Immigration: Who will lead us?

PITTSBURG TRIBUNE-REVIEW ^ | Friday, February 24, 2006 | Dimitri Vassilaros

[chuknospam]

Who will lead us?

By Dimitri Vassilaros

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Friday, February 24, 2006

There will be a pro-immigration march on Washington next month in opposition to legislation that makes illegal entry a criminal offense and authorizes constructing a security fence on the U.S.-Mexican border, according to The Washington Times.

An open letter to America:

This republic needs a hero. Someone to galvanize the movement to stop illegal immigration. America's citizen foot soldiers are at the ready in every state, county and neighborhood waiting for their marching orders -- waiting for a someone to fill the leadership vacuum. A Gandhi, a Churchill or a Spartacus.

America is seething... http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/mostread/s_426972.html

Dimitri Vassilaros

Columnist

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

dvassilaros@tribweb.com

503 Martindale Street Pittsburgh, PA 15212

http://www.triblive.com

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[gondramB]

"There will be a pro-immigration march on Washington next month in opposition to legislation that makes illegal entry a criminal offense and authorizes constructing a security fence on the U.S.-Mexican border"

Isn't illegal entry already a crime?

[USMale]

We have the "leader" in TOM TANCREDO of Colorado or
Robert Vasquez of Idaho. Both were up front in
battling those who are invading our country.

[TLI]

This republic needs a hero. Someone to galvanize the movement to stop illegal immigration. America's citizen foot soldiers are at the ready in every state, county and neighborhood waiting for their marching orders -- waiting for a someone to fill the leadership vacuum. A Gandhi, a Churchill or a Spartacus.

It's been done and it is happening now. Mr. J Gilchrist the invented the Minuteman Project. That is who I started working with in November, 2004 to construct and get running the Communications Center at MVBC. Once done with that we formed Texas Minutemen in the third week of April 2005, before the AZ project ended. We will be on the second TXminutemen project this April, which will be my third border watch operation. The east end of our Border Watch AO is where the recent border incursions by the mexican Military are occuring.

Got any vacation time in April?

[Joe Boucher]

This current group of babosos won't lead on this issue.
Trancredo is the only one with any stones on the issue. The only one truely pro American.
Throw the f-ing illegals out.
Put the military on the borders. Build that wall. Just keep them out.

[Blue Highway]

You have to wonder why we are better able to secure foreign borders in Iraq while our own is left so inviting for illegal entry.

SOLUTION: Arm the borders with militia, US military, drones, GPS, a high voltage electric fence network as well as LANDMINES!!!

Another crazy idea would be to dig a moat between the borders and raise some pirana or alligators.

With all the illegals "crossing over" maybe we can invite John Edwards out of obscurity to talk to the illegals from the other side.

[LowCountryJoe]

One of the basic problems underlying why no one with authority is really serious about securing the borders is because immigrants are a net positive for the economy; even after accounting for the drains that they are on social programs and health services, immigrants add more to the economy than they subtract from it.

Fences and additional patrolling will not work well enough and will be prohibitively costly, too. There has to be sound economic disincentives to discourage people from coming here illegally and we have to speed up the process in order to allow people to come here legally as long as they have provided full disclosures. How we accomplish the first part is tough to formulate but we should be actively advocating the second portion - possibly even getting revenue from it. You know how much money some illegals will spend to be smuggled into this country? If we charged them half as much as the "human traffic" scum does, we not only get proper documentation and revenue, they live without the fear of being caught and returned and our economy benefits.

[dljordan]

President Bush will lead us in repelling this invasion.....

[stephenjohnbanker]

President Bush is PROMOTING the invasion!

[Nuc1]

President Bush will lead us in repelling this invasion.....


LOL! What a sense of humor.

[PRND21]

We have the "leader" in TOM TANCREDO

Go Grifter Go!

[PRND21]

Anyone electable that isn't a Dem. The Dems will make Reagan's amnesty look gulagish.

[Old_Mil]

immigrants add more to the economy than they subtract from it.

This is only true if you are speaking of the controlled immigration of highly skilled, law-abiding individuals. Value in a capitalistic economy doesn't materialize out of thin air, and illegal blue collar workers bring nothing of value with them across the border. Unless of course you're one of those management-types who is pleased because lower wages boost your bottom line.

[PRND21]

Mexicans, Irish, Italians, Chinese, etc. have been coming here for more than 6 years.

[LowCountryJoe]

No! It's true of all immigration in the aggregate. Unless, of course, you are going to be stubborn enough to argue with this. This really does need to be read and responded to, if you expect me to discuss this with you further.

[LowCountryJoe]

Here's another worthwhile read that may shed some light on this issue.

[Old_Mil]

No! It's true of all immigration in the aggregate. Unless, of course, you are going to be stubborn enough to argue with this. This really does need to be read and responded to, if you expect me to discuss this with you further.

I am going to be stubborn enough to argue with this. For starters, the initial question is far too broad a grouping that fails to differentiate immigration over a hundred year span. Furthermore, if you add the statistics in the the last question about illegals, almost 1 out of every 4 "economists" polled feel that illegals are a neutral influence, a negative influence, or don't know. Finally, no "poll" like this can pretend to trump the hard economic reality of hundreds of billions of dollars that are drained from the economy through the problems such immigrants cause for the health care, criminal justice, and educational systems within this country. Throw in the social costs and infrastructure and we're back to my original point.