Recently released Census data indicates that nearly one in five Americans are immigrants or children of at least one immigrant parent.
In my New York City household, we skew the data; my husband and I are immigrants, as is our child, who was born in London. Unlike her parents, who had to navigate a new homeland in our youth, our daughter has lived in New York City since she was a baby. She's aware of difference but not burdened by it. She is fortunate enough to be part of a diverse city, with many other children of immigrants as friends and classmates. With us, she resides in a city of immigrants, led by a Mayor who understands that immigration policy "profoundly affects our city's future."
Much of what Mayor Bloomberg said in his State of the City speech will be cause for debate, but what resonated for me was his articulation once again of the need for Congress to fix our nation's broken immigration system stands out as a rare rational voice on this issue. The Mayor has long been an outspoken advocate for immigrants, at least since 2002 when I served as his Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs. Then, as now, anti-immigrant sentiment and xenophobia shaped too much of the discourse in our country. Mayor Bloomberg's call to Congress to "pass sensible economically smart immigration reform, and to pass it this year" is a policy call our new Congress needs to hear.
Since 1965, America's population has diversified more than ever before, with immigrants from countries as diverse as China, the Dominican Republic, India, Mexico, and many others. Along with African Americans and Puerto Ricans, immigrants will form the new majority by 2040. In the next three decades, the needs of the growing Hispanic population and the increasingly diverse immigrant population will continue to inform virtually all our policy debates, in education, in healthcare and in economic development. Immigration reform is only the beginning, but it's the best place to start, if, in Mayor Bloomberg's words, we want to live up to "our highest values."
These values -- of tolerance for diversity, equal opportunity for all, freedom of expression -- are the ones that drew us, and other immigrant families here. We are as much responsible for upholding these values as we are for ensuring that our leaders are responsive to us. As the newest members of this democracy, we must ensure that our contributions -- through civic engagement and political participation -- inform policy development in the country we now call home.
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The only ones who says our system is broken are the illegals who want in. Think NY is a swell place to live? Wait until the population doubles. Classrooms have 60 students to a class. No more social services. Hospitals closing. Start having the troubles California is having.
You won't see any illegals living in Mayor Bloomberg's neighborhood. The rich want illegals here to drive down wages. Walmart has half of their products labeled in English & Spanish because a illegal is just another customer to them who spends money, good for them, bad for us.
These people are not immigrants, they are illegal aliens hiding among the population who think they have every right that a American citizen has, but they don't. There will come a tipping point when something has to be done about it and it won't be pretty. America can not continue to allow foreigners to flood our country without consequences.
No one ever focuses on how much legal and illegal immigration has negatively affected African Americans.
The first and most troubling aspect of this immigration reform debate is that all immigrants’ births automatically gain citizens using a law meant only for African Americans slaves. Ironically, this broad application of the 14 amendment is responsible for Hispanics becoming the second largest group in America.
It took over four hundred years for African Americans to become America’s second largest group; but it only took Hispanics a few decades to over take the African American population and become the second largest group. And when I see Al Sharpton, democrats, and other black leaders standing beside Hispanics in support of their stance on immigration reform, I question their priorities.
The African American population has a higher unemployment rate than Hispanics, in part because many labor intense and low skill jobs that African Americans traditionally held has been taken over by Hispanics.
Democratic and republicans have one, only one speech: “People did not get us here to do it or that” You all are right about it, we got you there to represent us and get things done. (Unfortunately it is NOT happening)
Cut Expenses, Lower Tax and Comprehensive Immigration reform is vital to our economy and nothing is done, WHY NOT? Do the politicians have some kind of a deal between parts that we people can not know?
Economy (Job creation) is a priority and nothing is done to make it better. Meetings at the congress, meetings at white house, hearings with lots of business people, and it is still proved that we need an immigration reform NOW, but nobody, nobody is listening at us.
How hard it is to secure the border? Get some thousands soldiers there. Ops but we have not money for it. Really, so we have the money to send over 200.000 soldiers overseas to fight God knows what and for whom and we have no money to fix the border here?
And they say we are here for the people, really?
Drivers License: People take written, eye, and profiency tests to prove that they are competant to be behind the wheel of a vehicle. It makes sure that you know the laws and rules of the road, you have good depth perception, checks for night blindness, that you can safely maneuver a vehicle on the road and follow the road signs and instructions, etc. So if I buy a drivers license from someone selling one on the black market, how safe is that for you and your family while I am on the road with no training, may or may not even be able to read road signs, or testing of my skills?
Vehicle Safety Inspection: Most states require that a vehicle be tested yearly to make sure it is in proper working condition. They check, lights, brakes, turn signals, tires, etc. So, if I purchase a "counterfeit" safety inspection, how safe is that for everyone else on the road, not knowing if my tires are worn out or my brakes are shot?
Legal Immigration Visas: Legal documents check a person's ID, criminal history, background, etc. Maybe this person never had so much of a parking ticket, but maybe they had dealt drugs, maybe they stole things, maybe they did something to hurt someone else. So a person can walk across the desert, or swim the Rio Grande and cross the desert, because they want to have a better life, but does that ensure that this person is someone that is safe to be in family neighborhoods or around children?
There are reasons that we make rules, whether it is for an electrical contractors license, a day care license, a drivers license, school bus driver, immigration, etc, and that is because it ensures that the people doing these things are able to do these things safely and not a danger.
Those are among the findings of a review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data conducted exclusively for Reuters by researchers at the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. Millions of Americans losing their jobs while millions of foreignors are getting jobs???
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41182482/ns/business-us_business/
1. Where do we put them. More people means more housing, roads, and shopping malls. do we continue to pave over farmland and open spaces? For how long can we continue this pace?
2. Energy to provide heat, electricity, industrial needs and transportation. We are at best several decades from efficient solar, wind or other alternative energy sources and many of the ones we know about also have negatives. Will we just continue to import ever more expensive/dirty oil from hostile nations?
3. Food and water. Were will we get these absolutely necessary things? 36 states faced some drought conditions in 2009. There is no alternative supply of good, fresh water. How will we face the looming water shortages?
4. By products. We produce vast amounts of garbage and sewage. Where will we put it and how will we pay for the increasingly expensive landfills/wasteburners/sewage treatment plants?
And just how is it more "secure" to give legitimate IDs to people whose true identities and backgrounds you can never know? After all, the federal government does not only background checks but SECURITY checks in the home countries of LEGAL immigrants. Whose going to do those on illegal aliens? And who's going to pay for it? You'd find that if these WERE done, you'd be diverting resources from targeted anti-terror activities to amnesty. By the way, the 1986 amnesty resulted in the legalization of one terrorist, the guy who masterminded the World Trade Center bombing of 1993. That's what happens when the government skimps on security checks.
1. We would be encouraging yet more illegals to come here. Every single study has shown amnesty is a draw. in 2007 when there was a big push for CIR the border crossing shot up - and please don't be so naive to think they wouldn't lie and say they were here the whole time. That one would have allowed scant proof (with no personnel to ever check anyway) on their claims of being here. EXACTLY the same as every other amnesty/pathway or comprehensive reform has.
2. Those millions would in turn daisy chain in all their relatives. It would give them an advantage over people who follow the rules. There is a reason why Mexico has BY FAR the most immigrants coming here legally too!
But please just address my main points. Would you then stop all immigration - legal and illegal from here on out? Or would you do as we have done for decades - nothing but put your head in the sand then wonder why we have shortages of water, oil, natural gas, open spaces, etc?