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Subscribe to RSSIn a rural Texas county, an increasing number of illegal immigrants are dying before they can complete the journey to what they hoped would be a better life. (Warning: This video contains some footage that may be disturbing for viewers.)
MISSION, Texas -- In the freezer of a small funeral home nearly 13 miles from the Texas-Mexico border, 22 bodies are stacked on plywood shelves, one on top of the other.
The bodies wrapped in white sheets have names, families and official countries of origin -- Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, sometimes China or Pakistan. The bodies in black shrouds are the remains of the nameless and unclaimed, waiting to be identified.
For the past few years, the family-owned Elizondo Mortuary and Cremation Service in Mission, Texas, has been taking in the remains of undocumented immigrants found dead in nearby counties after crossing the border from Mexico. This year, however, they had to build an extra freezer. It’s become difficult to keep up with the rising tide of dead coming to them from across the Rio Grande Valley.
Crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally has always been dangerous, but this year heat and drought have made the journey particularly deadly. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, this part of the border has seen a sharp rise in both rescues and deaths of people crossing the border illegally. So far in 2012, agents have rescued more than 310 people, and found nearly 150 dead in the Rio Grande Valley -- an increase of more than 200 percent over the last fiscal year.
This comes as migration across the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped to historic lows, falling nearly 62 percent over the last five years, according to numbers recently released by CBP. But the proportion of deaths to apprehensions is rising -- suggesting that while fewer are crossing, more are dying.
Marta Iraheta has been hunting for months for word of her missing nephew, Elmer Esau Barahona, who left his native El Salvador in June.
Ground zero is over 70 miles north of the border, in Brooks County. Last year the remains of about 50 presumed undocumented immigrants were found in the county. This year, the tally has reached about 104, with nearly three months to go.
The rising number of unclaimed corpses marks a growing crisis for this cash-strapped county of fewer than 7,500 residents. Because Brooks has no coroner, it sends the bodies recovered on its vast cattle ranches to Elizondo in neighboring Hidalgo County. It costs, according to county officials, about $1,500 for each body to be processed.
Hannah Rappleye for NBC News
Ranch land in Brooks County, Texas.
Both the county and Elizondo also make efforts to identify the remains. In most cases, chances are slim. The mortuary uses physical descriptions and accounts of the clothing worn by missing immigrants to attempt to match bodies, but often there are few clues to work with. The elements and animals often destroy corpses and scatter bones across the desert. While DNA testing could help, neither Brooks County nor Elizondo can afford to order the tests for every unidentified body.
Many of the migrants who are found dead in this part of South Texas end up buried in paupers’ graves, remembered only by their gender, case number and the name of the ranch where they died.
Adaptation
In September, Marta Iraheta traveled from Houston to Falfurrias, Texas, the seat of Brooks County. She came seeking the remains of her nephew and a friend who disappeared in July as they crossed illegally into the United States.
US Customs Commissioner David Aguilar says the Mexican border is "safer than ever," and denies claims that Washington downplays threats there.
Twenty-year-old Elmer Esau Barahona left his hometown of San Vicente, El Salvador, on June 10th. On June 27th -- his is daughter’s second birthday -- he called his mother to say he had arrived in the border city of McAllen, Texas.
He told her he and his friend were staying in a stash house, waiting for the smugglers to take them on the next leg of the journey. From the stories Iraheta has pieced together from survivors, her nephew and his friend left McAllen five days later, on the evening of July 2.
They began the long walk with a group of migrants through desolate private ranch land, skirting the Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias. After a day of walking, his friend, a 17-year-old Salvadoran named Elmer Amilcar Sevallos Martinez, sat down and did not get up again. The rest of the group continued on.
Just minutes from the highway where the coyotes -- as the smugglers are known -- were to pick them up, Barahona hurt his knee.
“The coyote told them they had to leave him there,” said Iraheta, his aunt, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen. “They said he was bad, really bad. He was faint. He remained there, sprawled on the ground.”
The Rio Grande Valley is one of the most trafficked illegal immigration routes used by people known in Border Patrol parlance as “OTM,” or “other than Mexican.” About 60 percent of those apprehended in this area come from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as well as countries as distant as China, Afghanistan and Russia.
“When you look at South Texas on a map and draw a straight line to Central and South America, this is your furthest southern point to cross into the U.S.,” said Enrique Mendiola, assistant chief Border Patrol agent for the Rio Grande Valley.
But the recent increase in traffic through this corridor is attributable to more than geography.
Since the mid-1990s, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has clamped down hard on border crossings. The agency has more than doubled in size since 2004, and now has 28,000 agents, nearly half of them in Texas. Fences, sensors, drones, checkpoints and disciplined, coordinated enforcement have choked off routes through urban areas that were once easily crossed.
Smugglers have adapted by moving into sparsely populated areas like the Sonoran desert in Arizona, and the west Rio Grande Valley.
Rancher John Ladd tells NBC News about Mexican drug traffickers trespassing on his land, threatening his security.
“We’re starting to see these crossings more in these particular areas than we have in the past,” said Mendiola.
With triple-digit temperatures and wide deserts, these uncompromising landscapes are harder to patrol than populous areas on the border’s edge. They are also more dangerous for those crossing into the country.
“There’s no doubt that the increased vigilance has pushed people into these more hostile areas,” said Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, a professor of Mexican American Studies and coordinator of Arizona State University’s Binational Migration Institute. “Traditionally, people crossed in urban areas. If you cross into an urban area, you can find a way of making it. If you have to cross through these rural areas, you’re taking a big chance.”
Despite the rising danger and cost, people keep coming. Advocates and families say that with few legal avenues into the U.S., migrants feel this is the only way to make a better life.
Field supervisors have been ordered by Washington officials to downplay the smuggling threats, a former DEA supervisor says – a charge U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehemently denies. NBC's Mark Potter reports.
“Had they been able to have a good chance of getting a visa, they never would have tried to cross the desert,” she said.
Lucrative cargo
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says that Gulf Cartel out of Mexico controls most of the lucrative smuggling routes through this area of the Rio Grande Valley, and uses them to ferry both humans and drugs into the country.
The Border Patrol has made dismantling these networks a priority. Despite daily apprehensions of individual migrants, Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Woody Lee said the agency’s larger aim is “not focusing on what it is that’s coming across, but how do we take out the infrastructure.”
“How do we take out the people who are moving the product, or the people, on this side of the border? ” he said. “Those people are within our control.”
This means the agency, which has jurisdiction up to 100 miles from the border, does much of its work far from the Mexico line, following the smugglers as they forge new tactics and routes.
Hannah Rappleye for NBC News
Texas Border Volunteer Ed Aldredge, left, and rancher Mike Vickers. The Texas Border Volunteers, a citizen group based in Brooks County, patrols ranch land for undocumented immigrants.
The coyotes hustle people across the border into stash houses in towns and cities like McAllen and Mission. From there, they pile them into vans -- the seats torn out to fit more bodies -- and drop them off along the road south of the Falfurrias border checkpoint in Brooks County, the northernmost patrol point in this area.
Those who pay more walk less, according to the Border Patrol and immigrants who have made the crossing. The going rate varies. A thousand, or a few thousand, just to cross the border. For those from Central America, it may cost more than $5,000 or $7,000. For those from China or Pakistan, some say the cost is as high as $50,000.
The terrain the immigrants must cross is brutal. The walk can be dozens of miles through the sandy terrain with nothing -- no water, mountains or hills by which to navigate. During the summer, daytime temperatures reached nearly 110 degrees. The brush fools the unaccustomed. One minute they are tired. The next, their bodies begin to give out.
People in Falfurrias know what happens on the journey, often better than the migrants themselves.
They know how some groups have coyotes as guides across the desert. Others are left on their own, with a cell phone to call the coyote when they arrive. Some use it to call 911 if they are dying.
Ranchers and Border Patrol agents have seen evidence of brutality. They will tell you that a pair of women’s panties hung in a tree is a sign that a woman was raped there. The coyotes leave them to mark the conquest.
They will tell you how the coyotes tell their charges that the walk around the Falfurrias checkpoint is short, that they should aim for those lights.
“That’s Houston,” some coyotes say to give the migrants hope the trip is nearly done. But that distant glare is merely light over a ranch gate, or the streetlights illuminating Highway 281. Houston is nearly 300 miles away.
A retired assistant Special Agent DEA and an Ex-US drug czar agree the Mexican border is not secure and Washington is "in denial."
‘The depravity of man’
The photos spread across the desk of Brooks County rancher Mike Vickers show corpses in various states of decomposition. From the pile, the sun-bleached skulls of women peer out from beneath the rotting flesh of young men. Others show immigrants who were found near death by the Border Patrol or Vickers himself -- women huddling underneath trees and men leaning against trucks, dazed by thirst and heat exhaustion.
All the images were taken on Vickers’ ranch.
“These bodies are everywhere,” Vickers said. “The bones are everywhere.”
Vickers, who is also a local veterinarian, spoke of the toll the stream of illegal migration has taken on Brooks County ranchers and their families.
Desperate for water, migrants break the pumps that provide water to the cattle. They tear down fences. Men have scared Vickers’ wife, Linda, as she rode her horse. And finding the remains, which sometimes end up right in their backyard, wears on him.
“We see the depravity of man out here,” he added. “It’s altered our way of life.”
Vickers is the chair of a group called the Texas Border Volunteers. At least once a month, members gather in Brooks County to search private ranch lands for migrants and their remains.
When they find either, they contact the Border Patrol.
They carry water, food, cameras and GPS devices on their patrols.
“We do everything we can to try to rescue them and get them out of a bad situation,” Vickers said. “The heat can fool you. It doesn’t have to get that hot to really make someone walking through that sand get dehydrated real quick and suffer heat stroke.”
They also bring weapons in case they encounter coyotes, gang members or people carrying expensive cargo, such as drugs.
On a recent patrol, Vickers and two volunteers wearing military camouflage rolled across deep sand in a four-wheeler, searching for signs of life or death.
Black buzzards drifted above one of the few hills on the land. To ranchers and cowboys, the buzzards have become a sign not of dying cattle, but of a dying human. “Something’s dead up there,” Vickers said.
Hannah Rappleye for NBC News
Texas Border Volunteers Ed Aldredge, left, and Mark Medina patrol a ranch in Brooks County.
On top of the hill, Mark Medina, 45, and Ed Aldredge, 45, both military veterans, picked their way through trees and cacti, searching for a corpse. They found nothing.
“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” Medina said.
But evidence of crossers was everywhere. Half-empty water jugs, crushed energy drink cans, socks, and jackets lay discarded under trees or covered in sand.
The Border Patrol has stepped up efforts to rescue immigrants who find themselves lost, dehydrated or sick. They’ve placed rescue beacons on the ranches, where an immigrant can push a button to alert Border Patrol agents. They’ve posted signs with GPS coordinates across the landscape so immigrants with cell phones can call 911 and give their location.
They’ve also produced public service announcements, including some in Spanish, imploring people not to cross.
The message is this: “Don’t put your life in the hands of these ruthless people,” said Border Patrol agent Mendiola. “To them, you’re just a commodity. You’re not a human being. You’re cargo.”
‘Are you going to come or go?’
After 17-year-old Sevallos Martinez fell behind, Barahona continued with the rest of the group to trudge through the private ranch land flanking Highway 281.
In the morning, Barahona stepped into a hole and injured his right leg. In pain, he could barely walk. A friend he made along the journey took off a brown checked shirt and tied it around Barahona’s knee, over his black jeans, then helped him limp along.
They were almost to the road when Barahona gave out. His friend helped him over a fence. They were minutes from the pickup point, near enough to hear the highway. There were just two fences left. The coyote said the truck was waiting. People ran for the road.
“He was yelling. Yelling for people to help him,” Iraheta said. “The coyote told him to stop yelling because people would hear him.”
The friend who helped Barahona told Iraheta her nephew’s lips went white and he fell. The coyote yelled at the friend. “Are you going to come or go?” He ran to the vehicle.
On July 5th, the coyote called Barahona’s mother in El Salvador and told her he left Elmer in the desert.
“And that’s where the tragedy began,” said Iraheta. “I looked for him alive in all of the jails and nothing, so I’ve started to look for him among the dead.”
‘On our own’
Brooks County Chief Deputy Urbino Martinez has a stack of white binders filled with emails, letters, and reports of the missing and the dead. His office, he said, is “overwhelmed” by the deaths.
With a yearly budget of about $585,000 and only one investigator and five deputies on patrol, the county has neither the staff nor the resources to process the remains. Since they’re not technically a “border county,” Martinez said, it’s been impossible to get federal grants to help.
“We’re pretty much on our own out here,” he said.
Brooks County has no medical examiner, so it can’t perform autopsies or extract samples. Instead, deputies send remains first to a funeral home in Falfurrias, and then to Elizondo in Mission, where they can extract samples for DNA testing.
Hannah Rappleye for NBC News
A photo of a young woman with her child in the missing persons file at the Brooks County Sheriff's Office.
But Brooks County’s responsibility doesn’t end there. The sheriff’s office keeps pages of records. Deputies call consulates. They try to match remains to open missing persons cases.
“At times people wonder why we put all this effort into it,” Martinez said. “Because our administration feels like they’re humans. I know they’re trespassing, I know they shouldn’t be in the United States. But they’re on U.S. soil. We have to protect them and we have to make sure that we do what we have to do on our end, regardless of what we have to go through.”
Martinez said the Sheriff’s Office is deluged by phone calls, emails and in-person visits from desperate families and friends of the missing. But it’s difficult to find and identify someone who has died in the desert, he said, even when the families offer clues.
