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Opinion

I agree with the dudes that agrees. That's fine that they want to come into the United States, but the government needs to get off their ass and make them pay taxes, just like any other U.S. citizen. My dad's not out in the world busting his ass so he can pay for someone. We're a single income family and we're doing great but we don't need to pay for illegal immigrants!!!!!!!! NA (F) 14 Concord, NC

 

Opinion

I am writing to you because I am fed up with what is happening in my town and feel as though my tiny voice is not being heard. I live in the Carpet Capital of the World, Dalton, GA. For years I have watched as the city I grew up in become a literal "little Mexico". We have had a steady surge of crime to include Meth busts, brothel busts, rapes, trafficking, graffiti on buildings, gang activity, etc. When is it going to stop? I guess I wouldn't have as much of a problem with them being here if they followed the same laws and tax standards as I do. I am a white female and feel like the minority in this town. I am sick and tired of hearing they only here to do the job the sorry white man won't. That is not true to a certain extent. You can open the newspaper on any given day and find that most clerical jobs that I have qualifications for are requiring you be bilingual in language. I feel as though I am being discriminated against for being an English speaking American white woman. Not only that, it is very rare that you see a Hispanic paying any Federal taxes into the government. They will claim 9 dependants as to dance around this deduction. Also, there needs to be a law stating that if health insurance is offered to you, you must take it. Being in Human Resources as I am, I see too many times them turning down the opportunity for health insurance because the "State pays for there kids"! The greedy employers don't care because that means they don't have to contribute to their health insurance out of their pocket. That is how they can afford to drive brand new Navigators, BMW's and so on. My Hispanic neighbor has a 3 br, 2 ba house with two new vehicles and on their 5th child. All on the dad's income. You tell me how that happens. It takes my husband and me both to work and we do not have but two children and our vehicles are not new. I could go on forever. My mother (God bless her) was below poverty level and did not qualify but for $40.00 per month in food stamps and did not qualify at all for government housing and she worked for years putting into our system. Now as I drive by our housing, I see nothing but Mexicans, not worked a day in this country and my blood boils! Something has got to be done. I am sick and tired of this. They drive around with no insurance, no license, all while drinking and we have to foot the bill whenever one hits us because of their erratic driving skills. If I go to Wal-Mart one more time and see them pull out their WIC vouchers to pay for their cheese and milk all the while dressed to the max and pull out a check card or one hundred dollar bill to pay for the rest of the groceries, I am liable to go postal on someone. I WANT SOME WIC CHEESE, I WANT SOME FREE MILK. Ha! Ha! TW (41) Female Dalton, GA   Response: Your frustration is noted and shared by many, however be careful about generalizing all Hispanic people or any group of people as such. Those that I know, and I know a lot of them having lived in South America and speaking Spanish and Portuguese fluently, are hard working, putting themselves through school and valuable contributing members of society. Many are the sons and daughters of migrant workers who today are lawyers, doctors, journalists and police officers. The frustrations you speak of I encountered in college with women on welfare getting a free ride, full college tuition, daycare and housing while I had to drop out several times because I couldn't afford the tuition.  It wasn't that they got help; I'm all for giving single mothers the opportunity to better their lives. My issue was they skipped classes and used the system and that offended me. I was eating Top Ramen, milk and canned spinach while they ate steak, potato chips and soda, expensive or non-nutritious foods bought with food stamps.  This infuriated me. The final insult came one quarter when I had to dropout again. My guidance counselor told me to get pregnant! Then the state would pay for college.  I did not and found another way, working four jobs to make ends meet.  By the way All of these women sponging off the state were white American women, not immigrants.  The problems you talk of are germane to poverty, entitlement and a host of other social problems and conditioning, not immigration. How you describe Hispanics is the same language used in the past to describe Germans, Poles, Irish, Jews, Italians...every single preceding wave of immigrants. In your city those playing the system are Hispanic.  In mine, they are as white and non-immigrant as they come. Channel that anger toward a positive end. Focus on the principle, (welfare encouraged society, lack of immigration law enforcement, poverty) rather than the person (race, faith, origin).  Address the cause rather than the result. Then do something about it. You'll discover the solution much quicker, and save your sanity as well. -LDL

