Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 03/27/06 6:16 pm:
att. President Bush :

there is nothing so permanent and a temporary worker .

Clarification/Follow-up by JBodine on 03/27/06 8:45 pm:
Monday, March 27, 2006 11:39 a.m. EST

Justice Dept. Figures on Incarcerated Illegals

One of the more popular claims by illegal immigration proponents is that those who enter the U.S. by breaking the law are invariably "hard-working" and "law-abiding" once they get here.

That argument, however, has one major flaw. According to Justice Department statistics and the analysis of immigration experts, the "law-abiding" claim often isn't true.
As Investors Business Daily reported in March 2005:
"The U.S. Justice Department estimated that 270,000 illegal immigrants served jail time nationally in 2003. Of those, 108,000 were in California. Some estimates show illegals now make up half of California's prison population, creating a massive criminal subculture that strains state budgets and creates a nightmare for local police forces."

Citing an Urban Institute study, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies Steven Camorata noted in 2004: "Roughly 17 percent of the prison population at the federal level are illegal aliens. That's a huge number since illegal aliens only account for about 3 percent of the total population."

Former California Gov. Pete Wilson places the percentage of illegal aliens in U.S. prisons even higher. In 2001, he told Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly:
"We had problems related to the costs of educating children who were acknowledged to be in the country illegally, healthcare costs. One in five in our prison population were illegal immigrants who had been convicted of a felony after entering the country illegally."

The Federation for American Immigration Reform also turned to the Justice Department to get statistics on criminal aliens. They report:
"In March 2000, Congress made public Department of Justice statistics showing that, over the previous five years, the INS had released over 35,000 criminal aliens instead of deporting them. Over 11,000 of those released went on to commit serious crimes, over 1,800 of which were violent ones [including 98 homicides, 142 sexual assaults, and 44 kidnappings].

"In 2001, thanks to a decision by the Supreme Court, the INS was forced to release into our society over 3,000 criminal aliens [who collectively had been convicted of 125 homicides, 387 sex offenses, and 772 assault charges]."
Up to a third of the U.S. federal prison population is composed of non-citizens, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons statistics - but not all non-citizen prison inmates are illegal aliens.

As to the "hard-working" claim, CIS notes: "The proportion of immigrant-headed households using at least one major welfare program is 24.5 percent compared to 16.3 percent for native households."
Investor's Business Daily concurs: "Once [illegals] get here, they are 50 percent more likely to be on welfare than citizens."


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Monday, March 27, 2006 2:45 p.m. EST

Polls: Illegals a Serious Problem in U.S.

Most people in the United States think illegal immigration is a serious problem. A solid majority oppose making it easier for illegal immigrants to become legal workers or citizens.

Some findings in recent polling:
· Some 59 percent say they oppose allowing illegal immigrants to apply for legal, temporary-worker status, an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found.

· More than six in 10, 62 percent, say they oppose making it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. Nine in 10 in that poll say they consider immigration to be a serious problem - with 57 percent of those polled saying very serious.

· Three-fourths say the United States is not doing enough along its borders to keep illegal immigrants out, a Time Magazine poll found.

The NBC-WSJ poll was taken in March, Quinnipiac in February and Time in January. The NBC-WSJ and Time polls surveyed about 1,000 adults and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The Quinnipiac poll of 1,892 registered voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. © 2006 Associated Press.

Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 03/27/06 9:14 pm:
>>the INS was forced to release into our society over 3,000 criminal aliens [who collectively had been convicted of 125 homicides, 387 sex offenses, and 772 assault charges].<<

There's no problem with illegals is there? Sigh...

Clarification/Follow-up by JBodine on 03/27/06 9:20 pm:
There's a "Migrant Worker Conference" going on in Plainview next week. I'm tempted to call INS, since you and I both know that a LARGE number of "migrant workers" are in fact undocumented.

But guess what I got handed this morning? A notice that my boss has signed me up to attend!

That's great, send the one white, non-Spanish speaking guy in the office to the Migrant Council conference.

Naw, I won't be out of place or shunned....

Whatever.


On an additional note, since it looks like this whole thing is brewing up into a nice little cultural war:

On St. Paddy's day, I had several Irish flags hung up around my office. It also so happens that I'm descended from Irish stock. A Mexican-American ('bout 20 or 21 years old) is in my office, with a Mexican flag on his T shirt. He asks about the Irish flags, and I tell him it's St. Paddy's day. He asks if I'm Irish, and I said no, I'm American. But my ancestors are Irish. He says that's shameful, representing another country that I'm not from. So I point to his T shirt, and ask is he from Mexico? (I've worked his case for a few years now, and know that he was born right here in Texas, as were his parents.)

His reply?

"That's different."


There's no useful exchange of information with the pathetically stupid.

DK

Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 03/27/06 10:51 pm:
"That's different."

Yep. That's the mindset in this country. Have fun at your conference, I'm sure that will be an experience...luck o' the Irish to ya. :)