“It’s a sad thing sometimes because you just can’t help them and they don’t understand that,” he said. “They’ll call you and say, ‘He’s by this tree, they’re telling me he’s by this tree.’ If the animals get to them, they’re not going to be by that tree. The limbs are going to be everywhere. That’s just the way it is.”
Like the files at Vickers’ ranch, the binders deputies have assembled contain photographs both of the living and the dead. In some, the victims are smiling with their children, or clutching their husbands or wives. In others, their bodies are sprawled on the sand, staring up at the sky. Paging through the photographs, Martinez wondered aloud what went through their minds as they lay dying in the desert.
“It’s not worth it,” he said. “They feel like the dream that they hear about, as soon as they get onto U.S. soil, they’re closer to the dream.”
“But a lot of the time when they’re being walked across,” he added, “that dream is empty.”
Searching for answers
In mid-September, Iraheta came to Brooks County carrying photographs of the two Elmers.
She believed she had identified a man in one of the sheriff’s files as her nephew, but wanted to know for sure. She carried a snapshot of the picture in the sheriff’s file, showing a man prone face down in the brush, a brown-checked shirt tied around his knee. But her discovery had come too late -- the body had already been buried. Now, answers would cost money.
Iraheta can recite the figures by heart: $900 to exhume the body; $250 to cut the bone for DNA testing. $3,000 for the DNA test; $100 a day to store the body for nearly four weeks until the results come in; $3,000 to $4,800 to send the body home.
“That means that’s more than $12,000,” said Iraheta. “I can’t afford that. I’m poor.”
But she is trying to raise the money, for her sister crying in El Salvador, and for Barahona’s daughter.
“I want his daughter to have a place to carry a flower to,” she said. “I want her to have a place to say, ‘Here is where my father is buried.’”
Hannah Rappleye for NBC News
An unidentified immigrant's grave at the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Falfurrias, Texas. When the remains of a migrant cannot be identified they are buried with a marker indicating where their body was found.
On this trip, she came with a group assembled by Angeles Del Desierto, or Desert Angels, which has for 15 years conducted rescue mission and searched for the dead along the southern border.
They went to the sheriff’s office, which had nothing more for Iraheta. They spoke to the local funeral home, which could offer little. They went on a mission into the desert, searching for people, alive or dead.
Finally, with little hope, they drove to Elizondo Mortuary in Mission. Iraheta carried her photographs of the Elmers and the little she knew about where they were last seen, what they wore, and the things they carried.
The owner of Elizondo looked at Iraheta’s pictures, and went to her files. She stopped at one file of a man found with no face, no hair, no discernable features -- just bones. But the people who found the remains had recovered personal effects: a white rosary and a pair of pants with two pictures tucked in the pockets -- the same pictures Iraheta had been given by the family of 17-year-old Elmer Amilcar Sevallos Martinez, the boy left in the desert a few hours before her nephew.
“With those two things, we knew that it was him,” said Iraheta.
The discovery came just in time for Sevallos Martinez’s family. His remains were to have been buried the following day.
His family had held out hope the teen would be found alive. They only knew that he had been left in the desert. In some stories, he fell. In others, he was exhausted, and stopped to rest under a tree. But maybe he had recovered and begun to walk again.
Iraheta called a number she had for the boy’s father, a man from El Salvador living in Maryland.
“I think he was in shock,” said Iraheta. “He asked how we knew it was him. And we told him by the photos that were in his pants pocket.”
Sevallos Martinez’s remains are being sent to Maryland by the Salvadoran consulate, so his father can examine the photos and rosary. In some cases, the consulate will help with the cost of sending a body home. Even so, the family, like Iraheta, may want a DNA test to know for sure -- if they can afford it.
Money is the reason the two Elmers risked their lives to make the illegal crossing -- money and a search for a better life. Now it is a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to their families’ efforts to bring them home.
“You have nothing to give to your children, to help your mother, so you have to take the decision to come here to find a….to try to find a job to send money to the family,” said Iratea. “They paid the high price for the American dream.”
“We can’t turn back time,” she added. “But I hope that everyone sees that it’s not worth it, that voyage. To give up your life to that desert.”
NBC News Correspondent Mark Potter contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Too bad. They should come here legally and then they would not be dying in the desert.
Don't feel one bit sorry for any of them.
My great grandparents had to come legally or would have been booted back to the old country. Nothings changed.
They were fleeing oppression and poverty too. What makes the Mexicans and South Americans think they are any better than they were.
These individuals should have came here legally. However, when did Americans stop having empathy for others? Wow, should we be dancing in the streets because people have died trying to reach the land of milk and honey? Im ashamed today that we live in the same country
Yes thse are sad and tragic consequences of the "moreal Hazards" in trafficing in human beings.
Wake up poor coming to America Is not worth your life ! ! !
Sorry for the loss of these peoples loved ones. Last year while flying a chopper over a ranch in S. Texas where I hunt, the pilot found a dead illegal on the ranch next door. One of the pastures we hunt on is called El Muerto (The Dead) because a dead illegal was found there over 25 years ago. This is nothing new, it's been happening for decades and all who try are well aware of the risk.
Too bad Mexico doesn't love it's own people enough to provide a life for them such that would want to stay home and not feel the need to take such desperate measures for a better life.
ItsAboutTime-3704531
Do you have empathy for CRIMINALS who die from their OWN choices? NO ONE is putting a gun to these peoples heads and telling them to go out to the desert.
The land of "milk and honey" has rules and laws. If they can't follow those then they deserve sour milk and spoiled honey.
Americans die every day in traffic accidents on their way to and from work.
Nice little tear-jerker.
However, I prefer to feel sympathy for young American families who are struggling to get jobs and seniors who are struggling to buy food and medicine and citizens who are sick and can't get health insurance--all victims of a system that is unresponsive to the needs of legal citizens who pay taxes yet allows the country to be overrun by illegal foreigners using our resources for free.
Screw them. And the fat cat government that allows it.
Mexico has a booming middle class now, in part, due to U.S. corporations shipping their operations to Mexico, taking American jobs with them. And Mexico has a booming middle class now, in part, due to the 40 years it has been shipping all its uneducated and criminal lower classes to the United States ... 48 million. These people need to stay in their own country and pursue the Mexican Dream or the El Salvador Dream or the Guatemalan Dream. There no longer is an American Dream. If you don't respect a country you sneak into for all the goodwill welfare social services freebies and public schooling, then you are killing a part of the very thing you selfishly seek. At the very least, learn English and don't lecture Americans that we need to learn Spanish in order to deal with low integrity Mexicans who give not one damn about the United States. Mexicans need to stop genuflecting to Vatican Inc., pumping out so many damn babies that they cannot feed or shelter or educate that they have to then infiltrate and ruin their neighbor's homeland.
Having an open border to show you are caring and have empathy has allowed for drug trafficking, human trafficking, gun smuggling, burdened Social systems, prisons filled with "undocumented workers" (illegals) and thousands if not tens of thousands of deaths. Shut down the border, build fences and walls and make these people come here the legal way for their and our own good. I don't blame them for wanting a better life, I blame our government for allowing them to wonder in a desert trying to get it.
So I seem to be the only one who is glad that this topic is being covered. Those who just wish to seek the American Dream are dying while the traffickers are getting richer. Those who are successful but see others dying haven't the compassion for their own countrymen to tell them what the risk truly is for those crossing the desert. They don't even warn their family and countrymen with children that choosing to come here illegally could cost them the ultimate price. The loss of their life or the loss of their child's life. The price to come is very steep at thousands of dollars each...why wouldn't or couldn't they take that money and invest it in their home country or in themselves for a business? As little changes says Mexico has an emerging middle class which means they also have some disposable income why not make the American Dream the Mexican Dream or the Salvadorian Dream or the Guatemalan Dream, The Russian Dream or the Indian Dream?
I wish that our Government would use some of the resources that ICE has at their disposal and make this lady the spokes person for PSA telling people from these country what the true risk is for trusting smugglers, traffickers and Cartels with their very lives and the lives of their children. I wish ICE would do this and let these desperate people know that the only way to truly achieve the American Dream is through our immigration system. If these immigrants can give us some time we can make changes to our system that will reflect their needs and offer them the full promise and legitimate participation in the American Dream. The thing is many of the people who are paying thousands of dollars to come here illegally don't wish to have US citizenship they wish to have jobs that they can support their families back in their home country. We need to have some space and give our legislators time to enact a fair and reasonable visa class that will suit everyone, our citizens and those from other countries.
Al right, BABY!!
Let the hatred begin!!
Let me start. Umm... Illegals are CRIMINALS! Well.. they're criminals until they go to work for me cutting my lawn and doing all of those yard things I'm too lazy to do.
They don't pay taxes!! Well... they pay sales taxes every time they purchase something. And many of them live in apartment buildings and part of their rent goes to taxes each month. Many, many of them are on payrolls and if the white bosses don't pay taxes on their payroll, is it the Mexican's fault?
They plug up our emergency rooms! Well... the last few times I've been to an emergency room, there were a lot more white trash trying to get prescription pain meds than there were freeloading mezzkins!
They're dirty and have bad hygiene! See comment above for white trash crackheads.
They're taking all of our jobs!! Well... When was the last time you applied for a lettuce picking job, Eugene?
Now I'm not saying everyone who crosses the US/Mexico border is a model citizen, I just get a little ruffled when everyone complains about Mexican immigrants and no one complains about white illegal immigrants. What you say?? There are illegal white immigrants? Well... yes. Every year thousands of Irish, Russian, German, and other European immigrants overstay their visitor visas and get work here. Usually more often than not at a job that would normally be filled by a US citizen (i.e., not a field worker). Do you ever see any of these redneck goat-fu**ing border volunteers checking the local plumbing contractors for illegal Russians? That would be too hard. Better just to drive around with your AR and a mouth full of Red Man and hunt brownies.
No need for any of this to happen. With a single signature of the pen we can make it so illegals cannot get hired in the US. This will:
1) End the loss of tax dollars in border states suffering from the illegal exploitation, crimes and policing of the border involved.
2) End the loss of federal tax dollars through policing and benefits
3) Improve labor conditions in the US by allowing citizens to get work.
4) The reward versus risk to cross will crop off by an order of magnitude.
Folks, I have friends who played by the rules for years to get a green card to get in the US the right way. My grandparents did it as well, and forced themselves to learn English and fit in so they did not have to have dollars spent in multi language schools and multi language labels. A country is only as strong as it's people's ability to mingle and communicate and exchange ideas. Every time anyone says "just let them in, it is what the US is about" you tell my friends that they are stupid, ignorant losers for trying to immigrate legally,and you spit in the face of my grandparents who came here.
There are no excuses. Do not say it's about jobs or money alone, because if it is, then what the "h*ll" good is it being an American citizen when I can just come here and do whatever I want. I have traveled the world and I can tell you the only countries that allow you to do that are in the 3rd world. Not Canada, not Europe, or not Asia allows illegals. Period. I spent time in Japan and had to register as a foreign worker and had to learn Japanese. I did the same thing in Germany. Either one of these countries would have arrested me and never employed me had I been there otherwise. WAKE UP.
Quit breeding like rabbits, stay in your homeland or go through the process and do it legally. My grand parents did. If you make it learn English and job where you pay taxes.
Easy Solution to this Problem -- STAY IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY AND COME TO THE U.S. LEGALLY!!! They died in the comission of a crime. They have the ability to improve their lives in their own countries by selecting Leaders that will help their citizens.
trust_verify
As I already said, these individuals should have came here legally. However, pardon me if I remain HUMAN and have empathy for people wanting to build a better life.
I am 6th generation American. My ancestors did NOT come here legally, because there was no passports and birth certificate requirements then. OOOPs, they did not follow the rules did they. There is a little plaque just below the status of liberty that reads something like "Give me your cold, your tired and your hungry".... Read up on it sometime and actually have compassion for others.
And we're supposed to feel bad ?
Not going to happen !
Tragic circumstances. Serious prosecution and incarceration of coyotes might help. Maybe a broadcast system/graphic billboards here and there at main entry points w/ warning talking points.
National Guard to our national borders, please;way too permeable.
Did anyone else notice that among the dead are Chinese and Pakistanis? I love how there are "do not fly" lists and we have to show ID and be scanned or groped to fly for national security, but they can just sneak across the border. And for anyone saying that it mentions occasionally, I would think that someone who has to fly to Mexico to go across the border would be more prepared for the desert crossing than the (financially) poor people who are crossing the border for a better life.
Was that why you were there? True there are many people that over stay their work visa, but they got here legally, many of them brown or black also. Those issues need attention, as you say.
The issue here is patroling the points of infiltration and the lose of human life, for some false utopia. Is your garage empty?
We aren't people in Mexico rising up to demand better jobs and better pay in Mexico. Oh yeah, their own people couldn't care less about them.
Its About Time-WHAT? If your 6th generation ancestors did not NEED a passport or birth certificate, than they did not break the law by not having them. I bet anything there were SOME sort of requirements at the time, and they probably fullfilled them. Illegal immigrants 6 generations ago were jailed and then deported. Do you think things were EASIER then now? LOL, you know NOTHING about American history.
As for empathy, I applaud you for caring about people, and we all should-absolutly. I do not find joy in people dying in the desert, or anywhere else for that matter, and NO ONE said a thing about -how did you put it? "dancing in the streets". Don't put words in people's mouths. The point most people made is that these people put themselves in this situation in the first place. We are not killing them-they are killing themselves. If anything, Americans have bent over backwards to make it safer for them. Please.
