Tom Toles for June 16, 2013

We only ask that immigrants come into America legally…what’s so hard to understand about that?

I think the catch is that we aren’t in charge. Certainly seems simple enough, and as I understand it, we used to have written rules.

Think maybe our government is no more literate than the rest of the population?

Or maybe it’s just simple lack of will.

Sorry, we’re full. Come back later.

Among the charges against the king listed in the Declaration of Independence: “He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither …” From 1776 to 1882, when we had the minimalist Federal Government that Conservatives always say they want to return to, there were no restriction on immigration. If you could get here, you could stay. There were efforts to bar the Irish from coming because of their “filthy habits alien religion” but no laws were made until 1882 when the first limits were placed on immigration in the racist “Chinese exclusion” law. Further restriction were passed in the decades to come, mainly to keep out “undesirable” ethnic groups, like Slavs and Italians. Asian immigrant were, for many decades, barred from citizenship even when they come legally and had lived here for decades. . “Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Perhaps we cannot afford to be the world’s refuge as we once were and even aspired to be. Times have changed. We have to control our borders, and we must enforce the law. I don’t dispute that. The law should be obeyed. But the law should also be just, and legal immigration should not be so terribly difficult for so many, especially when the difficulty is based on their ethnicity. We once thought it “amnesty” to punish a horse thief with anything less than death, now lesser punishments for non-violent theft are considered sufficient. We should prevent “undocumented” persons from coming in. We should punish those who do come in illegally: their path to citizenship should be longer, harder, and more expensive. And we should deport those who come in and then refuse to follow that path, who do not demonstrate that they want to become Americans. But allowing anyone in this country to be abused and exploited, to make them live in fear of arrest and deportation because they really have nowhere and no one to return to, that is what I object to. If someone moves in next door from Britain, or France, does anyone worry about them being here illegally? Should their papers be checked every time they having dealings with officialdom because they have a foreign accent?

Try having that same attitude getting in illegally in another country.

Don’t want illegals? Prosecute those who hire them. -Too complex to understand?

In checking into a hotel in Europe, you have announced yourself as, and claim privileges of, a “Foreigner”, so that you may use your credit/banking to settle debts, etc. This is a business transaction to assure your financial responsibility…not a government mandate to determine your immigrant status…a destitute illegal would hardly be staying in such facilities or accessing his/her Visa/AmEx to pay for accommodations.

When I was in high school(several decades ago), I read the Statue of Liberty Poem. It was not our immigration policy then and never will be. We should remove it.

Tigger: I haven’t heard that sort of Klan talk since I was an adult worker in the Boy Scouts in the 1960s.

Well, I’m against taking away war veteran’s homes to foreclosure because they can’t find a job – I don’t care what color the veteran is. I’m against United States Citizens taking TEN YEARS to qualify for section 8 housing – while we all measure our penis based on your yacht size for the sake of global competition.

I hate to be the one to break it to you Night-Gaunt – but “doing your best” comes in all colors – it don’t discriminate.The “peter principle” and only rising to your level of incompetence doesn’t CARE what color you ARE.

This is beyond me. Everyone is so concerned about new immigrants. Sure, respect the rights of immigrants, the good book says so. However, it doesn’t say that you get to treat your brothers and sisters that are ALREADY HERE like dirt either. We have men and women coming home from war who cannot find jobs and are losing their homes to foreclosure. These are already existing United States citizens. How about if the new illegals get TEN YEARS to qualify for section 8 housing like some of our born and raised citizens DO?? How about we shove each new immigrant into a crackerbox shared low income housing with a bed bug infested mattress. While the rest of the world gets high off of global competition and measures their penis size by the size of their yacht. I’m going Independent until they fix these things for UNITED STATES CITIZENS – screw foregin aid. I can take hostages too baby, at the polls.

This is beyond me. Everyone is so concerned about new immigrants. Sure, respect the rights of immigrants, the good book says so. However, it doesn’t say that you get to treat your brothers and sisters that are ALREADY HERE like dirt either. We have men and women coming home from war who cannot find jobs and are losing their homes to foreclosure. These are already existing United States citizens. How about if the new illegals get TEN YEARS to qualify for section 8 housing like some of our born and raised citizens DO?? How about we shove each new immigrant into a crackerbox shared low income housing with a bed bug infested mattress. While the rest of the world gets high off of global competition and measures their penis size by the size of their yacht. I’m going Independent until they fix these things for UNITED STATES CITIZENS – screw foreign aid. I can take hostages too baby, at the polls.

Well, you’re a bouncy thing, aren’t you?