Latina Lista: News from the Latinx perspective > Life Issues > Children > Dept. of Homeland Security has deported over 90,000 children under the age of 17 to Mexico without a parent or caregiver

Dept. of Homeland Security has deported over 90,000 children under the age of 17 to Mexico without a parent or caregiver

LatinaLista — It goes without saying that the saddest element in the current enforcement of immigration laws is the apprehension, deportation or abandonment of children.
Stories surface every day of parents who were apprehended and fearing the same for their children, say nothing about their children at home. They hope a relative or neighbor will eventually realize their children are alone and will take care of them until they can be reunited.

A Mexican state policeman asks the names of two children who were deported from the United States to Nogales, Sonora.
(Source: La Jornada)

According to a new report released this week in Mexico City by the Population, Border and Migrant Affairs Commission, for every three adults deported from the United States there is one child abandoned and left behind.
But what is even more shocking and deserves further scrutiny from Congress and the American people is the documentation in the report that cites how in the first 7 months of the year the United States has deported 90,000 children to Mexico — children without their parents and who are alone.


The U.S. government has elected to disregard the safety and welfare of these children in the name of immigration enforcement.
The Mexican report revealed that 15 percent or 13,500 of these children, of all ages under 17, find themselves “parked” at the border. With no family and no way to take care of themselves. Some are either taken in by social service and religious agencies or are forced to live on the streets begging and trying with all their might to get back into the United States, or worse, are victimized by human traffickers who sexually exploit them.
The report further revealed that these child deportations are having a huge impact on those sectors of the country experiencing high migration and the Mexican government reveals it’s ill-equipped to keep up with the growing number of children dumped by the U.S. government.
The report’s authors are calling on the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. government to honor children’s rights and to repatriate the children versus deporting them. With repatriation, the children are not left abandoned but are returned into the custody of those responsible to take care of them.
Deportations merely drop them off without ensuring their safety.
While this report highlights the shortfalls of the Mexican government in providing substantial care for these children upon their arrival, at the same time it does not exonerate the actions of the U.S. government.
For that reason, child deportations should be halted until a full and consistent repatriation program can be implemented where children are delivered to family members or reunited with family in the United States.

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Comment(45)

  • Evelyn
    August 15, 2008 at 2:18 am

    In a few years white people will become minority in the U.S.
    People of color, who have suffered at the hands of white racists will become the majority.
    The Fears of White People
    Robert Jensen
    It may seem self-indulgent to talk about the fears of white people in a white-supremacist society. After all, what do white people really have to be afraid of in a world structured on white privilege? It may be self-indulgent, but it’s critical to understand because these fears are part of what keeps many white people from confronting ourselves and the system.
    The first, and perhaps most crucial, fear is that of facing the fact that some of what we white people have is unearned. It’s a truism that we don’t really make it on our own; we all have plenty of help to achieve whatever we achieve. That means that some of what we have is the product of the work of others, distributed unevenly across society, over which we may have little or no control individually. No matter how hard we work or how smart we are, we all know — when we are honest with ourselves — that we did not get where we are by merit alone. And many white people are afraid of that fact.
    A second fear is crasser: White people’s fear of losing what we have — literally the fear of losing things we own if at some point the economic, political, and social systems in which we live become more just and equitable. That fear is not completely irrational; if white privilege — along with the other kinds of privilege many of us have living in the middle class and above in an imperialist country that dominates much of the rest of the world — were to evaporate, the distribution of resources in the United States and in the world would change, and that would be a good thing. We would have less. That redistribution of wealth would be fairer and more just. But in a world in which people have become used to affluence and material comfort, that possibility can be scary.
    A third fear involves a slightly different scenario — a world in which non-white people might someday gain the kind of power over whites that whites have long monopolized. One hears this constantly in the conversation about immigration, the lingering fear that somehow “they” (meaning not just Mexican-Americans and Latinos more generally, but any non-white immigrants) are going to keep moving to this country and at some point become the majority demographically. Even though whites likely can maintain a disproportionate share of wealth, those numbers will eventually translate into political, economic, and cultural power. And then what? Many whites fear that the result won’t be a system that is more just, but a system in which white people become the minority and could be treated as whites have long treated non-whites. This is perhaps the deepest fear that lives in the heart of whiteness. It is not really a fear of non-white people. It’s a fear of the depravity that lives in our own hearts: Are non-white people capable of doing to us the barbaric things we have done to them?
    A final fear has probably always haunted white people but has become more powerful since the society has formally rejected overt racism: The fear of being seen, and seen-through, by non-white people. Virtually every white person I know, including white people fighting for racial justice and including myself, carries some level of racism in our minds and hearts and bodies. In our heads, we can pretend to eliminate it, but most of us know it is there. And because we are all supposed to be appropriately anti-racist, we carry that lingering racism with a new kind of fear: What if non-white people look at us and can see it? What if they can see through us? What if they can look past our anti-racist vocabulary and sense that we still don’t really know how to treat them as equals? What if they know about us what we don’t dare know about ourselves? What if they can see what we can’t even voice?

  • Frank
    August 15, 2008 at 8:33 am

    Why would these parents apprehended not tell law enforcement that they have dependent children at home? When the raid occurred at Agri-processors, those women with depedent children were equipped with monitoring devices and sent home to care for their children.
    Where were the parents of these underaged children that were deported? There was no mention of them whatsover.

  • Frank
    August 15, 2008 at 5:51 pm

    Most white people alive today are not racists and had nothing to do with any past racism by whites so what is your point about it TODAY?

  • Evelyn
    August 15, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    Where were the parents of these underaged children that were deported? There was no mention of them whatsover.
    That is exactly the point. ICE DIDN’T CARE where the parents were
    or are.
    The only thing they care about is deporting the children. Ice probably ripped the children from their legal parents arms to deport them.
    Maybe their parents were also illegal and sent to prison for migrating here. ICE doesent care.
    They are monsters, even the border patrol try to whisk immigrants back to the border for immediate deportation before ICE can interfere and seperate families.

  • JT
    August 15, 2008 at 8:15 pm

    “In a few years white people will become minority in the U.S. People of color, who have suffered at the hands of white racists will become the majority
    People of color, who have suffered at the hands of white racists will become the majority.”
    Don’t be so sure. Very large numbers of whites are getting fed up with the attempted colonization of our country by Mexicans and others. Yet Mexico has very strict immigration laws and would never allow the reverse to happen. We whites have the rights to our countries, our society and our language the same as anybody else. Yet all over the globe, our nations are being overrun by aliens, who will supplant our culture with their own if this continues. However, whites and only whites, are told that if we don’t allow ourselves to be colonized, then we are racist. THAT is racist. I have nothing against Mexicans, but they belong in MEXICO. If they don’t like the way their country is, they need to work to change that. As a white, I just want to be left alone to have MY country,language and culture just like Mexicans want to have their langauge, country and culture.

  • Carla
    August 15, 2008 at 11:03 pm

    Every country has immigration laws. People do not have the right to enter another country illegally unless they are fleeing for their lives. Mexicans are not fleeing for their lives so they don’t have the right to break our immigration laws any more than we have the right to break theirs. These parents who came illegally chose to break the law instead of going through the legal process. They know that as such, they can be caught and deported. If this happens, they should take their children back home with them instead of leaving them to fend for themselves alone. It is solely the fault of the parents for coming here illegally and then leaving their children behind when deproted.

  • laura
    August 16, 2008 at 10:58 am

    The situation of these children is so painful it is hard to even think about it. I didn’t want to read this post because it is so painful to imagine what these children are going through.And also what their parents, who don’t know where their children are, and who want to and can’t take care of them, are going through.
    It would be unimaginable for a civilized nation to be doing this. That is is happening highlights what kind of a rogue regime we are living under, and what kind of a rogue agency ICE is.

  • Frank
    August 16, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    WTH? Why would ICE rip children from their families if their parents are here legally? That would make these kids legal also then. I don’t think we are getting the whole story here. If a whole family is found to be here illegally, you can’t tell me that they jail the parents and then send their minor kids down to the border by themselves to be deported alone without a relative waiting in Mexico to care for them. Where is a viable source for this so-called practice of ICE?

  • Frank
    August 16, 2008 at 4:36 pm

    laura, you are unbelievable! You are blaming our government and law enforcement for the situation that these illegals find themselves in? They broke the law! They are responsible for that and they are also responsible for what their children are going through, not this counry nor our immigration officials. Is there no personal responsiblity in the Mexican culture?

  • jbillalpando
    August 17, 2008 at 12:18 am

    what kind of parents bring their children through the desert, they have even sent children as young as 2 years old with”coyotes” what kind of parents are those i say we are not responsible for these children mexico has do something about their corrupt government and feed their populaton so they wil stop dumpining their children in the usa so we can feed them and educate them!

