Posted on 11/06/2008 5:57:54 AM PST by 3AngelaD
Tamar Jacoby thought it could finally pass this time. She believed months of lobbying by her and other supporters from businesses to labor unions to faith-based groups had paid off. A high-profile author and researcher on immigration, Jacoby believed in her heart that the majority of the legislators from both houses finally "got it'' that passing the controversial comprehensive immigration reform bill, the one President Bush endorsed, was good for America as well as for American business and the nation's economy in general.
Then the tsunami hit. An estimated 2 million calls and faxes poured into legislative offices in the days leading up to the vote last year. They came from a vocal, well-organized bloc of constituents angrily opposed to any reform that smelled of amnesty for illegal immigrant workers. The bill sank like the Titanic. Jacoby saw it go down in person on the Senate floor.
"It was a very bitter defeat,'' she said last week at an all-day conference on business and immigration at St. Paul's Neighborhood House. "I haven't had too many other painful moments like that in my life."
Jacoby, the event's keynote speaker, learned a few tough lessons. One was that reform-bill supporters were nowhere nearly as organized or vocal as the opposition. Another was the power of fear.
"In politics, it's easier to play on people's fears than their pragmatism,'' she said....
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
This issue will fade a bit. With a slow economy there are less jobs and hence demand for illegal labor. And, if there are job shortages I anticipate that people will be less tolerant of jobs for illegals when there are Americans who want to work. Lastly, with budget problems there is going to be a cry for cutting out offerings for illegals.
I have no idea whether or not the Obama administration will do anything to enforce the border though.
Enforce the border. Yes. But we need to increase legal immigration if we ever expect to get our economy to grow. Legal immigrants will buy those houses that are sitting empty and purchase other goods that will grow the economy. We need immigration now. If you want to see the result of a no immigration policy look at the Japanes economy which has been shrinking.
I’m going out on a limb here, but would like to make a prediction: By February 28th (if not January 31st) 2009, The Immigration Reform Act that we defeated earlier, will become law as McCain, Grahamnesty, Collins and Snowe (at least) cross the isle to vote with the Democrats.
I believe in legal immigration.
I think the unemployment/economic situation might give them pause. I hope you are not right. And in addition, how are they going to have time to do that when their first order of business is to pay off everyone’s mortage and provide everyone with a new call and cell phone? Plus, there is Joe Biden’s “test” crisis of the new President to take into consideration, and our surrender in Iraq. So much to do, so little time.
Democrats are more about ideology than they are economics. We seem to be much more open to bigger government and big government handouts when the economy is bad. A bad economy or an “apparent” bad economy seems to work in their favor.
This will give them 12-20 million new voters for the 2010 and 2012 elections and cement their powerbase.
She should move to France, she'll fit right in.
ping
Count me as one of the cowards ready to stand and fight illegal immigration again.
Yo tambien.
“. But we need to increase legal immigration if we ever expect to get our economy to grow”
How many? How many millions of ‘legal’ immigrants do you want? Remember they’ll all get chain migrations and get to bring their entire families, old and young who will be a burden. Check the stats.
The 20 million plus illegals we had sure ‘got the economy to grow’ didn’t it???
ALL immigration is a net drain on the economy.
“The National Research Council, part of the National Academy of Sciences, found in 1997 that the average immigrant without a high school education imposes a net fiscal burden on public coffers of $89,000 during the course of his or her lifetime. The average immigrant with only a high school education creates a lifetime fiscal burden of $31,000.
research shows “the net annual cost of immigration has been estimated at between $67 and $87 billion a year. The National Academy of Sciences found that the net fiscal drain on American taxpayers is between $166 and $226 a year per native household. Even studies claiming some modest overall gain for the economy from immigration ($1 to $10 billion a year) have found that it is outweighed by the fiscal cost ($15 to $20 billion a year) to native taxpayers.”
http://www.cairco.org/econ/econ.html
I will agree that illegal immigrants are more of a drain on the economy.
“I read Tamar Jacoby’s bio. She’s another commie pinko. And prolly a pen pal of Bill Ayers’”
She is a good buddy of Newt Gingerich. Remember, she, Newt and the open border lobbyists wrote the WSJ proclaiming Bush’s amnesty as the ONLY way to go.
I hope the following 14 reasons are read so many times that the readers get sick of reading them. I have included the URL’s for verification of the following facts.
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year.
http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border.
Homeland Security Report
http://www.house.gov/mccaul/pdf/Investigaions-Border-Report.pdf
12. The National Policy Institute, ‘estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.’
http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/publications.php?b=deportation
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. ‘The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States’.
http://www.drdsk.com/articles.html#Illegals
The total cost is a whooping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR !
It’s a 10 ton truck.
Something happened to Newt, and not a good *thing*. He should stick to writing History books.
And IMO anyone who calls for, or advocates for, more immigration, Legal or Open Border Lawless type plus Amnesty for lawbreakers already here, when the USA is facing a major economic meltdown and massive job losses for US Citizens, should be carted away and put in a padded cell asap. Or..... summarily shot at dawn ;-)
The Japanese have the 2nd best economy in the world.
One reason why our economy is looking better than it actually is, is because we continually have more output with less workers. Yes, the numbers are skewed reflecting an increase in productivity with a decline in the number of people actually working. We have been seeing corporate manufacturers underwriting the investment of machinery designed to displace humans.
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