Understand why Republicans are opposed to immigration reform, aside from hating non-white people

[G_j]

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/reagan-amnesty-haunts-immigration-action

Ronald Reagan amnesty haunts immigration action

08/03/14 09:45 AM

By Amanda Sakuma

Tensions over President Barack Obama’s next course of executive action on immigration have reached a boiling point for many on the right, who fear – incorrectly – that the president will soon offer blanket amnesty for millions of undocumented immigrants.

Some conservatives forget, however, that despite the anti-amnesty fervor on the right, the grandfather of amnesty happens to be one of the Republican Party’s most beloved heroes: President Ronald Reagan.

Much as many Republicans might like to forget it, the last major comprehensive immigration reform bill to make it through Congress was signed into law by then-President Reagan in 1986. The Immigration Reform and Control Act, Americans were told, was an immigration crackdown that simultaneously “preserves and enhances the nation’s heritage of legal immigration.”

The law lifted more than 2.7 million immigrants out of the shadows and into the U.S. workforce. For the first time, millions of undocumented immigrants could apply for a job, open a bank account, start building credit and even buy their own homes. Undocumented immigrants who had lived in the U.S. continuously before 1982 and were able to pay a $185 fee became eligible for a green card in an expedited process that in many cases took just months to complete.

The economic impact from granting amnesty to millions of people who were already living in the U.S. was “extremely positive, right off the bat,” said Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, professor at the Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicano Studies at UCLA. “It drove up wages because people were empowered to operate in the market with greater right.”

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[Louisiana1976]

1. I hope President Obama executively orders amnesty for undocumented immigrants and grants

refugee status to the Central American kids who are seeking asylum in this country. If the Republicans threaten to impeach him because of his executive order, he should say, "Bring it on!"

[FreakinDJ]

2. MS-13 recruiting oppotunity of the century

Shipping kids off the America - separated from their parents - and owing $1000s to the gang's coyotes for the trip.

Can you imagine the power of persuasion a street gang would have on adolescent youth threating the welfare of their parents back in what ever country if they didn't commit to the gang

MS-13 has the opportunity of a lifetime here with no way to loose

[Garthem]

3. No

With the Chamber of Commerce supporting amnesty, I'm pretty sure the hatred of non-whites is 90% of the GOP's motivation on the issue.

[diane in sf]

4. "it drove up wages..." the last sentnce says it all about why Repugs fear reform

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Amazing

Don't tell the Wingers about this. There hero Rotten Ronny did this,say it ain't so. Just got a e-mail about a Potato Chip factory in Northwestern Minnesota bringing in people from the Ukraine to work on the production floor through a H-13 visa program. Okay,something is amiss here,forgot these are Caucasian folks who might or might not go back at the end of their visa's. Yah right!!! Wonder how much Tuffy gave to whom to pull this off.

[customerserviceguy]

6. I've seen the illegal immigration debate from their side

and I think I can articulate their views a little better than you can.

I lived in a few small towns on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State from 1990-2002, and while the place did vote Democratic more often than not, I was certainly exposed to a lot of GOP views on various political topics. Whether I agreed with them in part or not at all did not affect my attempt to understand them.

First, urban and suburban people often have a benevolent feeling about the undocumented. In the cities, most people know and understand that the person who serves them food at a restaurant, and the one who busses the dishes and washes them is not here legally, and they're OK with that. Same with the person who cleans their offices, etc. For suburban people, their condo association hires firms that invariably stock their workforce with what could be suspected to be people whose papers are not exactly in order. In other words, as long as their scut work is getting done, folks living a good life really don't mind illegal immigration.

On the other hand, people in the rural areas know very well what happens when the local farmers and ranchers bring in migrant workforces. The neighborhoods in small towns aren't that large, and the crappy little rental down the street gets overfilled with migrant workers during the harvest season. In the Olympic Peninsula towns, the last crops to be harvested are Christmas trees, and often the undocumented winter over in these relatively cheap places. Ramshackle vehicles line the streets, and noisy music emenates from within the walls, only the slumlord renting to a dozen or so men at a time is happy with the situation.

In the rural areas, these younger immigrants take a toll on the police, justice, and hospital systems, leaving unpaid bills in their wake. In the big cities and suburbs, the toll is not so easily seen, but a small town newspaper publishes EVERYTHING that happens in those places, and it's easy to pick out the Spanish surnames from the arrest and court records in the paper.

Besides, at this point they figure, if St. Ronnie can't get amnesty right, nobody else possibly can. They're not willing to fix a broken immigration system with another broken immigration system, and they have no faith that the next one will be any better than the one it replaced. Also, we have the current crop of undocumented workers, once they are legalized, they will be able to complain about the lousy treatment they get from farmers, ranchers and the hospitality industry, and they will be worthless at that point. A new crop of people will be here illegally, and even deeper in the shadows than the current bunch, since they'll have to wait another 20-30 years before their turn at amnesty, and the newly-legalized group will just be on welfare.

Agree with it or not, that's what the thinking is in a place that voted twice for Obama, four times if you want to count the primaries.

[amandabeech]

7. Yes. I understand completely.

Last edited Mon Aug 4, 2014, 04:03 AM - Edit history (1)

It is expected that young women will follow the young men eventually. Their children will start school knowing little or no English, and the schools will not have enough resources to deal with the situation.

[customerserviceguy]

8. And rural school districts do have a tough time

There's often very little manufacturing base in those places, and a high proportion of the service jobs are in government. Agricultural, open space, and timber property tax exemptions also mean that there's very little money to support school districts.

My former sister-in-law was a teacher in one of those school districts, I got to hear a lot of things from her side.

[amandabeech]

9. I have a couple of friends who retired from a similar district.

I don't know how they kept it up as long as they did. They were good teachers and they gave their best, but often it just wasn't enough.

It was just one more case in which the profits accrued to those at the top of the income scale, but the costs were socialized by increased spending on schools and social services.

Who in their right mind would want to live next door to an Hispanic "Animal House?" The employers and the unscrupulous landlords never had to deal with it, but someone had to clean up after the weekend.