As we find them, however we find them, send them home. Patch them up, save their lives after they've been knifed or shot, then give them a one-way ticket home.

I prefer that to adding a few million illegal votes to the Dem's tallies. I also consider it humane, legal and rational. If we don't respect our own laws and rules of behavior, how can we expect them to do so?

Hilary couldn't win on this issue and neither could Governor Spitzer.  I don't think Gov. Spitzer dropping this had anything to do with Hilary's support or non-support.   It just wasn't going to happen. This is too much of an emotional issue with people to be reasonable at this moment in time. 

77% of New Yorkers DID NOT want Illegals to get liscenses, that is why Spitzer gave it up. Pure politics.

You're right--so long as they are illegal why not let them drive illegally as well!

And they're not already?  

And they're not already?

Probably till you run them out of town.

when i drove taxi in salt lake. the illegals there that were selling drugs. considered that when they got caught. all that was going to happen was that they were getting a three day vacation.

day 1 deportation

day 2 visit family and friends.

day 3 go back to salt lake.


i think Utah finally made it when you got caught the third time you went to prison and then got deported.

The schedule should go:

Day 1: arrested/hearing to determine if they are illegal or not.

If not illegal... release

If illegal

Day 2: Incarcerated

Day 3: Put on a "chain gang" to work at community service doing some job that "Americans just won't do".

Day 4: After sentence is completed... deport.


Day 3 would remove a major part of the incentive to come work... being able to send money home. If they are doing community service for their room and board only, there will be no money to send home... and I bet many won't want to come back either.

Sigh. I'm far left on this issue. To reply will gain wrath of all those not far left. I know I'm far left, but for good reason.

I can't visit the third world and not understand why they do everything in their power to come here: legal or not.

If I lived in a shack in abject poverty, surrounded by disease, starvation, and raw sewage, I would do all I could to get out.

Thank god I don't have to. Thank god I was born here. I'm the luckiest son of a beach in the world.

who said any of us on here cannot understand why they want to come here. despite what gene says that they all hate america.

there are about 300 million of us. although some of us can't see that.

Empathy is one thing, Joe; I can't blame them for desiring what we have, either. Sound public policy is another, however. Unfortunately, they not infrequently conflict. Taking your sentiment to its logical conclusion, we should sunset ICE, throw open the borders & let anyone who wants in to waltz right through. I fail to see how that would do anything but create the kind of impoverished underclass locally that you're understandably sympathetic toward elsewhere.

The other logical extension of your sentiment is for you to go where the need is & help them improve their own standard of living. Tough to contemplate, though, isn't it? Most of us, like you, thank our lucky stars; we may make contributions to overseas aid agencies from time to time but otherwise try not to think about it too much. A friend just returned on Thanksgiving Day after a two-week medical mission to Haiti, which she described as completely life-altering for her. As abject as the poverty she witnessed was, however, she's not ready to throw open the borders. If enough of us did something similar, things might improve elsewhere and reduce the desire to break in to the US.

Daiwa, you are of course correct. I'm the son of immigrants (one from Italy and one from Ireland -- go figure I like the drink, ehhh?) so have a tough time on this. It was actually Haiti I was thinking of when I wrote my response. I was there last month.

My emotional position is just that, emotional. I'm not at all sure building a fence is the answer, yet I also think we need control. I haven't formed a hard fast opinion on what the answer is.

Also, we get bogged down in details. Driver licenses for illegals is a good example. Personally, I want the bastard who plows into me to have insurance and pay. That's ALL I really care about. Licensing does nothing to that end. I want the electrician who installs the wiring in my house to know what he's doing and not farm it out to some dude 'cause he's cheap labor. Legal or illegal, that makes me nervous.

I don't pretend to have a clue what the solution is. I am, however, going to keep your advice to heart -- and send more money to CARE. It's been about a year, I should be ashamed.

Daniel,
good point. Sometimes, though, in this argument it seems people get rather racist towards immigrants, legal or illegal. That's what really bothers me in this debate.

I understand why. Sometimes, it's hard not to make generalities when we're perceiving a thin slice of life and extrapolating it to a general population. I'm gonna sound like a dick head American here. I was in one country and they screwed up my hotel, claiming the prepaid room wasn't. All I got was blank stares and "no comprende". My spanish ain't bad. I would have liked to have rung the kneck of the clerk behind the desk. After several visits, it was never solved. I had to have American Express deal with it.

Bottom line, I found myself forming an opinion of the people of the country based on one stupid clerk. Well, several stupid clerks. Perhaps some of the generalities were true. Probably not.

So I understand the racisim. But I still condemn it, whether in my own attitudes or expressed by others.

A man after my own heart. Now I have someone else on JU to take my side when I am told to quit with the "poor Pedro" stories. I don't think people risk death to come to our country without good cause.