  • Evelyn
    August 17, 2008 at 11:52 am

    Frank :
    WTH? Why would ICE rip children from their families if their parents are here legally? That would make these kids legal also then.
    E
    No many of these kids come years after their parents become legal. If the parents are legal that does not automatically make the children legal.
    In a raid if the parents cannot produce a passport for a child Ice deports the child.
    ~~~
    I don’t think we are getting the whole story here. If a whole family is found to be here illegally, you can’t tell me that they jail the parents and then send their minor kids down to the border by themselves to be deported alone without a relative waiting in Mexico to care for them. Where is a viable source for this so-called practice of ICE?
    E
    You think ICE gives a hoot if there is someone waiting for these children or not.
    I have seen with my own two eyes when the deportees are released at the border. Children and all.
    ICE is suppose to hand these children over to DIF which is a government agency in Mexico so these children can be taken to orphanages.
    Many times ICE does not call DIF to let them know they are releasing deportees.
    The story of this boy in the article had a happy ending because it got media attention and USCIS let him stay while his status is being worked on to be changed. Not all children are so lucky.
    http://www.antibvbl.net/index.php/2008/06/12/indefensible/

  • Evelyn
    August 18, 2008 at 4:27 am

    The Littlest Deportees
    New America Media, News Feature, Camille T. Taiara, Photos by Ryan Furtado, Posted: Mar 08, 2007
    Traducción al español
    Editor’s Note: Immigrant advocates suspect that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is deporting a growing number of unaccompanied minors who’ve been caught trying to reunite with their parents already in the U.S., even when the parents have status, as in the case of one 9-year-old Honduran girl. The child is under deportation orders as an undocumented alien. Camille T. Taiara edits NAM’s Disappeared in America column.
    SAN FRANCISCO–The plight of seven-year-old refugee Elián González riveted the nation when he was forcibly returned to Cuba in 2000. Today, thousands of children, some as young as five, travel north every day desperate to reconnect with their families, some of whom are in the U.S. legally. Many of these child refugees wind up being detained, deported, or temporarily reunited with family while under the threat of deportation. There is no home for them either here or back in their own countries.
    Dilcia Rodriguez is one such case.
    Two years ago, the seven-year-old Dilcia made the 3,000-mile trek from southwestern Honduras, across El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, with a nine-year-old cousin and a 16-year-old uncle. Border Patrol agents apprehended them after they crossed the Rio Grande into Brownsville, Texas. When the agents learned that the children had family in San Francisco, they were transferred to California and reunited with relatives.
    Their reunion, however, was overshadowed by formal deportation orders against the three migrants. Dilcia’s 16-year-old uncle eventually returned to Honduras. Her cousin was reunited with his mother who, like Dilcia’s parents, is fighting to keep him with her in the U.S.
    Dilcia, now nine, likes her life in San Francisco. She has been going to school, making new friends and feels truly safe for the first time, her parents say. So far, Dilcia’s parents have managed to stave off her deportation by filing legal appeals, asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to drop the case. ICE attorneys have denied the appeals. Attorney Lisa Frydman of Legal Services for Children isn’t surprised. “It definitely seems like there’s some kind of trend to deny requests to forego deportation proceedings against children with extremely compelling cases like Dilcia’s,” says Frydman, who filed the second appeal on her behalf.
    Frydman says she has seen two similar cases denied in the past year involving minors whose parents are in the U.S. legally and have an American child. “I’m in touch with advocates in different regions of the country where it’s also been a problem,” she says.
    ICE spokesperson Virginia Kice would not say what standards ICE uses when considering such appeals, or if there has been a change in policy. “We have a system of immigration courts and it’s appropriate to use them,” says Kice.
    The Rodriguezes now plan to file an asylum claim for Dilcia.
    In the spring of 1998, Dilcia’s parents fled Honduras and left her—only a few months old–behind. They say they were the targets of gang violence. “They killed my brother,” explains Dilcia’s mother, also named Dilcia, who was 19 at the time. “I was afraid they’d come after me. I left her behind with great pain in my soul.”
    “Honduras is overwhelmed by gangs,” says her husband, Candido. “When they attack someone, they also go after the family, because they think the family will make problems for them.”
    Honduran sociologist Ernesto Bardales, who has testified in more than a dozen asylum hearings on behalf of Hondurans fleeing gang violence, corroborates Candido’s account. The gang problem exploded in Honduras beginning in the early 1990’s, when the U.S. began deporting large numbers of Honduran youth who had become exposed to gangs in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Residents of poverty-stricken areas of Honduras, like the Rodriguezes were, are among the most vulnerable to victimization.
    Fearing the trip to the U.S. without money or papers would be too dangerous for an infant, the Rodriguezes left Dilcia in the care of her maternal grandmother. The young couple settled in San Francisco, where their second daughter Seidis (now six) was born. In 1998 they received Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a benefit the Clinton Administration extended to Hondurans already in the U.S. after Hurricane Mitch ravaged the country, and which first Clinton and now Bush have renewed every year since then.
    Only those Hondurans already living in the U.S. by Dec. 30, 1998, are eligible for TPS. The benefit doesn’t allow them to travel outside the country, to apply for permanent residency, or to bring relatives – even dependent children – into the U.S.
    In November 2004, another of Dilcia’s uncles was murdered, in this case, with machetes. Dilcia saw his body. Two months later, her aunt was killed.
    The Rodriguezes say Dilcia’s grandmother – the girl’s caretaker – was overcome by grief.
    The grandmother sent Dilcia on the journey north without telling her parents. The murders and the arduous trip north took a toll on the girl. A therapist at Mission Family Center recently diagnosed Dilcia with post-traumatic stress disorder.
    “Sometimes she walks in her sleep and she screams,” says Candido. “She’s always nervous.”
    Dilcia’s case may seem dramatic. But Gregory Chen of the DC-based U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants says that the increasing number of undocumented children coming to the U.S. has become “a serious humanitarian crisis.”
    More than 122,000 minors were apprehended by Customs and Border Protection agents in 2004, according to a report published by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General. All but 20,000 were Mexican, and the vast majority were simply sent back across the border.
    According to Chen, after 72 hours, unaccompanied children who remain are placed in long-term facilities run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. In 2004, there were 6,200 children. Today, Chen estimates the number to be closer to 8,000. Between 80 and 90 percent of them are from Honduras, Guatemala, or El Salvador.
    “Most have suffered trauma, either in their home country or on the trip here, and come from extremely poor backgrounds,” says Chen. Two-thirds of these children are eventually reunited with family members in the U.S. – but still face deportation orders.
    Many have suffered abuse or neglect, gang violence, or government prosecution, according to Chen. Often their parents had fled here earlier as the only way to escape abject poverty and violence as well as survive and earn money to support their families back home, he adds.
    “The basic question is, should the government be expending limited resources to go through the full deportation process for these children, who’ve simply come here to be with their parents?” asks Chen.
    Sitting on the sofa of her parents’ small apartment, donning her best dress, shiny white shoes and flashing a big grin, it’s hard to imagine everything Dilcia has been through.
    These days, Dilcia sings at church and is an honor student at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in San Francisco’s Mission District. She likes to jump rope and play soccer. But when the time comes for her to go to an immigration court hearing, she can’t sleep. “She cries a lot. She thinks they’re going to send her back,” her mother says.
    “She’s afraid she’ll be killed

