Michelle Malkin and Immigration

I heard there are groups asking the L.A. Angels and L.A. Dodgers to boycott AZ for their spring training. I also heard on KFI this morning that pop star Shakira wants a special meeting with AZ officials to discuss the validity of this new law. #-o

 

If you where out of work going on for nearly two years and you knew that 280,000 full-time jobs in your state where being done by illegal immigrants how would you feel? Again right or wrong the whole issue has gotten out of hand and the government and employers share the blame. As painful as it is, it needs to be fixed and you have to start somewhere.


Illegal immigrants plan to leave over Ariz. law
By AMANDA LEE MYERS

(AP) Day Laborers stand along Arizona Ave Wednesday, April 28, 2010 in Chandler, Ariz. Arizona's...


PHOENIX (AP) - Many of the cars that once stopped in the Home Depot parking lot to pick up day laborers to hang drywall or do landscaping now just drive on by.
Arizona's sweeping immigration bill allows police to arrest illegal immigrant day laborers seeking work on the street or anyone trying to hire them. It won't take effect until summer but it is already having an effect on the state's underground economy.
"Nobody wants to pick us up," Julio Loyola Diaz says in Spanish as he and dozens of other men wait under the shade of palo verde trees and lean against a low brick wall outside the east Phoenix home improvement store.
Many day laborers like Diaz say they will leave Arizona because of the law, which also makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally and directs police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants.

(AP) Jose Armenta, center, a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, finds shade...
Full Image
Supporters of the law hope it creates jobs for thousands of Americans.
"We want to drive day labor away," says Republican Rep. John Kavanagh, one of the law's sponsors.
An estimated 100,000 illegal immigrants have left Arizona in the past two years as it cracked down on illegal immigration and its economy was especially hard hit by the Great Recession. A Department of Homeland Security report on illegal immigrants estimates Arizona's illegal immigrant population peaked in 2008 at 560,000, and a year later dipped to 460,000.
The law's supporters hope the departure of illegal immigrants will help dismantle part of the underground economy here and create jobs for thousands of legal residents in a state with a 9.6 percent unemployment rate.
Kavanagh says day labor is generally off the books, and that deprives the state of much-needed tax dollars. "We'll never eliminate it, just like laws against street prostitution," he says. "But we can greatly reduce the prevalence."
Day laborers do jobs including construction, landscaping and household work for cash paid under the table. Those jobs have been harder to find since the housing industry collapsed here several years ago.
Standing near potted trees and bushes for sale at a Home Depot in east Phoenix, Diaz, 35, says he may follow three families in his neighborhood who moved to New Mexico because of the law. He says a friend is finding plenty of work in Dallas.
Diaz says he has too much to lose by staying - he's supporting a wife and infant son back home in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
"They depend on me to survive," he says. "I'm not going to wait for police to come and arrest me."
Jose Armenta, a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico's western coast, is already planning to move to Utah within the next 20 days because of a combination of the economy and the new law.
"A lot of people drive by," he says as he watched nearby cars speeding past, "and they yell, 'Hey, go back to Mexico!'"
Analysts say it's too soon to tell what lasting effects the law will have on the state's underground work force, which also includes baby sitters, maids and cooks.
A study of immigrants in Arizona published in 2008 found that non-citizens, mostly in the country illegally, held an estimated 280,000 full-time jobs. The study by researcher Judith Gans at the University of Arizona examined 2004 data, finding that they contributed about 8 percent of the state's economic output, or $29 billion.
Losing hundreds of thousands of unskilled laborers wouldn't hurt the state's economy in the short term, but it could limit the economy's ability to grow once it recovers, says Marshall Vest, director of the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management.
Legal workers who are willing to take any available job now will become more choosy if the unemployment rate falls back to low levels seen before the recession hit.
"That's really the question, as to whether the existing population is willing to work those (low-level) jobs," Vest says. "I think economics provides the answer. If job openings have no applicants, then businesses need to address that by raising the offered wage."
Some illegal immigrants, however, intended to stick around.
Natalia Garcia, 35, from Mexico City, says she and her husband - a day laborer - will stay so their daughters - both born in the U.S. - can get a good education and learn English. The couple have been living in Arizona illegally for the last 10 years.
"Mexico doesn't have a lot of opportunities," she says. "Here, we work honestly, and we have a better life."
Olga Sanchez, 32, from southern Mexico, lives in Phoenix illegally with her two brothers, who are 21 and 17. While the youngest boy is in high school, all three work and send money back home to their parents.
"This law is very bad for us," says Sanchez, who gets about $250 a week cleaning three houses. "I'm afraid of what's going to happen."
She says the family is going to wait and see if the law takes effect and what the fallout will be before deciding whether to leave. The law is certain to be challenged in court; Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff already are considering lawsuits.
"All I ask from God is a miracle for us to stay here and work," she says.

SOURCE: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100429/D9FCDCN00.html

 

You think illegal immigration in CA is bad now, just wait until all of those illegals migrate this way, and they will as we have the 3rd easiest border to cross and the most opportunities for sub-par wage earners.

