A discussion about undocumented workers

Han83
People who are here in this country without proper documentation should be deported. There is a system and a process that people need to respect. Deportation is not the focus, it is simply rectifying what is out of place. They do not belong here and we're sending them back to where they belong.

Re: the lady who forged a 19 dollar check. In my opinion that is a test of the system to see if her forged check would get cashed. If it were cashed then I believe it would lead to greater amounts being forged. Just because she was caught for one forged check does not mean that was the only one she has ever attempted. Illegal immigrants who come into the country seeking gainful employment and a better life are one thing but one who comes in to commit crimes is totally unacceptable.

Of course I am not asserting that immigration is a bad thing. I'm simply saying that laws should be respected and consequences of breaking the laws accepted without complaint. Everyone knows the implications of breaking the law. Illegal immigration, I feel, is lightly punished by making the person leave the country. There could be much more severe consequences such as jail or a large fine or recouping of all gross earnings paid to the illegal immigrant while in America.

Taxes are not always collected from these immigrants who don't have social security numbers. They lower the quality of education provided by our public schools because the teachers are forced to keep the rest of the class from progressing while the immigrant tries to catch up. To get into the country legally costs more money. Therefore it is logical to assume most immigrants who are coming to the country through legal ways have more resources available to provide their child with more education outside of public school thus not slowing down the education system as badly.

Illegal immigrants are a strain to the economy and the country as a whole. They should be deported whenever discovered.

My Response
wow...there's a lot of misconceptions to work through here. You obviously support this MOU that was created by ICE. I'm curious, how do you feel about the workplace raids that ICE has organized to find undocumented workers?

I'd like to hit a few of your premises here:
1. You made a HUGE assumption about the woman who was convicted for forging a $19 check. There has been no evidence presented thus far about this woman who forged the check, yet somehow, that translates into her being some sort of money launderer? geez...that's quite a leap I must say.

2. This sentence confused me: "Illegal immigrants who come into the country seeking gainful employment and a better life are one thing but one who comes in to commit crimes is totally unacceptable." Does that mean that you would treat them differently? Being an undocumented person in the US is okay, as long as they don't commit crimes? I think that conflicts with your previous assertion that all people "without proper documentation should be deported." I'm not saying that I agree with that assessment. In fact, I'm vehemently opposed to it, but it is something that should be addressed.

3. In terms of accepting the consequences of law breaking without complaint, doesn't that assume that the law is just in the first place? Remember that the law used to force black people to give up their seats in the front of the bus. Remember that the law used to consider colored people inferior to white people. Remember that the law used to say that the testimony of Chinese immigrants could not be used in a court of law as evidence because they couldn't be trusted. In this particular case, the law does not distinguish between violent and non-violent offenders, the law does not recognize that people may have already served out the punishment for the crimes that they committed, and the law does not recognize that person beyond the act that they committed, even if that person may have lived in the states for 15 years, has built a family here, and has NO idea what their birth country is like, which leads me to my next point...

4. Making people leave the country is NOT light punishment. How would you feel if you had to leave your family and your home to return to a country that you don't understand, know, or even consider home? And honestly, even if you do support this deportation policy, isn't that enough? to think that we would punish people further by imprisoning them and taking away what they worked hard to earn, that makes us worse than tyrants, that makes us monsters.

5. There are US citizens who avoid paying taxes. Namely, the top 1% of Americans who pay top dollar to accountants to play with our tax system so that they can save up some of their money for the next island that they want to buy. Hey, we even give oil companies huge tax breaks while they raise prices up so high that even police departments around the country are cutting back on neighborhood patrols and police cars to save on gas. If you really want to address this issue of tax evasion, I suggest that we investigate those cases, before we start worrying about the undocumented worker who gets paid wages so low that they have to work 3 jobs to actually be considered poor.

6. The children of undocumented workers lower our quality of education? Is that how we measure that value of a child? How they affect our rankings? and there is NO logic behind the assumption that you made about the financial standing of those who come into the US as undocumented workers. Really now, if I was already rich in my own country, what motivation do I have to leave? And to risk my own welfare and well-being by entering illegally? The fact is that a majority of undocumented workers come because they are poor and they recognize the opportunities that exist in the US versus in their home countries.

7. I know that the last sentence is your personal opinion and not an argument that needs to be refuted, but I had to say something. Immigration is the LIFEBLOOD of this country. If we actually did find every undocumented worker in this country and deport them all at once, we would be thrown back into the depression so fast that we would be left selling the clothes off our back before we even figured out what happened. Case in point: Park Hill, Oklahoma. Read this story from the USA Today, and that is an indication of how much the US relies on immigrant labor, legal or otherwise. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-01-09-immigcover_n.htm?loc=interstitialskip

DISCLAIMER: I shoot at the mouth.