As the debate regarding the status of illegal immigrants in the US continues to rage on, it got me to thinking about a good friend of mine that was an illegal immigrant and how people would react to his story/status. This guy I was friends with was South African. In the interest of full disclosure, he is Zulu. Since so many are saying this is more of a race debate instead of a legal status debate I figured that was important to mention. So, we have a guy who is a black South African that entered the US legally on a tourist visa. However, he never had any intention of leaving. He saved up for a plane ticket here, had some family here and kind of bounced around and eventually wound up living with an aunt and uncle. He worked in the stockroom of a sporting goods store. The only reason he got caught and deported was he had an accident playing soccer and screwed his knee up badly. When he went to the hospital, they patched him up, but also reported him to the authorities. Assuming he was never caught, should he get the same proposed deal since he entered legally but didn't choose to leave or is his situation different since he didn't enter illegally? Since so much of the debate is swirling around people from Latin America, I just wanted to see what people's take would be on the situation of an illegal immigrant from another part of the world whose situation was vastly different.
he entered legally as a tourist. he remained ILLEGALLY as a resident. I'm going to have to side with the authorities here. but as far as the current deals go, he'd have to be offered the same deal as the latinos.
The devil is in the details, and your question assumes there is an agreed upon proposed deal. To the extent that guest worker programs and the like are being discussed, I am not aware of any distinction in the law for people who have overstayed visas vs. people who who entered without a visa. If there were any distinctions, I believe they would favor those who overstayed visas.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is do people think the guest worker type things being discussed should extend to all illegals or just Mexican illegals or only Latin American illegals. The reason I also brought up what his occupation was is because it is different from the common argument of "Well, Americans don't want these jobs anyway." Obviously some high school kid or someone in college would be a likely candidate to work part time in a sporting goods store. I'm just trying to get some specific opinions from different people on what they think she be done, whether it's kicking everyone out, giving everybody a green card or what and what limitations they would put on it. I figured bringing up somone from a different part of the world might spur some discussion since the issue has become so emotional.
My understanding is that guest workers would sign contracts before coming to the US. I don't think it's a program where existing illegal immigrants would qualify as long as they're in the country. This raises interesting questions about what the infrastructure for such a program would look like: who's going to take charge of setting up the contracts, where would contracts be signed (US embassies?), would there be contract labor offices in the caribbean, central america, and china as well as in mexico, etc.
I work with a lot of people here on visas. They are/were upset about the propsed deal for amnisty because they felt they played by the rules while the illegals did not.
I don't see how a guest worker provision could be limited to one group. Geographically, it makes sense that the labor force would be Mexican/Central American, as are 70-80% of illegals in the US now according to estimates I've seen. But legally, I would think it would be open to all.
There is actually a large illegal Irish gathering around this issue as well ,so I doubt that place of origin means anything in the debate. Latin Americans are the poster children for the debate because they are just so much easier to hate than Canadians or the Irish
Can anyone find any reliable statistics on the percentage of illegal immigrants who've overstayed visas vs. crossed the border illegally?
Well, I may not have "the" statistic but I am "a" statistic. My family entered the US in 1982 under a tourist visa. We stayed here illegally until 1992 when our paperwork to emigrate legally finally came through based on an expired "green card lottery" that my father had never acted on. In that time, my parents had paid their taxes every year, bought a house and resumed careers as school teachers. I paid my taxes every year as well as soon as I started working when I was 16. Did my family break the law? Yes. Was it a risk worth taking? Yes. Do more people cross over the border illegally than overstay? My gut tells me yes although off the top of my head, I've known six other illegals and none were Mexican (Canadian, Irish, French, Swedish and English to be exact) and all had entered as tourists.
See, I'm inclined to believe it's the other way. That's why I'd be curious to see any published reports that tried to quantify it. Though I don't know how reliable they'd be anyway.
Naaa, it's because they are the poster children for this debate. http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-immig02.html a recent study.....shows illegals from Mexico account for 56 percent of all illegal immigrants in America. Another 22 percent come from the rest of Latin America Plus, a lot of Latin Americans speak Spanish only. So it's a question, whether you like it or not, as to whether we want to change our culture. "Press 1 for English" lol
So do I. They consider it quite unfair. They wait years, pay legal fees, and some have had to put up with long hours in white-collar jobs where they face lots of difficulties because if they were to quit and not have another employer to sponsor their H visa, they need to leave America. And I consider it highly unfair too. I came here, but LEGALLY; paid taxes all the time as did the rest of my family. We obeyed the laws from the moment the idea to relocate to America arose and did so until the day those of my family and I were sworn in as US citizens.
His situation is not unusual. It is impossible to have accurate statistics of illegal immigrations, but it is estimated that more than half of illegal immigrants to this country entered the country legally and overstay. And of course they should all get the same deal. Personally, I think all illegal immigrants who are working and contributing to this country should get amnesty. I submit that it is the only logical solution to the problem, unless we want America to be a country with a caste system.
if there is any deal for amnesty, those immigrants who have current visas will be the first to become citizens. it's not as if they are going to have to go to the back of the line.
Maybe, maybe not. I can imagine the problem the white Anglos that founded LA and San Diego would have a big problem with it. Did culture change with each new wave of immigration? Sure. Do you have to change yours? No.