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Immigration Reform Debate

The Immigration debate is not a simple one since many of us know someone who is in the United States without proper paperwork.  There has been immigration reform protests in major cities across the U.S. including Los Angeles, West Palm Beach, New York, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, and Houston.  One of the protests that stood out was in Dallas, Texas where students invaded Dallas City Hall (which may have backfired). 

What started the immigration protests?  The immigration bill HR4437 which is pending legislation that would make it a felony to be an illegal immigrant (instead of the usual misdemeanor) and make aiding illegal immigrants a crime.

Below is one of the best posts emailed to me about this debate.  Feel free to comment yourself on our new blog.

This immigration situation is driving me nuts. I really don't even get why so many people defend "ILLEGAL" immigrants. After all they are called ILLEGAL for a reason and for me they just devalue what it means to actually come to America.  I am a legal immigrant and we only got our visa after like 5 years after my dad applied. It makes me sick that there are so many other people who work their butts off to get to America on their own merit, but if illegal Americans get their rights then that is kind of devaluing the American system, because that means I could have probably just been illegal and still had all of my rights.

Yes I know illegal immigrants work the jobs SOME Americans do not want to, but it also has a reverse effect because there are some significant number of AMERICANS who are unemployed and now they have no jobs because of illegal immigrants taking them. Maybe Americans want better wages for the same job, but I think AMERICANS who are unemployed will eventually accept some money by working in a crappy job than no money at all.

I think illegal immigrants practically disgrace what it means to be an American. What angers me even more is the fact that here in California there are like thousands of illegal immigrants who don't even speak English and they make NO EFFORT to learn it either, they expect the rest of the 250 million people to learn Spanish and Spanish has unofficially become Californians’ language.

I just think it’s so messed up, and it would be disaster if the government gives the illegal immigrants all the rights of a true tax-paying AMERICAN.

Gavin, OC, California

The only way you are going to stop the illegal immigration is to make the corporations stop paying them cheap labor and start paying a decent wage to the Americans who WILL do the so-called jobs that Bush says they won't do.

All other attempts to solve this problem will not work without this but Bush will not put any limits on big business.  The only job that some Americans may not want to do that the illegal’s do is pick crops in the field or maybe dig a ditch and there are still Americans who still do this.  We still have poor white Americans here that do these hard labor jobs we just don't hear about it.

Nanny jobs, mowing lawns, etc. are not at all just done by Mexicans but most are done by white Americans who also don't pay taxes.  In fact, now they hire illegal’s to do almost everything at a lower wage....build houses, etc. etc......all jobs that the Americans would do but it is much cheaper to drive up in your pickup to a bunch of waiting Mexicans to grab a couple to go do some work...tax free for the worker and for the person hiring them.

Nanci Grace, California

Boy, are you right about this immigration reform debate.  The same thing struck me when President Bush said "to do jobs Americans won't do"---the only reason they won't do them is because the agricultural and construction industry, not to mention individual homeowners, don’t want to pay decent pay.  They want their work done by immigrants for practically nothing.  And that means illegal immigrants who pretty much have to accept whatever they get offered.

But you'd be surprised about the taxes.  A lot of illegal aliens work under fake Social Security numbers.  The employers don't look too closely at the obviously fake Social Security cards or don't even ask to see them.  The taxes get taken out of their wages but they never file a tax return to claim the refund.  And their Social Security taxes go into what's called a "suspense file"---that's where the name and social security number don't match or the number is a fake number--and that "suspense file" fund is just free money for the Social Security trust fund.  Once in a while, an illegal alien will become legal and get a real Social Security number.  Then they come in with the W2's they saved (and they're smart enough to save them) and finally get credit for the earnings they paid Social Security taxes on.  But they're out of luck on tax refunds.  But those taxes and that "suspense file" money is just another of the many ways that the U.S. benefits from illegal aliens...free money.

Andrew, El Paso, TX

Immigration Debate Continued here