I've had it.

[BeerSwillr]

I've had it with illegal aliens, illegal immigration, and the complicit attitude of US immigration policy!

My 16 year old has been looking for a summer job for the last 3 months, what he's found has been surprising. Not only are there no summer jobs available, there are no jobs available, period, for someone with no experience.

So you say he's not looking hard enough? That the jobs are there, you just have to find them. HA!

All the entry level, low skill jobs that would normally be taken by teenagers and young adults during the summer are being taken by illegal immigrants, at least here in Texas. The few places that don't hire illegals have to contend with 10 or more applicants for each open position.

So who is this hurting you ask? Just a few teenagers who will be back in school in a couple of months? Just a few teenagers that will contribute little to the overall economic picture? WRONG!

You know the answer. It's hurting everyone. Teenagers would spend almost every penny they earned, contributing immensely to the overall economic health of the US. They would be in the malls, movie theaters, and restaurants spending their hard earned pay, leaving their parents free to spend their money on something else.

The illegal aliens? They used to maintain a low profile. Now, they don't bother. They can be seen everywhere; mowing lawns, planting trees, roofing & framing houses, working at the lube shack, pouring concrete, gathering at several official and unofficial day worker hang-outs in the mornings (when it would be extremely easy for immigration to swoop in and arrest them.)

Where you don't and won't see them is out spending their money (except for at Wal-Mart.) You don't see them at Bennigans, Chilis, Tony Romas, Cinemark, the mall, car dealerships, etc.

Know why?

They don't have any money to spend on the US economy because they're sending everything except a small subsistence back to Mexico.

The illegals are not here to help us or the US economy. Anyone that says they are here to take jobs that US citizens don't want is being disingenuous.

They're siphoning off millions of dollars a year from the economy. Not only by taking jobs, but a host of other ways; education benefits, medical assistance, government assistance, thievery, robbery, drug dealing, you name it, they're involved in it.

And what is the Department of Homeland Security™ doing about this? They're putting on a dog and pony show.

They're outlining major new methods of monitoring ports of entry, airports, etc. with biometrics, fingerprinting, radar, facial recognition technology, and who knows what else, while at the same time doing nothing to monitor thousands of miles of open space where, apparently, it is relatively easy to cross into the US.

It seems to me that simple reconnaissance flights over that vast unmonitored territory would be able to identify these border violations and put a stop to, or at least slow, this illegal invasion of our country.

The Department of Homeland Security™ is largely ignoring the issue. Illegal entry into the US continues unabated across our borders.

It makes me sick.

What can we do about it? Other than mew weakly and post articles like this on the large wasteland that is the internet?

Contact your elected officials and let them know what you're thinking. Let them know you will hold them accountable. It's all in our hands.

http://www.senate.gov/

http://www.house.gov/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

[Chi-Town Lady]

"You can't go to a McDonalds, Burger King, or other fast food place unless you speak fluent Spanish."

Do you write or call those companies and complain? If not you certainly should. If everyone who felt the same way about illegal immigrants invading our land would open their mouths and SCREAM everytime they had to put up with this nonsense maybe more companies would take notice.

[superloser]

America is a nation of colonists who actually *bought* the land from the natives, believe it or not. I've had this discussion with folks who *are* American Indians. They just want treaty enforcement, which I support 100%.

Now we're being colonized by the world. The cycle repeats.

[Lazamataz]

I know for a fact tiffany was being sarcastic--reductio ad absurdum. It was so sarcastic that it must have been plain. Guess it wasn't too plain.

Then she needs to be dezapitated.

[RinaseaofDs]

9/11/2001 and Gulf War II has kept GWB fairly busy.

Of course immigration is a problem. I think California of all places knows this more than anywhere.

Hispanics are now the number one minority in the US. GWB isn't going to do anything about this until after 2004. Legal or illegal, any attempt to fix the problem will influence legal minority voters to vote against GWB, and Rove's plan is to make bigger dents in conceded D voting blocs like Jews, Hispanics, and Blacks.

[new cruelty]

I would opt for the hard working teen ager who wants a job so he can buy a car, pay for a semester in college, or accomplish some other worthy cause.

[StoneColdTaxHater]

here is the link from here on FREEP about that lawsuit for the dead illegals: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/907941/posts

[kevao]

Recently the people who clean our building (all Latinos) were protesting their low wages. One night there was a group of about fifteen protesting out front, one guy with a megaphone: "El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!" A group of fifteen and they couldn't find one person who spoke English. Jeez!

[Conspiracy Guy]

I complain and when it doesn't change I go elsewhere. I am not a bigot or a racist but we are building a Tower of Babble. We need an official language before nobody knows what anybody wants anymore.

[Flyer]

Do you write or call those companies and complain?

I recently complained to James Coney Island, part of the complaint being the language barrier. (yum. . . I still have my apopogy gift certicate waiting to be used.)

[Joe Hadenuf]

The illegal aliens? They used to maintain a low profile. Now, they don't bother.

Oh, we remember that. Very low key and relatively quite, as back then most of them were actually afraid of being deported. This is no longer the case, and they are in your face. It's a government sponsored, illegal alien "free for all"....

[myrabach]

Excuse me if I am repeating others... but doesn't it seem logical that if illegals couldn't find work or services they wouldn't come here?

As long as companies continue to hire them in place of teenagers and legal Americans, we will have this problem. Yes, for sure there are many businesses that will not hire American teenagers in certain areas, and for good reason I'm told. Also, I know of an area where the McDonalds pays incredibly high hourly wages and then has to bus workers from Philadelphia because the locals think its beneath them to do MikeyD's work.

