jman1 Anonymous

Oh please give it a break. They voted and it didn't go the way you wanted. Why should those with access to this country via a landbridge be given more of a chance at the American dream than anyone else who needs to deal with an ocean to get here? If they came on a boat the Coast Guard would be turning them back. Would you allow someone into your home, not give a name or other information on themselves, takeover a room of your house, go to work each day, not pay into the expenses of running the place, bring in a relative who, because they are pregnant - demands medical coverage, bears a child and then because of the birth - demands that you alter the ownership papers of your home to include the child's name as part owner? I don't think so.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

burbanite Anonymous

Thank you, Mr. James, for saying so cogently what many of us can't get out before being shouted down by the anti-immigration group.

Texas is notorious for "bad laws". We break them all of the time. It's illegal to spit on the sidewalk for pete's sake!

jman1 seems to have missed your point entirely. In fact the fearful voters in FB seem to be IGNORING all of the salient points and facts related to this issue: Undocumented workers are NOT putting a strain on our schools, property values, or health care system. They continue to make important economic and cultural contributions to our communities.

I wonder who FB will blame for their troubles next?

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

ekzile Anonymous

no matter how clear you are, there are those who will never understand. this is a well-written article, thanks.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

mailreader Anonymous

As a legal immigrant (not from mexico) I am appalled that anyone would consider breaking the law justified. I spent my time waiting never being illegal and paid lots of money to be here. It is unthinkable that I could have just jumped a fence and waited till some amnesty. As to the fact that they pay taxes etc. What taxes other than sales taxes. and they take more tnan they put in. It is shameful that people would even consider this somehow moral. Perhaps they should go and see how mexico treats its illegal immigrtants from other countries.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

3kids2cats Anonymous

Mr. James, I can tell that you have a kind heart toward those less fortunate. The reality is that those who don't go trough proper channels to gain U.S citizenship don't have personal integrity, and are motivated by easier opportunities (a subtle form of greed?) than in Mexico. If life were so bad in Mexico, why hasn't the entire country migrated north and stopped flying "homeland' flags? The real problem is Mexico's lack of desire to improve her self. Mexico, although full of pride, is slipping faster into a listless culture.

The finer argument: I don't respect those who cheat and circumvent the spirit of the law to get ahead, no matter their excuse. I'm constantly teaching my children these subtleties so they won't be caught up in a culture that fudges the truth or fabricates an illusion to mislead...(insert either political party here).

This is the urgent argument: 9/11 created a realization that those motivated by an irrational belief system can easily slip into this country. U.S. citizens who love freedom are motivated to do "something"... even if it's a grassroots effort to send a perfectly legal message on a local level.

Those who understand the fragility of our freedom are the ones motivated by a "higher level".

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Scott Anonymous

I love all the high-mindedness about the sanctity of law from people occupying land that has been taken--sometimes by force of arms, sometimes by uncontrolled immigration--time and time again over the past three hundred years.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Abraham Anonymous

I personally and solely helped two Hindu people from India get their US Citizenship. I drove them to the INS over a 5-year period for every appointment they had there and I helped them study for their citizenship tests. I was there at the ceremony when they took the oath to become US Citizens and I was (and still am) very happy about it.
It is not fair to my friends, legal immigrants from India, that some other people who ILLEGALLY walk across the Southern US border (Illegal Entry) and then STEAL a US Citizen's Social Security number (Identity Theft), then expect to be given a free ride of government & social services all they way up to amnesty for their crime. Go live at the corner of Ash and Wayne Street in Old East Dallas if you think ILLEGAL immigrants from Mexico are so awesome! Let's see how long you last! There are several houses for rent in that neighborhood!

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

terryorze Anonymous

It is funny but having, YES HAVING, illegal aliens is essential to national security. Making these people legal would take away the reason for wanting them here. Once they are citzens they want to make as much money as we do. Embarassing and sad, but if we deported all illegals and sealed our borders except for legal aliens, we would have to replace them with new illegal aliens before the next harvest. Even with illegal aliens we can cannot compete with Peru and China. We would have to stop raising food in this country. Search google for orange growers foreign. China food imports. Growers in Brazil, China, and Peru have easy access to cheap labor. In the past ten years we have become increasingly beholden to foreign countries for our food. Once the capability to grow that food is gone, it is gone forever. China will be able to hold us hostage for food.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Billusa99 Anonymous

Larry... very well written. It would be great to see you debate Lord Belo's Mark Davis, who had quite the opposite op-ed today in Senor Deschard's Daily.

