The part of this comic that hit me the most was the very first panel. How did we somehow change from a country largely made up of immigrants, that used to be so welcoming to immigrants that we have a huge statue to welcome them, to a country that treats immigrants like crap? I’m not saying we should totally open up our borders, but we have to stop politicizing immigration, and start working together on a reasonable solution. Surely a country of immigrants can solve an immigration problem.
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First panel struck me too.
However I am not so sure that exploiting recent immigrants is a new concept. Remember indentured servitude and redemptioners.
Human nature does not appear to have changed recently.
We exploit some categories of immigrants, i.e.low wage earners, but bar others who are potentially high wage earners (the true job creators with advanced degrees earned here or elsewhere).
There are 2 parts to this conversation and they seemed to get lumped together and hence neither gets solved. Legal and illegal immigration are very different conversations.
On average we admit just under 1 million legal immigrants per year (940,000) and of those Mexico is the recipient of the largest number of legal immigrant visas roughly 175,000 per year. Yes, our legal immigration system can use some overhauling and revamping to make it more equitable and efficient. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Immigration Worldwide, Yahoo News, verified 2.8.2012)
Yes, America has always welcomed the tired, poor and hungry and still do, as you can see from those statistics. The issue of contention is illegal immigration and how to stop it, and what to do with those already here. I think it would be prudent to separate these two issues and deal with them individually. We cannot not address the illegal part, open borders is not the right solution IMO. Deporting parents of US Citizen children born here is not favorable either IMO. Having no penalty for commiting a crime by coming here illegally is also not favorable IMO.
To the contrary of Johnny Ro’s comments many if not most of our legal immigrants are white collar skilled workers
http://fiscalpolicy.org/fpis-immigration-research-cited-the-white-house-blog
For example:
According to the National Venture Capital Association, immigrants have started 25 percent of public U.S. companies that were backed by venture capital investors. This list includes Google, eBay, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems, and Intel.
or this statistic:
According to the Census Bureau, despite making up only 16 percent of the resident population holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, immigrants represent 33 percent of engineers, 27 percent of mathematicians, statisticians, and computer scientist, and 24 percent of physical scientists. Additionally, according to the Partnership for a New American Economy, in 2011, foreign-born inventors were credited with contributing to more than 75 percent of patents issued to the top 10 patent-producing universities.
Most of the non skilled illegal immigrants do find themselves in low paying, low skilled work environments. So I guess the real question is how many low skilled workers do we need and how do we raise the quotas to meet the need. There are so many mis conceptions about our immigration policy that gets muddied up in the illegal immigration controversy that the 2 issues have become one, but they are 2 very different problems.
I live and work at one of the top companies in Silicon valley, and even if most of our legal immigrants are white collar, the number accepted is too damn low. I’ve had two very hard working, very bright friends lose their American jobs which they have been working at since they got their American degrees (masters and bachelors), and sent back to Europe and Asia because they couldn’t get visas. One colleague had to work in Paris for a year because of the same problem but, fortunately his company was able to keep him on the payroll and re-submit the paperwork and win the lottery the next year. I’m not an expert in the policy or the politics behind the broader immigration question, but for America to kick out young talent after they have attended our schools, interviewed and trained by our companies, and paid more taxes in that year than half the country seems extremely dumb.
EVERY TRAITOR WHO VOTES FOR ILLLEGAL IMMIGRATION REWARDS, WILL BE REMEMBERED AT RE-ELECTION.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is overall about cheap labor, it is the global conversion of American workers that are being replaced by job seekers from foreign countries. To me this has been exquisitely planned and carried out, by the open border movement, in collusion with special interest groups. Why employ Americans who can demand a living wage and fair benefits including health insurance, when the business owner can hire a foreigner paying low wages, with nothing else, exploit them and even cheat the taxman? THIS IS THE SILENT INVASION, WITHOUT A SHOT BEING FIRED. The 1986 blanket amnesty didn’t accomplish anything, for at that time zero tolerance enforcement was promised both externally and in the interior–all was ignored. It was beginning of the end of fair and impartial enforcement, that was quietly underfunded and that when the business empires collected fine profits on the back of the population. Now we have a growing accomplishment of balkanization, a growing divide in this sovereign country, with President Obama leading his mentors to America’s financial demise. In 27 years we have accumulated not just the 3.1 illegal aliens given free passes to our countries welfare, which graduated to another 2 million? But as we will implicitly see if there is another Path to Citizenship a sudden escalation of border jumpers and a rise in suspicious airline visitors, looking to be rewarded with automatic citizenship. Please—Ultra Liberal Democrats, Republicans and all those believe in Obama’s promise of the U.S. becoming a national entitlement nation of something for nothing?
The magnet to America has always been here, for high paying jobs specifically in the STEM industries. There has always been a fair visa compromise for top skilled people. But we cannot accept more people who will never rise above low income, specially foreigners who don’t respect our immigration laws, cannot speak English and rely on our public benefit service to survive; it just breeds more poverty and this society are unable to financially support the world’s population, expressly children smuggled here to attain citizenship in the hundreds of thousands. Finally a word about Guest Workers who qualify for jobs in the fruit and vegetable industry, must be strictly regulated on a temporary basis and leave when visa expired, to return on a new contract.
This Obama government wants to rule us all, giving out gifts to illegal aliens who he man hopes will vote for democratic/communist policies in 2016. The Immigration Reform and Control Act curtly signed by President Reagan was the inception of a huge emergence of FAMILY CHAIN MIGRATION, adding to future years of poverty. Prior generations for U.S. citizens and green card holders; the latter coming here had to compete with more illegal aliens pouring in through insecure barrier, placed to separate us from even more impoverished people. The intermittent fence just doesn’t do the job, however the 2006 secure double fencing as signed into law by the President George Bush could have proficiently attained that? Not one fence, but two fences, with an open area in between for quick response of Border Patrol vehicles. Today with a reliable estimate of between 20 and 25 million unwelcome persons who are draining the welfare system. This is an accretion of decades of illegal migrants and immigrant, along with family chain migration and the children smuggled here and others born here to foreign nationals.
GET THE WORD OUT AND BUILD THE DOUBLE LAYER FENCE. THEN RUN THE ILLEGAL FOREIGNERS OUT WITH A MANDATED E-VERIFY PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH THE LEGAL WORKFORCE BILL. THEN FINISH THE 113 CONGRESSIONAL SESSION BY VOTING INTO LAW THE SIMPLE AMENDMENT TO THE BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BILL. CALL THE SENATORS AND HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE ON THESE TWO POTENTIAL LAWS, MAKE IT REAL AND NOW.
As a matter of fact, a reader only has to scour the media on the Internet, to locate more than enough comments and blogs to convince me that there is no credence in believing that the larger portion of the American populace think that a Path to Citizenship is a good thing. The only Rasmussen poll that I trust shows that 65 percent of those asked stated that no amnesty should be given or path to citizenship?
BEFORE IT’S ALL TOO LATE? ENFORCEMENT FIRST, THEN WE TALK?
Attention; Audit the conglomeration of foreign banks, called THE FEDERAL RESERVE.
Troy – I agree we need to fix that part of our legal immigration policy to attract and hold onto talented legal immigrants. Although part of me wonders if we have close to 15% un/under employed counting those who have quit looking there has got to be a significant number of skilled people who could be employed. Bringing in skilled foreign workers will hurt their chances of getting a shot at a job. I don’t know the exact best way to fix this, but if we all get together we can make it better. We’ll have to fix the illegal part separately though or neither will get done.