Opinion

Who ever this article is an idiot. All they do is complain about illegal immigrants. They never said the benefits they provide to the economy. In California, if it weren't for immigrants agriculture would be gone. We need immigrants in this country. Your not going to find a white person working the fields. Immigrants provide an enormous help to the economy, the least a state can do is educate their children. DZ (18) Male Watsonville, CA Response: Agreed: It's not those who are here legally that are the problem.  It's those who entered this country illegally. Taxes in border states like California are excruciating.  Two incomes are required just to pay taxes. The United States is a country of  immigrants, unless you are Native American. Immigrants took a population of 9 million natives in 1500 to just 250,000 in 1900.  That is a holocaust. Or you were brought here in chains prior to 1865, if neither of these apply to you, your forefathers were at one time immigrants as well.  Immigrants are what make this country great; the problem is when people come illegally and the social programs designed as safety nets for our own citizens end up supporting those who arrive here without invitation.  American citizens end up paying for people that our infrastructure cannot support and everyone, the illegals, legals and citizens alike suffer.  That is not fair to anyone. As for educating children, the federal government has no obligation to do so.  The US Constitution does not require Americans fund schools or educate its citizens. This has been added. Until the turn of the century last, schools were the domain of local governments, funded and supported by the communities that used them eliminating the crushing sap of funds to bureaucracy and administration.  This is one of those misconceptions people have.  The point being, education in the United States is not a right, it is a privilege, according to our Constitution.  We the People decided an educated population benefits us all which is why Americans continue to support it.  The dissention is over the requirement of educating those who do not belong here in the first place because it is taking valuable resources from the children who are supposed to be here.  This provides an inferior education to all, legal and illegal.  Ultimately we're asking our children to suffer for the sake of others who shouldn't be here and rewarding those who break the rules.  The migrant work you speak of covers 5-6 months a year.  They stay.  They don't go back to their country.   Nobody wins with this scenario.  Immigration policies allow enough immigrants in so the system can handle new bodies.  We only have so much money and resources to work with. Why should American children and the children of immigrants here legally suffer in a rapidly degrading school system for decisions of parents that are against our laws and who chose to ignore our laws or file the correct paper work and enter legally at a later date? No it is not the illegal immigrant children's fault.  They have their own country with its own school system.  But at the same time, American children are receiving a substandard education to accommodate the needs of these people who refuse to follow the laws of this nation.  We reward lawless behavior.  What kind of lesson does that teach?  A solution nobody has considered is granting funds to Central and South American countries to educate their own where the language and culture are the same rather then attempting to integrate several languages, cultures and special requirements into our schools here. Therefore if migrant workers are here on a work Visa, their children can remain at home and learn where the culture and language suit them.  With work Visas, these parents could earn priority on legal entry; earn it, not steal it. They come here because it is better, now.  Eventually it will not be; that is the long-term consequence of being all things to all people.  This system deals with the result, rather than the cause.  That must change. By dealing with the cause, lack of opportunity and poor education, childcare for working parents, the problem eventually goes away.  This we can do. It would be cheaper for us to support and grow education in these other countries, help supply dormitories for the kids while their parents are away and increase the effectiveness of these schools than stress our social systems further. The countries benefit from an educated population, translating into increased business and economic opportunity and better trade.  This is a win/win.  What about the cost? Currently 40% of our foreign aid money goes to one country or roughly 4.5 million people, (the country has about six million residents but racism directed at faith leaves 1.5 million in the cold and another 3.5 million in modern concentration camps or exempt via occupation).  This 40% supports and enforces apartheid in the Middle East, a situation very much against the principles of the United States and the root cause of terrorism comes from this financial, social and military support. This money would be better spent finding positive solutions for our neighbors to the south and strengthening their cultures, instead of funding the mass oppression, genocide and ethnic cleansing of another people. This money currently goes to creating a more dangerous world, not a better one increasing our costs year over year to deal with the results.  That's stupid.  It's also very un-American. As I've shown, we have the money if we stay true to our principles and values. Funding apartheid is not an American principle nor value and we spend $300 billion a year and more on it, three trillion since 1973. There are other options where everyone wins.  We do not need to reward illegal behavior here or abroad. This problem can be solved humanely and justly.  The solution is out there but we have to stop looking at this as an 'us' and 'them'.  We're all people and we must try to consider how we all can benefit best. Where can our tax dollars be best spent to insure our children's needs and those dependent upon us for employment are met and fulfilled? How can we preserve the American dream and continue to grow via our immigration sanely? Where can our money do the most good?  -LDL

Why do continue to take this rather prominent issue so lightly??? Why does the silent majority (if it still is) say nothing in the face of impending doom? The number of illegal aliens are breaking the back of this great empire, and I am afraid that one day the history books will document this as our ultimate demise. You mention how expensive this cheap labor is; for that matter, isn't that same quest for cheap labor the reason for many of the social ills throughout our society from slavery to the outsourcing of all our technology jobs. If you keep pouring in the amounts of 3rd world illegals and allow the labor tap open to countries like India and China, then sooner or later we will be in no better position than those countries as a whole. Be very afraid my friends! If not for yourselves then our children. Unfortunately, this is all liberalism. This is the work of egghead intellectuals that see the swelling numbers of illegals as somehow a positive move forwards towards a multi-cultural state. I see this as a horrifying power play. Now that the numbers are here all the politicians are catering to these communities for the sole purpose of staying in power. The more things change the more they stay the same!

MALE
South Amboy, New Jersey

Educating Illegal Aliens

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