Immigration

I received an email with this letter in it about immigration and I whole heartily agree. Immigrants of today are not the same as those of yesteryear. The ones today do not want to obey the laws and take the proper steps to citizenship. They want a handout and free medical care for them and their families without most contributing to our country. They do not want to “pledge allegiance” to our country because they want to stay faithful to Mexico and wave the Mexican flag in our country instead of the US Flag and then they wonder why nobody wants them here. If you are here legally, then welcome to our great nation, if you are an illegal, go home, we don’t want you here until you go through legal channels.

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ORANGE COUNTY ( CALIFORNIA ) NEWSPAPER-New Immigrants
This is a very good letter to the editor. This woman made some good
points…
For some reason, people have difficulty structuring their arguments
when arguing against supporting the currently proposed immigration
revisions.. This lady made the argument pretty simple. NOT printed in
the Orange County Paper……………….

Newspapers simply won’t publish letters to the editor which they either
deem politically incorrect (read below) or which does not agree with
the philosophy they’re pushing on the public. This woman wrote a great
letter to the editor that should have been published; but, with your
help it will get published via cyberspace!

From: “David LaBonte”
My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC
Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to “print” it
myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so
inclined. Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in
the Orange County Register:

Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is
made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear
down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren’t
being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and
other ports of entry.

Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like
Mr. Lujan why today’s American is not willing to accept this new kind
of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all
areas of Europe to come to the United States , people had to get off a
ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would
even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a
pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad
times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American
households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new
home.

They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a
new life and did everything in their power to help their children
assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free
lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were
the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a
future of prosperity.

Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My
father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from
Germany , Italy , France and Japan . None of these 1st generation
Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had
come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the
Emperor of Japan . They were defending the United States of America as
one people.

When we liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for
the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The
people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that
represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have
thought about picking up another country’s flag and waving it to
represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents
who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what
it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red,
white and blue bowl.

And here we are with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights
and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a
different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a
guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I’m sorry, that’s
not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants
who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900′s deserve better than that
for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations
to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching
for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being
used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.

And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty , it
happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration
bill. I wouldn’t start talking about dismantling the United States just
yet.

(signed) Rosemary LaBonte

Thumbs up for Arizona on illegal immigrants

This appears to be just what the doctor ordered. With unemployment as high as it is, we do not need illegals taking jobs from citizens. The argument that these are jobs nobody will do is a farce. I think most people out of work would do jobs that are no so glamorous. I would rather spend taxpayer money on our citizens with low paying jobs that are trying to make a living with assistance from the government instead of giving illegals medicaid, food stamps, etc.

We need to secure our borders and take care of our own. One only has to look at California and their budget crisis to see the strain illegals put on a state budget from medicaid, food stamps and welfare to prison costs of criminals that are illegals.

If illegals are given amnesty then it would be a slap in the face to all immigrants that came to our nation legally and followed the proper procedure to become a citizen. Our leaders are too concerned about getting votes from the hispanic community to deal with the immigration problem and after the health care fiasco that was passed by a partisan vote, I am sure that any immigration reform offered by the current administration and Congress would follow along the same lines as the health care legislation and would allow all illegals to stay in the country.

It amazes me that the illegals protest about immigration but yet if a US citizen was to go to Mexico illegally, they would most likely be arrested and serve time before being deported. Mexico doesn’t allow anyone to obtain citizenship by anyone not born in Mexico. To me, they expect to be allowed to come to the USA but are not too friendly toward people from our country.

Good Job to Arizona for acting on something that costs taxpayers billions of dollars every year.

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Ariz. governor signs immigration enforcement bill
AP By PAUL DAVENPORT and JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press Writers Paul Davenport And Jonathan J. Cooper, Associated Press Writers – Fri Apr 23, 7:22 pm ET

PHOENIX – Gov. Jan Brewer ignored criticism from President Barack Obama on Friday and signed into law a bill supporters said would take handcuffs off police in dealing with illegal immigration in Arizona, the nation’s busiest gateway for human and drug smuggling from Mexico.

With hundreds of protesters outside the state Capitol shouting that the bill would lead to civil rights abuses, Brewer said critics were “overreacting” and that she wouldn’t tolerate racial profiling.

“We in Arizona have been more than patient waiting for Washington to act,” Brewer said after signing the law. “But decades of inaction and misguided policy have created a dangerous and unacceptable situation.”

Earlier Friday, Obama called the Arizona bill “misguided” and instructed the Justice Department to examine it to see if it’s legal. He also said the federal government must enact immigration reform at the national level — or leave the door open to “irresponsibility by others.”

“That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe,” Obama said.

The legislation, sent to the Republican governor by the GOP-led Legislature, makes it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. It also requires local police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants; allows lawsuits against government agencies that hinder enforcement of immigration laws; and makes it illegal to hire illegal immigrants for day labor or knowingly transport them.

The law sends “a clear message that Arizona is unfriendly to undocumented aliens,” said Peter Spiro, a Temple University law professor and author of the book “Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization.”

Brewer signed the bill in a state auditorium about a mile from the Capitol complex where some 2,000 demonstrators booed county Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox when she announced that “the governor did not listen to our prayers.”

“It’s going to change our lives,” said Emilio Almodovar, a 13-year-old American citizen from Phoenix. “We can’t walk to school any more. We can’t be in the streets anymore without the pigs thinking we’re illegal immigrants.”

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund said it plans a legal challenge to the law, arguing it “launches Arizona into a spiral of pervasive fear, community distrust, increased crime and costly litigation, with nationwide repercussions.”

Mexico has warned the proposal could affect cross-border relations. On Thursday, Mexico’s Senate unanimously passed a resolution urging Brewer to veto the law.

“Police in Arizona already treat migrants worse than animals,” said Francisco Loureiro, an activist who runs a migrant shelter in the border town of Nogales, Mexico. “There is already a hunt for migrants, and now it will be open season under the cover of a law.”

The bill will take effect in late July or early August, and Brewer ordered the state’s law enforcement licensing agency to develop a training course on how to implement it without violating civil rights.

“We must enforce the law evenly, and without regard to skin color, accent, or social status,” she said. “We must prove the alarmists and the cynics wrong.”

Brewer, who faces a tough election battle and growing anger in the state over illegal immigrants, said the law “protects every Arizona citizen.”

Anti-immigrant anger has swelled in the past month, after rancher Rob Krentz was found dead on his land north of Douglas, near the Mexico border. Authorities believe he was fatally shot by an illegal immigrant possibly connected to a drug smuggling cartel.

Arizona has an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants, and its harsh, remote desert serves as the corridor for the majority of illegal immigrants and drugs moving north into the U.S. from Mexico.

U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat, said he closed his Arizona offices at noon Friday after his staff in Yuma and Tucson were flooded with calls this week, some from people threatening violent acts and shouting racial slurs. He called on businesses and groups looking for convention and meeting locations to boycott Arizona.

The bill’s Republican sponsor, state Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, said Obama and other critics of the bill were “against law enforcement, our citizens and the rule of law.”

Pearce said the legislation would remove “political handcuffs” from police and help drive illegal immigrants from the state.

“Illegal is illegal,” said Pearce, a driving force on the issue in Arizona. “We’ll have less crime. We’ll have lower taxes. We’ll have safer neighborhoods. We’ll have shorter lines in the emergency rooms. We’ll have smaller classrooms.”

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Associated Press Writer Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.