In all honesty, I think this bill will be done in on Constitutionality as States don't have the authority to enforce immigration...yet.

The real reason for this is to get the Feds off their collective asses and do something substantial about it.

As for being an election year - absolutely. It is the only time where politicos will even be the slightest bit concerned about what their constituents think. It will also force some to make their stances public and be judged on it.

 

I agree. If California would sack up and implement a law similar to Arizona's I think the rest of the states would follow suit. It would send shock waves all the way to the White House California is a big state and we also hold 55 electoral votes. :lol: Illegals are not just in the southern states anymore. Anchorage, Seattle, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Billings, Raleigh and Boston are also seeing an increase in illegal aliens.

 

Shit like this is what screws the economy for everyone!!! No body is saying don't come to our country, we are just saying do it legally!! Our federal government are a bunch of ass-wipes that need to do what is right, not what is popular!!!

 

I debated chiming in for fear of being labeled a racist. I am not a racist - I feel that every human being has the RIGHT to seek a better life and opportunity and if that happens to be in the United States, then by all means, come and seek that life BUT - do it as my great grandparents did, and the many other generations did. Follow in the footsteps of those whose names can be found on the records from Ellis island. Come to this country, LEARN THE LANGUAGE, work hard, pay taxes, become a citizen and be proud to call yourself an American. Fly the Stars and Stripes so all can see your pride in the country that has granted you the better life you were seeking. Keep your culture and your beliefs, but honor, respect, practice and teach those of the country for which you have become a citizen.

Border security is another issue and one that I feel must be addressed. We have the greatest military in the world, we are one of the most technologically advanced societies, yet countries like Iran, North Korea, Israel have far superior border security, passenger screening, etc. than we do. If Iran can capture 3 hikers that ventured over their border in the middle of the desert, why can't we catch the 100's of thousands doing the same. Terrorists scare the b-jesus, 9/11 scared the b-jesus out of me. I feel it is just a matter of time before we are shocked into reality again.

That's my $.02 worth. Agree with me or don't - As Americans, we are all entitled to our opinions.

 

Your'e not a racist, and anyone who would say you are is a moron. You sound like a proud American to me!:clap:

 

An ironic turn on that note - A lot of that representation is on the line as illegals and others are not reporting to the Census:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100428/ap_on_go_ot/us_census_mail_response

 

Wow!! Just flipping through the channels and the Obamabots(majority of the media) have now got religion in the mix. Cardinal Roger Mahony is now speaking on the topic. Keep religion out of it!!!

 

tree- while i respect that type of thinking, and understand where it comes from, i have to disagree. look into the history of immigration in this country. for a long time it was easy for anyone from anywhere to enter the country legally--99% of our ancestors came from another continent-- but since 1965 a limit of 20,000 was set for latin american countries, which instantly created illegal immigration. do you really expect millions of people to leave the country, get in line, and wait 20 years to do it legally?

and the "learn english, act like americans" schtick doesn't really hold up to examination. immigrants have always gone through a similar assimilation process. after a few generations everybody is "americanized". i have second-generation kids in my class that can't read or write in spanish (which is unfortunate).

again, all you angry folks should vent your anger on the americans that are hiring undocumented workers. kick THEM out.

this law is:

1. unamerican

2. unconstitutional (like most far-right kneejerk laws)

**** arizona, let 'em start their own country with texas.

WWJMI (who would jesus make illegal)?

 

You may have 2nd generation kids in class that can't speak Spanish, but growing up in Santa Ana I had 2nd generation neighbors that couldn't speak English....

I do agree with going after the employers that are hiring the undocumented workers.

I am not angry, I don't hate - I want a secure border and citizens to be more proud to be American than to be Mexican American, African American, Japanese American, and on and on..

 

^^ people can't be proud of their heritage? st. patrick's day, columbus day, octoberfest, and chinese new years all come to mind, although 2 of those are drinking days (that's my people). still, it's kind of sad when people completely lose touch with their past, no? but most other groups have been here long enough to lose theirs. it will happen to hispanics, too.

 