  • Evelyn
    August 18, 2008 at 5:15 am

    For all of you who have no empathy. Dont even start blaming this woman for the death of her baby until you have walked in her shoes.
    When she heard her child cry out in hunger and her own belly ached from hunger, she did what any normal mother would have done.
    Risk migration to a place where she was certain she could find food. What did she have to loose? She could have stayed in Mexico and become another statistic of those dying of hunger.
    If you are one of those parents that say you would have started a revolt to “fix my country” then you are a fool.
    Until you have walked in their shoes refrain from making fools of yourself’s by posting stupid hate filed comments.
    Your Ignorance, Hate, Racism and stupidity makes many of us embarrassed that you are Americans.
    Many Americans have fought and died to preserve everything contrary to what you are and what you believe.
    Kidnapped and Repatriated: Children of the Border
    El Tecolote, News Feature, Rómulo Hernández, Posted: Oct 23, 2007
    Traducción al español
    It’s been just one year since “Lupe” left Veracruz, Mexico with her 3-year-old son. She was yet another humble woman who left Mexico to pursue her hopes of the “American Dream.” But the scorching temperatures in the Arizona desert took the last breath from her son. She walked several days with his small body. Finally, she left him at the foot of a tree to look for help.
    She was found by the border patrol but “Lupe” didn’t immediately tell them about her son because she was afraid they would accuse her of killing him. She waited until she arrived at the detention center. Authorities searched for her son until they found him. She was accused of his death and on the verge of going to trial, but the Mexican Consulate in Tucson interceded, according to Juan Manuel Calderón, a Consulate official.
    In other cases, when a young child is with a parent traveling the perilous border routes and they are seen by the border patrol, someone in the group grabs the child and flees, separating him/her from the parents or family members, according to the Consulate official. He did not clarify if this was the type of routine abduction that often takes place among human smugglers commonly called coyotes.
    If agents find a minor the Mexican Consulate is notified. Then, if the child cannot give information due to being too young or speaking an indigenous language, they search the child’s belongings for a phone number or an address, the country’s officials said.
    Frequently, when children show up at the border, they are alone, often carrying physical and emotional scars caused by assaults, blows, sexual abuse and accidents that they suffer during their passage. Others don’t make it to the border. They lose limbs as they hang onto pipes on the outside of the trains they hop on as they travel through southern Mexico. Not too long ago this practice was denounced by the U.S. Bishops’ Conference.
    Unfortunately, these dramatic stories are all too common. Out of 50,000 boys, girls and teens repatriated in a year from the United States to Mexico, half of them were unaccompanied by an adult, according to a recent report from Margarita Zavala de Calderon, president of a national family agency in Mexico, the Consejo Consultivo del Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF) de México.
    Looking at only the state of Chihuahua, in a three-year period (2004-2007), Mexican authorities say 27,521 underage children, of which a third were girls, were deported from the United States. The Mexican Consulate in El Paso, Texas, reported that there were children as young as the age of two.
    The American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF) reported a few months ago that around 2,000 to 3,000 bodies of men, women and children have been found along the southwest border since 1995, including at least 1,000 in southern Arizona which, according to critics of the migratory situation, is ten times the number of victims caused by the Berlin Wall during its 28 years of existence.

  • Frank
    August 18, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    For the most part Mexicans in Mexico are not starving! Breaking laws is not an option to anyone’s demise anyway. We cannot care for the whole world’s hungry. At some point people have to be responsbble for having kids they can’t afford to feed.
    Ignorance, racism and hate has nothing to do with Americans who want our immigration laws honored and enforced.

  • Del Hendrixson
    August 19, 2008 at 12:26 am

    Great Site you have here! I commend you for facing the adversaries in the USA – I was born white but in 1982 I went to prison for standing up for Mexicans who needed to return to see their sick mothers, to register their children in school, to work legally against all odds for this country who is not appreciative to the dear Mexicans and other oppressed persons in other parts of the world who are the backbone of this country. Yes I, a white person said this country was built with ‘brown sweat’ not black and not white – BROWN. Its always been that way. Yes some whites and some blacks work and build – but not like the Mexicans and other Latinos who continue to take the U.S. abuse. Why do white people bitch so much about illegal immigrants. Can’t they see how stupid they are? (I say they because I choose to stand with the Latinos against my own race’ I did not choose to be white – I did choose to have the cora xicana that may not be liked by the crackers but I could care less. I stand by ‘my raza’ – I stand up for ‘my raza’. Just because they arrested me and sent me to prison for helping Mexicans has never stopped me from continuing to help ‘my raza’ just not in a way that they can lock me up again. Women especially are oppressed daily, by forces around them. Women, listen to me! Listen to your heart and listen to your dreams playing out inside your head. They are not dreams – they are reality unlived. I call my life ‘walking the vision.’ We cannot change the world alone and we cannot change it in one day alone – but believe me WE CAN AND ARE CHANGING IT! – I lived in Mexico for one year way back in tha day. 1972. I lived in Brazil this year for six months. I love the Latin color culture and heritages. People act like the United States is North America. Mexico is also North America. They just do not like facing the fact that now ENGLISH IS THE SECOND LANGUAGE! For every young person we let go to prison we suffer the loss as well as them when they return. I was so angry after being sent to prison even for only one year 1982-1983 I was going to use an uzi and go kill people in order to go back to prison when Diosito spoke to me and told me to go and help those young people because there was no one there for them. This barbaric crime of not only removing hard working good immigrants and sending them back to their country only to break their backs and kill their spirit but to terrorize their family and their children by leaving them behind is a crime in the worst degree. It is true child molestation, violation of their innocence and emotional rights. Visit my site at http://www.bajitoonda.org and at http://www.bajitoondaclothingcompany.com because miraculously Bajito Onda somehow got discovered after all these decades in the underground just trying to survive society and hold on to our exconvict dignity and pride that we could make it out here and we could make it back from where we left off – we got discovered as a major cloting line by the idiots that make Godfather and Scarface – shit they know Bajito Onda is about something Latino but they do not have a clue. They put us in the urban legend division yet they refuse to list us in the clothing lines they sell wholesale thus limiting our ability to reach our raza with regular priced streetwear. they are at http://www.urban73.com – so when I came back from Brazil in June I started to roll back out the Authentic almost backyard produced streetwear that us common folk like to kick around in knowing that we represent someone and we feel the love and familia of it on our back next to our skin.
    So if you guys want an online store to represent your radical but very necessary defensive tactics I will make you one. Just contact me – U have my info. Also if you want to go go http://www.myspace.com/bajitoonda you can see how fine our stuff is and maybe people will start wearing it so we can show fubu ecko g-unit etc. etc. some real hardcore convict created arte, and some shit that represents who we are and where we been and united where we going – together. Once the underground rises the mainstream will fall – well they already are – we just gotta snap our plan of action together! – Blessings to all of you in the trenches…. YA LLEGAMOS Y NO NOS VAMOS! NUNCA! – Brazos Fuerte – Del Hendrixson – aka Bajito Onda c/s-p/v

  • Michael
    August 19, 2008 at 1:13 am

    It’s really sad, and I am ashamed to be part of this History of America. There is too hard for me thinking of the Physical and mentally abuse to this childrens. For Frank and Carla for you be my guest as the most Ignorant and Inhumane person.
    How in the World you are so careless for the Human being specially Childrens. Some took umbridge at the assertion that no American would do the menial work for minimum wages that the undocumented population do. Oh no, you cry, get rid of the Undocumented Immigrants and americans will be lining up to trim the trees, mow your yard, clean your pool, or whatever it is they do. You should Get off your butt, go trim trees, mow yards for minimum wage, oh, and in the evenings go to school, and learn the high tech skills to compete in today’s world. Then you can have bragging rights, and call me wherever you want. Stop complaining about Undocumented Human being Immigrants. There is no Ilegal Human being in this World. Stop being ignorant about the supply and demand, humanity, respect, dignity, and compassion for others. Hyprocisy is not a Family value.

  • Carla
    August 19, 2008 at 9:42 am

    “For Frank and Carla for you be my guest as the most Ignorant and Inhumane person.”
    It is neither ignorant or inhumane to enforce our immigration laws. EVERY nation has immigration laws. Mexico strictly enforces theirs. I and the vast majority of American citizens want our immigration to be enforced the same as Mexico’s. It is the fault of the parents for breaking our immigration laws and leaving their children behind, it’s not the fault of the USA.

  • Jt
    August 19, 2008 at 10:31 am

    “Why do white people bitch so much about illegal immigrants. Can’t they see how stupid they are?”
    Whites and other US citizens are not “bitching”, we are rightfully complaing. I live in a “sanctuary city.” As a US citizen, I along with the rest of us are FED UP with being bled dry by millions of illegals. We’re tired of spending 300 billion a year on free medical when 44 million US citizens lack medical insurance. We’re tired of spending billions on Mexican kids to learn english while our own kids suffer funding cuts. We’re sick of being victimized by criminals that come across the border and kill, rape and steal from our citizens. We’re tired of having our jobs taken from us and our wages suppressed by foreign labor(this hurts the american working poor), though I blame our greedy employers for that. We’re tired of having OUR culture and language supplanted by foreigners. No, I don’t want to be colonized by Mexico, call me crazy. Would Mexicans want their culture replaced by white Americans?? Hell NO!! Anyone would be crazy to want their culture replaced by someone else.”
    Enough if enough!!! The USA belongs to its’ citizens, and the citizens do NOT want illegal immigration and they want legal immigration severely reduced. It doesn’t matter what Mexicans think or what “Del Hendrixson” thinks.

  • Frank
    August 19, 2008 at 8:29 pm

    You are the one being ignorant, Michael. Americans just like every other country has the right to control their borders and make and enforce immigration laws. JT put our stance on this issue quite concisely and truthfully.
    These minimum wage jobs used to be done by young adults and the less educated in our country. And they still would if they were available to them. Even if we had a shortage of labor for those kinds of jobs, there is a legal way to come here. If we have quotas for less educated and less skilled immigrants it is because it is in the best interests of OUR country! Coming illegally is unacceptable.
    Right, there is no human who is illegally here on this earth but they can be illegally in a country when they don’t have the proper papers. Nice little spin there, poncho.
    Compassion for others? This country takes in more legal immigrants than any other in the world and we are also the most diverse. Don’t preach to us about compassion. Are we to commit national suicide by uncontrolled population growth via illegal immigration all in the name of “compassion”? Charity begins at home.