And my husband's wages, years ago when he was a carpenter, was vastly compromised by the influx of illegal laborers. They are not all picking lettuce. Oh, and now my teenage son can not get a landscaping job to save his life (a staple of teen jobs when I was growing up) because it is all being done by illegals. I don't want things done on the cheap. I want them done right-and legally-and would be happy to pay a little more for it.
BigJeff: Let the hatred begin!!...white trash...these redneck goat-fu**ing...
Thanks for demonstrating by example.
"However, when did Americans stop having empathy for others?"
When they broke the law.
If you want to call these people "undocumented citizens" to minimize the fact that they broke a law, we can also call Jerry Sandusky an "overly zealous child enthusiast".
The headline should read "Death Toll Rises Among Those Who Don't Have Enough Respect For This Country To Follow Its Laws And Come Here Legally." And a small sub-headline: "They Would Have Arrived Alive If They Obeyed Our Laws."
Nope...no sympathy here.
Maybe this would be a great time to pull the troops out of Afghanistan and line them up on the borders here to prevent this. None of this would be happening if they stayed home and worked to make their own country better instead of trying so hard to break the laws here. The very first step they take into the US makes them a criminal and it usually doesn't stop there. Not only would stopping them at the borders reduce crime, increase job availablity here, reduce state expenses, force employers to quit hiring illegals and actually pay a fair wage to their employees, but it will save the lives of so many of the criminals invading our country.
bigjeff-293,
All your arguments are invalid simply because of ONE FACT: they are ILLEGAL. All it amounts to is a story aimed at generatng sympathy for ILLEGALS.
American citizens breaking the law - jail time. Citizens from other countries breaking our laws - deportation.
In response to ItsAboutTime: your post is ridiculous. If there were no ID requirements when your ancestors came to this country, then how could they be "illegal?" If there were no requirements back then, then there weren't laws to break. So lose the false "pride" in the "fact" that your ancestors came here illegally.
My grandparents didn't have passports either. They did, however, have an ID and birth certificates from their homeland (I still have those documents), and they did have to pass through Ellis Island and show that ID and pass a physical in order to enter the U.S. My grandfather told me that he knew of a few people who were turned away when they couldn't prove who they were, or if they were ill. I'd love to know how your ancestors came here.
Oh well.
parents who came from chihuahua,mexico and never became american citizens had the poor little rich boy repub running for p(%$#@#t. bye-bye.
Morndew
I already said there were no requirements for passports, birth certificates, and there was NO rules on the books for immigration, because my ancestors came here in 1790's. There was NO Immigration officer waiting for them when they stepped off the boat now was there? They were not SHIPPED back to Europe because they didn't have a visa/passport, or some green card etc. Do your own homework next time before attempting to insult someone with words of "not knowing american history." I know my American history as much as I know my family ancestry.
I stated "twice" that people should come here legally and that is #3. I did not put words in anyone's mouth. It was a simple question/statement, based on one person's lack of empathy. If the illegals would have followed the process, then yes, they would probably still be alive today. I think illegals should be returned back to their country of origin as well. They should not be taking jobs away from Americans who are willing to do them. They should also not get a penny ooff the American Taxpayer.
It was said you could pay as much as 50,000 to get here, if you had that kind of money why would you want to? 50,000 goes a lot further in Mexico..
This will inevitably be our demise if it is not stopped as the people that come here to destroy our way of life won't be from Mexico, S. America or China..
Kudos to the U.S. Border agents and ranchers, like Mike Vickers and his family. None of us living elsewhere in the U.S., no matter how bad the illegals make it in our towns and states, can imagine what a constant war zone these Americans are forced to live in. And yes, of course, many readers did pick up on that the border jumpers are not all Mexican or even latino. However, the entrenched 48 million latinos in the U.S. with a wide swath of latino relatives back home are the ones enabling this entire system, as well as U.S. employers who hire them and often take advantage of them. Nothing - absolutely nothing - was being done about illegals until the past 5 - 7 years, when Americans taxpayers finally had enough of our vanishing resources being drained to support a militaristic law enforcement across the country that often spends much of its time dealing with a litany of issues that are all related to illegals. It is costly. Just as all the English as Second Language courses in every public school are costly - and ought not even exist. As are the state and federal prisons filled to the gills with illegals and 1st generation latino anchor-baby males who allegedly came here for a better life but turned to a life of predatory crime after deciding school was too hard and a 9 to 5 job too boring. And it doesn't end there. The fastest growing segment of high school dropouts in the U.S.? Teen pregnant latinas. That means another round of endless social services welfare, section 8 housing, crowded schools and babies who will grow up to be disadvantaged, keeping the cycle of a criminal underclass and illegitimate babies on the public dole. What is rarely talked about is that American women, after struggling for 250 years, now make up the bulk of college students, are the ones getting good jobs, starting businesses and paying the most in taxes ... to support tens of millions of people from a misogynist culture that makes life worse and more dangerous for American women and girls. If most Americans could overhear how latino men talk about white and black women, they'd not only be insulted but appalled. Thanks, federal govt. and corporate America, for making it a profoundly less safe country for my one child - a daughter - to grow up in and then also have to work hard to support millions of your low wage illegal workers. Can't wait until all states do as California just did, handing out driver's licenses to illegal aliens so they can then vote. Well done, America.
Did anyone read the headline and think "good" like I did?
Everybody says the solution is for these people to 'come in legally' but what you don't understand is that for many, there is no way to do that:
"Out there, there is this perception that there is a process you can easily go through to become legal, but let's say you're Mexican as an example, since most of the immigrants in Tucson are from Mexico. You decide you want to move to the U.S. for economic opportunity, but if you don't have any close family members here ... that will sponsor a visa for you, there is no way for them to come legally to the U.S." says Rachel Wilson, a Tucson immigration attorney.
If a person wants a work visa in the U.S., and eventually to become a citizen, it's easier if they have a relative in the country who has legal status and can file a petition on their behalf. In those instances there are lines of people waiting -- a wait that can go from a period of a few years to sometimes almost a decade.
"If you have an immediate relative who lives in the United States that is your spouse or a child over 21, then you can apply for a visa relatively quickly. It has to be your immediate relative and that person has to be a citizen. So then let's say you have a spouse who is a legal permanent resident; then you have to get in line and wait probably three or four years. Or you go all the way down to the farthest relative away who can invite a person in, who is a brother or sister who is a citizen, and that line for Mexican citizens is long. There are different lines based on what country you are from. There are some countries that have extra long lines because the United States has determined that there are too many people from that country already," Wilson explains.
On the bulletin posted for September 2010 is an explanation of the different visa categories -- employment-based visas and family-based visas are all based on specific numbers of visas allotted each year for each category and five countries that have a specific visa quota. Mexico is included in that list, as well as China (mainland born), India, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines.
Every category also has a limit to the number of visas that can be issued, but what's more troubling for Wilson and other immigration attorneys in Tucson isn't really the limit on the number of visas, but the backlog that prevents immigration from happening in a timely manner.
Mexico happens to be the most backlogged of all the countries on the bulletin. For example, next month the State Department will look at petitions of brothers and sisters of adult citizens that were filed in January 1994, but if you are from China, they are going to be getting to petitions filed in October 2001. “It's really complicated. When they are talking about the preferences they are talking about the degree to the relationship you have and what preference you are in the visa system. So then let's say you're Mexican and you have a brother or sister in the United States who petitions for you. Here we are in 2010, and they are processing petitions that were filed in 1994. So that's a wait of 16 years," Wilson says.
Back when many of your parents and grandparents emigrated, it was through Ellis Island or one of those immigration stations before or just after WWII. I've talked to my husband's grandfather, a Polish immigrant who came over just after WWI. Back then, in order to emigrate, you showed up with your paperwork, a list of your skills and what you could contribute to American society. If you knew someone already here, it helped, but it was not necessary.
Today, if you don't have an employer or close family member to sponsor you in, you can't come in. It's become all about 'who you know' rather than 'what you can contribute'.
It seems to me that a good chunk of our illegal immigration problems could be solved if we rescinded the rule that 'you can only come if you know someone already here.'
People sneak across the border and have a child on American soil, then sneak back across once the child is grown and wait for the child to sponsor them in just so they can have that 'close family tie' that will allow them to immigrate. Without this rule the incentive to have those 'anchor babies' won't be there, and it wouldn't involve having to repeal the Constitution's 14th amendment 'jus soli' rule.
A lot of people's frustration with immigration is the wait times--according to the article pasted above, it can take up to 16 years to process paperwork for those who do enter legally, and I've heard people say as long as 20 years. Two decades. And what is holding them up a lot of the time is Immigration trying to trace the relation between the sponsor and the applicant--in countries with poor or no record-keeping, countries who have suffered natural disasters, countries where the applicant is poor and/or elderly and there were no electronic records when they were born, conflict countries where coups are common and government changes frequently, or countries who don't have good relations with the US, tracing the relationship between applicant and sponsor can be difficult if not impossible, and also be time-consuming and costly.
Allowing immigration based on your skills worked. It helped the US become a world leader, a world power. We attracted the best and brightest, the innovators and thinkers, scientists and artists, all the greatest minds left in the shambles of Europe after WWI and as a result, we were the deciding factor in turning the tide of the war in WWII. The nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that effectively ended WWII was built here in America by a multi-national team of scientists and engineers, and while the bomb wasn't one of the brightest moments in our history, the discovery and research of peacetime applications for nuclear technology have fueled our country (and planet) for the last half-century.
I guess my point is; the old way WORKED. The new way, people allowed in based solely on who you know instead of what you can contribute--doesn't. What do we have to lose from trying a return to what worked?
I'd love to hear what America thinks about this solution. Do you agree? Why? Or why not? Does it make sense?
Why are we pretending to protect our southern border? We need to set up taco stands and water stations every 2 miles. If we wish to import our labor, we should at least accommodate them and thier safety.
its about time/ the mexican people in coming into america and taking jobs did not take jobs away from the americans. they took the jobs americans were not willing to take either because the pay was too little or hard labor jobs. they took jobs in the field picking cotton, corn and vegetables and fruit. cleaning toilets and picking up trash the american people thought was either beneath their diginity or too little pay.
ItsAboutTime-3704531
My grandparents passed that statue on their way in.
I grow TIRED of the NANNY state. I also grow TIRED of selective enforcement of the LAW.
Tell us ItsAboutTime-3704531 if it is ok to break THIS law then what other laws is it OK to break? Trespass, shoplift a little food, maybe squat in your yard or better still in YOUR home? WHERE should we draw the line?
As far as compassion... like I said, no one has put a gun to these peoples heads and MADE them walk into the desert.
ItsAboutTime-3704531
My grandparents passed that statue on their way in.
I grow TIRED of the NANNY state. I also grow TIRED of selective enforcement of the LAW.
Tell us ItsAboutTime-3704531 if it is ok to break THIS law then what other laws is it OK to break? Trespass, shoplift a little food, maybe squat in your yard or better still in YOUR home? WHERE should we draw the line?
As far as compassion... like I said, no one has put a gun to these peoples heads and MADE them walk into the desert.
If you are looking for sympathy for this group I will tell you where to find it. It is in the dictionary between @!$%# and syphilis.
They need to come here legally to obtain anything from us.
On one hand the US welcomes and employs the almost free labor, and on the other hand they want them dead; can not have it both ways.
Prosecute the rich companies and rich individuals that hire illegals then the reward on this side of the wall will dry up. Many Americans will do anything for money and the almost free slave labor even if it affects the rest of the country in a negative way.
Prosecute the employers, then prosecute the illegals that get caught instead of just sending them back to try another day; problem is the almost free slave labor the US depends upon will no longer be available.
In California, everyone hires the almost free slave labor from Mexico. This labor runs the hotels and restaurants and every other "invisible" job that requires a shovel or contact with something dirty. They might be invisible to us because we are not observing but we are not invisible to them, they are waiting on us hand and foot and we are hiring them to do it.
This is a deep seated American cultural problem that is widely accepted as OK as long as we have some almost free slave labor. Americans are just not willing to give that up.
Okay. We have a wall. We have Border Patrol checkpoints. We have National Guard troops along that border--President Obama committed 1200 at the beginning of his presidency, then last year he cut the number down to 300 who were trained in operations and maintenance of unmanned surveillance drones that can scan between 4 and 10 square miles of border--more ground than five National Guard troops could cover on foot. (And yes, those drones are equipped with night-vision sensors.)They're talking about using blimps now every ten miles or so along the border to provide stationary, airborne, constant surveillance as well as the drone-enabled scanning surveillance currently deployed.
Homeland Security has technology that can see through some types of building material to get a clear picture of who is inside a house--developed for the military, it's now being implemented to look inside houses in border towns to see if large concentrations of people inside one might indicate a drop house.
Long distance retina scanners have been tested by installation on traffic cameras to see if the retina scanner can get a retina scan from a driver running a red light. (it can, which will negate the possibility of someone saying 'I loaned my car to a friend'!)
Portable DNA analyzers are in implementation at deportation camps, terrorist holding facilities, and border checkpoints; if someone coming in has DNA that is a match or possible match for someone in deportation as an illegal, they too can be placed in deportation--of inf in Guantanamo as a terrorist, then they too can be detained for possible future terrorism.
And Homeland Security is currently testing behavior assessment software in conjunction with biophysical scanning technology at airports--if you have increased pulse rate, elevated heart rate, excessive perspiration, rapidly-shifting eyes, the computer indicates you may be a criminal, may have committed a crime, or may be about to commit a crime and you can be detained for questioning until you are determined not to be a threat.
Now I am not wholly in agreement with a lot of these things--many of these technologies, while they clearly have practical uses for stemming the tide of illegal immigration, misuse of these applications could be used to infringe on citizens' rights and privacy (if you've been to a business conference in Canada do you really want to have to give a DNA sample to be allowed back in? Do you want to be required to give a DNA sample at the airport before boarding a plane? And what if your DNA comes up a match for someone who is illegal because your father had a fling with a prostitute on a Mexican vacation twenty years ago and fathered a child?)