What a surprise

By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press Writer – 44 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Immigration reform has become the first of President Barack Obama's major priorities dropped from the agenda of an election-year Congress facing voter disillusionment. Sounding the death knell was Obama himself.
The president noted that lawmakers may lack the "appetite" to take on immigration while many of them are up for re-election and while another big legislative issue — climate change — is already on their plate.
"I don't want us to do something just for the sake of politics that doesn't solve the problem," Obama told reporters Wednesday night aboard Air Force One.
Immigration reform was an issue Obama promised Latino groups that he would take up in his first year in office. But several hard realities — a tanked economy, a crowded agenda, election-year politics and lack of political will — led to so much foot-dragging in Congress that, ultimately, Obama decided to set the issue aside.
With that move, the president calculated that an immigration bill would not prove as costly to his party two years from now, when he seeks re-election, than it would today, even though some immigration reformers warned that a delay could so discourage Democratic-leaning Latino voters that they would stay home from the polls in November.
Some Democrats thought pushing a bill through now might help their party, or at least their own re-election prospects.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose campaign is struggling in heavily Hispanic Nevada, unveiled an outline — not legislation — on Thursday for an immigration bill at a packed news conference. Asked when it might advance, he declined to set an "arbitrary deadline."
If immigration goes nowhere this year, Democrats can blame Republican resistance, though in reality many Democrats didn't want to deal with an immigration bill this year either.
The Democrats' draft proposal, obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday, called for, among other things, meeting border security benchmarks before anyone in the country illegally can become a legal permanent U.S. resident.
Obama praised the outline and said the next step is ironing out a bill. He said his administration will "play an active role" trying to get bipartisan supporters.
Republican Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who had been working with Democrats on immigration reform, criticized the proposal as "nothing more than an attempt to score political points."
By Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered little hope that the issue was still alive on Capitol Hill.
"If there is going to be any movement in this regard, it will require presidential leadership, as well as an appetite, is that the word? ... as well as a willingness to move forward in the Congress," she said.
House Republican leader John Boehner was more blunt. "There is not a chance that immigration is going to move through the Congress," he said Tuesday.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, the Democrats' leading advocate for immigration reform, has said he voted for health care reform on the understanding that Obama and congressional Democrats would move a major immigration bill.
Even though he would like to see Latinos turn out to vote for Democrats in 2010, Gutierrez said "many will probably decide to stay home." However, he added, a strict, new immigration law in Arizona may change that dynamic. The law requires law enforcement officers to question anyone they suspect is in the country illegally.
"On one hand you are not going to vote because you don't believe people you voted for are doing a good enough job," Gutierrez said. "Then you say, 'I got to vote, because the enemy is so mean and vindictive, I got to get out there.'"
The Hispanic vote is growing, largely because of Latinos' increasing population. The 9.7 million Latinos who cast ballots in 2008 made up about 7.4 percent of the electorate, according to a 2009 Pew Research Center study.
Hispanic voters helped flip the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico from Republican to Democratic in the 2008 presidential election.
But even though Latinos' numbers have been increasing, in some parts of the country their portions of voting populations are not large enough to affect election outcomes.
Democrats hold a 254-177 majority in the House, with four vacancies. But 48 are in districts where Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain did better than Obama in the 2008 elections.
Matt Angle, a Democratic political strategist focused on Texas, said it would be worse for Democrats to propose a bill that has no hope of passing or getting Republican support. Doing so would allow Republicans to cherry-pick parts of the bill to use against Democratic candidates, he said.
The Senate also has a number of competitive races, some in states with significant numbers of Hispanic voters, such as in Nevada, Reid's home state. Latinos are about 12-15 percent of likely voters there.
"For Democrats it is critical they can deliver if they want to continue nurturing the support they want from this community," said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, National Council of La Raza immigration and national campaigns director.

 

mmmmmichellle

I love phillipinas, she should try out for weather. I bet she's got the stuff for the green screen, one of these videos gots to have her in a chair showing leggs with the rest the fox news girls.

 

Michelle Malkin rocks!

 

And that's why I posted this. The topic was secondary.

 

Why does the human race always wait until, IT IS TO LATE!

 

I have never said they should not be proud of who they are and where they came from, I even stated to keep their culture and traditions.... we all, well most of us, came from somewhere other than here. My people get 16 days of drinking.. Oktoberfest!! :beer: ... but I don't go sporting a German flag on my house and speaking German to my kid or expecting my drivers license test, job application, work documents, medical forms, etc. to be written in German. My school counselor did not have to learn German in order to tell my parents what kind of student I was. I live in the USA, our chosen language and culture is English. I don't think asking someone to learn the language is too much to ask.

 

^^ but if you lived in the midwest 100 years ago you would have seen similar accommodations for german immigrants. if americans tried to learn a second language they might appreciate how hard it is for immigrants. and in time they will learn the language, just like all of my second graders--most of them read/write/speak better than the native speakers.

by the way- for all y'all hating on obama, bush had eight years to enact some reform. you see how far he got.

 

Obama can try to make it a non issue all he wants, AZ has guaranteed it will be a election year issue.

As for being proud, it's not a pride issue at all. But I have witnessed far too many times, large groups of immigrants who will do anything they can to keep from having to assimilate to our culture and laws here in the US.

Those who wave the flag of their home country while protesting against the US are the first who should think about going back home if it is such a great place.
I couldn't care less how long it takes to get in the door here legally.

The US does not need more immigrants, legal or not. Our social resources are seriously jeopardized as it is just trying to keep up with US citizens. Add to the mix those who are here illegally and it has become catastrophic.

It's way past time to fix the problems we have here on the home front.

If for no other reason, our borders should be clamped down for our own security. There isn't another country in the world with as much to lose as we do and has the border gaps we have.

Again, the reason for the legislation is to force the Feds to take action on securing our country.