ALL Illegal Immigrants should be sent home.

Hey, that is a pretty neat trick you did with the poll. For those of you who voted on the poll yesterday, your vote is no longer registered. Yesterday, at this time, over 300 people voted, with 69 percent saying that laws against “illegal immigrants” were a violation of civil rights. Magically, today, only 149 people have voted and the numbers have been reversed dramatically, with 85 percent saying it is not a violation. Amazing. Just that slight on hand manipulation pretty much tells me where this station stands on the issue, and how they want the story told. Also nice backdoor move on adding more conservative site links after it appeared there was some attempt at balance. Oh, well.

I’m freaked out by how casually this article uses source data from nationalist organizations that have ties to hate groups.

Take this “data,” for example:

“The group FAIR says the current annual burden is approximately $36 billion dollars a year.”

“FAIR"--the Federation for American Immigration Reform--is a right-wing nationalist organization funded in part by $1.2 million in grants from the Pioneer Fund, an organization whose primary mission is to prove that whites are genetically superior to members of other races.  FAIR also has indirect ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white nationalist organization.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has written FAIR up here (with the subheading “FAIR Marked by Ties to White Supremacy"):
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=846

So if you’re using the $36 billion figure from FAIR, describing it under the heading of “studies,” that’s a little disingenuous.  At the very least, “the group FAIR” should be changed to “the anti-immigration group FAIR” to accurately reflect the organization’s bias.  Unless, that is, WJTV fully embraces that bias--in which case it should at least be transparent.

Oh, and the best way to solve the immigration problem in the United States?  Seems to me an awful lot of people who had lived here for millennia asked that question a few centuries ago, but our ancestors had more firepower than they did, so the question was moot.  Now their descendants number among the 12 million trying to live here in peace, and the descendants of the well-armed invaders of centuries past are still trying to figure out the most efficient way to get rid of them.  And y’all wonder why so many people living in other nations hate the United States?

I’m sorry but people must understand what the word (illegal)meens.They are not citizens of the U.S.and should not be able to recieve the rights that the born(U.S.)citizens have!Why should we give them these rights,without going through the proper channels.Once this is done,and they pay taxes (like us)and have ssn taken out like us--I see no problem,however there is the problem--(They)don’t want too!Thats why they are illegals!!! Da!

For over 300 years white Mississippians got rioch by treating Africans as subhuman, as animals to work their jobs and be treated as chattel. Slevery is endemic to this country. The rich get rich by living off slave labor. Now it is undocumented immigrants with no rights, living in fear. This law is bringing back the bad old days. Undocumented immigrants benefit our society and keep it running. They must be given a path to citizenship. I will be cursed by the right wing, but I don’t care. The only Christian response to to speak out for justice and fairness for the oppressed.

To address the question ‘What is the best way to deal with the immigration problem in the U.S.?’ is to ask ‘Is there a best way? or How does immigration effect the U.S.?’
The issues is to complex to be asked or answered so general. There is no simply one way. Immigration touches or effects too many other issues both positive and negitive. The best way is an over haul of the whole immigration laws / system. Looking at the effect of trade to these counties (NAFTA) to the political additure the U.S. has with these counties. One of the most positive we can do here in MS. is educate ourselves and understand the complexness of this issue. WJTV can start by not being bias in the reporting they do. Starting with the title to this articles. Try the title ‘Immigration: The Great Debate’

I think a news station which refers to human beings as “illegals” and features on its website a tracking system reminiscent of animal radio collar maps needs to reexamine its commitment to fair and unbiased news reporting.  It’s important to think about costs, but I think we would also do well to remember how much immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, contribute to our economy--by some estimates, $80billion per year.  If you think undocumented workers don’t contribute that much, just look at states like Oklahoma, who passed a law similar to SB2988 a few years ago. Their fast food industry alone has taken a hit of 70%, not to mention lawyers, apartment complexes, healthcare providers, mechanics, restaurants, stores, etc. that have lost business due to a mass immigrant exodus after the law passed.  Immigrants, yes even undocumented ones, help our economy tremendously.  And it’s important to keep in mind, Mr. Ivey, that our forefathers and mothers didn’t have to follow the same laws that Latin American immigrants do today--the derogatory term “WOP” comes from Italian immigrants being let through Ellis Island With Out Papers.  They were essentially granted amnesty; today it is almost impossible to “get in line” to immigrate legally from Latin America, and so many Latin Americans come here without documents to work for a few years, improving our economy and vastly improving their family’s economic situation as well.