But this is what these technologies are being developed and used for, so what more do you think the Administration could do to protect the border that they are not already doing? What new technology would you like to see developed for border protection and national security?
How do you think the jobs got to be such low paying jobs? Learning a trade used to be a viable career for Americans that liked to work with their hands. Not anymore!
According to what I read Mr. Romney's parents left the US for Mexico when the US changed the laws about polygamy and forbade it. They are Mormons and their religion allows it.
they should have border patrol but NO FENCES IN TEXAS because of the animals they also need food and water or do they need a passaport too!!!!! i'm tired of seeing the animals die in the desert because they dont know what a human fence is or how if possible to get aroun it.stop killing the animals because of illegal humans.......animals didn't do anything wrong and they dont deserve to DIE.
trust_verify
ItsAboutTime-3704531
My great great great parents did not pass the statue on the their way to America. Why, because it was not there yet. It amazes me how people cannot read with comprehension. For the 4th TIME, these individuals should have came here legally. I do not support illegal immigration, nor do I support illegal immigrants receiving a dime of taxpayer support programs. My ancestors didn't ask it and they wouldn't have either.
There's no reason to reply, Its apples (come here legally) vs cranapples (no compassion) for human life.
Why is O'bama getting the majority of the Mexican vote? He stepped up border patrol, thus killing a record amount of "undocumented workers"
People never know what they are voting for I tell ya!
Undocumented is not just a politically correct term for 'illegal'. There is a subsection of the US immigrant population who are undocumented but NOT ILLEGAL-- have never broken any laws--I'm one of them.
I was adopted as an infant, internationally, never told before my parents passed away in a car accident. USCIS does a routine record search one day and finds they lost my adoption paper, and I was unable to give them a copy because I'd never known I was adopted. That made me undocumented.
There was nowhere to deport me to since I was 'stateless' prior to my adoption--an infant abandoned at an international orphanage with no birth certificate or other document. So ICE/DHS simply told me I would remain in indefinitely detained in deportation until I gave them a copy of my adoption paper.
No laws were broken--I wasn't brought here illegally. My adoption was legally processed and legally filed. I'd never committed a crime. It wasn't a crime for my parents to have not told me I was adopted; it wasn't a crime for me not to have had the paper. It wasn't a crime for me not to know I was adopted. I had a legally re-issued birth certificate that showed my adoptive parents as my parents; legal SS card, brand new DL at the time I was civilly detained, and my school records and parents' tax records indicated I was their dependent. My prior status as a citizen for 18 years of my life was never questioned by ICE/DHS.
It took me three years of letter writing from a deportation camp before I finally found the adoption paper and was released with a Certificate of Naturalization after I took the Oath of Citizenship. They were the worst three years of my life and the day I took the Oath was the best day of my life.
Sorry, I have no sympathy for self-inflicted wounds.
In addition to the human toll, yet another in a long list of catastrophic costs imposed upon the American taxpayers as a result of ILLEGAL immigration--- all of which total hundreds of billions of dollars! Our federal government's failure to enforce its own laws, and, indeed, it's pledge to reward lawbreaking by granting special treatment to lawbreakers--- only serves to engender more lawbreaking, expense, and human casualty!
They never tried to obtain a visa or to apply in the LEGAL manner. Rather, they endeavored to help themselves to the front of the line. We permit 1 Million LEGAL immigrants into the U.S. every year--- more than ALL other countries combined. NO ONE IS ENTITLED TO A VISA MORE QUICKLY THAN ANY OTHER! NO ONE IS ENTITLED TO JUMP AHEAD OF OTHERS AND RECEIVE SPECIAL TREATMENT!
A GOVERNMENT WHICH REFUSES TO ENFORCE ITS OWN LAWS IS INTOLERABLE!
Because the majority of Americans of Mexican heritage did come here legally and are just as disgusted with the truly illegal border jumpers, drug smugglers, human traffickers, and gang-bangers as we are. They are Americans first, and their heritage is secondary.
Amanda-2017567
Really? These people should be allow to break the law because the law makes it hard? I think we all agree that the immigration process is hard, and to some impossible, but that has nothing to do with the law, has it? Is there anything in the immigration law say that Hispanics would be discrimiated against? NO. The law is in place to protect the citizen of THIS COUNTRY.
Everyone knows that get into Harvard is hard, should I and millions of others want to go to Harvard just show up to all the classes, DEMAND professors to grade my homework, and after 4 years, DEMAND Harvard give a degree???? Bacaseu based on your logic that is exactly what I should do and that is exactly within my rights to do.
O'bama is killing your people Mexico!
Al cruzar la frontera con EE.UU., presentaos vosotros mismos como una especie en peligro de extinción ... usted recibirá una escolta a la ciudad más cercana para el trabajo y refugio!
The thing that people are not understanding is that Mexicans aren't after the "American Dream"... they are after the Mexican Dream. The Mexican Dream does not include citizenship. They don't care if they learn English. They come here to work... live as cheap as possible... send as much money as possible back home. They know they can come here and have their children for free in the best hospitals in the world... the fact that their children are granted citizenship is a mere bonus, as it grants their children free food... medical care... and education. So why wouldn't Mexicans come here. We practically invite them... but they don't come here to settle down a raise families. That isn't the Mexican Dream. It's all about money...and only money.
Amanda-2017567
You really believe this? Were you disgusted when he bypassed congress and essentially enacted the Dream act by executive order?
You were the one that stated that your ancestors came here illegally. If there were no requirements or rules to break, how were they illegal? Come down off your high horse and explain that.
There are no laws against sweeping your floors on Fridays now. In 200 years, if a law was passed that it is illegal to sweep your floor on Friday, are we guilty of breaking the law in present times if we sweep the floor? According to your logic, we are.
I came here as an immigrant legally. I have a greencard. You people who are simply saying "they should have come here legally" have no idea of what it entails. When you hear of people paying up to $5,000 to come here illegally, does that not make you wonder?
Echo - explaining an understanding of why something happens is not the same as agreeing with it.
An illegal Mexican immigrant is preferable to some trash that we allow to enter our country legally. (It wasn't an illegal Mexican flying those planes on 9-11)
Amanda---NO administration has put enough Nat'l Guard on the borders. It should have happened decades ago. Don't think much of the high tech you mentioned will cut it. There is a book called "The Jasons," about a real life think tank of brainiacs and they were given the task to find a way to monitor the border and could not come up with anything.(A while ago, though.)
The "coyotes" need to be squeezed and maybe graphic billboards + faces of the missing along the border would change some minds.
Drones used to alert real people in real time may be helpful, but drone tech has a serious creep factor to it.
We need more Nat'l Guardsmen in general, and at the border in particular.
Rob80--- You are an example that the law is capable of being complied with and that the ONLY reason not to comply is if you selfishly think you are above the rule of law and seek special treatment. It is completely irrelevant that a visa is not instantaneous, as no one is entitled to an "instant visa". People have to wait their turn, pay the requisite fees, and go through a background check. Appx. 1 Million people every year are admitted into the U.S. legally AFTER COMPLYING WITH OUR LAWS (the most generous in the world). What is NOT permissible is the selfish circumvention of our laws--- laws with which appx. 1 Million people each year dutifully comply! NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO COME HERE ILLEGALLY! ILLEGAL FOREIGN NATIONALS and THE ILLEGAL LABOR BLACKMARKET ARE A CATASTROPHIC DRAIN ON OUR RESOURCES!
God, I'm sick of the term "undocumented immigrant".
When you invade a foreign country, you do so knowing that death is a likely outcome. I have no sympathy for these people.
The simple facts are: If everybody that is in a bad situation was allowed to come to the US, the country would collapse. There are people waiting in line to come here legally. If you jump ahead of these people that are in the same bad situation, but working to get out of it the right way, then I can't make myself feel bad for you.
The immigration system of the United States was never intended to be a welfare program.
It was intended to encourage the immigration of INDIVIDUALS that would be CONTRIBUTORS to the economy and to society.
The Liberals have been carving out exemptions to the law for decades until we reached the point where we now find ourselves. Where the poor and uneducated from all over the world think that, if they can slip across the borders, they will be allowed to stay and ride the entitlement gravy train.
The Left doesn't care that these illegals are a drain on society and the economy - as long as they vote the right way.
No, I'm an example of what Amanda says, which is that you really have to know someone in the US to be able to do it. I came here on what is more commonly known as the 'fiance VISA'. And it still costs a heck of a lot of money even then.
Rob--- Congratulations---you did not selfishly believe you were above the laws with which appx. 1 MILLIONS of others comply! And to another point you raise--- we should give preference to those who have assets, can support themselves, and can make investments here! NO ONE IS ENTITLED TO A VISA (QUICKLY OR OTHERWISE).
Gosh, the headline itself brought a tear to my eye. /sarc
Way to go, NBC .... your typical "journalism" laced with compassion for CRIMINALS.
And, your point is what...iwe are overladed with illegal immigrants with little hope of getting a job. We don't need more poor immigrants who want to suck off our system and add nothing to the equation. I wish all these posts were posted along the border to let anyone thinking about coming here know how many Americans feel about them. Our economy is strained beyond what we can handle...and, we can't handle anymore people looking for THEIR dream, when we can't fulfill our own dreams anymore...stay home and work on improving your own o@!$%#ry
I am not sure where you have been hiding but this USA is no longer the land of Milk and Honey.
That's an illusion, we are the land of 20 million illegal border crosser pardoned by President Reagan's administration back in the 80's they were given amnesty and then the remaining illegals here now.
These illegals are turning great cities into the same sewer holes they left in Mexico. They are NOT adding to this country. They because they are illegal accept low paying jobs which push down the quality of life for all those who look for work.
IF AN ILLEGAL WILL WORK FOR $10 AN HOUR OR LESS IT IS A RACE TO THE BOTTOM BY ALL LOOKING FOR WORK. HOW LOW WILL THE ILLEGALS GO FOR WAGES? DON'T BLAME CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY FOR POOR WAGES.
BLAME THE ILLEGALS FOR ACCEPTING THOSE LOW WAGES.
PLUS ILLEGALS HAVING TO ACCEPT LOW WAGES BECAUSE THEY ARE HERE ILLEGALLY....
Dumb-asses!
These illegals are not asking for a hand up but a HAND -OUT.
How about they stay in their country and make it better that's what we try to do everyday. We don't sit and wait for a hand out or demand someone else give us a drivers license, or a education we don't refuse too spake English in this country. Maybe they will get the hint it's not safe to come here illegally no they will keep coming because Obama open the gates and told another 5 million to come best way you can we have more hand outs for you.
SO who cares
Good!!!!
They know what they are attempting to do is illegal and they know the potential consequences of their actions. It is them (along with other things) that have killed what was once known as the American Dream. The new American Dream - keeping them out of the United States for good.
I believe you may have misunderstood my post.
I was attempting to clarify for people who might not know the finer points of immigration law that for some, 'coming in legally' is impossible. I have never ONCE said that they should be allowed to break the law. They do need to be deported and they do need to come in the right way.
Yes, it does. The law that says that you can only come in if you know someone who is already here, and not on the basis of whether or not you can contribute to our society and our economy, makes it difficult if not impossible for some, even those with skills that we would welcome, to immigrate.
Yes, I do. I'm a biometrics technician, I take people's fingerprints for all kinds of licenses and permits, and the Americans of Hispanic heritage I have spoken to say that they too are disgusted with the border jumpers and drug-running illegals. I would also like to remind you that people from Puerto Rico are Spanish speaking and they ARE considered American citizens at birth, and there are a lot of them here. Not every person who speaks Spanish is from Mexico, and not everyone who speaks Spanish is illegal.
The Dream Act has not been passed. If you're referring to the deferment action, no, I'm not disgusted. From what I understood, it basically gave non-criminal immigrants who were brought as children, plus undocumenteds like me, a chance to register and the opportunity to pay taxes, and the two year deportation deferment places the non-criminal at the back of the deportation line so that the government can focus on deporting the criminal illegal first. And for those like me who are undocumented because a piece of paper was lost, they have a couple more years to find the missing documents. It did NOT give them amnesty and the right to stay for the rest of their lives, it did NOT give them automatic citizenship.
A drone that can provide constant scanning surveillance of between four and ten square miles will not be effective?
Requiring a DNA sample from those who are deported as illegal then requiring a DNA sample from anyone coming in to catch the person trying to sneak back into the country won't be effective?
Requiring a DNA sample from an adult coming in at an airport with a child to determine if the child really belongs with that adult or is actually being trafficked in for a USC to make child porn will be ineffective?
A retina scanner that can identify someone running 15 feet away as a previous border crosser will be ineffective?
A drone with the ability to see through walls and roofs to identify possible drop houses for coyotes will not be effective?
Night vision sensors will not be effective?
So how many National Guard troops would you like the President to put on the border once you've taken away the night vision goggles, border sensors, drones, retina scanners, DNA analyzers, behavior-assessment scanners, and through-wall imaging systems as ineffective?
Big Jeff...Wow. Try to minimize the fact that people are dying in the deserts and virtually no one is claiming their bodies. It took a naturalized citizen to care enough to go looking for their loved ones. This is shameful no matter how you look at it. It is sadly, a reflection on the values of people who are supporting the coyotes and traffickers already in our country with or without documentation.
