Posted on 07/14/2007 7:23:33 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
Robert Divine, former chief counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told the Rotary Club of Chattanooga Thursday that there needs to be a multifaceted approach to addressing the immigration issue in America.
Mr. Divine served part of his time with the agency as acting director and also as acting deputy director. He said that people will find a way to come to the United States since there is a demand for work here and a supply of workers south of the border.
"We do not have the will and the resources, in my opinion, to put toward a border that can on its own prevent (illegal immigration) from happening," he said at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
Mr. Divine was appointed by President Bush as chief counsel of the immigration services and served in that capacity in Washington, D.C., from July 2004 until November 2006.
Mr. Divine, who now works in Chattanooga and leads the immigration group for law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC, said it is essential to have mechanisms for employment verification and allowances for some people to stay in America.
"I've never heard anybody who's in charge of immigration enforcement ever say that they thought that they could deport 10 million people," he said.
The U.S. Senate last month prevented an immigration reform bill from moving ahead in the chamber.
Many opponents of the bill rejected its path to citizenship for illegal immigrants currently in the United States.
Mr. Divine said that the debate over amnesty for illegal immigrants is really "a pretext for nativism and protectionism."
"It's not really about 'the law must be the law,' " he said.
After hearing the talk, Bill Chapin, of Lookout Mountain, Ga., said Mr. Divine's "discussion showed the complexity of the issue."
"There is no single answer for such an emotional and complicated situation," he said.
E-mail Michael Davis at michaeld@timesfreepress.com
YES, we don't have slaves here now.
No he posts here on FR under the name Jorge
Guess not eh!
Go do some interviews.
They are willing to do stoop labor for a couple of years in return for a chance at the top end of the American Dream ~ not just the bottom rung.
Actually, maybe if this works I can get another 100,000, then another, then another, and next thing you know maybe 20 million ~ have to toss in some Chinese though 'cause I'm going to run out of degreed people at some point.
Anyone who opposes my plan is a bigot.
I'm ashamed he's from Chattanooga!
US citizens have the will. Our so called leaders listen to open border doofus’s like this guy.
People like Mr. Devine think his own opinion is speaking for “the people”.
We could deport illegals, it is possible. While they are at it, this guy can follow the illegals back to Mexico and lobby the corrupt Mexican Government to take care of it’s own.
Hi
Oh well, he probably still votes.
True enough.
“It depends on the benefits.”, “it’s probably not in our interest to ban children from school etc.”
Emergency care is fine. Everthing else is cutoff including education. We as a free people are not responsible to educate people who do not belong here, no matter what the Supreme Court says. Remove them.
“No decent people are going to agree to place a “tariff” on money transfers from people trying help their impoverished relatives in other countries.”
I don’t care about anybody’s impoverished relatives in Mexico. The government of Mexico depends on these transfers and it’s time they feel the pain of being without them. And a tariff will gain the US revenue in the meantime. If people want to send money to Mexico, go ahead, but there will be an extra cost.
“Your suggesting changing a law more than a 100 years old enacted to help slaves and their descendants.”
Nice try bringing in slavery and the associated tears and violins. The 14th amendment was never intended to create anchor babies for criminals. The amendment grants birthright citizenship for those under the jurisdiction of the United States. The children of illegals need to be declared outside that juridicition and all the benefits that go with it.
Enough with the emotionalism.
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What uber-lib DCprofiteer doesn't and maybe can't understand is that Americans would rather have a bit of economic rough road (debatable in itself) than hand our children and there children a balkanized, unrecognizable America with a new and huge permanent underclass.
No, DCprofiteer and his despicable ilk are too enamored of their lifestyle and their toys to think about the mess they will leave. He is a judas.
I would much rather do without and adjust our lifestyle down then continue down the path of civil war.
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Who says you would have to do without? DCP? Who is he? just a guy who profits from the illegals and doesn't want to see his good thing dry up.
No, I’m just suggesting that even if it came to that. No one has to put ideas in my head. Trust me, wtc, I got plenty of my own.
There are many that want things cheap for themselves (they assume) then they care about our nation.
We agree.
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