  • Michael
    August 20, 2008 at 12:47 am

    Carla,
    I am wonder how much do you know about the Constitution (We the People) and the Bill of Rights? Enforcing Immigration Laws does not give Authority to anybody to denigrate, Humilliate, punishment, cruel persecution and detention to any Human Being.!!!!!
    The Bill of Rights 1689 is a predecessor of the United States Constitution, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. For example, like the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution requires jury trials and prohibits excessive bail and “cruel and unusual punishments”. Similarly, “cruel, inhuman or degrading punishments” are banned under Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
    The Bill of Rights protects the freedoms of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom of assembly; the freedom to petition; and prohibits unreasonable search and seizure; cruel and unusual punishment; and compelled self-incrimination. The Bill of Rights also prohibits Congress from making any law respecting establishment of religion and prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. In federal criminal cases, it requires indictment by grand jury for any capital or “infamous crime”, guarantees a speedy public trial with an impartial jury composed of members of the state or judicial district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy. In addition, the Bill of Rights states that “the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
    Do you want examples of the clearly violations of thousands Indivuals Civil and Human rights? Then change your narrow minded position and being proactive to Humanity once for all.

  • Michael
    August 20, 2008 at 1:18 am

    When I talking about ignorant people; I do not need to go too far. Right JT.
    I want to pointed out some facts for you JT.
    1.-The money spending on Medical care are not for Mexicans Kids are for U.S. Citizens Kids.
    2.-Incorrect statement stating just because the Goverment spend 300 billions a year on free medical; 44 million US citizens lack medical insurance. Wrong
    Their lack of Medical Insurance because they can’t afforded.
    3.-Where that number come from? 300 Billions?
    4.-When you are talking about Culture and Language. Who do you are refering to? Do you want me to refresh your memory on History of this Nation? Do we learn and assimilate to the culture and Native Language of this Nation? No.
    The Native Language and Culture of this Nation so called America are endangered do to the Goverment and social Oppresssure.
    On the positive side language can enrich another—for example, by providing words and concepts not available in the other language. Most languages (including English) have borrowed words of all kinds. Learning another language often brings an appreciation of other cultures and people.

  • Evelyn
    August 20, 2008 at 5:53 am

    Carla :
    “For Frank and Carla for you be my guest as the most Ignorant and Inhumane person.”
    It is neither ignorant or inhumane to enforce our immigration laws. EVERY nation has immigration laws. Mexico strictly enforces theirs.
    E
    Have you ever been to Mexico Carla? What you state is simply not true.
    In fact Mexicos immigration laws are much more lax then ours. You dont need any kind of passport to visit Mexican border towns. Mexicans are not allowed to come to our border towns with passports.
    Mexico has even adapted a new policy when dealing with immigrants against the wishes of the U.S. who gave the Mexicans money to be more harsh with immigrants crossing their southern border.
    See Plan Merida.
    Illegal immigrants in Mexico will not be jailed
    By Wire Reports
    7/22/2008
    Last Modified: 7/22/2008 3:15 AM
    MEXICO CITY — Mexico will no longer jail illegal immigrants.
    A measure that takes effect Tuesday eliminates jail time for illegal immigrants caught in Mexico. Most are crossing the country from Central America on their way to the U.S.
    Undocumented immigration will now be considered a minor offense, punishable by fines equal to $100 to $500. Illegal immigrants previously faced up to 10 years in prison, although most were simply deported.
    Mexican legislators who backed the revision say Mexico’s previous penalties complicated efforts to lobby the U.S. to improve its treatment of Mexican illegal immigrants.
    ~~~~~~
    I and the vast majority of American citizens want our immigration to be enforced the same as Mexico’s.
    E
    I will definitely not argue with you on that point. In fact I fully agree with you.
    ~~~~
    It is the fault of the parents for breaking our immigration laws and leaving their children behind, it’s not the fault of the USA
    E
    Do you think it would be better if they did nothing and let their children starve to death?
    Self-inflicted wound
    Living in denial, the American Empire is blinded to its culpability in creating the immigration problem. By enabling US corporations to build manufacturing facilities in Mexico starting in the early 1970’s, the United States set itself up for a mass exodus across its border and, at the same time, betrayed its own working class. While the US businesses maintained miserable working conditions and paid a small fraction of what they were paying American workers, the poor in Mexico flocked to the jobs they offered. Unfortunately for them, many American businesses closed up shop and moved on to other countries once they found cheaper labor pools. Many of those factories were close to the US border, leaving large numbers of unemployed Mexicans living near states like Texas and Arizona. Who can blame them for risking illegal immigration to escape their miserable situations?
    Furthering its illegal immigration woes and deepening the plight of the American working class, the United States accelerated the movement of US corporations onto foreign soil by passing laws such as NAFTA. Utilizing neocolonial and imperial tools like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the CIA support of dictators friendly to US corporate interests, and even invasion, the Empire has bled the people and resources of developing nations like a vampire with an insatiable bloodlust. Besides subjecting the citizens of other nations to abject poverty, the Empire has slaughtered millions of innocent civilians with its behemoth military machine, and is continuing this pattern in Iraq. Employing the lessons of its early history, the United States enthusiastically enables Israel in the genocide of the Palestinian people.
    Stop the killing and share the wealth
    Why wouldn’t people flock to the security and prosperity of the Empire? After all, the rest of the world is a dangerous place considering that the imperialist United States has run its “collateral damage” count into the multi-millions despite its relatively brief existence, has declared that it is above international and humanitarian law, and invades nations “pre-emptively”. Since 25% of the world’s resources flow into a nation of only 300 million, some of the other 6.2 billion human beings are bound to show up on the Empire’s doorstep begging for food.
    American Capitalism and the American Empire are blights on humanity, particularly outside of the United States. They render far more damage to the rest of the world than to the United States, which explains why a small number of Americans expatriate while millions of immigrants flock to this nation.
    Congress will pass a law which will put a bandage on the immigration problem, but the wound will not heal. One piece of legislation will not come close to addressing the myriad underlying causes. Ultimately, the United States’ increasing trajectory toward a more brutal form of Capitalism with fewer restrictions on corporations (and hence less protection for workers and consumers) coupled with a rapid acceleration of the American Empire’s quest for global hegemony will spark an influx of illegal immigrants. Until the White American Plutocracy and their brainwashed adherents end their tenacious and destructive efforts to ensure the perpetuation of a “White man’s world”, they will continue to be plagued by an onslaught of “little Brown people” who speak a language that is “downright un-American”.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    What You Can Do About Racism
    THE WEAPON THAT RACISTS FEAR MOST IS TRUTH
    Express your opinion everywhere you see racism in word or action. Teach children and young people right from wrong, and explain to them the real reasons for the problems in the world, the poverty that causes crime, the exploitation that causes social pressures, and the stresses that cause outbreaks of violence.
    Educate yourself and others to the dangers and origins of racism.