Instead of letting the hatred begin perhaps we clear up some erroneous, simplistic logic that La Raza and the liberals like to pepper their remarks with:
You could very well be that lazy others perhaps are too busy working. Do you remember those days when tweens and teens could earn a few dollars mowing laws or digging holes for their neighbors? Well that isn't available to kids under the age of 16 anymore, thanks OCEA. It would be nice to see our country going back to the days where common sense ruled and the central government didn't . When middle school and high school kids set up their own lawn businesses. It's good money for a young person so why is it that our central government uses OSEA as an excuse to limit what our kids can do for themselves to actually learn a work ethic? when the Government chooses to make the simple act of mowing laws as a side business for kids illegal we should ask why. The answer, there are unskilled adults who can only make a living doing low skill work. Taking away from our kids what sanctuary cities will allow for their vendors.
You seriously thing that illegal immigrants are using their local Kroger to shop and ducking into JC Penny or even Wal-mart for the majority of their needs? That is just a propaganda line developed by La Raza and the liberals to seek some sort of justification for the value of illegal immigrants. Look no farther than the local Mercados, flea markets or discounters selling pirated merchandise and you will quickly understand what the racket is. Just a quick look at the West Side of Houston We have Harwin Street, Traders Village and Mercado Hwy 6 just to name a few general merchandisers. As illegal immigrants don't typically have access to bank accounts or credit cards (unless they have managed to secure a social security number) cash is king. These markets are more than happy to take cash and not record the sale for taxing purposes. Then there are the full on black market businesses (drug dealers and prostitutes) that exist to serve no one but the illegal immigrant or low income and no income communities. Don't even get me started on the whole human trafficking of illegal immigrant women and children.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/key-elements/economic-development/low-income-housing.cfm
Are you truly under the impression that illegal immigrants are living a mainstream life? Just so you know they don't. (Unless again if they have managed to secure an SS#) They occupy Low income housing which is subsidised by the Federal Government or more to the point tax payers.
If the illegal immigrant actually supplies a SS# and that number actually clears them through e-verify then no it is not the companies fault. If they have an SS# t(that an illegal immigrant has secured) here is no reason for an employer to neglect payroll deductions. Now maybe you don't know this but our country has bosses of many races and nationalities. They are't all just white, if you know what I mean. Some of these businesses are even run by illegal immigrants or have naturalized citizen bosses, who are every bit as likely to abuse an employee relationship.
Certainly, there are some white trash folks who abuse the ER's some of those white trash folks might even be illegal immigrants themselves. There are also naturalized citizens and even natural born citizens of just about any culture or race that abuse the ER's. But, sadly:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/2070-illegal-immigrants-overrun-arizonas-emergency-rooms
Even as our Nation has tried to place a safety net for our low and no income illegal immigrant children or citizen children of illegal immigrants through S-Chip the enrollments are devastatingly low.
http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/health/schip-access-for-children-in-immigrant-families.aspx
The American value for children in our nation is unwavering and in favor of a child's health, well being and access to education. Unfortunately, that value is not often mirrored to those coming to our country.
Well that comment is probably by and large inaccurate, most people enjoy the benefits of a shower and regular hygiene. But there is that whole issue going back to health care where immigrants can and do introduce health risk into our country by not being vaccinated for illnesses that we had pretty much eradicated in the United States a few decades back. Often time even visa holders come to the US without fully understand why it is important to have certain vaccination particularly when they place their children in a school environment.
This is what makes a "guest worker" visa class important. Those immigrants who are working agriculture jobs certainly have a place in the US. Were we to adopt an appropriate guest worker program we would actually find there could be mutual benefit. Wages would be competitive, taxes could be paid on income (personally I think there could be a case made that State and Federal taxes could be waived on a reasonable amount of income earned) a guest worker visa is just that, for an individual to come and work seasonally. There would be no need for the children or spouses of a guest worker to come to the US. The family could stay in their home country knowing that their loved one is working in safe conditions and getting paid enough to send money home.
I think the article was very clear that there are immigrants from many places that are abusing our system and not crossing at a "port of entry".
I personally don't think that we need a double standard with regard to European illegal immigrants, if here illegally they need to be deported. They need to start back in their home countries too and work through our immigration system. As far as I know if a business is following Labor laws they have a responsibility to assure that their employees are here legally. There is no double standard for this as our Government is more apt to go after big companies to see what they can catch because the big companies are more likely to pay huge fines if the company fails an audit. That is why more and more big and medium companies use immigration law firms and have in house systems to assure they are meeting federal standards.
I suppose you feel some sence of entitlement for your own racist attitudes.
Undocumented is not just a politically correct term for 'illegal'. There is a subsection of the US immigrant population who are undocumented but NOT ILLEGAL-- have never broken any laws--I'm one of them.
I was adopted as an infant, internationally, never told before my parents passed away in a car accident. USCIS does a routine record search one day and finds they lost my adoption paper, and I was unable to give them a copy because I'd never known I was adopted. That made me undocumented.
There was nowhere to deport me to since I was 'stateless' prior to my adoption--an infant abandoned at an international orphanage with no birth certificate or other document. So ICE/DHS simply told me I would remain in indefinitely detained in a deportation camp until I gave them a copy of my adoption paper.
I didn't 'invade' and I didn't 'come here illegally'. People in the deportation camp died, whether the cause of death was labeled 'suicide' or 'unresponsive'. So no sympathy if I, a legally adopted child of a Vietnam and Korean vet, died in a deportation camp because the government lost my adoption paper?
Feeling sorry for them is like feeling sorry for people who shoot themselves in the face.
Less are able to fully enter the US to mooch off us. GOOD!!!
Then stay out.
speaking of the depravity of mankind.. I don't like illegal immigration at all but that does not mean i would not rescue someone if i had the ability. Humans beings are humans despite their ethnic background or race. I think the most horrific thing anyone could do is to not rescue someone when they can and let someone die. Those who have the ability to do the right thing have the responsibility. Lack of action in the past is never justification for not taking action in the present. guess you could call me a conservative.. O and for those of you who say its ok because they are breaking the law.. Death is not and should not be the penalty for illegally crossing into the United States. I think what i hate more than illegal immigration is the depravity of man.
what kind of legal was that when the white man came to america and killed the indians for their land?
The accepted sentiment on this board is that Illegals attempt entry into this country "for a better life" for they and any children (we call anchor babies). They do so recklessly, endanger themselves walking through the desert 'killing fields' - and should they find a destination the Illegals are rewarded some measure of support and aid from our churches, people and government. Ergo, AZ SB 1070, legally accepted by the voters of Arizona and much of it cleared by the SCOTUS to the chagrin of POTUS.
Heat and sunstroke kills many people throughout the world. Why should these Illegals be exempt from a death they court? Simple solution is to continue life in a 3rd world country or risk death and deportation by breaking the law in attempting to cross into this country. If the U.S. truly had yellow brick roads why would one [have to] walk through the dangerous desert?
Actions have consequences, and those odds are not like Vegas. Lo siento.
What makes you think they don't look into these types of things? You know my wife had to sign papers to say she was responsible for me, financially, and that I was unable to work until they accepted my application to change my status to a resident? This took months (about 5/6) and has taken other people more than 2 years. You realize you go through a thorough medical before being granted the VISA to travel? They don't just accept people willy nilly, you know.
And, no, I don't believe they should give preference to people with 'assets' or who can make 'investments'. To me that means "we'll let you in, if you're rich". I'd be more interested in what skills people have and whether there is a need for them. And, besides that, what are you going to do with people who, like me, meet someone and want to marry, with that criteria? I don't find it applicable to that type of immigration in any way.
1) ZERO sympathy from me as well
2) ironically, if they would have stayed in their country, they would have lived
3) without wishing death upon anyone, let this be a GOOD lesson to those who are still thinking about crossing the border illegally
4) there should NOT be any rescuing whatsoever. the more we help these criminals the more we encourage their criminal behaviors
5) welfare and food-stamp for anchor baby parents NEED to end. arrest and deport them immediately the moment they step foot in the social office.
America was taken by conquest - something many countries in the world have been guilty of.
if those illegals have any balls and try a take-over attempt by force, GO FOR IT.
but that's not what they are doing. they are just parasites.
I agree with Markl323 completely. All illegals need to be picked up and deported, all of them and send their anchor babies with them.
Texas Tornado...good question
Probably about the same kind of legal as the Native Americans killing each other off before the Europeans landed. So in short we won, we created laws, and now others should abide by the laws unless they wish to start a war.
So here is a point. How does someone from Mexico City or points further south in Mexico, Guatemalans, Salvadorians etc. have any claim to be in Texas, New Mexico, California, Nevada? They don't their ancestors were from Mexico not the land Santa Anna lost when he was caught with his pants down. Most of the immigrants that are breaking our laws today have ancestors that never came this far north in their lives. That is why this are was permissiable for "legal" immigrants from the United States, it was pretty sparsely populated.
Keep counting, you haven't hit my emotion bone yet! 11,000,988 more to go.
You know what the ONLY funny thing about this article is? That all the posters here taking delight in the suffering and death of other human beings and taking the time to publicly post how little they care... probably EVERY ONE OF THEM considers themselves a good christian...
I am an atheist and I apparently am more christian than you pathetic hypocrites...
Rob (#1.81)--- NO ONE is entitled to come to the U.S. You have the right to be here BECAUSE and ONLY BECAUSE the U.S. graciously granted permission to you. Your mind-numbing suggestion that the United States is required to admit people here who will become public charges (rely upon U.S. taxpayers for assistance) is incredible and unworthy of credulity. We have the right to admit people who will not rely upon U.S. taxpayer services for their existence and place further strain upon U.S. taxpayer resources (contrary to the circumstances and objectives of millions of ILLEGAL FOREIGN NATIONALS who have come here expecting to receive American taxpayer benefits.)
Your wife had to make representations concerning her financial wherewithal so that we would not be admitting a public charge in admitting you here. We simply cannot afford our own poor, much less poor ILLEGAL FOREIGN NATIONALS--- WE HAVE NO DUTY TO SUPPORT ILLEGALS, NOR SHOULD WE-- as doing so is DEVASTATING TO THE AMERICAN POOR AND MIDDLE CLASS. It is patently unethical and immoral for ILLEGALS to selfishly jump to the front of the line and to seek to be immune from immigration laws with which MILLIONS of LEGAL IMMIGRANTS comply each year (including you-- as you paid a high price, waited the wait, and went through a background check--- these are our requirements and no one is entitled to special treatment to avoid these requirements!
This was quite a LONG BULLCRAP ARTICLE!! I was crying so much that I had to keep wiping my eyes so I could read this LONG SOB STORY!! So is this story suppose to make us feel bad?! What I feel bad about is how those A$$HOLES in DC are taking everything from us AMERICANS that we pay taxes for and take care of FOREIGNERS here and in other countries!! Our government are TRAITORS to the American people!!
Oops! This reporter was not supposed to say anything about Middle Eastern people crossing our southern borders. They have been told not to start a panic.
Shouldn't this story be entitled "TOO STUPID FOR AMERICA"? Doesn't anyone in Mexico have a map and a compass?
Even with the Mexican "amusement park" that teaches Mexicans how to invade the US by sneaking across the border, these people can't get it right.
These are the same ppl that do make it here you see on TV wrapped in the Mexican flag. America is only so big we do not have enough room to house another whole country, we do not have enough jobs for the ppl that were born here and are true Americans. Then once they get here they can't even be bothered to learn English, they feel as though we should accommodate them and learn their language. So then we have to pay teachers extra money to have one classroom that has a teacher that speaks English and one that speaks Spanish. All of our food now contains Spanish instructions on it. It's costing us too much money when we are already having a crisis of our own.And when they are found dehydrated etc who pays for the hospital bills?
Well, people who want to come here should go through the application process ans wait their turn. As a naturalized citizen who did it lawfully, I have no sympathy for people who do it illegally.....
big george came to our odessa high school as a senator of texas and said if he ever got president he would annex mexico. big george too bad you didn't keep your promise. we wouldn't have illegal aliens crossing the border now they would now be working and paying taxes like everyone else.
if you put sugar by your door the ants will come (free health care, food stamps, housing allowance, free education for the children, free school lunches, free cell phones); these poor people are not stupid, they are coming because where they come from life is miserable; even though their country's are rich in natural resources, the wealth is hoarded at the top.
wire/ the consevative did when they took all the working american jobs to china and india etc. etc. they put the working americans on welfare by taking al the jobs oversears. romney's outsourcing also regean did this too. sold our oil to saudia arabia, steel to japan, fired the air traffic controllers and cut emergency medical system. he did good thing for the foreign countries. he brought down the berlin wall.
Most of you people are just looking for someone to blame for your miserable lives. It's Illegals' fault, it's the President's fault, those darn Liberal, those stupid Conservatives... etc.
Stating "I have no sympathy for these people", is not a badge of honor. It's a sign that you are too weak or simple minded to understand the lengths people will go to to try to support their families or have a future. Remember, if someone dies in the desert there are others, children, spouses, etc who have lost someone. Screw them right? They deserved it? Just like the pioneers in America who died trying to find a better place...screw them right? They should have known better, and screw their families, right? Screw the little kids who will have no parent, right? Well, it's their fault, they should know better.
Jesus had plenty of empathy for people, guess he was a liberal fool. Isn't that right all you self righteous haters of humanity.
@texastornado55 - "wire/ the consevative did when they took all the working american jobs to china and india etc. etc. they put the working americans on welfare by taking al the jobs oversears. romney's outsourcing also regean did this too. sold our oil to saudia arabia, steel to japan, fired the air traffic controllers and cut emergency medical system. he did good thing for the foreign countries. he brought down the berlin wall." YOU Forgot to include your boy BILLY Clinton and NAFTA, that as a result of that little tidbit plunged the jobs market right in the toilet. Selective Memory from party liners only shows ignorance.
