. But don't expect the GOP to do anything businesses don't like.
79
I'm a GOP'er and I favor cracking down on employers--together with strict border enforcement. No big contradiction.
18
Show me a liberal who would accept a national id, please.
14
Neither party’s politicians want what we the people do. I’m a Dem and I favor exactly what you do, dude.
1
Gee, I live less than an hour away from White Sands National Monument and go there at least 4 times per year, usually in a pickup weighed down with an ice chest, gizmos for sliding down the dunes, beach chairs, etc. There is a border checkpoint just before the turnoff. Since I use a bicycle for most of my daily transportation, whenever I drive there is an isolated key in the ignition. I've never been hassled. Of course I am Caucasian and always answer yes when asked if I am a US citizen (even though I don't have to).
On the other hand, last year, returning in a fancy American made sedan from an otherwise enjoyable hiking experience at Big Bend National Park, my wife and I were interrogated and the car searched by a Border Patrol Agent who looked like the East German border guard who searched me at Checkpoint Charlie in 1980..The justification was that the dog smelled drugs. My wife wisely refrained from further comment beyond "All you will find are my estrogen patches" and we sat quietly while the dog made its way through the car.
35
As a resident of a border state, I have to say that I strongly resent the ICE's strong-arm tactics enforcing the "zero tolerance" policies of this heartless and ethically-challenged administration.
I live in NORTHERN New Mexico, well outside the one hundred mile zone where Border Patrol bullies now believe that they have license to abuse anyone they choose. I am not exaggerating. When ICE feels free to stop me, a native New Yorker (and fifth generation US citizen), as I drove on a small highway more than 339 miles from the border to demand my identification -- solely because of my hair and eye color (black/brown) and radio station ("Radio Romantica" on a public radio station) -- there is a BIG PROBLEM.
My refusal to play ICE games was met with threats of arrest and detention, and immediate deportation to Mexico (a country in which I have traveled, but have NO relatives at all). When I pushed back saying I was a US citizen, an attorney, a retired judge, and extremely concerned by what I was hearing, the stop took a different turn. My license plates were run (supposedly), and I was "free to go" but cautioned to "drive safely and cooperate with law enforcement."
Right. I will NOT live in a police state - not for any supposed "protection" from people who are just like my friends, neighbors, and countrymen - Not. At. All.
55
Reply to E: I found your comment most troubling. I share your fear that the United States is becoming more of a police state under the present administration.
Policing any community often comes with a delicate dance: upholding the law yet protecting the Constitutional rights of its citizens. That the ICE officers even stopped you without probable cause is that slippery slope. Somehow, we as a nation must turn this around.
17
Roadblocks 50 , 100 miles into the US. They have been around a few years and withstood legal challenge. But, its a terrible idea. While they may find some aliens, they also catch legal residents without documentation in their pocket, and US citizens with accents as well. Sometimes they are used by local police to look into peoples cars.
When I lived along the Mexican border I was stopped all the time at fixed and mobile roadblocks. Once, my daughters car was searched. An 18 year old, stopped by agents with dogs and guns, driving her California registered car in California 30 miles from Mexico.
It happened to me once upstate New York as well. Close to the Quebec border.
The fixed roadblock on Interstate 5 in Camp Pendleton is bizarre. When its manned, it can cause a traffic jam. And, every smuggler knows its there.
Once, the freedom to travel the highways was an important basic freedom. It should be again.
23