  • Evelyn
    August 20, 2008 at 6:40 am

    Jt,
    Please provide credable proof for the statements you made. Proof from a non racist site will do. thank you
    Immigration: Getting the Facts Straight
    By Heidi Beirich
    Letter to CNN
    Center Urges CNN to Retract False Reporting by Lou Dobbs
    Almost every day now, it’s possible to hear supposedly authoritative “facts” about immigration and immigrants bandied about by politicians, major media commentators and even allegedly objective news reporters — statistics and other assertions that paint a frightening picture of hostile, disease-carrying and highly criminal Latino “aliens” bringing economic ruin to the United States. A case in point is the 2005 claim made by CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” show that 7,000 cases of leprosy had been reported in the United States in a recent three-year period — one of the “deadly imports,” in Dobbs’ words, that immigration brings. In May, the night after a CBS “60 Minutes” profile of Dobbs aired, Dobbs went on the air to furiously attack Intelligence Report Editor Mark Potok, who had been quoted in the piece criticizing Dobbs’ characterizations of illegal immigrants. Christine Romans, the CNN reporter who first brought up the 7,000 figure, said she had got it from “a respected medical lawyer and medical historian” — the late Madeleine Cosman, a woman who told a 2005 nativist conference that “most” Latino immigrant men “molest girls under 12, although some specialize in boys, and some in nuns.” As it turns out, officials say there are fewer than 250 new cases of leprosy each year.
    These kinds of “facts” generally originate with modern nativist groups and ideologues like Cosman or even unabashedly race-based hate groups, but that has not stopped them from making their way, often by force of sheer repetition, into mainstream venues like “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” In addition, it’s no longer uncommon to hear false or distorted statistics and half-truths coming from more mainstream groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform and The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and aired on innumerable radio talk shows and major cable programs like the Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor.”
    This kind of mass defamation of certain immigrants is hardly a new phenomenon in American history. In earlier periods, Irish, Jewish, Catholic, Asian and other groups were publicly vilified, often by our country’s leading statesmen, as lazy, degenerate, stupid, ugly, criminal, disloyal and more. Today, very few of the current roster of negative stereotypes — not to mention the conspiracy theories about immigration that are also increasingly widespread — contain any truth at all. But they play to an audience that may be predisposed to believe them; in 2000, even before the current immigration debate heated up, the General Social Survey published by the National Opinion Research Center found that 73% of Americans felt immigrants were likely to cause crime and 60% believed they were likely to cost native jobs. Today, in an even more poisonous atmosphere, millions of Americans apparently believe the lies touted by nativist extremists. What follows is an attempt to distinguish demonizing propaganda from reality.
    THE CLAIM: Immigrants are infecting the country with diseases like leprosy.
    THE PURVEYORS: CNN’s Lou Dobbs, in an April 14, 2005, broadcast, said an “invasion of illegal aliens” was bringing “highly contagious diseases” to America “decades after those diseases had been eradicated” here. Dobbs’ reporter, Christine Romans, stated that more than 7,000 new cases of leprosy had been reported in the previous three years. (This spring, after being challenged on that figure, Dobbs said that he stood “100%” behind it). Colorado columnist Frosty Wooldridge also claimed, in 2003, that “7,000 new cases of leprosy” had been carried here by immigrants from Mexico, Brazil and India in the previous three years. Patricia Doyle, a “health columnist” for the hate site http://www.rense.com, repeated that number on Peter Boyles’ KHOW-AM show in late 2006. The late anti-immigration activist Madeleine Cosman claimed in 2005 that “illegal aliens” were bringing in leprosy, malaria, tuberculosis and Chagas disease. White nationalist Pat Buchanan, appearing on Boyles’ show in September 2005, asserted that undocumented immigrants were responsible for once nearly eradicated bedbugs reappearing in 26 states.
    THE FACTS: The nativists’ favorite health claim, about the frightening disease of leprosy, is false. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “200-250 new cases” of leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, are reported each year. In a 2006 report, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the number of reported cases of leprosy in the country “peaked at 361 in 1985 and has declined since 1988.” The claim that malaria is being spread by immigrants also is wildly exaggerated. The Centers for Disease Control says the disease, which can only be transmitted by mosquitoes, was “eradicated” in the 1950s in America, although there is a remote possibility that a mosquito could transmit the disease from an infected immigrant to a native American. The reappearance of bedbugs is a real phenomenon, but is largely blamed on “widespread use of baits rather than insecticide sprays for ant and cockroach control,” according to a fact sheet from the Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. It is true that most new cases of tuberculosis have been diagnosed in immigrants, according to a 2002 government study. It is also true that immigrants from Latin America have brought Chagas disease; however, it is transmitted only by blood-to-blood contact, like HIV, so the risk of contagion is limited.
    THE CLAIM: Undocumented immigrants kill 25 Americans a day.
    THE PURVEYORS: U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), in a May 5, 2006, column on his website, claimed that a day without immigrants would create a far safer America: “The lives of 12 U.S. citizens would be saved who otherwise die a violent death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day. Another 13 Americans would survive who are otherwise killed each day by uninsured drunk driving illegals.” King’s claim has been repeated hundreds of times, sometimes by extremist activists like Clyde Harkins of the American Constitution Party, and frequently by radio hosts like Peter Boyles of Denver’s KHOW-AM. Boyles also suggested last year that undocumented immigrants had murdered 45,000 American citizens since Sept. 11, 2001.
    THE FACTS: King claimed he had “extrapolated” his numbers from a study by the General Accounting Office, Congress’ nonpartisan investigative arm, that he said showed 28% of inmates in local jails and state and federal prisons were “criminal aliens.” What the GAO study actually reported was that 27% of federal prisoners were immigrants, legally here or otherwise. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ figures on incarcerated persons, federal prisoners made up about 8% of the total incarcerated population. Given that, the 28% figure cited by King represents about 2% of the total number of persons in jails and prisons in the country. What’s more, another GAO study estimated that only 12% of the non-citizens in federal custody were there for committing violent crimes. The GAO did not distinguish between those who were in the U.S. lawfully and those who were not. Regarding the claim of 45,000 Americans murdered by illegal immigrants, FBI statistics show some 85,000 murders from 9/11 to the end of 2006. If the claim by Boyles and others were true, that would mean undocumented immigrants, who make up fewer than 5% of the U.S. population, were responsible for 53% of all murders.
    THE CLAIM: Undocumented immigrants are more criminal than natives.
    THE PURVEYORS: Dan Stein, executive director of the supposedly mainstream immigration restriction organization Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), claimed in a March 8 press release that illegal immigration poses “a real and documentable risk” to Americans. “Illegal aliens are more prone to criminal activity than the rest of the population,” Stein said. Twenty-three days later, Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the vigilante Minuteman Project, told an audience that it was “okay to say ‘rapist,’ ‘robber’ and ‘murderer'” when describing “illegal aliens.”
    THE FACTS: Several studies refute the notion of relatively high criminality among Latino immigrants (the vast majority of today’s immigrants). Ramiro Martinez Jr., a criminal justice professor at Florida Atlantic University who’s spent years studying homicide statistics in U.S. border cities heavily populated by Mexican-born men and women, found the homicide rates were significantly lower for Latinos there than for other groups — even though the Latinos’ poverty level was very high, and poverty and criminality are closely correlated statistically. Criminologist Andrew Karmen, in his 2006 book New York Murder Mystery, found the same trend in New York City, where the “disproportionately youthful, male and poor immigrants” of the last two decades “were surprisingly law abiding.” Robert J. Sampson, chairman of Harvard’s sociology department, reported in a 2005 article in The American Journal of Health that the rate of violence among Mexican Americans was significantly lower than among non-Latino white and black Americans. Remarkably, studies by sociologists Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut also show that second- and third-generation immigrants commit significantly more crimes than their parents, suggesting that U.S. culture somehow eventually produces more, not less, criminality among its citizens.
    THE CLAIM: Immigrants are depressing the wages of native Americans.
    THE PURVEYORS: On his April 1, 2006, show, CNN’s Lou Dobbs said that the “most authoritative” study showed that legal and illegal immigration was depressing native wages by $200 billion a year. California nativist activist Joe Guzzardi has claimed that wages remain “stagnant” because of undocumented immigrants. Similar claims have been made by almost all immigration restrictionists in recent years.
    THE FACTS: Despite what many view as the intuitively obvious relationship of immigration to wages, the fact is that most economists have not found a significant link between rising immigration and falling wages, the exception being studies in the early 1990s that showed a slight negative effect on African-American high school dropouts’ pay. Overall, the National Academy of Sciences found in a broad look at the question in 1997, there was “only a weak relationship between native wages and the number of immigrants” in a given place. This was true for all types of native workers. The one group that did suffer were “immigrants from earlier waves, for whom the recent immigrants are close substitutes in the labor market.” More recent studies have actually found a positive effect on native wages. The Public Policy Institute of California published a study this year that found that immigrants arriving in that state between 1990 and 2004 increased native-born workers’ wages by 4%. The benefits, attributed to immigrants generally performing complementary rather than competitive work, extended to native workers at all educational levels.
    THE CLAIM: Undocumented immigrants are “stealing” American jobs.
    THE PURVEYORS: The allegation that undocumented immigrants are causing native unemployment is pervasive in the nativist movement. Terry Anderson, a black Los Angeles radio host and hard-line anti-immigration activist, for instance, told “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on Oct. 23, 2003, that legal and illegal immigration was “killing the [native-born] work force.” Texas nativist leader Debbie Rawlins said in 2006 that “Hispanics” were “taking our jobs, our homes.” The far-right California Coalition for Immigration Reform has a billboard on the California-Arizona border that reads, “Demand Illegal Aliens Be Deported. The Job You Save May Be Your Own.”
    THE FACTS: A 2006 Pew Hispanic Center study, “Growth in the Foreign-Born Workforce and Employment of the Native Born,” found no evidence that the large increases in immigration since 1990 have led to higher unemployment among native Americans. The center examined census data on the increase in immigrants in each of the 50 states, comparing those figures to state jobless rates and participation in the labor force by the native born. Although immigrants tended to be younger and less educated than native workers, the report found “no apparent relationship between the growth of foreign workers with less education and the employment outcome of native workers with the same level of education.” These findings were in line with those of most economists, who have failed to find a link between immigration and job loss. “The big message here,” said University of California economist Giovanni Peri, who conducted a similar study in California, “is there is no job loss from immigration.”
    THE CLAIM: Poor immigrants cost native taxpayers a fortune in social services.
    THE PURVEYORS: Robert Rector, senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on June 12, 2006, that immigrants were exponentially driving up welfare costs. “[I]f you’re bringing in high school dropouts who aren’t married and have children out of wedlock, what are they going to do? They’re going to be on welfare. … It’s going to cost at least $70 billion a year.” Heather MacDonald, a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at its City Journal, wrote in 2002 that undocumented immigrants “do get welfare” based on having children who are born in this country and are therefore citizens (she did not explain how parents pulled this off). U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), citing Rector, claimed this year that low-skill immigrant households were costing American taxpayers “over $1 million per head of household.”
    THE FACTS: As a general rule, the federal government reaps a net benefit from undocumented immigrants in the form of Social Security payments that the workers are never able to collect because they are not citizens; it is the states, in terms of social services, education and medical services, that pay the bulk of costs associated with supporting the undocumented population. Even so, Rector and MacDonald’s claims are disputed by numerous scholars, including even MacDonald’s senior colleague at the Manhattan Institute, Tamar Jacoby. Jacoby, who studies immigration extensively, told the conservative National Review that while individuals might receive more in services than they paid in taxes, “they are growing the [overall economic] pie so significantly that that cost pales in comparison.” Jacoby cited a recent study of immigrants in North Carolina that reported that over the prior 10 years, Latino immigrants had cost the state $61 million in a variety of benefits — but were responsible for more than $9 billion in state economic growth. The same point was made in a 1997 National Academy of Sciences study that found “the less-educated immigrants who impose a fiscal burden are the very same immigrants who provide the economic benefit reported.” A major survey of the net effects of immigration, published in 2006 in The New York Times Magazine, cited only one economist, George Borjas of Harvard, claiming a negative net effect. Many other economists disputed Borjas. “If Mexicans were taller and whiter,” University of California, Berkeley, professor David Card told the magazine, “it would probably be a lot easier” for the public to accept the majority view of economists that the net effects of immigration, which is now predominantly Latino, are positive.
    THE CLAIM: Proposed immigration reform would vastly overpopulate America.
    THE PURVEYORS: Heritage Foundation senior fellow Robert Rector, quoted in a May 15, 2006, article on the far-right NewsMax.com website, said that the proposed Kennedy-McCain immigration reform bill would likely result in 103 million legal immigrants in the next 20 years. He added that the figure could reach 200 million people. Years earlier, immigrant-bashing columnist Frosty Wooldridge of Colorado claimed that current immigration “is pushing us toward 200 million added people vying for diminishing resources,” though he offered no support for his number. Other nativists have repeatedly made similar assertions.
    THE FACTS: As was quickly pointed out when Rector first made these claims, his numbers defy basic logic. His minimum figure of 103 million people is roughly equal to the entire current population of Mexico; to reach his high figure of 200 million people moving to the United States in the next 20 years, you’d have to throw in the equivalent of the current population of Central America, too. Several leading demographers told the San Francisco Chronicle in May 2006 that Rector’s projections were vastly overstated, ignored the effects of emigration, and used unreasonably high estimates of legalization and naturalization. The same month, a report from the Congressional Budget Office, specifically analyzing the Kennedy-McCain proposal, estimated that the bill would result in 8 million people legally entering the country over 20 years, a tiny fraction of Rector’s estimates.
    Immigrants today assimilating faster than those of yesteryear
    Or; “Your great grandfather was as slow, actually slower to learn English, and “become American” than many immigrants today.
    An assertion often heard in immigration conversations; some people are understandably so far removed their own immigrant ancestors they confuse their own family history; believing their ancestors arrived speaking perfect English, ready to completely separate from the customs and culture of their native lands.
    A new study by the Manhattan Institute puts some sense to it all. Best; it breaks down differences by ethnic group. For instance, the study shows that Mexican migrants assimilate culturally faster than many other groups. But their higher percentage within the illegal population and low education levels, undercut their assimilation rates in areas like home ownership, U.S. citizenship and is linked to high rates of incarceration and teen pregnancy.