Davis quoted a lady who would only give her first name, for fear of reprisals. His misogynistic, simpleton retort was to the effect of *"...if she was legal, she should not fear reprisal and if she was not, well...".*

Of course, we should throw the same back to Davis when it comes to compassion... like, say for a terminally ill spouse, for example. Ask Mark what he did to divorce such a spouse 10+ years ago... the man avoids it like the plague. Such an unctious hypocrite!

Keep up the great social wisdom!

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Lemastre Anonymous

The bigotries and biases expressed by the FB ordinance are unfortunate and/or probably specious. But we can hope that this law, along with other such local actions around the country, will soon provide the pressure needed to force constructive federal action on immigration. The game we're playing now looks about as effective as the "war on drugs" or attempts to do away with alcoholic beverages.

This country depends a lot on labor provided by immigrants. So we best figure out how to document it and funnel it through regulated crossing points, for both the welfare of the laborers and the people who live near the borders.

Packing-house operators and home-builders, etc., would certainly prefer that their workers arrive in shape to do a good day's work, rather than having survived who knows what sort of harrowing journey across a desert and a long trip packed into the back of a truck.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

veegee Anonymous

It would be difficult to patronize a business in Texas that does not use illegals; restaurants, landscaping, construction, cleaning services, hotels, retail ...

Take that away and prepare to pay higher prices for goods and services.

The Federal Government needs to work with the Mexican Government to come up with a solution that works for all. The current law in unenforceable and if businesses were fined/arrested for hiring illegals, the response and vote would be very different.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

skibell Anonymous

Some of our answers of immigration are righ at our noses, "http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1179416713163700.xml&coll=8" we just pretend they don't exist or depends on who are we listing to. I think I have a broad perspective of "what I know" and what I want to know, I listen to both side of the fences and I wonder why do we have to get so insulting about those less fortunate. I wonder (for those who believe in one God) Did you loved your neighbor? God may asked. I know all this is fueled by those who want to distract us from the real issues. Crimes of Corporate entities, War Profiteers, Crimes against humanity, Famine. For those who like to fight for what is just for all, the struggle continues.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

jefmelch Anonymous

Stealing American Dreams.

Advocates of the current immigration "policy" repeatedly frame the debate as whether or not illegal immigrants – primarily from Mexico -- are “Stealing American Jobs”. I disagree with this frame; and put it to you that the more correct frame of this problem is that illegals are, instead, “Stealing American Dreams.”

It's often asserted that (I paraphrase) “illegal immigrants do jobs that need to be done – jobs that US citizens will not accept.” Even if, for arguments’ sake, we stipulate this contrary-to-fact assertion [1] it ignores many who ALSO accept, and seek, such jobs. In particular we see acute competition between Spanish speaking groups of U.S. citizens from Puerto Rico and illegal immigrants of Mexican-citizenship. Illegal immigrants also compete for jobs with US Citizens arriving to the continental US from Saipan and Guam – and with dual-national citizens of long-term allied states such as the Phillipines, Okinawa, and Panama or Liberia. To whatever extent we concede that jobs in the mainland US economy are going unfilled by locally resident US citizens, surely it is also true that willingly-migrant US citizens from our own economically disadvantaged areas deserve precedence and preference over illegal – criminal – immigrants.

Our president and leaders of both political parties assert that his guest-worker (amnesty) program fulfills the goals of both the employers – who seek low-wage workers from Mexico – and the workers – who, the president claims, only want to take our relatively higher wages. Such workers use the wages US jobs to send remittances back into Mexico; to raise families there, and to invest toward relatively luxurious retirement in Mexico at the end of their productive employment in the US. Again, to the extent we accept that description – we must recognize that all these are jobs, wages, and families that are obtained at the expense of legal workers – migrant citizens and immigrant would-be citizens -- who want instead to raise their families here, who want to invest in homes and businesses here; who want to build nest eggs of wealth toward luxurious retirement in our local economy. A home, a family, luxury – this is what we always called “The American Dream.” This goal – a public policy goal, not limited to either employers or workers – a goal all Americans traditionally wanted for each other; the “rising tide” that “lifts all boats” -- this goal is being ignored. The Farmers Branch ordinance, aimed as it is at renters, has few virtues but one of them is that it targets those who are NOT making the effort to put down roots in the community -- targeting renters and transients rather than home-buyers. It's as if FB believes, as do McCain, Kennedy and Bush, that neither illegal immigrants, nor decriminalized “guest workers” are expected to even understand "the American Dream", much less pursue and achieve it.

