This week I was reminded of the old proverb in Spanish: "There's no illness that lasts a full one hundred years and no human being that can withstand it." No hay mal que dure cien años ni cuerpo que lo resista.
The president's proposed 2013 budget includes more ammunition to keep "Secure Communities," the administration's well-oiled machine, running proficiently for the next few years. Not content with deporting 1.5 million during the first three years, the Obama administration appears content to sacrifice a few hundred thousand more. But try as he may, deportation hawks complain undocumented immigration has rebounded since Mr. Obama took office.
Alabama's poultry-processing plants and tomato fields were in dire need of working hands; workers not too frightened to come back to the place many have called home for decades in spite of the Gestapo-like conditions they must now face. Some politicians were quietly working on exceptions to ensure the state's revenues do not tank as a result of their irrational exuberance towards immigrants during their last legislative session.
In the presidential trail, Republican candidates were aiming their cannons at Arizona, one of the nation's most anti-immigrant states, all the while remaining mum about their tough and unintelligible stances on immigration. On the other hand, the Republican's anointed Latino of the month, Marco Rubio, was the GOP's VP of choice, according to a straw poll conducted during the much-elevated CPAC gathering in Washington, D.C. How a Latino son of immigrants could be the beloved child to CPAC is beyond me.
Finally, in Kansas, State Secretary Chris Kobach, a Romney supporter, reared his ugly head to introduce a number of bills that among other things, would criminalize helping an undocumented immigrant, would penalize workers and subject them to a broken and unreliable verification system, and essentially place an immigration cop at every corner to stop anyone suspected of being in the country without authorization.
For undocumented immigrants, there are no best of times. These are definitely the worst of times in a long time.
Lost in hypocrisy-land, the dreams of the American-in-waiting, the immigrant family, mean almost nothing to a political class intent on retaining or gaining power. While millions wail and curse, but also organize, there is good oratory from Democrats, severe xenophobia from Republicans, and a nation that demands responses by imposing the most draconian anti-immigrant measures state by state.
But not all is doom and gloom in 2012. There is a general election season that seems to go on forever.
On November 6, 2012, immigrant and Latino voters have a real opportunity to shift the balance and offer a new narrative about immigrants in America. A TIME magazine article out this week offers a few tips to why and how the GOP and Democrats alike will need to turn their attention to issues that matter to this vibrant and growing electorate, whether that's in Arizona, Florida, California, or Ohio. That is, if they want to occupy the White House in 2013.
But the shift will not take place on its own. The two major parties are far too invested in keeping alive the status quo that they would rather lose more than half the Latino electorate than "pander" to our legitimate needs. In the end, it must be an organized community, a furious contempt for mediocrity, and a true democracy that will push reform forward.
Perhaps the most potent antidote to counteract the likes of Kobach, Bebeu, Baca, Rubio, Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, Obama, Napolitano, et al, is the unswerving, informed, and unambiguous exercise of a most precious right of all: our right to vote.
Follow Jorge-Mario Cabrera on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jmcabrerapr
Has this article's author even read the U.S. Federal Immigration Laws ~ USC title 8, sections 900 thru 1400 ~ so he is oblivious to the Sovereign Laws of the USA?
or
This article's author, has read the U.S. Federal Immigration Laws ~ but chooses to be disingenuous in writing his biased articles?
What about the next wave of illegals? When does enforcement come into play, if ever? When is enough, enough?
Now is the time for enforcement, it may hurt but it will all even out and we'll be fine.
"If only it were that simple.
In reality, the president does not possess this authority, as unauthorized presence in the U.S. is a civil violation, not a criminal one. Presidential pardon power only applies to federal crimes, described as “offenses against the United States” in the Constitution. As such, “a pardon can’t make someone a citizen or lawful resident,” explains John Harrison, a law professor at the University of Virginia. “Deportation is not a criminal proceeding, it’s a civil process that removes from the country someone who is not entitled to be here.”
Only Congress can change the terms for granting immigration status or citizenship, whether for all immigrants or a subset of people. And that’s why an immigration overhaul has stalled for so many years."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/no-obama-cant-grant-amnesty-by-pardoning-illegal-immigrants/2011/12/06/gIQA5S53ZO_blog.html
Teacher? Nurse? They will happily take you. Cabana boy in Cancun? Not so much. It is vice versa. They want skilled workers and entrepreneurs.
Praise Jesus!
Mr. Cabrera, let the good citizens of America at the very least repatriate 50% of the illegal foreign nationals who descended upon us uninvited before we start talking about accommodating the whims of the rest.
My education began at the community college level and I never had problems getting my classes. I studied to be a teacher, but couldn't find a job. Was it illegal immigration that caused this? No. Illegals have been here for years. The housing crisis definitely hurt the education. What explains the nightmare in New Jersey, Hawaii and Maryland where immigration is a non-issue?
It took me six months to find a job and I know I never lost one because of an illegal. The job I currently have doesn't employ illegals, but the restaurant I worked at for 11 years did.
The years I worked there we had two non Latin Americans fill out applications and work in the kitchen. One was a sweet, young kid embraced by the crew, but didn't like being bossed by the chef. The other non Latino was an awesome guy who opened his own catering business.
I worked with illegals and we would have welcomed non Latinos, but they didn't apply for the kitchen jobs. They were waiters, bartenders, managers and chefs, but the kitchen crew didn't take one job from an able bodied American.
Once again- how has an illegal alien impacted your life for the worse?
While, 11.2 million illegals are in the USA, unauthorized to work in the USA ~ but are. Then sending $30 billion USD, out of the U.S. Economy to their Homelands of their citizenship.
How does this "contribute" to the U.S. Economy?
How does this "contribute" to the socioeconomic health of U.S. Citizen Workers?
If we wern't spending 1.4 billion on illegals the governor would not need those taxes .
That's how illegals impact my life and everyone elses