Quote: (07-16-2014 08:41 PM)Seth_Rose Wrote:
Now you just sound misinformed.
First of all, we're not worried about these immigrants taking our jobs as individuals, rather we are concerned about the well being of Americans who are blue collar.
You say illegal immigrants can't get welfare, but guess what, if that American loses his job to an illegal immigrant he is going to go on welfare, which will still cost the taxpayers money.
And on that note, you're not entirely right:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/polit.../12594927/
Obama asked for $3.7 billion for this flood of immigrants, a lot of which is for food and clothing.
Also, those countries in central America have been in poor conditions for decades. Why in the last month or two has their been a flood of immigrants?
Has gang violence got worse in that time? Unlikely, Honduras is the three-time murder capital of the world, thanks to lovely Tegucigalpa.
My logic is that someone in DC has been encouraging immigrants in recent months to come here.
I'm not going to spend several posts arguing this issue, my thoughts are already laid out. I think it is important however in the future to provide citations for claims being made.
I could be misinformed. It's been seven years since I lived and did research in impoverished communities full of violence, despair, and once and again deported immigrants in Central America. In that time I'm sure issues of development, immigration, and violence in those area have changed. However I'd argue that they've largely changed for the worse.
There wasn't a US State Department
travel warning for El Salvador when I was there due to a ridiculously high crime rate. Mind you, when I was there it was hard to get a cab after dark due to the fear of crime. The level of violence is
worse there now than during their civil war. You know, the civil war that even saw
American nuns get killed.
I did spend quite a bit of time in Guatemala, and the level of violence there is
higher than it was during their 36 year civil war. I haven't been there recently, but when I hear the phrase, "
En Guatemala, la vida no vale nada" (
In Guatemala, life is worth nothing) I have to side on agreeing.
To be fair, I didn't spend much time in Honduras, but
the level of violence is even worse there than in other countries. I don't blame people for sending their kids away. I would, too.
These are kids fleeing in fear of their lives. Sending them back might be a death sentence. They obviously can't work now, but give them a fair chance and
they just might take the opportunity they're being given and
do more than sit around with it.
Obama did ask for $3.7billion, of which $1.1 billion goes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $433 million to Customs and Border Protection, $64 million for the Department of Justice, $300 million to the State Department and $1.8 billion to the Department of Health and Human Services. While Obama certainly has his faults, this seems pretty reasonable to me.
He even sent his right hand man to tell people personally to not send their kids north.
Also, notice how none goes to the Department of Agriculture which handles the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps/EBT. Nor is any allocated to the
Department of Housing and Urban Development, thus no long term subsidized housing. Undocumented immigrants in this country have to rise and grind every day to make it happen, and
no matter how successful you are there's always a chance you'll get sent back.
I'll admit, however, that I could be interpreting this wrong. Every link above could very well be a lie perpetuated by Obama himself written to fool me, you, and everyone in between. I've also never competed with an undocumented worker for a shitty low wage, manual labor job, so maybe it is hard out there if that's where someone is at - I personally wouldn't know and haven't read up on it, so I can't say. I also should admit I am pretty biased. My great grandfather came to this country illegally. He came from Ireland, got turned away at Ellis Island. Went to Canada, and snuck into North Dakota.