  • cactus
    August 20, 2008 at 2:39 pm

    I’m your reliable source Frank. I work in Nogales, Sonora providing medical care and assistance to deportees. ICE and/or the Border Patrol are supposed to escort all unaccompanied minors through the DiConcini port of entry and hand the children over to a representative of the Mexican government. Women and children are never supposed to be deported between the hours of 10PM and 6AM for safety reasons. Well, I’m here to tell you that they do deport unaccompanied minors through the comercial port with all the other adults and they do it regularly. They deport women and children after hours. Most families that have been in the US any length of time are mixed status families meaning some of family members have legal status, some may be citizens and others may have no legal status. I have seen hundreds of families torn apart due to the unconstitutional practices of ICE and the Border Patrol. From tax-paying, homeowner soccer mom to street person in under 3 hours.

  • Carla
    August 20, 2008 at 8:48 pm

    “Carla,
    I am wonder how much do you know about the Constitution (We the People) and the Bill of Rights? Enforcing Immigration Laws does not give Authority to anybody to denigrate, Humilliate, punishment, cruel persecution and detention to any Human Being.!!!!! ”
    Obviously more than you. You are NOT listening. EVERY country has immigration laws. You can’t just walk into any country as you please and if you do and are caught, you will be deported. Simple as that. Deporting Mexicans and others who are breaking our immigration laws is not persecution or punishment or violation of the Constitution. That is silly. In any country, you will first be detained during the deportation proecess until you can be deported. You do not have the right to break someone’s immigration laws. What part of this do you not understand?

  • Jt
    August 20, 2008 at 9:43 pm

    “When I talking about ignorant people; I do not need to go too far. Right JT.”
    No, it’s the truth.
    I want to pointed out some facts for you JT.
    “1.-The money spending on Medical care are not for Mexicans Kids are for U.S. Citizens Kids.”
    Fact- when illegals come over here, they lack medical insurance or the money to pay for medical care so they show up at our emergency rooms. This cost billions and is straining hospitals to the breaking point. Several hospitals in the southwest have shut down. Furthermore, the children of illegals should NOT be american citizens. Citizenship should be by blood ie. one of the parent’s has to have citizenship at the time of a child’s birth. Even people here legally for a short time, tourists, student visas, temporary work visas, their children born here should not have automatic citizenship. That’s ridiculous. As I said, it should be blood or at least a situation where both parents are here legally and have lived here for several years before there child has automatice citizenship.
    “2.-Incorrect statement stating just because the Goverment spend 300 billions a year on free medical; 44 million US citizens lack medical insurance. Wrong
    Their lack of Medical Insurance because they can’t afforded.”
    Fact- I never said that just because we spend 300 billion on illegals, 44 mill. americans don’t have medical insurance. I said that we are spending 300 billion on foreign citizens when we could be spending that on americans who lack medical insurance.
    “3.-Where that number come from? 300 Billions?”
    Numerous legit news sources. Look it up. I live in a “sanctuary city” and it’s a mess. Things have so deteriorated. I know first hand.

    “4.-When you are talking about Culture and Language. Who do you are refering to? Do you want me to refresh your memory on History of this Nation? Do we learn and assimilate to the culture and Native Language of this Nation? No.”
    When european settlers first came, 99% of the US and Canada were not occupied or settled yet. Nomadic bands of indians who fought against each other made up only 1%. Europeans settled in the unoccupied areas.So there was NO native culture. Yes, whites treated indians poorly later on and that was wrong but that has nothing to do with whites today or mexican illegal migration.
    As I sais, it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. The citizens of the US, most of them, want this STOPPED.

  • Frank
    August 21, 2008 at 2:07 pm

    These families of mixed status can always go back to Mexico together. Mexico recognizes dual citizenship. Any children of such families that are U.S. citizens can stay here with relatives or go back with their parent’s homeland and return here when they are 18 if they so choose. There is no justification for parents here illegally to be able to stay here becaue of their U.S. born children. It is those parents choice whether they want to be seperated from these kids or return to their homelands with them. Stop blaming the U.S. for a situation that they put themselves in and claiming that is WE that are seperating families.

  • Evelyn
    August 22, 2008 at 2:08 am

    Frank :
    These families of mixed status can always go back to Mexico together. Mexico recognizes dual citizenship. Any children of such families that are U.S. citizens can stay here with relatives or go back with their parent’s homeland and return here when they are 18 if they so choose. There is no justification for parents here illegally to be able to stay here becaue of their U.S. born children.
    E
    es there is. Equality, the right to be treated equal to the immigrants from Europe who also broke the law by murdering 95% of all Native Americans and stealing their land.