The issue of illegal immigration has been a thorn in the side of Alot of Presidents, both Democrats and Republicans. The notion that we want to be the beacon of freedom, the land of opportunity, and of course the socialist nanny state is what needs to change. We should be a land of Law and Order FIRST. But no, we are more consumed about protecting the rights of law breakers, thugs, thieves and criminals that we piss all over those that obey our laws. So truthfully, why not come here illegally? You have more damned rights and protections than the people you victimize, rob, kill, rape, or steal from. Where is the deterrent to breaking the law, when you have people embracing and rewarding illegal immigration through even proposing a Dream Act? It is no different than Pavlov's Dog, but people are too damned stupid when it comes to risk and reward. When the rewards OUTWIEGH RISK, then you have really nothing to loose.
For those that talk about coming here illegally and how damned hard it is to get in the door without knowing someone, you are foolish. Student Visas, Work Visas, Visitor Visas are EASY to come by. And while you are on said VISA, you can apply for naturalization. THIS is the path that ALOT of immigrants take when they DO NOT HAVE the Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.
@Texastornado55...who wants Mexico annexed anyway? We don't need another territory to support.
@wire557...who's encouraging this free stuff? Why our "awesome" President, of course (yes, sarcasm intended). Just think we may completely socialist by the end of his 2nd term then Obama can take Mexico to make texastornado55 happy. He can then give Mexico all their rights he will have stripped from us.
wire, you started it, do you have alzheimers is that why you immediately started on texastornado's age? Little worried about your own? Both sides have fault in this, both sides are filled to overflowing with @!$%#s who blame everyone else for the mess with no thought or idea about how to fix it. The fact is these other countries should be taking care of their own poor and fixing their own messes and we should be billing them for the hospitality. If any of us turned up dead in Mexico if they couldn't find someone to blackmail they'd bury us in an unmarked grave. They should be glad we show more compassion. More than likely they're just calling us suckers.
People have been told the stories of others that met their death in the desert and yet they try anyway.Somebody needs to tell them that the American dream is gone even for most Americans.I feel bad that people resort to these measures to reach the U.S. but they died committing a crime.End of story.
Some of you here that says such self righteous, ignorant, human hating comments.... you should be ashamed of yourselves. These are human beings, they are mothers and fathers, they are sisters and brothers, they are kids and they are just like us.
Have you seen what their country is like. The drug cartels who shoot just because they can. Where they cannot provide a decent place for their families or send their kids to school without the threat of them never coming home again.
These are people looking to help themselves because like many of us we are fighting for a better life for our families, fortunate for us we have a chance, but in their country I don't see much hope.
Yes, put yourself in the shoes of those immigrants for just a moment, forget everything you know or think you know and try for one moment to be one of those that are trying to live.
What the heck is the matter with people today? Why are you so self centered? Have we as Americans become the country of stingy, self indulgent, fools?
Joy,sorry that you see most of us posters as you do.I live in California where the majority of illegals end up.Some do not come to work.they come to have children and collect welfare for those children and suck apply for Medical etc.I'm tired of paying for it.So if you feel that compassionate about these immigrants you can sponsor one,help them become enrolled in English speaking classes,have a job for them when they get here and help them become citizens.My family did it many years ago for one young man.We did it the legal way for him.I worked with many immigrants at Pac Bell that came here legally.
Joy-it is because of bleeding hearts like you that has caused this to be a massive and costly problem to the American taxpayer. I dare to say 90% of these illegal aliens have no intention of assimilating into American society. They are only here because of the freebies and money. I work closely each and every day with illegals and every one of them (with the exception of a very few) are here to work under the radar, accumulate everything possible and go back to their home country that they love and miss. Most despise America and Americans. You are totally braindead with your touching little analogy of why they are here, finding the American dream, and how we should welcome them with open arms. They have strained our schools, medical facilities and taxpayer money to the outermost limits and the insanely massive amount of money these people cost us as a country can't even be comprehended by people like you. I have no problem with legal immigrants coming to this country.....but I have one helluva big problem with illegal aliens by the millions swarming this country with the sole intention of raping me and my country for every cent they can suck from it. You sir (or madam) need to climb down from your little cloud of euphoria, put away your fantasy of a perfect little world and society that will never exist, and plant your feet solidly on the grounds of reality and realize what is actually happening to us and our country because of these criminals.
You know what the ONLY funny thing about this article is? That all the posters here taking delight in the suffering and death of other human beings and taking the time to publicly post how little they care... probably EVERY ONE OF THEM considers themselves a good christian...
I am an atheist and I apparently am more christian than you pathetic hypocrites...
GOD will hold MEXICANS responsible for BREEDING LIKE RATS and STEALING US RESOURCES.
LA RAZA's pathetic attempt at making these people look like martyrs is a joke. The world knows them as the COWARDS who steal the rights of others to IMMIGRATE to the US and from the 125 countries POORER THAN MEXICO.
DEATH TO THE INVADERS..........................DEATH TO MEXICO!
texastornado55
"the consevative did when they took all the working american jobs to china and india etc. etc."
Don't forget Clinton signing NAFTA, both sides are guilty.
Very misleading headline:
Death toll rises among those desperate for the American Dream
It should have read: Death toll rises among those desperate for a handout.
Please, please, please don't respond telling me how hard these people work, or how they do jobs Americans won't do. They could never cut enough grass, or pick enough tomatoes, to pay for their 5 kids public schooling, their numerous ER visits, or the additional police resources they require. Fact is, even if they were legalized, the tax burden on their $10/hr salaries would be $0.
When Mexico starts exporting college educated professionals instead of welfare cases, I'll feel differently.
Also, "Mexican" is a nationality, not a race. So please don't make yourself look foolish telling me how "racist" I sound.
We had to fight for our freedom. There is absolutely NO REASON why these mexicans cant do the same. Mexico is sitting on more oil than you can find in Saudi Arabia. The great lie thats been told to everyone is that this oil is too dirty to refine. Every time you hear that you can chalk another one up to the BS conspiracy we've had to live under for the last 100+ years.
Mexi-CONS:
Why not show them Auschwitz and ask them "Where were you when the world needed your help?"
These are the same ppl that do make it here you see on TV wrapped in the Mexican flag. America is only so big we do not have enough room to house another whole country, we do not have enough jobs for the ppl that were born here and are true Americans. Then once they get here they can't even be bothered to learn English, they feel as though we should accommodate them and learn their language. So then we have to pay teachers extra money to have one classroom that has a teacher that speaks English and one that speaks Spanish. All of our food now contains Spanish instructions on it. It's costing us too much money when we are already having a crisis of our own.And when they are found dehydrated etc who pays for the hospital bills?
Why are we wasting almost a trillion of dollars per year on defense and stupid wars in faraway lands if we can't secure our own borders? Pakistani terrorists can come from Mexico as some of the dead people in this article ARE from Pakistan! These crooks in Washington DC better bring our troops home to protect OUR country, not Iraq or Afghanistan!
I've read that plaque in person. You know, the Poor, Tired, and Huddled one on the Statue. It's inspiring, and makes you proud to be a citizen of a country that has all that embodied in its history. However, there is no second verse that says "and they can break every law that's inconvenient for them, all phone systems and public works must speak their language, we will change our religion so as not to insult them, and the legal citizens already here shall break themselves to provide free everything that they themselves cannot afford or go without forever. And they shall have more influence, rights, monies and support than said citizens."
You want sympathy and compassion for people loosing their loved ones? You got it. That should never happen.
You want it for people committing illegal acts, threatening and destroying other people's lives, and costing millions in resources before they even get to the welfare, free teeth and voting rights?
Nope.
I am probably farther to the left than most posters here, yet still I wonder: Instead of coming here to make money, why don't these work on improving their own country?
Because every time they elect someone who tries to improve conditions in their country the corporations scream SOCIALISM!! CLASS WARFARE!! and the US steps in and removes him. But don't worry, my fat Americans, it's only a matter of time before our standard of life is as bad as theirs. Where will we run to?
We'll run to Canada!
frank...please send us some links describing the history of the U.S. removing any Mexican presidents.
Thanks in advance.
Wilmer-furman, I've always wondered that myself. Why spend thousands on a chance you might make it through the desert instead of investing in your own business or getting an education?
Because they don't necessarily have the money to begin with. Many of these people have to take out loans and work off the money when they get to America.
dear mr wilmer the people in the country of mexico cannot improve their government. they live under a dictatorship just like russia. they do not have our freedoms to say and do like the americans do.its mostly a communist type government. the government owns the land and your family is allowed to live on it by government proclamation. what few jobs their are menial pay. your children can only go to school if they have the money to pay for an education. we have so much to be thankful for in this country and that our children can go to school and hope for a better future.
if they close the mexican border its not even going to leave the americans anywhere to run to when the mus%*#!#%$@ take over this country and introduce their sharia law.
the people bombing the americans are so far not coming across the mexican border they're coming across the canadian border.
Jeannine, that still begs the question: why risk it? If they die, then their family is left with that huge debt. Taking out a loan can still be used to start a business. That's what the majority of small business use to start up in the U.S.
Texastornado55, running away and avoiding the problem doesn't solve anything.
my mistake. todas las tierras communes.
ok ptuck let them radical muslos come after you , with a whip, a machete and an ak47 and see if you dont run. you think you want to live under sharia law. if you do i suggest you go and look it up what happens to people who live under sharia law.much like our american ancestors who were captured by the germans in WW11 and held in concentration camps starved and beaten and led in death marches.
Bingo...exactly...we are having our own economic problems and they only add to it...they need to work harder to make their own country more prosperous
portia.. if they could start their own business then it will be dictated over by their government and after that the Drug Lords will rob them and beat them and take the money sort of like the Mob did here in its day.
Wilmer-Furman,Most don't stay to make their countries better because they lack education,they lack initiative,they lack the funds to buy weapons so as to overthrow their corrupt governments.It's easier to suck off of our welfare while working for cash under the table than it is to do things the right way.It's easier to smuggle drugs.Others have done it the right without risking their life.But,I'm with you on this subject.We aren't getting educated immigrants who can better themselves or the U.s.We are getting the poorest and least educated illegals with no job skills.
You know what the ONLY funny thing about this article is? That all the posters here taking delight in the suffering and death of other human beings and taking the time to publicly post how little they care... probably EVERY ONE OF THEM considers themselves a good christian...
I am an atheist and I apparently am more christian than you pathetic hypocrites...
Because they promised everything for an Obama vote.
Maybe Obama can fly them over to the U.S. on 1st Class flights. Once here, he can put them up in luxury hotels and instantly sign them up for bennies. I think a free car thrown in would be a good measure too.
This was an absolutely heart breaking article and as much as I feel my own heart weeping for their situation I have to admit to feeling the same way. Running away does nothing to solve their problems, they only add to others. If you want to get into this country you need to follow the legal channels to do so, illegal is illegal. Americans have their own woes to deal with, we have our own problems that we are trying to work on and as much as I LOATHE to bring up a quote from a song, the grass is greener where you water it. If these people had the money to cross and the will power to do so, they should be applying that towards fixing their own situation in their own country.
This is the same issue with "the drug war", which is a waste of money, and I'd imagine for the same reason: SOMEONE (likely more than just a few people, in fact) is being paid off to look the other way. If there was no money in this for people in high places, it probably wouldn't be happening.
The scary part for me is when I read about the f**king nutjobs from Pakistan and Afghanistan trying to cross the border. They're not picking strawberries to make some money to send back home, for d*mned sure. Those people SIMPLY CANNOT come pouring across our border, I don't care how much of a tree hugger you are. If you want to argue we should have more work visas for people to come here legitimately to do these jobs that no one else cares to do, I will buy that one; it is written on the Statue of Liberty, after all.....but these crazy people from the Middle East can't come here illegally- that MUST stop, period.
Smoke and mirrors. If they want to stop illegals, the solution is so simple it's mind numbing. Have the current administration uphold their oath of office and enforce the current immigration laws on the books. That is, start arresting and fining everyone who hires illegals. Soon, no one will hire them. There will be no work for them. Next, have the current administration uphold their oath of office and obey the law of the land and stop aiding and abetting the illegals by providing them with welfare.
There will be no incentive for them to come here, and no incentive for those here to stay. They will self-deport.
Problem solved.
You want to pay three times as much for vegetables and fruit that has to be picked by hand? Then do what you're asking. Farmers use this slave labor force to harvest their crops for almost nothing.
This illegal border crossing has been going on for decades and blaming the current administration is just ignorant. But everyone knows that except YOU.
The fact is this...people can be registered to work here...but most do not and the farmers are paying less than what they would normally if the labor force were registered.
hfart, it has been controlled better for decades but you show you are too ignorant to understand. Fruit and vegatables have been picked all over the country for years with documented labor. Some is documented and some not. Union truckers drive products around and increase greatly the cost of products but you can't figure that out because it takes thought process. You can blame the current administration because in all those years you whine about no president has said he would not enforce the border laws. The idiot we have now did. Direct result is increases knowing they won't be deported!
hsart...cheap vegetables? Please tell me your a satirist.
Do you know how this was paid for? I'll tell you, with the money you THOUGHT you saved on vegetables:
Illegals get $4.2 Billion using fraudulent Tax Claims…
The Internal Revenue Service allowed undocumented workers to collect $4.2 billion in refundable tax credits last year, a new audit says, almost quadruple the sum five years ago.