What a giant step back from Emma Lazarus.

Other pieces of the American Dream are likewise being stolen.

Doing nothing, or advancing the President’s current plan, are both pathways toward the theft of the “American Dream” from those most likely to share it and assimilate well: English-speaking would-be immigrants from former British Commonwealth nations like Guyana, Uganda, Pakistan, India, Kenya, Malayasia, Zimbabwe .. The American Dream of an “Open Door” is lost.

Doing nothing or allowing Mexican guest workers REDUCES diversity in our national workforce. It channels efforts to accommodate “minority” non-English speaking workers into Spanish-only ghettos – where Tagalog, Hindi, and Farsi are neither accommodated or even permitted. The American Dream of the “Melting Pot” our alloy of humanities’ mettles is degraded

Doing nothing, or preferentially hiring Mexicans denies us the weapon we employed during the Cold War to repressive states like Cuba, East Germany or Poland and yes the Taliban – encouraging the best and brightest citizens of our rivals to defect – to renounce failed ideology. The self-evident superiority of the the American Dream – inalienable rights to the “Pursuit of Happiness” – is concealed. In fact, by drawing good workers OUT of Mexico we treat our neighbor as more an enemy that we do the U.A.E.’s -- where we actively confine their entrepreneurs to their local developments.

My preferred approach to the issue is multi-part. We must complete the fence, patrol it, catch and incarcerate violators. ( Felons can be put to work doing a job no US citizen seems to be willing to do – picking up trash along federal interstate highway systems – until repatriated. ) A simple SSN validation routine – matching number to at least age and (if adult) height should be provided for employers – and penalities against employers failing to valid SSNs should be steeply increased. But mostly the US should streamline procedures in other nations to level the playing field between Mexico and more distant nations. Even US subsidy of transportation expenses – repayable like a student loan at low interest over a decade or so ;to fill the entry level job market with willing workers who intend to move rapidly up the market ladder as immigrants learn English and increase skills – would repay taxpayer investment. And as our low-pay jobs are filled with entry level American Dreamers, the lure to others will be reduced.

You may say I’m a Dreamer – but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll rejoin us, and the world had better look out!

[1] In industries most likely to employ illegal workers – construction, meat packing, agricultural harvest crews, grounds-keeping – only about a tenth of the workers are illegally in the US. The VAST majority of such workers ARE citizens; the majority of the residual balance who are immigrant workers are LEGAL immigrants.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

krasher Anonymous

I still think we should bring Mexico in as a state, then we can help the country prosper and clean up the corruption.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

vincent442 Anonymous

Higher Values?! How about protecting the sovereignty of our republic? Of course legal immigration is a necessary and vital component to the future diversity and prosperity of this Nation. Rather it is the thoughtless knee jerk reactionaries proposing "open borders", "amnesty", and endless "guest worker" programs that tarnish the value of earning the right to be called a legal US resident or citizen. We need to come together as a nation and make the tough and politically incorrect choice to limit immigration to a level supporting a very slow growth or no growth population curve. To put it more bluntly our environmental resources are being taxed enough at 300 million strong to justify a severe curbing of any immigration and of course elimination of more illegal immigration no matter the country or source.Our alternative of course is to capitulate to the amnesty folks and watch our environment and resources degrade ever more quickly.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Elsquare Anonymous

There are exceptions to the reasoning behind every law/rule/regulation, but the foundation for civilized living is law-abiding, self-sustaining citizenry. There will always be arguments/excuses/reasons to justify individual acts of lawlessness, but they are pointless for at least two reasons. One, people who feel strongly about an issue usually have their minds made up and talking will change nothing (for instance, I am set that the tenants of 'law-abiding, self-sustaining' are fundamental to civility), and two, any discussion of the basic principles is thus a waste of time. Our country has been going downhill since the frivolity of the mid-fifties,and the silliness of the sixties and seventies. In my mind, my most important posssesion/right is the right to vote within the laws which govern our voting system. Voter fraud should carry the death penalty and/or life imprisonmemt. If the illegal aliens don't like their country/government, let them have a revolution and change things.My paternal grandfather once told me that 'hard-headed' was when someone disagreed with you and would not admit that you were right. He also told me that I should always be alert so that I would never, ever miss an opportunity to just not say anything. He was right, of course, but I am going to slubmit this anyway.

1 year, 1 month ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )