[GarySpFc]

1. Nationally, check out www.numbersusa.com or info@numbersusa.com and become a member of this excellent grass roots organization that works to stop illegal immigration and reduce legal immigration to a sustainable 100,000 per year. Roy Beck is the head of it and is one of the finest men I know.

Illegal immigration is a burning issue with myself and most Americans. That said, I have a major problem with someone who can't understand this country needs more than 100,000 "legal" immigrants. The man simply does not comprehend the issues involved. As an example while America has a problem with outsourcing jobs to other countries, we benefit with the in sourcing of highly educated individuals as immigrants, which has helped keep our country one step ahead of other economies. Does he think these individuals would stay if their families were not allowed to come? Additionally, we need legal immigrants to replace 44 millions aborted Americans, which will not be there to pay into Social Security. Furthermore, demanding a virtual stop to legal immigration, which is unrealistically rigid, defeats our attempts to stop illegal immigration. American needs legal immigrants.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

I keep up with this issue as well as most. I have seen calls for moratoriums but I do not recall anyone advocating an end to immigration altogether. The call to limit it to a specific number (100,000) is just someone's opinion. We do indeed need immigration and I have sponsored immigrants who are now citizens.

Even legal and valuable immigration has its drawbacks for U.S. taxpayers. Thus the 1996 welfare and immigration reforms.

Reauthorization of the 1996 welfare and immigration reform laws is long overdue, I believe. There have been two Congresses and the only thing done was to extend the original laws and the changes that softened their impact. The House wants to keep the restrictions in place and the Senate wants to open the Treasury to legal permanent residents again(!).

The 1996 laws ended virtual automatic SSI, etc. for those coming after August, 1996 and time limit restrictions were placed on SSI, food stamps, etc. etc. for those prior to enactment in August, 1996. The time limits have been set aside already, i.e., benefits were to have been terminated after a set number of years but have been extended and extended as the years passed.

By 1996 almost one-third of the elderly getting SSI* (not the same as SS) were aged parents and other elderly relatives of legal immigrants. The elderly were sponsored and then put into SSI, food stamps, subsidized housing*, etc. etc.

The point is, we concentrate on ILLEGAL aliens getting a pass via the "guest worker" plan. But the Bush administration and the Senate also want to undo some (all?) of the 1996 welfare restrictions placed upon legal permanent residents.

* Note 1 - SSI Aged Noncitizens, from a Ways and Means immigration report (Green Book), 2003

Year. Number.. Percent of Total Aged SSI

1982 91,900 5.9

1983 106,600 7.0

1984 127,600 8.3

1985 146,500 9.7

1986 165,300 11.2

1987 188,000 12.9

1988 213,900 14.9

1989 245,700 17.1

1990 282,400 19.4

1991 329,690 22.5

1992 372,930 25.4

1993 416,420 28.2

1994 440,000 30.0

1995 459,220 31.8

1996 417,360 29.5

1997 367,200 27.0

1998 364,980 27.4

2000 364,470 28.3

2001 364,550 28.9

2002 364,827 29.1

The 1996 reforms stopped the practice of legal immigrants bring their elderly relatives here for their "golden" years. A little googling reveals that the immigrants often had very fine incomes, thank you.

* Note 2 - I cannot find the article but a year or two ago there was a S.F. Bay area news article about the local government wanting to relocate an apartment building full of elderly to a newer building. All were getting subsidized apartments. Plans had to be slipped because the government was having problems locating interpreters -- none of the elderly spoke English -- and the government did not want to alarm the elderly who might fear that they were being kicked out of their homes.

BTW, I am not talking about immigrants classified as refugees though they too have time limits on assistance I believe.

[taxed2death]

Good post. I agree.