Wage earners who do not have Social Security numbers and are not authorized to work in the United States can use what the IRS calls individual taxpayer identification numbers. Often these result in fraudulent claims on tax returns, auditors found.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/undocumented-workers-got-billions-from-irs-in-tax-credits-audit-finds/2011/03/23/gIQAhtaKvJ_blog.html?hpid=z3
hsart:
In a word: YES!! If it means our borders are secure, then it is well worth the trade off. Not to mention it will mean more Americans are working. Contrary to popular belief, not all farm workers are illegal immigrants.
But, you'll also have to reform the welfare system as well, because as long as the government makes it easy to get, and will give you food and shelter, and in some instances, even a cell phone....then you'll never get the lazy able bodied Americans who could do the work, but would rather just sit on their a$$.
I have no problem taking care of those that can't take care of themselves. I have a huge problem taking care of those who won't take care of themselves.
alazan.
alazan...did you mean azltan?
In 2002 Homeland Security was founded with an operating budget of $49 million. Last year it was somewhere between $58 and $98 billion.
For each immigrant detained, legal, illegal or undocumented, DHS asks Congress for $141 per person per night (about $51,000 per year.) A private, for-profit deportation camp will warehouse those detainees for between $40 and $98 per person per night ($14,000 to $36,000 per year.) Homeland Security keeps whatever is left of that $51,000 a year per person and the administrators of the deportation camps spend as little as possible on the detainees, pouring the bulk of the profits instead on lobbyists who wine and dine Congressmen and Government figures to pass more laws giving them a larger pool of detainees, laws like the recent NDAA for FY2012, the Restricted Grounds Act (HR347), and the upcoming Enemy Expatriation Act.
Now Speaker of the House John Boehner has requested that the President give his 33-member Homeland Security Oversight Committee full control of the Homeland Security $98-billion-a-year juggernaut. What this means is that that 33-member-committee will have sole control over anything and everything to do with national security, from the Coast Guard and Secret Service to USCIS, ICE, FEMA, TSA, CBP.
And they'll also have control over policies affecting US citizens' rights, since Homeland Security also has the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Office of Legislative Policy and the National Communications Center (which is also part of Homeland Security.) President Obama has not granted that request, but one wonders if Mr. Romney might if he gets into office.
The lack of enforcement of the laws concerning these so called "migrants" is itself the cause of the poor wages paid to these people and the reason most Americans won't do the job. The truth is that we have the ability to mechanize the process of reaping crops, whether in or on the ground, or on trees /bushes. Turning a blind eye to farmers who bring in or hire these illegas allows them to continue paying slave wages instead of investing in modern equipment or spurring the invention of any type of machinery that seems to be lacking. The mere presence and availability of these illegals stymies the farmer's desire to upgrade his equipment.
I know the problem is a bit more involved than that, but what I said is the MAIN reason that the situation continues on farms and in orchards. Do you really believe that we can't devise a machine that can pick fruit from a tree without bruising it?
Stop saying this is a tree-hugger thing...I am a liberal, but illegal immigration is destroying this country in a myriad of ways and it has got to stop until we can absorb those already here...BUT, we do need legal immigration from smart business people who can create jobs for our people
DB17,Your comments are right on the mark.The news never reports on the terrorist who come into the U.S. by way of Canada and Mexico. It would be interesting to see the number from ICE on the subject of terrorists who sneak in over both borders.If Americans knew the truth they would not feel safe.
You know what the ONLY funny thing about this article is? That all the posters here taking delight in the suffering and death of other human beings and taking the time to publicly post how little they care... probably EVERY ONE OF THEM considers themselves a good christian...
I am an atheist and I apparently am more christian than you pathetic hypocrites...
ARRELL,Ok you've repeated your comment three times.You just are seeing the big picture.Your religious affiliation of lack of have nothing to do with this article.Illegals are law breakers who are lowering Americans standard of living.I have clients who immigrated to the U.S. legally and became American citizens.Ask them how they feel about illegals coming to America and you will get an earful that isn't as nice as our comments.
Arrell: I'm curious as to why you picked this particular section of the thread to make your post. I won't deny that there are those on here who are doing exactly as you say, but for this particular section, there is nothing like that I can see being posted, from comments 4, through 4.15.
Everything I see here is pretty much policy oriented. No one on this particular section has said anything derogatory about the death of anyone attempting to cross the border illegally that I can find. So, I'm just curious as to why you chose to post here, when there are blatant examples of what you speak about to be found other places in the thread.
just a cleaning lady
"The news never reports on the terrorist who come into the U.S. by way of Canada and Mexico."
They do, just not enough and it's usually buried in the back,
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_central_southern_az/other/terrorists-crossing-az-border-into-u.s.%3F
I agree...they need to be legal in order to come to the USA.....but then they would have to pay out the nose like the rest of us....not sure that would be OK with them to come in legally. I don't think anyone really knows how expensive, tedious it is to live in the USA. As an american citizen, I pay taxes on just about everything you can think of and then some. We give everyone money except our own, inlcuding countries we are at war with.....how does THAT happen. If illegals want to come to live in the US, you'll need to pay taxes like the rest of us...you are no exception, you're not special.
I really think that the US should mine the border and put anti-personnel mines on the fences. The Iranians are studying how easy it is to sneak into the US and when they have a nuclear device guess where they will be going with it.
The majority of Mexicans in the US came here illegally and I believe any more should have to come here legally. I worked with an undocumented or illegal and he sent half his pay back to Mexico and his family there. He was getting paid under the table and no taxes were taken out. i left that job knowing the owner was dirty.
you 1% romneyite conservatives dont even want the middle and poor working class american citizens to live in this country. never mind the illegal immigrants@.
why do some people call themselves christians and dont even read their bible. the bible if you ever did read it says not to oppress the alien and stranger in your land. ex 23/ lev19. you were once aliens and strangers and Christ died for you. you want the illegal immigrants to obey the law. buts its ok if your an american not to obey the laws of the land. you think its ok to run that stop sign and maim someone for life. or get drunk and drive and kill an innocent child.
I will be voting for Mitt and i want to protect these people from harm that are breaking the law because i believe it is our duty as a human being. This is not so much about your political party as it is about your morals.
You know what the ONLY funny thing about this article is? That all the posters here taking delight in the suffering and death of other human beings and taking the time to publicly post how little they care... probably EVERY ONE OF THEM considers themselves a good christian...
I am an atheist and I apparently am more christian than you pathetic hypocrites...
texastornado55
"you want the illegal immigrants to obey the law. buts its ok if your an american not to obey the laws of the land. you think its ok to run that stop sign and maim someone for life. or get drunk and drive and kill an innocent child."
No EVERYONE needs to obey the laws, no matter who you are or where you're from.
Last I checked either one of those will get you prison time.
"undocumented immigrants" ...
You liberal miscreants are something else. They are illegal aliens!
"Undocumented immigrants" are code words for future democrats, just like "Dream Act" and "comprehensive immigration reform" are code words for amnesty.
Yep. Just another example of politically correct speech destroying critical thinking. Consider this analogy: Suppose I get stopped by the police while driving a motor vehicle. If I have a driver license, but it is not in my possession, I am an undocumented driver. If I don't have a driver license, I am an illegal driver. Get the difference?
Undocumented democrats
Zach, a permanent resident (i.e., one who holds a green card and can live and work anywhere in the US and its territories) or one who enters for a specific contract for a specified amount of time (i.e., a manager sent to the US by Toyoto to run a factory for three years) is a documented immigrant; therefore, calling those who enter a country with the intention to live and work but do not have official permission to do so undocumented immigrants is perfectly logical.
Technically an alien is an entity from another solar system. Not the anchor baby producing human beings that invade this country from around the world.
Just think how any terrorist could make the walk through desert with proper gear. Frightening.
That's the end result of "breaking and entering". Don't wish anyone dead, but that's sometimes the price for breaking the laws of a sovereign Democratic Representative Republic.
Yank, they are NOT "immigrants". An immigrant asks permission, waits for an inivitation, respects our culture, and adapts to a new society. Illegal aliens do not ask permission, do not think we have the right to keep them out, and see nothing wrong with spitting on the laws we have made - indeed see nothing wrong with demanding that we *change* those laws to accomodate their criminality. As for documents, they've got plenty. Forged, stolen, or faked.
People who enter this country illegally, whether they sneak in under cover of night or commit visa fraud, are NOT immigrants. Giving them honor by referring to them as such demeans the effort and commitment of *true* immigrants.
hsart, buy a dictionary. The first use of 'alien' to mean an extra-terrestrial entity was in the 1920's. It wasn't commonly used as such until the 1950's. Whether in latin, greek, or old french, 'alien' has always meant "stranger, foreigner, citizen of a foreign land". Technically speaking of course.
"alien" is the term used in Federal code.
Ha! I love the term "liberal miscreants"!!! Perfect!
this is all about brainwashing.........THOSE POOR ILLEGALS.
They are preparing to open the border, but the wealthy will be protected and WE normal taxpayers will be forced to live with 3rd world scum.
hsart unlike the those mexican etc. illegals trying to cross the border with little food or money. the terrorist would have money and plenty of gear to boot.maybe even a few hand grenades and an a k47.
I'm not a liberal im just a conservative Christian. I think People dying on our soil is unacceptable and not a "fitting" punishment for illegally crossing our borders.
Stop calling everyone who disagrees with you a liberal...I am a liberal and I am very much for legal immigration and throwing the illegals OUT
A fellow that worked for me years ago walked alone during the night for almost two weeks through the South Texas desert to make his way to a city in Texas. He couldn't afford or trust the "coyotes".
No Venezuelans? I wonder why?
Too far to walk? No Colombians or Brazilians either. What's your point? Are you implying that Venezuela is a worker's paradise and they do not want to come here? Ha. I know two Venezuelans, here now, that fled that socialist nightmare. Hyperinflation hitting them right now.
Two years ago the Border Patrol captured 13 Brazilians on the ranch I hunt on in South Texas. Last year, a hunter in a stand was approached by a group of illegals that uncurled their flag to let him, assuming he was their contact, who they were. It was Chinese flag. Everyone comes across the southern border.
The Mexicans catch them and either kill them or put them in jail.
BigJeff.... Really??? I am not white... I am Asian. I am not complaining about "white illegals" because according to Pew Hispanic center -- 85% of the Illegals come from South of the border and 50% of all Illegals come from Mexico.
Guess what... when 85% of the ILLEGALs are White I will start complain about "white Illegals", and when 85% of ILLEGALS are Asian, I will start complain about "Asian Illegals"
Echo-429717..........US Immigration records that of the illegals arrested close to 70% are Mexicans and 96% are from Latin America. Sounds like an INVASION to me.
I might add that I seem to remember Chavez distinctly saying some years back that he would train...and then send people from his country,up through Mexico,and when in the future enough are there (here) start a violent revolution, anybody else paying attention? I might add who really knows who from where crosse that border....and with what intent!
There is no American Dream. It's all been a big fat lie. . .
chinese come into california with no paper or documents to get into america. they just walk into the airpors and file in with the american people no on ever knows their not documented americans.
BUT, they don't cause problems
I hope those who are anti-Obama realize that under the current administration deportations have drastically increased compared to under the Republican administration and this while illegal entries have decreased).
yank... ... eh why bother
homesick...sorry, but the numbers put out by this administration were shown to be false.
And even if they were true, all the illegals deported by Bush and Obama together doubled doesn't put a dent in the problem. Obama stepped up deportation on illegals who have committed crimes in addition to being in the country illegally. This way he can look like he's doing something and the likes of La Raza, MECHA, LULAC, etc can't complain because he's deporting criminals.
What was it Lincoln said? Something like, "You can fool some of the people all of the time...."
You will know a politician is serious about illegal immigration when he/she cracks down on the employers who give them the incentive to come here in the first place.
If you count those that are turned away at the border and those that "self deported" when investigators went to their last known address and didn't find them there, then OK... Obama is deporting voters... I mean illegal aliens.
RAIDS by the I.C.E. have increased dramatically but no republican will ever admit to that. This president has done more to control the illegal immigrants in this country than any republican ever has. To republicans the illegals are a cheap labor force to be welcomed in an attempt to bust unions. Yes the Grand Ole Pity.
This idiot president has done nothing to stop illegal immigration except say he won't enforce the laws on the borders dipstick. He needs their votes! Only a true idiot would say otherwise. He did help give them weapons to shoot American Border Patrol agents, but I sure you'd call that doing something to enforce the borders. Yea, but for the Mexican government, not ours!
Homesick, you are dealing with DIMWHITCRAPS, and you know they get their opinions handed to them because it takes an IQ to have a real opinion!
hsart
The "raids" by ICE are targeting "violent" illegals. And it IS a laudable endeavor. Unfortunately, it's not very effective. The "targets" of the ICE raids, move often, sometimes multiple times a day to stay ahead of the law. And NOT surprisingly, ICE often raids the wrong place.
Oh, about the unions. Isn't it the unions that are actually courting the ILLEGAL ALIENS in an attempt at increasing their membership ranks? It seems I'm always seeing the Unions out demonstrating with LaRaza and others AGAINST enforcement actions. Make up your mind, can't have it both ways.
hsart...all the raids are smoke and mirrors my friend. They're all for show. They haven't put a dent in the problem. It does have one positive effect though, it fools the simple-minded into believing something serious is being done about the problem.
Wow, an actual immigration policy that works.
The sad part is this that countries like Mexico Honduras do not do enough for their own people...if these countries would work harder at providing work that gives them the chance to succeed in their countries then the attempt by those who are looking for a better life would decrease...
Mexicans getting into the U.S. is of vital importance to the Mexican government and is the reason they openly and overtly encourage and assist the illegals. The vast majority of those crossing the border are uneducated/under-educated, poor peasants that the Mexican government does not want to be responsible for. By dumping their poor peasants in the U.S., they get multiple rewards. They no longer have to take responsibility for them in the form of welfare or medical or educating their children for free. And one of the primary rewards is the tens of billions of U.S. dollars the illegals send back to Mexico every year to take care of their families.