  • Evelyn
    August 22, 2008 at 3:08 am

    Carla said
    You are NOT listening. EVERY country has immigration laws. You can’t just walk into any country as you please and if you do and are caught, you will be deported. Simple as that.
    E
    OK fine, by your standards then none of us should be here, because that is exacally what our European ancestors did and are still doing.
    Walking into any country they please. I am willing to go live 6 months in Ireland and live 6 months here, are you?
    As soon as you convince the rest of the Euro americans that because their ancestors just walked into this country without permission from the Native Americans and when asked to leave they didnt, it is wrong and we should all go back to where we came from. Let me know, maybe we can fly back togather.
    What part of this do you not understand?
    What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

  • jt
    August 22, 2008 at 10:08 am

    “OK fine, by your standards then none of us should be here, because that is exacally what our European ancestors did and are still doing.”
    Wrong. What was now the US and Canada was 99% unoccupied and unsettled. Various nomadic native american indian tribes that originally came from Asia and fought against each other, made up about 1%. There was NO country, just vast mostly unoccupied, unsettled areas of land. Later on whites mistreated indians , indians mistreated indians, blacks miestreated blacks etc. That was between 2 groups of people, long since dead. It has nothing to do with whites, mexicans or immigration TODAY.
    “Walking into any country they please. I am willing to go live 6 months in Ireland and live 6 months here, are you?”
    As I said, there was NO country, just vast amounts of empty land. No, I woulnd’t walk into Ireland, because they woulnd’t let me and I respect other country’s laws.
    “As soon as you convince the rest of the Euro americans that because their ancestors just walked into this country without permission from the Native Americans and when asked to leave they didnt,”
    There was no country and they were never asked to leave the continent. A large portion of white’s ancestors didnt’ arrive until the 20th century anyway. Again, that has nothing to do with whites, mexicans or immigration today.
    “it is wrong and we should all go back to where we came from. Let me know, maybe we can fly back togather.”
    Ok, the the US would be totally empty and the american indians would be back in Asia. Seriously, that has nothing to do with TODAY.
    “”What is good for the goose is good for the gander.””
    No whites in America today has illegally entered another country. Even if you were right which you are not, two wrongs don’t make a right.

  • Carla
    August 22, 2008 at 10:29 am

    (As soon as you convince the rest of the Euro americans that because their ancestors just walked into this country without permission from the Native Americans and when asked to leave they didnt, it is wrong and we should all go back to where we came from. Let me know, maybe we can fly back togather.}
    Evelyn, please stop playing the guilt trip because whites today done no such thing. As someone on here said earlier, we are talking about today and today people do not have the right to enter another country without permission.
    PS-Evelyn, if I break into your house because I like yours better , take money out of your dresser and help myself to your food and wear your clothes, and when you demand I leave, I tell you I have a right to be in your home because I like yours better and I want a better life and other people have broken into homes in the past so it’s ok for me, is that ok? Will you let me stay or call the cops? What’s good for the goose….

  • Frank
    August 22, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    Evelyn, that was over 200 years ago! Since then we have become a soveirgn nation, with borders and with IMMIGRATION LAWS! THINGS CHANGE! THE WAY THINGS WERE DONE BACK THEN COMPARED TO THESE MODERN TIMES NOW IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT IN TODAY’S WORLD! Most of us who are alive today were born here. Most of our ancestors didn’t kill any native indians, our ancestors came well after that occured. We are not responsible for what people did in the past and we have the right to govern this country as we see fit TODAY! Those who are of so-called “indigenous” blood (Latinos) have the second highest quotas for legal immigration into our country and only by a few percentage points. Why do Latinos think they are entitled to the whole continent, especially if their ancestor’s tribes only occupied part of this continent? They are the majority in 22 countries on the Western Hemisphrere!
    Re-hashing the past over and over is not productive or relevant in solving immigration issue.

  • Frank
    August 22, 2008 at 3:07 pm

    By the way, the percentage of white Europeans migrating here today is minute compared to Asians and Latinos. Why aren’t you beating up on the Asians coming here?

  • manny
    August 23, 2008 at 12:04 pm

    The thought of children being deported is appalling and needs to be stop. If we call ourselves a civilized country we cant do that. I will be so happy the day this administration and the hate filled chertoff and meyers are gone. They have used 911 committed by arabs as a way to go after Latinos.
    “the US and Canada was 99% unoccupied and unsettled” whites love to think that in order to feel better about what they did. Even more so once you killed most of them off.
    Don’t talk to me about American culture because there is no such thing, it all borrowed from other cultures. Real American culture is something that would scare most of the haters because you have to look at native Americans [south or north] for that.
    frank– does not matter what you think about birth right the 14 amendment is clear.
    *Give us the same immigration policy that your ancestors had…we’ll take it. That was the sign in at the door policy.
    *Remember that TX, AZ,NM and California were northern Mexico and part of a defined country before a war was made up in order to steal these territories and after those areas were stolen most brown people were ‘relocated’ to mexico.* Most of us mestizos have been here way longer than most of you Euro Americans were just saying were tired of you guys making the rules and in the future you going to see the Latino vote sway policy.

  • JT
    August 24, 2008 at 2:05 am

    “The thought of children being deported is appalling and needs to be stop. If we call ourselves a civilized country we cant do that.”
    The children of those being deported belong with their parents. There is nothing “appalling” about that. What is appalling is parent’s who come here illegally and leave their kids behind to fend for themselves. I would never do that.
    “the US and Canada was 99% unoccupied and unsettled” whites love to think that in order to feel better about what they did.”
    These are facts. Non-whites have changed the facts to make themselves the victims and make whites feel guilty so they can take advantage of us. The US and Canada were vast, mostly empty places. Various nomadi Indian tribes only made up about 1% of the land. Later, Indians were treated poorly by whites and that was wrong but that was between two groups of people, all dead.
    “Even more so once you killed most of them off.”
    Some were killed but most were not, again that was wrong but that was the past and if you look at the past, non-whites were every bit as brutal. Do we blame Blacks today for selling their ancestors into slavery, what about the ancestors of the Aztecs, who practiced human sacrifice. Whites today are not responsible for what happened in the past any more than non-whites are.
    “does not matter what you think about birth right the 14 amendment is clear.
    *Give us the same immigration policy that your ancestors had…we’ll take it. That was the sign in at the door policy.”
    Actually, the 14 amendment has been misinterpreted. It does not say that people born to those illegally here should be citizens. Our ancestors were never allowed to come illegally.
    “Don’t talk to me about American culture because there is no such thing, it all borrowed from other cultures.”
    Of course there is. Over time, a unique American culture formed though there were other cultural influences.
    “Remember that TX, AZ,NM and California were northern Mexico and part of a defined country before a war was made up in order to steal these territories and after those areas were stolen most brown people were ‘relocated’ to mexico.* ”
    Big myth, even a lot of whites believe this one. Mexico instigated war with Texas and the US. The conflict was over Texas. Mexico thought it could win. When it realized it couldn’t, Mexico wanted to call a truce, and the US agreed. Both Mexico and Texas sat down and compromised and worked out an agreement. They agreed together on where the borders between the two nations should be, and the US agreed to pay a Mexico a large sum for these lands which it did. The US also agreed to forgive Mexico its’ debt to the US. These territories were sparsely populated and considered wasteland by Mexico. However, later whites turned this wasteland into a success, something Mexicans were never able to do. Then suddenly, they created the “whites stole from us myth.” Truth is if you don’t like it, blame the Mexican government at the time. It has nothing to do with people today.
    “Most of us mestizos have been here way longer than most of you Euro Americans were just saying were tired of you guys making the rules and in the future you going to see the Latino vote sway policy. ”
    We whites, in the US and Canada, have the right to make the rules because these are OUR countries, we created them. Whites were in the US and Canada far longer than mestizos(Indians aren’t “mestizos”) You mestizos have your own countries and cultures where you make the rules(Mexico, Central and South America). If the policies mestizos made were any good, Mexico and the rest of Latin america would be a success. If you come here and change our policies, we’ll end up just like Mexico and they’ll be no more “whitey” to leach off of.

  • FLower
    August 24, 2008 at 2:49 am

    Manny, it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks on illegal immigration from mexico because it will stop some day. Mexicans leave mexico because it’s run by mexicans, plain and simple. They naturally want to come to a mostly white country because they’ll have a better quality of life in a country run by whites. Problem is,if this keeps up, mexicans will become a huge majority and the US will no longer be a white country and the mexicans will simply recreate the same type of country they left behind. As such, illegal immigrants will stop coming because this nation will be just like mexico and they’ll be nothing to come to.

