How did we change from a country of immigrants, to a country that calls immigrants “criminals” and “rapists”? Aren’t immigrants (most of) us? Heck, if you go back far enough, even “native” Americans came from somewhere.
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9 Comments
And the way the migration happened was through the Bering Straits when it was passable, through Alaska, through Canada, through what is now the United States and on South. So the forebears of the Mexicans came from the United States long before the Europeans came to the United States. The Mexicans are the original settlers here.
Those Europeans who settled here in the early 1600s are the original illegal immigrants as the cartoon shows.
All true and settled history, but as the old saying goes, “Possession is nine-tenths of the law”. Probably first said by someone who owned a lot of shit, like the cartoon character above.
I was listening to a very conservative chamber of commerce guy in Texas (forgot name, served Reagan as well). He was on fox radio, of course he and the host agreed on all issues except immigration. The host said we need to secure border, the chamber of commerce guy said, yes we can secure border by having very generous and easy immigration, so that only terrorist need to cross border illegally, so we can handle that we less man power.
How did we change from a country of immigrants, to a country that calls immigrants “criminals” and “rapists”?
I have not heard anyone call immigrants any of those things. We have 1000’s and 1000’s of legal immigrants who come here every year and I don’t think that’s the problem. I have heard people say there are a portion of illegal aliens who are a problem. Legal immigration is opposed by no one in any party because we are all immigrants or ancestors of immigrants. We are however a nation of laws and I know the readers on this site would be the first to say so and the first to say we need to follow the laws or rewrite the laws.
I work for law enforcement (federal side) and I can tell you that the majority, above 75%, of the drug importation in the USA is conducted by illegally present aliens. They sell those drugs to citizens and lawful residents who may further distribute the contraband or consume it. A small portion is consumed by illegals as well.
If one side would acknowledge that there is a significant problem with a small slice of the illegal population and propose solutions to address that and the other side acknowledge we need to fix a broken system now and not try to build an island, then we could likely actually do something. But neither side is willing to give an inch because it would be reported as capitulating and blown up in the media.
Here’s the Donald: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
He has since tried to backpedal, referring sketchy (see below) statistics about illegal immigrants. But his original comments said nothing about illegal immigrants. Unless he meant to suggest that every immigrant coming from Mexico is illegal.
As for the sketchy statistics, he points to one that says 80% of women illegal immigrants are raped while coming through Mexico. He then indignantly asks, “Who’s doing the raping?” and suggests that illegal immigrants are doing the raping. Except it’s not true. Almost all of these rapes are being perpetrated by the Mexican human traffickers that these women have paid to get them to the U.S. It’s not the immigrants who are doing the raping, despite what he asserts.
The whole premise that the undocumented immigrants are more likely to be criminals is completely false. I’ve already linked to studies that show that immigrating without documentation is likely to be the only “crime” committed by illegal immigrants, and that in general they commit crimes at around half the rate of US citizens.
Consequently, PSGT, I find it hard to believe they are responsible for 75% of illegal drugs. If you could back this up with real facts, that would be preferable, rather than just hearsay and speculation.
Michael – Trump is a provocateur out to make headlines for himself. He does not work off hard facts, nor does he represent anyone but himself. Politicians also regularly distort and conflate facts and issues on a variety of issues.
IK On the facts here is the best data out there from the GAO. It is not up to the minute, but it gives a feeling of the trends.
Here are some highlights:
About 90 percent of the criminal aliens sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2009 (the most recently available data) were convicted of immigration and drug-related offenses.
The number of criminal aliens in federal prisons in fiscal year 2010 was about 55,000, and the number of SCAAP criminal alien incarcerations in state prison systems and local jails was about 296,000 in fiscal year 2009 (the most recent data available), and the majority were from Mexico.
SCAAP criminal aliens incarcerated in selected state prison systems in Arizona, California, Florida, New York, and Texas were convicted of various offenses in fiscal year 2008 (the most recently available data at the time of GAO’s analysis). The highest percentage of convictions for criminal aliens incarcerated in four of these states was for drug-related offenses.
source: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-187
I work in MD, not a border state, that will likely not see the higher rates of illegal alien activity like. In my area I have been working with a narcotics smuggling group since before the data related in this report. I can tell you that in the past 5 years, we have run across one US citizen smuggler out of dozens of long term investigations involving 10-30 criminal participants. When I first began (just after 911) the majority 75% or more of our investigations were on US citizen smuggling organizations and finding an alien organization was uncommon. Now, it’s a rarity. However, the majority of drugs smuggled in are sold to US citizens distribution organizations and it important to separate the two. Importation into the US is controlled almost exclusively by non US persons, while the majority of distribution channels are controlled by US citizens and legal resident aliens.
correction:
Now, it’s a rarity
should read: Now, it’s a rarity to find a US citizen responsible for smuggling narcotics into the US.
IK, I agree. I was trying to explain that even the data sources Trump himself uses are flipped and misinterpreted. The immigrants, whether legal or not, are the victims of the rapes he’s citing, not the perpetrators.