Make no mistake, Mexico is not a friend of the U.S., and as far as I'm concerned it is the equivalent of an economic assault on the U.S. Mexico is our ENEMY, and should be treated as such.
amen brother.....
treating mexico as an enemy sucks.........
texastornado55
"treating mexico as an enemy sucks........."
When you invade another country they tend to consider you an enemy.
Good.
annex mexico. problem solved everbody go to work now and dont forget to pay your taxes. no more illegal immigration problem anymore. just have to guard against the terrorist.
plork banned for death wishing.
Still a tragedy. Their are greedy coyotes, drug runners and others that profit ffrom trafficking misery. The obvious solution is to come in "legally" and enforce border patrol avtivity, though not so eaisliy arrived at. Just sad they died coming to America to better thier lives.
Our government needs to take care of American borders, Not Israel borders. We American tax payers pay more for Israel security than the Israel people do. Our zionist government promotes race mixing in America, but in Israel, they want it completely jewish. Romney would be a big time Israel puppet, he has said he will give more money to Israel, what utter filth.
you may not like it but you cant go up against israel. this is God's chosen people. the great pharoah ramses tried to destroy the israelites with rigrous(hard labor) and failed. he suffered plagues and so did all of his gods. hitler tried to destroy the jews killed many but he also failed him and his country germany went under like the great titanic.you either respect the jews or your outnumber..........
USA....go back and study the Balfour Treaty....Israel a former British Colony WAS given to the Jewish people, Biblically speaking it was theirs anyway...but as the story goes a Jewish physicist gave a formula to the British that enabled them to keep gunpowder dry in a rainy England that was fighting Hitler....years later this Jewish feller was asked by Prime Minister Balfour what Britain could do in return for him...his reply was,"give my country back to my people" thus came the Balfour Treaty! There is a verse in Thessalonians by the way that indicates that on Jesus return...he will destroy ALL who stand against Israel and his chosen people!
they should stay where they are till they can come here legally.that funeral home sounds like it has a good racket going on.when they are found on the ranch or where ever just dig a hole and bury them where they died.sounds cruel but why waste money you will never recover even if someone claims them?? sorry to sound cruel but....
The problem would be pretty much solved if we instituted serious penalties for hiring someone who did not have the legal right to work.
Fines should be commensurate with the size of the business and/or the net worth of the individual who hires an illegal alien, so that it hurts a big construction company as hard as a householder hiring an illegal gardener. Repeat hiring offense should be punishable by jail. If the penalties for employing illegal immigrants were simply not worth it, no one would hire those without citizenship or permanent residency. Then all the illegals (except those who are true refugees) would go home and others would stay away.
Amen to that. But have you seen any administration seriously cracking down on employers? NO!
A lot of the Arizona law mirrored the U.S. law but Obama decieded to challenge the Arizona law, based mostly on the premise that it would be racial profiling...So who are they suppose to look for when 98% of those crossing the border are from south of the border...Men from Mars? As for the employers they are happy because they can still hire illegals and not worry about getting fined...so they too will vote for Obama..along with the illegals...
It's all a facade by the libs. Border Patrol and ICE agents have the authority to stop anyone and ask them for their papers. They routinely profile people and have done so for decades. However, the libs haven't complained one single bit about it. Hypocrisy personified.
hey stan i got hired by a bbq restaurant owned and run by a mexican lady and her husband. gracie she was always mad because she could talk to her other employees in spanish and she had to stop and talk to me in english. so she got tired of talking to me in english and fired me. what do you think of this one?
I know a Hispanic guy whose white mother married an Hispanic. They were divorced shortly after he was born and he grew up not speaking a word of Spanish as his father never came around. In his early 20's his father tried to come back into his life and gave him much grief for not "speaking the language of his people".
It's amazing how uneducated so many of them are. Thinking they are speaking "their language", when in fact they are speaking a European language. The language of the their ancestor's conquerors.
Try telling a Mexican that his accordion music is really a polka ripped off from the Polish!
NBC editor: "Now that Romney is gaining/leading in the poles we must come up with other story angles to help Obama!!"
pork, it is about obamy. Telling people he won't enforce immigration laws puts him in a classification called accessory to the crime of murder. You see, you are truly the dipsh#t!
LOL! Romney's leading in the 'poles'...bwahahahahaha!! Wonder which 'poles' he's leading. The flag pole? The barber's pole? Maybe a stripper pole? HAHAHAHAAA! That's rich. Maybe you should take a POLL to see which one's more likely...
Typical half-educated Romney voter. Sheesh.
Plork...to repeat from a previous comment, all the illegals deported by Obama doubled doesn't put a dent in the problem. Obama stepped up deportation on illegals who have committed crimes in addition to being in the country illegally. This way he can look like he's doing something and the likes of La Raza, MECHA, LULAC, etc can't complain because he's deporting criminals.
What was it Lincoln said? Something like, "You can fool some of the people all of the time...."
You will know a politician is serious about illegal immigration when he/she cracks down on the employers who give them the incentive to come here in the first place.
It's all smoke and mirror to fool the simple-minded. And apparently there are lot of simple-minded folks out there.
Plork: Why, yes we conservatives read everything and anything having to do with politics - not just conservative viewpoints. This would include MSNBC, NBC, CNN, the local liberal newspaper, not just Fox News. To know your enemy or the opposite point of view is of vital importance in understanding how to fight/change them! Liberals only look to liberal news or liberal points of view so their world is smaller.....
sheeesh !!! Its pretty early in the morning to be in such a dither, all you libs. We realize that your god imploded in the first debate and that he will not be able to recover from the bashing...he does not have the mental fortitude to overcome his fear of confrontation with the next president.
Don't worry though. The dems will get votes from all these deceased lying in wait for their families to claim them. I can understand the desire for the American Dream, but there are processes in place that do not put ones life at risk.
Stop exploiting these dead people 4 weeks before the defeat of your thug...I mean god.
another middle class/ the 1% consevatives are falling for romney's professional lies. he tells just enough truth to make them all gullible enough to vote for him. he bullied our president. he wore an elephant in the middle of the american flag on the pen on his lapel.(what kind of an idiot would desecrate the american flag this way). i'm sure he will come up with some kind of excuse.the electoral college will help put romney in the white house because he is wh%##@.good president like obama are for the middle and poor working class this will make it hard for obama to win because he is for all the people both great and small.
Stay home. People take risks. I can assure these folks that if they stay home they will not die in the brush of South Texas. Its not hard. I really do not remember the same heart felt empathy for the guys that lose their houses due to circumstances out of their control, and rob a bank to get the money.. Its very similar..difficult times cause people to do things that place themselves at risk. Lets have an amnesty for deserving bank robbers so we can prevent them from hurting themselves. Let the congregation say AMEN!
I have alot of family that live in New Mexico, and Texas and we all agree on the same thing, the mexican government and the mexican people should be working to improve THEIR country. Stop coming into mine illegally and your family wouldn't be dieing in the desert. Stay there, work on your own countries DREAM. AND STOP TRYING TO STEAL OURS.
Those poor undocumented democrats.
Barely here a day and already formed a new victim class, the true American Dream.
Now all they need is a list of demands.
While I have sympathy for those that died and empathy for the families they left behind, they would likely not have died had they stayed in their home countries and put the same efforts into making life better there as they did in coming to the United States. They brought their fate on themselves.
Oh and (MS)NBC News (a debatable title) these people are ILLEGAL ALIENS not undocumented immigrants.
It would take 1 single action to fix the problem.
** Mandatory E-Verify **
Once the jobs magnet dries up the illegals will stop coming and make it much easier to redeploy the border patrol to remove the ones that won't self-deport.
The lack of compassioin is not surprising. Try walking a mile in someone else's shoes and maybe then you might find out why they are so desperate to come here. I'm a naturalized citizen from a whole other country and land mass and sure, I did it the right way, but if I had my choice, the reason I came here (a person) would have gone to my land (the real milk and honey with its own subset of issues). America may not be worth dying for, but obviously there are enough people who think it is and that's probably in part due to the mass corruption and cartels further south. As a human being, the will to survive and succeed is great, so sometimes we take risks because the stakes are so high. Don't condemn the already dead. They have already paid for their judgment errors and their remaining families now also pay the price. Please don't forget we are talking about human beings (not just "illegals" or "aliens"). They're people. Whether or not you agree with their methods, things are obviously so bad that it's worth the risk and that in itself is an utter tragedy that needs focus for a remedy.
I can understand your concern, but at the rate of about one million a year it is absolutely negligent to allow this to happen. They don't pay taxes, carry diseases that have been under control here for years, and are made available all resourses including SS, welfare, food stamps, and medical for free. Free for them but the working Americans have to pay for it.
Death, we aren't talking about totalitarian dictatorships here. These country's are democracies. If their lives are so terrible, they have another recourse besides sneaking into our house. It's called a 'ballot box'. They get what they vote for, just like us. If their government isn't doing its job, they need to convince their neighbors and fellow citizens to vote 'em out and start fresh. Just like we do.
And it isn't like it hasn't been done it before. At least these folks have a road map and multiple examples of working, successful democratic systems to choose from. They need to fix their OWN nation instead of tearing ours down. But that's oh so much more difficult than running away and taking advantage of what *others* have built.
Maria..."..if america would legalize them and they would pay taxes too just like w..."
While your compassion to help a fellow human is honorable, sadly it fall short of the long-term picture.
As I see it, Mexico (government) and the Mexican people will never make intense efforts to better their country so long as the U.S. is an escape from that responsibility.
Giving an illegal a job because you feel sorry for him might help that individual’s current situation, but in the long run, it merely condemns future generations to the same the plight.
Some people let their feelings get the best of them. They simply cannot look at an alcoholic on the street and resist buying him a drink to make him feel better. And it's the same when we give an illegal a job here or even give them amnesty.
Nothing will ever change in any of the illegals country of origin as long as they have a means of escape from taking responsibility for themselves. Everyone who hires an illegal to help them out is committing a human rights violation because they are condemning the next generation to the same fate.
I understand what you are saying about lacking of compassion. Americans are just fed up because in California the majority of the population are mexicans,or latinos, and latinos only hire each other, and also have hatred against Americans. I believe that if most latinos wants to live and work in the U.S.A. then they must not have any hostility or hatred against Americans. Several latinos at my local stores in California tell me that I should learn spanish so I could communicate with them and that they do not see any need for them to learn english. Most Mexicans do not feel that crossing the boarding is a crime. I am worried about the other nationalities that are using Mexico to enter the United States. I worried that the Talibans might be using Mexico to enter the U.S.A.
Yes,do the paperwork and wait like i did.Learn english! Oh and i get tired of the migrant thing.They are illegal aliens.
mexico is a dictatorship. everything is owned by the government. there are no freedoms there. its pure communist.
Francis.... Few will learn from history. This is what is coming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM9uH4XgOmI
If you go on the wikipedia, read a bit on Mexico and the content on Crime. "The Global Integrity Index which measures the existence and effectiveness of national anti-corruption mechanisms rated Mexico 31st behind Kenya, Thailand, and Russia.[252]". It is also showing that 15% the Mexicans have reported of being victims of a crime. At the same time only a few will report a crime means it is much higher.
One of the big reason why the police, the government... judicial system is not working - is because of the corrupted influence of drugs, greed and fear of the Cartel.
Search the web on the Cartels, go read and look at documentaries and the welfare of the Mexican people... especially the poor.
Now Imagine being in the middle of that, and how desperate would you be to remove your family and your children in that horrific and sometimes life threatening surroundings. We need to have more empathic..especially for the venerable ; they are people not animals. It’s more complicated then to just tell any Mexican to “Go back and stay home!".
just a Lady...It has nothing to do with not having empathy for the poor and powerless in Mexico, but it's not a simple situation and it will not be resolved by the U.S. handing out band aids in what ever form.
Just to put this in a larger perspective, let me ask you a question. Are you also angry about the grave social injustice of allowing so many Mexican into America? Mexico has a national oil company, PeMex, that provides billions of dollars to Mexico, making it far richer than most 3rd world countries. The money that an illegal Mexicans sends back to his or her family every month could feed a family in the worlds poorest countries for a year. It's incredibly unfair to help illegals from Mexico when so many of the worlds truly desperate and poor have waited in line to get into the country legally
Just another plain and simple case of murder against an administration that wants to give carte blanche amnesty. If we had secure borders and the backbone to enforce immigration laws this would be a coincidence and not a norm.
That's a good half truth to know... the rest of the truth is that "both parties" (using the term sarcastically) go along with this important source of below scale wage earners.
That is, industry makers the "campaign donations" and The Party (DemocratsandRepublicans) declare the border to be indefensible. It's like, "hey folks, it's an awfully big border...and we can't keep people from walking across it"
It works because only half of the people criticize half of the government.
Good job... btw
If President Obamas Aunt stayed in Boston Illegally why should these Mexicans worry about sneaking in the US. In a couple of years Iran will sneak in and detonate Nuclear weapons in the Border states but we turn a blind eye on enforcement because ICE knew the Presidents aunt was here Illegally and turned a blind eye to her.
Iran is licking their chops because of how easy it will be to sneak in the US and kill Americans.
Man of Steel (25.2) -- Not only Obama's illegal aunt, but he's got an illegal uncle here, too. The guy's not only a criminal for being illegal, he also has a criminal driving record. Only time will tell how many other Obama illegals there are! It seems to be a family tradition.
http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20220515presidents_illegal_alien_uncle_gets_his_license_back