I don’t have anything against the Mexican people as a whole.  The only comment I have is that they all should obey the immigration laws my forefathers had to.  I also take personally any politician who says we should do nothing and I will personal campaign against any who does.

Thanks for the addition of the links. Now if you could just post what they say to contrast the window about the cost of undocumented immigrants. (No human being is illegal.)
Case in point, were you aware that Federal Government allots funds for emergency room care of undocumented immigrants. In DC, it is referred to as Section 1011 funds. From 2005-2007, Mississippi hospitals received over $300,000 in those funds. From 2005-2007, Mississippi only spent $205,000. My math may not be great, but $205,000 and $32 million are not in the same ballpark. (Source: Jackson Free Press)

Phil Bryant did not do anything but play with some math based on FAIR’s national data. No staff was dedicated to doing a true cost benefits analysis on the impact of undocumented immigrants.

Just some further thoughts, but thanks again for the link additions. It is a start.

I see that at least two writers to this blog think the solution to “illegal immigration” is to shoot to kill at the border.  You should be ashamed!  These people are desperate to provide for themselves and their families or they wouldn’t make the difficult trip to our country.  We should seek solutions to this issue, and all the problems our country faces, without losing our humanity or forgetting the lessons we learn in church on Sundays.

Linda Allen seems to have made herself the go-to reporter for immigrant bashing.  WJTV’s coverage of this issie is very one sided.  How about a report doclumenting how much undocmumented workers contribute to the tax base of Mississippi and its cities?  How about an article about how key these workers were to the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast?  People need to recognize there is more than one side to this issue and it is the job of news outlets like WJTV to bring them this perspective.

“Immigration” is not a problem.  Our broken and confusing immigration law is the problem.  We should enact comprehensive, just immigration reform that will provide a way for the low-skilled labor we NEED in this country to enter and work legally while at the same time providing a means to legalization for those undocumented workers already in this country who have done no wrong other than working without permission. 

If we continue to promote NAFTA and other policies that disadvantage people in their own countries, then we must be prepared to welcome them when they migrate to ours out of dire necessity, at least some of which is caused by our own policies.  We should stop using terms like “illegals” to refer to people.  People are not illegal, actions are illegal. 

By the way, most undocumented aliens in this country are guilty of no more than a misdemeanor, carrying neither a fine nor jail time as a punishment.  Now Mississippi has now made it a felony to work here, with onerous fines and jail time possible for the workers, BUT NOT FOR THE EMPLOYERS.  According to Ms. Allen’s accompanying piece, the law was meant to discourage the employers.  All it has done is criminalize the workers.  This is a fine example of our state government at work oppressing the most vulnerable among us. 

Mississippi’s unemployement rate is the lowest it has been in YEARS.  Whose job is it that needed protection, exactly?  Possibly only our state legistors’?

Since when did WJTV become an affiliate of the FOX news channel? The fact that this station is using sources such as FAIR and a “tracking map” from GSAC, a company contracted out by Family Security Matters, a right-wing non-profit organization, is really disturbing. Judging by the coverage, it seems that the station has taken a “Dobbsian” approach to the issue, rather than a fair and balanced, scratch that, an unbiased one. To be equal, since you given the xenophobes an audience, why not cite the National Immigration Law Center, the National Council of La Raza, the White House Council of Economic Advisors and the American Immigration Law Association, just to give some semblence of being objective.

“Immigration” is not a problem.  We are a country, a state, a City of immigrants.  The problem is unfair and abusive trade policies in which the U.S. is complicit that forces people to leave their own countries in search of bread.  One way to address the economic disparity is insist that our leaders engage in fair trade, and reform immigration policies that respect human rights, including the freedom to travel and work. Meanwhile, hateful maps such as the IAATS, validated through publication by WJTV, only contribute to misunderstanding and mistreatment of our interconnectedness and the humanity of immigrants.  We as a nation are cloaking xenophobia, nativism, and our for appetite ethnic cleansing under the guise of “homeland security.” We need to be honest about what is driving our fear.  That is one way to solve the problem of hatred.  “Immigration” is not the problem.

Start putting the employers in Jail and the illegals will go back where they came from.