News-Record.com

Sorry Bonnie, but the $745 million paid in taxes by these criminals doesn't quiet cover the bill:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33783-2004Aug25.html

Go Libby.

Sorry, Bonnie, the definition of a criminal is someone who has committed a crime. A crime is an act that is against the law (i.e. illegal). Thus by being here ILLEGALLY, they have committed a CRIME and are, therefore, CRIMINALS.

This problem is not a Republican problem. It's not a Democrate problem. It's an AMERICAN problem, and I think more and more, UNLIKE Bonnie, are starting to see this and react.

The real dollar-and-sense costs of mass illegal immigration is born by states and localities. That is one of the reasons the federal government has shown so little interest in solving the problem (other than the amnesty "solution" favored by President Bush, the Democratic Party and the news media).

David A. Denslow is a highly regarded economist at the Bureau of Economic & business Research at the University of Florida and favorably disposed to immigration. Nonetheless Denslow concludes: Immigrant households in Florida consume, on average, $1,800 more in state services (mostly in education and medicaid services) than they pay in taxes. The $1800 net cost per household does not include costs of federal services.

Denslow's estimate of costs is sturdier than most because he focuses on households rather than individuals: "Previous studies counted the number of individual immigrants in calculating the cost of immigration. But that method underestimates the costs of immigration . . . because it does not take into account the fact that immigrants have children who are born in the United States....But these children [U. S. citizens and thus not counted as immigrants] use government services and will not pay taxes for many years, and if their parents had not immigrated, they would not be in the United States to begin with."

* * *

There are large intangible costs of high levels of illegal immigration --- that are hard to quantify: the effects on the quality of education provided to the children of American Citizens being one example.

North Carolina State Board of Education Chairman Howard Lee:

"It's very overwhelming. I get a lot of complaints from superintendents and principals from all over the state that tell me these children are interfering with the education process of the other children. Most of the children are unable to speak English. And, in most instances, they are illiterate in their own language....We are very uncertain as to what we are going to do at this time. It's very hard to know if there is a breaking point at some point and what our response will be." ("Influx of Hispanic Immigrants Hitting Schools Hardest," Carolina Journal, December 2005)

"Why not work with those people who have a real solution to the problem and not a political agenda?"

You are kidding aren't you?

Bonnie, What part of illegal do you not understand? What is the difference between a criminal and a real criminal?

The issue of those persons who come into the US without proper credentials is a forgone one.

This LTTE writer does have one thing correct; "There is no doubt that the 600,000 or so foreigners who have walked across the border have not been discouraged to do so by our farms, our construction, our meat packing and our hotel and restaurant industries..." However, the ending comment of that sentence is COMPLETELY invalid; "...nor by those of us who would not do the work they do." Bonnie, why not discuss why "those of us who do not do the work they do" do not do that work? Could it be due to the low wages which, when calculating the expense, the job would be costing the person to work the job. Or could it be that due to the low pay, lack of benefits, that "those people" are not able to do it because they need certain pay/benefits to provide for a family?

Bonnie, address those issues before lumping citizens into that aforementioned group.

I am currently divided on this issue. My Christian faith has me in a quandary and I find myself unsure about what needs to be done to correct this issue. I have read the points of contention, yet, I am still unsure of what to do that works with my faith belief/s and the legal points.

Shalom

The Illegal immigration issue is the only thing I've seen bipartisan support for in a long time.

It was both democrats and republicans that melted the congressional phone lines a few months back which caused the Amnesty bill to get shot down.

I resent the attitude that some of them have that they have a right to be here.

I get mad when they beat me to a yard sale, block my cart at Wal-Mart, cause huge lines at the DMV, back up Emergency rooms, and speak that gibberish to their children in public.