Local Students Skip School to Protest
About 150 students from Eisenhower High School staged a walkout this morning in protest of an immigration bill. The bill, currently being debated in the Senate, would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally, and impose new penalties on companies who employ illegal immigrants. The students walked over eight miles to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office to protest outside waving a Mexican flag.
According to Alexis Grant of the Houston Chronicle,
Senior Jesse Quintero, 18, said he and three friends organized the rally themselves, largely using the internet and phones to contact others.
Quintero said a larger rally is planned for Tuesday in downtown.
“I challenge all Latino and hispanic-descent people to come out with us tomorrow, to miss one day of work, because that will show the city of Houston, and everyone in the nation will see how badly this (proposed immigration restriction) will affect the country.”
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I go back and forth about my feelings on immigration and the previously proposed guest worker program and am very interested in any opinions on the subject that anyone is willing to share. Thoughts anyone?
Read Grant’s article in its entirety here.
UPDATE: Read about the specifics of the bill as it passed in the House here.
My opinion is this: how are illegal immigrants really causing us harm by being in the States? I mean, *really*. They aren’t living off the dole, since by the very nature of being illegal, they can’t recieve welfare or social security. They most certainly aren’t taking the “good jobs” from any Americans, as most illegals make their living by cleaning businesses, working odd jobs and working three or four jobs at a time just to get by.
If the issue is safety or monitoring of these people (since we’re all about stopping “terrorists” these days), they why make it a felony? Illegals will still risk the increase in quality of life to come here, and most of them will continue to hang out under the radar. The real solution is a program that will allow them to enter and work under probationary status.
I’m a tad confused about this bill and haven’t found anywhere that explains the bill in detail(I haven’t searched hard enough either).
I had heard that immigrants can be put in prison for being illegal. Doesn’t international law come into play some how? Can’t these people be extradited by their country?
Doesn’t seem like this issue is being well thought out and could have very negative effects on international relations.
I will be back later today when I have more time to comment, but to hold you over until then, here is a link to information I found on the bill this morning: Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.
Brittanie — Well said.
The rest of this isn’t aimed directly at you (so don’t feel like you have to answer my questions – but you are obviously welcome to).
When I hear people complaining about illegal immigrants, they usually mention one of two things: 1) they don’t pay taxes, and 2) the cost of their medical treatment (“they” use the ER as a doctor’s office & don’t have benefits, which results in a lot of treatment going unpaid for).
I can understand not paying taxes being an issue for some people in a country where one glance at the deductions on your paycheck suggests that the U.S. government believes your only purpose is to work to give them money. I remember being especially shocked by the amount of money I was “losing” when I got my first paycheck ever.
As for the medical treatment complaint… Well, isn’t there a very, very (DISTURBINGLY) large percentage of the LEGAL population that is also forced to seek the same kind of medical treatment due to no insurance? Even if ALL (12 million?) of the illegal immigrants here were getting “free” treatment at hospitals, I don’t see how their unpaid balance can possibly come close to that of the uninsured (and under-insured) CITIZENS of this country.