>>This young man has done yard work for us and has kept our children<<
How old are your children and what do you mean by kept?
How is he paying his taxes? Did he obtain a TIN, or is he committing a felony by falsely claming to be a US Citizen with a stolen SSN?
Any policy is going to lead to injustice. You base public policy on the broad public interest, not on the notion that it is going to be the best or fairest thing for every individual.
We either deport people who are here illegally or we don’t. That’s it. End of story.
But, rest assured, Salvador will get a “disappearance letter” telling him to show up at such-and-such a time for deportation. If he doesn’t show up, nothing will happen to him. He will go on as before.
“...he got a ticket for driving without a license. He got a license...”
OH? And just where did he buy this license? I’m sure that it was not from the state of Florida.
“He speaks without an accent and is as American as I am”
Evidently not you moron. Just another leech who we should deport.
BTW I wish my high school agred kids could make $35K a year and still have time for school.
I smell bovine excrement.
It is an interesting dilemma: here you have a subject who is being asked to undergo hardship for the crime his parents committed. I’m afraid there’s no easy answer.
Our laws have never been different regarding this issue, not when he was little, and not now. He was old enough to have done something about it, and he did not.
Now, he can come back the right way.
And how did he obtain a license at all???????
I'm sure for you it is very sad. However, the law is not written based on individual stories, and it does not differentiate between "good" illegal alien to "bad" illegal alien.
So, what do you propose regarding our borders and amnesty?
Just to clarify things, there are no warrents issued if you pay your ticket.
Sorry but that is the attitude so many of the illegals have. I am owed something. I don’t have to pay the fines.
Well thats just not how this country works.
Well Salvador, you are an illegal Mexican, so you got caught finally.
There I fixed it.
Bill, this is a great story. Thanks.
For every story about this young illegal alien who just wants to clean industrial incinerators, there are probably 30 stories of illegal aliens who want, well, to steal & rob & cheat & rape & murder & take-take-take from our society. It is a numbers thing.
It’s obvious your friend would be caught in a human tragedy if we managed to enforce our immigration laws. On the flip side, he and millions of his compatriots would have their backs against the wall and would face down the mexican guvmint to REALLY change so that this stuff simply wouldn’t be their primary option. It would be GOOD for your friend that his own guvmint is healthy, starting with Mexico, moving southwards.
Has he talked to an immigration lawyer? I have never heard of someone being deported over a car accident.
He was here illegally. He broke the law - he was old enough to know that he was here illegally. So what if he was a good kid, we have detention centers (such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Don_Hutto_Residential_Center ) that probably have plenty of good children of parents who made these decisions, but the fact is, he should not be here. If we let him stick around, we open up a door that can never be closed.
That is a sad story and I really hope that everything works out well for him. The problem is that our political leaders have not done anything, untill very recently to protect the borders and so we do not trust them. I think many of us would not have reacted so angrily to Bush’s idea of partial amnesty if we could actually trust him to carry out the border security part of the equation. In trying to ensure that our country is not over-run we probably have moved too far the other way. However, it is probably impossible to draw a legal line that will not lead to some injustice. Hopefully, you will be able to keep contact with this young man in Mexico and he will be able to eventually apply for a green card and come back to the U.S. Legally.
Perhaps you are frustrated with the do-nothing Senators, who only really wanted to inflame people by proposing the most preposterous, most outlandish Utopian ‘cure-all’ to this problem, instead of addressing the legitimacy of LAWS already passed and of finding very difficult but practical solutions to some of these problems and still serving US citizens, who have voted them into office so they can handle this sort of thing.
You might ask your Congressman — Why the difficulty for legitimate folks to get green cards? Or did this young man ever attempt to follow that particular law? You might ask him — Why is there no border protection at ALL, when laws have been passed and funded to take care of this very thing. You might ask him what the heck he IS doing up in DC, if his mandate is to serve the PEOPLE whom he represents — who also have sad stories, by the way.
There are sad stories of US citizens living at the border whose properties are trashed and overtaken by drug lords, but Congress will do nothing. There are sad stories of US citizens who have gone to emergency rooms but have not gotten served because of the numerous illegals who have overtaken that system. There are sad stories about US citizens in our schools who are barely taught anything because of the overflow of illegals, being taught in Spanish, who are NOT paying in any way, shape or form for their education.
There are plenty of sad stories to go around. The blame in this does not really lie in those of us who fought against the Utopian, illegal, thoughtless, preposterous bill that was proposed. It lies in those leaders who were elected to serve and protect their citizens, who chose the easy and soft road of appeasement and ‘feel-good do-nothing’ proposals instead of DOING ANYTHING.
“And if they don’t do their jobs, they should be kicked out of office’ I believe the Constitution reads, in slightly more formal prose.
So, you're saying it's okay to deport the parents and leave the child here? That's as dumb as anything I've read in a long time. Yeah, you're really concerned over the welfare of your student, arent you? Sheesh!
So instead of having a young tax payer who will raise a family, support his community and (God willing) vote Republican, he is going to a country he doesn't know facing a future we would never wish on our children.
What tax payer? Do his parents pay taxes? He's an undocumented alien. How does/will he pay taxes? And why is going back to his country so bad? Millions upon millions of Mexicans still live there. If its so bad, why don't they fix it? Hmmmmmmm? Why come here illegally and screw our country up?
So flame away. But at least have the moral fiber to explain in what moral universe this boy deserves this mess. If you can answer by 8:30 PM tonight, I would appreciate it. You see, that is when he is calling our home from jail to find out what the lawyer told us before he refused to accept the $7,500 retainer. Well Salvador, you are Mexican, so you are screwed.
No, he's not screwed because he's Mexican. He's screwed because his parents brought him to this country illegally. Had they obtained visas this wouldn't be happening. And don't try to lay a guilt trip on me, fella. THEY made the bad decisions. THEY broke the law. And the last time I looked, you break the lay, you pay for it.
You want to help him? You feel sorry for him? YOU pay the retainer. Heck, maybe you should pursue adoption, and see to hit that he becomes naturalized. You're so bleeding heart, well go for it. Put your money where your mouth is.
Actions have consequences. We have 12 to 20 million people who are in this country illegally. Both the boy and his parents must leave the country because they violated our laws. The boy can apply to get back into this country, but he must do it legally from his home country, i.e., get to the back of the line. We have millions of people waiting around the globe to get into this country. They have already gone over all of the bureaucratic hurdles. Because of quotas, they must wait for up to 10 years to enter.
Such anecdotal stories are not the basis on which to make good laws or policies. I am sure that there are millions of similar ones. There are also stories about illegals committing crimes and not being good "citizens." You have to place this story into a larger context.
This boy received a free, public education furnished by the US taxpayer. He received a much better start than those he left behind in Mexico. For that he should be grateful.
Salvador is "screwed" because his parents put him in this position. It doesn't matter if he was Mexican or Lithuanian. I see nothing in your post showing any outrage to the true wrongdoers. Yes, Salvador is a victim--of his parents and their illegal acts, just as children of drug addicts end up in foster care.
Did Salvador talk to any attorneys (there are plenty of free services available) about his immigration predicament, BEFORE he got caught for trying to dodge payment of a traffic ticket? Or did he just think he could continue on indefinitely until Congress accepted "the Human Side of the Immmigration Debate" and gave him a free pass?
Well, cry me a river. This guy is a felon!