  • Evelyn
    August 24, 2008 at 3:41 am

    jt said
    . What was now the US and Canada was 99% unoccupied and unsettled. Various nomadic native american indian tribes that originally came from Asia and fought against each other, made up about 1%. There was NO country, just vast mostly unoccupied, unsettled areas of land.
    E
    In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.
    Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them. From the astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, which had running water, immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city, to the Mexican corn that was so carefully created in a specialized breeding process that it has been called man’s first feat of genetic engineering, Indians were not living lightly on the land but were landscaping and manipulating their world in ways that we are only now beginning to understand. Challenging and surprising, this a transformative new look at a rich and fascinating world we only thought we knew.
    http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400032051
    In his book on page 104 Mann states:
    Based on their work and his own, Dobson argued that the Indian population in 1491 was between 90 and 110 million people. Another way of saying this is that when Columbus sailed more people lived in the Americas than in Europe.
    This book is a good read.
    ~~~~
    Ok, the the US would be totally empty and the american indians would be back in Asia.
    E
    Wrong! Native American First Peoples didnt murder rape or use genocide on anyone. Native American Indians were the FIRST PEOPLE here. Duhhh
    Even if you were right which you are not, denial will get you nowhere. You cant convince others who know the TRUTH of what you have convinced yourself.
    BTW if you are going to demand immigrants learn English immediately upon arrival why havent you?
    You’re grammer is pathetic for an American.

  • Evelyn
    August 24, 2008 at 4:11 am

    Carla said
    Evelyn, please stop playing the guilt trip because whites today done no such thing.
    E
    I don’t quite understand what you are saying about “whites done no such thing.”
    If you are refering to the FACTS I state about the European Invasion of America, there are a number of books and many articles on the Internet you can read about this issue. That is not white guilt it is based on FACT and TRUTH.
    ~~~~~~
    As someone on here said earlier, we are talking about today and today people do not have the right to enter another country without permission.
    E
    Oh so you think the white people did have the right to invade America.
    Kill 95% of the indigenous population and steal their lands.
    Stripe the Indians of their Language their culture and their spirituality, relegate them to third class citizens and force them to live on reservations or push them to live in countries created by colonist’s borders, and then suck those countries dry .
    Migrants who walk across arbitrary borders imposed on their land dont have the same right? Why?
    LOL! Tell me why? Because they are NOT White and it is NOT their “Manifest Destiny” LOL! Yeah Right!
    How RACIST!
    ~~~~~
    PS-Evelyn, if I break into your house because I like yours better , take money out of your dresser and help myself to your food and wear your clothes, and when you demand I leave, I tell you I have a right to be in your home because I like yours better and I want a better life and other people have broken into homes in the past so it’s ok for me, is that ok? Will you let me stay or call the cops? What’s good for the goose….
    E
    What are you talking about “if I could?” Your ancestors already did!

  • Evelyn
    August 24, 2008 at 8:09 am

    Frank said:
    Evelyn, that was over 200 years ago! Since then we have become a soveirgn nation, with borders and with IMMIGRATION LAWS! THINGS CHANGE!
    E
    Yes they do and it is time for change again. CIR IN 09!
    ~~~~
    THE WAY THINGS WERE DONE BACK THEN COMPARED TO THESE MODERN TIMES NOW IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT IN TODAY’S WORLD! Most of us who are alive today were born here. Most of our ancestors didn’t kill any native indians, our ancestors came well after that occured. We are not responsible for what people did in the past and we have the right to govern this country as we see fit TODAY! Those who are of so-called “indigenous” blood (Latinos) have the second highest quotas for legal immigration into our country and only by a few percentage points. Why do Latinos think they are entitled to the whole continent, especially if their ancestor’s tribes only occupied part of this continent? They are the majority in 22 countries on the Western Hemisphrere!
    Re-hashing the past over and over is not productive or relevant in solving immigration issue.
    E
    Exactly. I dont understand why you keep repeating the same regeritated BS when we all know your motives for not wanting immigrants here are racist.
    Not based on any credable reason but because you dont like Hispanics. You even admitted you feared them. That is racism.

  • Frank
    August 24, 2008 at 8:32 am

    Even if those two are gone, we will still have an ICE department with the same policies. It is utter BS to state that 9/11 was an excuse to go after Latinos! It just made us realize how we need to secure our ports, airspace and borders better than we have. Are Latinos the only illegal aliens in this country? That is what you are implying by your statement. Do you think it is only those looking for work that are crashing our borders? No, those from known terrorist countreis are doing so also.
    It is utter BS also to state that there is no U.S. culture. It is a blended culture that has arisen with its own unique one out of the blend.
    It may not matter what I or others think about the 14th Amendment, IT CAN BE RE-INTERPRETED THE WAY IT WAS MEANT TO BE BY THE SUPREME COURT!
    My ancestors had to come under the same policies and immigration laws that we are expecting from potential immigrants today!
    As I have stated over and over in here, Latinos are only second to Asians by a few percentage points for legal immigration into our country. So what is your problem?
    Again with the damned “Native American” argument! I am so sick of using the past to justify the present.
    You and your ilk are trying to say that due to past historical events; namely, the conquering of the Native Tribes in this country, that we do not EVER have the right to establish immigration policies which benefit the nation and its citizens!
    By this rationale, no country in this hemisphere has the right to establish immigration laws and enforce them! In fact, no body any where in the world does because there are very few people who are living on the same lands as their ancestors did thousands of years ago! Lands have exchanged hands back and forth and various peoples have conquered and been conquered. That’s the history of the world. Why is it ONLY AMERICANS who are singled out? Marxism is the answer. Those like you won’t stop until we are a Marxist/Socialist country.
    And back to the “this is our land” BS again! Another one that I’m good and sick of! The operative word here is “WAS” Northern Mexico.” And guess what?? If that war hadn’t been fought and Northern Mexico hadn’t become part of the U.S., the lands that are now CA, TX, NM, and AZ would be in the same SORRY SHAPE as the REST OF MEXICO IS NOW! And what about the REST OF THE U.S. Was MN and PA and MA also “part of Northern Mexico?” So, what is your excuse for the illegal invasion of THOSE STATES?
    And no, you “Mestizos” HAVEN’T been “here” longer than Euro-Americans. First of all, if you are “Mestizo” you have European ancestors also (THE SPANISH). Your indigenous homelands are 1,000 miles SOUTH of the U.S. border in what is now Southern Mexico/Central America. Your homelands were NOT here in the U.S.
    And one last thing: instead of actually fighting for this country militarily, sounds like you are waging a sneaky, dishonest game of demographic warfare, resulting in a political “take over.” And, of course, if Americans object, WE are the racists!

  • Terry
    August 24, 2008 at 9:31 pm

    The real downside is the children are left to fend for themselves. There is a fix and it is simple if you’re in our country illegally then deport you, if you are a minor then place you in a children’s home here in the US and then if a legal custodian does not claim you then place the child up for adoption to a home in the US where they will be US citizens and can have all of the benefits that comes with being a citizen.
    If they are serious about wanting what is best for the children then they would agree.

  • Frank
    August 25, 2008 at 8:09 pm

    If you call me a racist one more time, I am out of here!!! Do you understand that*#$%$! Marisa, this is the last time. It is her or me! Your choice!
    Fear isn’t racism you stupid twit! There is justification for all kinds of fears! You don’t even have a clue what racism is and yet you throw it around here like a football. This is your last warning!!!!!!!!!!!
    (edited by Latina Lista moderator)

  • Carla
    August 26, 2008 at 7:55 am

    (PS-Evelyn, if I break into your house because I like yours better , take money out of your dresser and help myself to your food and wear your clothes, and when you demand I leave, I tell you I have a right to be in your home because I like yours better and I want a better life and other people have broken into homes in the past so it’s ok for me, is that ok? Will you let me stay or call the cops? What’s good for the goose….)
    E
    {What are you talking about “if I could?” Your ancestors already did!)
    No, my ancestors didn’t. My ancestors didn’t come until the 20th century and they came legally. They had to undergo strict procedures to enter. As a matter of fact, any immigrants(at the time they were all white) entering Ellis Island were not allowed in if they were physically or mentally ill or thought to be a burden on society. The rules were very strict.

  • Carla
    August 26, 2008 at 8:06 am

    (By this rationale, no country in this hemisphere has the right to establish immigration laws and enforce them! In fact, no body any where in the world does because there are very few people who are living on the same lands as their ancestors did thousands of years ago! Lands have exchanged hands back and forth and various peoples have conquered and been conquered. That’s the history of the world.)
    Good point, Frank. Under Evelyn’s guidelines, Spaniards today would have the right to enter Mexico illegally since they had the land first. Since some Spaniards have ancestors from other places, these too would have the right to enter Mexico. The British would have the right to the northeastern US since they were there first, part of Poland would be returned to Germany as well as many Asian,Latin American and African nations changing boundaries or changing hands. The notion that because there were a only a few Indian tribes in North America when whites first came, means that a couple of hundred years later, the US must let in Mexicans illegally is absurd. The two are not related as issues.

  • Journalist
    September 8, 2008 at 2:51 pm

    I am an Arizona student journalist working for an online publication covering Border Issues. I would like to interview people about this story, to “Cactus,” please send me an e-mail and I would love to publicize this issue. Anyone working with relevant social services or religious communities that may encounter these children/deportees please e-mail me at serotoninflood @ gmail .com

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