North Carolina packing houses legally import Mexican labor for the crabbing season to do work the locals won't... they would rather be on welfare than pick crabs... or let Mommy and Daddy mortgage the house for college tuition. [By the way, I understand piece-work crab picking pays @$40,000 for a 9 month season. And for the Mexican laborers... it all goes back to Mexico.]

Seems like there is way too much blame in the wrong place here. And boycotting a business because they hire illegals might sound like a good idea, but what are you going to do... ask for papers from every working Hispanic? How do you tell the illegals from the legals when you are ordering a hamburger?

When I was a youngun US Steel hired summer help and most of the young men in my area (Levittown and Fairless Hills) earned college tuition during the summer months... with plenty left over for a car and dates. US Steel is no longer, not to worry about illegal aliens... the steel production is overseas. So now the kids live off the old man's money.

Who do we blame? And more seriously.. what the heck do we do about it? I seriously wish I had the answer... or saw an answer in all these posts. Putting up an iron curtain across our borders just doesn't seem like a well-thoughtout plan to me... but then I don't have anything better to offer.

[new cruelty]

What evidence do you have, other than reductio ad adsurdum? The notion of securing our borders and controlling immigration is hardly untenable.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Do you think the SSA gives a #$@%? Man, wake up. The SSA was TOLD not to make a fuss about it because it is FREE MONEY for which the government will NEVER have to account. (As if they could account for half of it now.)

[Baseballguy]

Yes, its so obvious. Why dont we look at history? Its not those that have the jobs, it those that need to adjust to adversity. One has to look at the overall picture. Why settle for a low income job. Why not have the umpf to go for an office job. Look elsewhere that those can not.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Excuse me if I am repeating others... but doesn't it seem logical that if illegals couldn't find work or services they wouldn't come here?

Can I be truthful here?

Have you seen the crime close up created by illegal aliens? The drunk driving carnage? The murders? The rapes? Robberies? The never ending fraud and theft?

Have you stood at Broadway and Olympic in Sprawling Los Angeles and looked at the hundreds of thousands of illegals that have turned that once great city into a nightmare of crime, fraud, drugs, cheap tacky stores that are commonly seen in cities like Tijuana?

Ever walked down the big city, anywhere in the southwest United States, and looked at any given intersection, where you will see literally thousands of poor, uneducated illegals pushing multiple baby carriages, surrounded by crowds of other small children. While most all of the women that are pushing baby carriages appear to pregnant? This is on every single corner of almost every single intersection and bus stop. Are they all here to work?

Areas of once nice homes and neighborhoods now filled with 20 or 30 people to a house, involved in every criminal act known to man? So bad that every good neighbor, regardless of race has fled.

Ever seen the organized gangs made up of illegal aliens that prey upon the innocent Hispanics, women and children, or anyone else that crosses their path? Brutal people that don't give a damn about you. People that aren't afraid of your laws or your jails....

Do you honestly think these *millions* of illegals are all here to bus dishes and mow lawns?

Do you really think these people are not choking off our limited social services that were met for American citizens. The social strain caused by this is epic.

Have you ever conducted a criminal fraud investigation involving illegal aliens that make a living counterfeiting anything of value, producing fraudulent ID, SSNs, dealing drugs, prostitution, theft, robbery, and realized that's it's so out of control, so deep, so wide spread, that some people in the business have just fled, realizing this is borderline uncontrollable and down right frightening to even a seasoned investigator?

And finally, do you not think that the illegals that actually want to work are not taking jobs from Americans? Driving down the wages? Driving up our taxes?

Go take a look for yourself. Go alone. Spend a week. Take a hard look.

[SerpentDove]

>> Putting up an iron curtain across our borders<<

How about enforcing existing laws? Is that out of the question?

Employers SHOULD ask for papers from every working Mexican. That is the law. Is that unreasonable?

I don't see what's so outrageous about enforcing existing laws. But somehow, if someone suggests this, they are being absurd and unreasonable.

Crazy world we live in.

[Diverdogz]

I grew up in Alabama, and still visit on occasion. I was shocked when driving thru Hoover (suburb of Birmingham) at all of the Mexican restaurants. Most have Spanish language text on the signs other than the restaurant name....meaning it markets towards spanish-as-a-primary-language types.

Then, driving by the intersection of Lorna and Patton Chapel, you see dozens of Mexicans waiting for landscaping contractors, movers, construction contractors to swing by and hire them for the day. I'm sure there are other pick-up points, too.

My area (northwest Florida) is going through a condo and house building boom. The majority of construction workers I see are Mexican, too. These should be good paying jobs for american workers. While I can't swear that they aren't US citizens....I think we all know what is happening.

I don't blame the Mexican workers - they are working their butts off, doing a great job for very low wages. ...If I were in their shoes, I'd probably do the same thing. But it is our elected leader's job to secure the borders and protect jobs for American workers who will turn around and spend the money here in the USA.

[Scothia]

Você gostou do Brasil, meu amigo?

Gostei demais, porem sou sua amiga.

Okay, back to the Mothertongue now.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Putting up an iron curtain across our borders just doesn't seem like a well-thoughtout plan to me...

Speaking for myself I don't want to see an iron curtain either, just that the border is closed to illegal trafffic, and that all immigration is kept legal.

[Humidston]

BTW, I called Olive Garden corporate in Dallas (on MY dollar) to complain about really rotten service on FM 1960. (Two hours for a lunch.)

They never bothered to call me back, never even apologized. I haven't been back since! They pretty well convinced me they didn't need our business....