Hilary couldn't win on this issue and neither could Governor Spitzer.  I don't think Gov. Spitzer dropping this had anything to do with Hilary's support or non-support.   It just wasn't going to happen. This is too much of an emotional issue with people to be reasonable at this moment in time. 

You're right--so long as they are illegal why not let them drive illegally as well!

And they're not already?

Probably till you run them out of town.

The schedule should go:

Day 1: arrested/hearing to determine if they are illegal or not.

If not illegal... release

If illegal

Day 2: Incarcerated

Day 3: Put on a "chain gang" to work at community service doing some job that "Americans just won't do".

Day 4: After sentence is completed... deport.


Day 3 would remove a major part of the incentive to come work... being able to send money home. If they are doing community service for their room and board only, there will be no money to send home... and I bet many won't want to come back either.

who said any of us on here cannot understand why they want to come here. despite what gene says that they all hate america.

Empathy is one thing, Joe; I can't blame them for desiring what we have, either. Sound public policy is another, however. Unfortunately, they not infrequently conflict. Taking your sentiment to its logical conclusion, we should sunset ICE, throw open the borders & let anyone who wants in to waltz right through. I fail to see how that would do anything but create the kind of impoverished underclass locally that you're understandably sympathetic toward elsewhere.

The other logical extension of your sentiment is for you to go where the need is & help them improve their own standard of living. Tough to contemplate, though, isn't it? Most of us, like you, thank our lucky stars; we may make contributions to overseas aid agencies from time to time but otherwise try not to think about it too much. A friend just returned on Thanksgiving Day after a two-week medical mission to Haiti, which she described as completely life-altering for her. As abject as the poverty she witnessed was, however, she's not ready to throw open the borders. If enough of us did something similar, things might improve elsewhere and reduce the desire to break in to the US.

Daniel,
good point. Sometimes, though, in this argument it seems people get rather racist towards immigrants, legal or illegal. That's what really bothers me in this debate.

I understand why. Sometimes, it's hard not to make generalities when we're perceiving a thin slice of life and extrapolating it to a general population. I'm gonna sound like a dick head American here. I was in one country and they screwed up my hotel, claiming the prepaid room wasn't. All I got was blank stares and "no comprende". My spanish ain't bad. I would have liked to have rung the kneck of the clerk behind the desk. After several visits, it was never solved. I had to have American Express deal with it.

Bottom line, I found myself forming an opinion of the people of the country based on one stupid clerk. Well, several stupid clerks. Perhaps some of the generalities were true. Probably not.

So I understand the racisim. But I still condemn it, whether in my own attitudes or expressed by others.

Here Here, Locamama! We'll be a united front of bleeding heart liberals on this one! Watch out Col Gene! You gots some competition!

Errr..., ummm..., can I edit that?  

which one of us said that they did.

If I lived in a shack in abject poverty, surrounded by disease, starvation, and raw sewage, I would do all I could to get out.

Let's just take it to its logical (and for some inevitable) conclusion.  Let them all in.  After all, 20 lifeboats could have carried the entire crew and passengers of the titanic after the iceberg.

Stevendedalus, thanks for the heaping dose of condescension

OK, I have to step in here, Loca. You're caricaturing our response, and I, for one, find it offensive.

Not one of us has said we don't feel sympathy for people in Third World countries. I agree with Daiwa that compassion doesn't mean be stupid and open the borders to simply move those problems here; it's far more involved than that. I've also told you this numerous times, so I can't consider your response to be one borne out of ignorance to my position.