May 1st...

[DaMadFiddler]

...Maybe this belongs more in Current Events, but I wasn't sure. In any case, I thought I'd open up the floor for discussion.

1. What are your thoughts, both on the scheduled mass protest and on the bill itself?

2. Are you planning to take part in any of the May 1st protests, teach-ins, cultural fairs, or other events?

[Roofus]

Definitely CE, so MOVED

I'll come up wiith an actual response in a bit.

[Roofus]

...Maybe this belongs more in Current Events, but I wasn't sure. In any case, I thought I'd open up the floor for discussion.

1. What are your thoughts, both on the scheduled mass protest and on the bill itself?

2. Are you planning to take part in any of the May 1st protests, teach-ins, cultural fairs, or other events?

K, now that we're in CE:

1. What are your thoughts, both on the scheduled mass protest and on the bill itself?

I think it's a good idea. Regardless of how anyone may feel about them, we need immigrants. The number 12 million gets thrown around a lot. I'm not sure about the total number of legal immigrants (I could find the number per year, not a total), but I'm sure it's a lot. The point is that there's enough that if they all went away, we'd have a lot of problems.

The way I see it, the "durkader!" That's "They took our jobs" for the non-South Park viewers argument is invalid. First, if an immigrant is not here legally, then odds are he's doing a job you don't want and/or can't get because you'd demand things like a living wage, benefits, an eight-hour day, etc. If the immigrant is here legally, then he's every bit as entitled to the job as you are.

The only thing is that if they really wanted to drive the point home, they'd take an entire week, or possibly longer. A day won't really prove much of anything.

2. Are you planning to take part in any of the May 1st protests, teach-ins, cultural fairs, or other events?

The only thing going on tomorrow is in my Spanish class, we're going to have a discussion about it. It'll be in Spanish, so it's as much a teaching tool as anything.

[FETUS]

I won't be able to get a good taco.

[Sir Savant]

Mass protest may or may not help, depending on whether there is violence. I have not examined the bill, so I cannot form and opinion. Does anyone have a link to it?


Mixed results here from the student population. Some dumbasses think leaving school is a good idea (not!), but others are planning to wear white shirts (white symbolizing peace) with the american flag (to show we are not illegal commies or whatever, for patriotism).

As for myself, I will wear the white shirt, and probably be asked a million times why I am not protesting or leaving school (I am in classes where I am like the only hispanic, with exceptions in history, orchestra and weight lifting, but I am still among the minority).

[Roofus]

I won't be able to get a good taco.

You could make your own.

[Ex-Cyber]

Mass protest may or may not help, depending on whether there is violence.

I'm sure there are people who will attempt to ensure that there is violence (and I'm not talking about protesters).

[SuperMegatron]

I actually think its counter productive. a lot of people are talking about how they are trying to hurt the US economy by taking the day off and the fact that tomorrow is a communist holiday doesnt help matters.They made some progress with the first peaceful protests but they have been moving backwards ever since. The spanish version of our national anthem pissed off a lot of people. The walk out is pissing off people and the new protest will simply show americans how many illegals are here.The news channels have all jumped on this story to. I saw 3 specials in the past week on mexicans in america.Most of the points were valid to. A mexican who comes to california and works for 13,000 a year if they have 2 kids in school they drain the economy of 45,000 in education costs alone and thats if they paid taxes.

[DaMadFiddler]

Mass protest may or may not help, depending on whether there is violence. I have not examined the bill, so I cannot form and opinion. Does anyone have a link to it?

It's changed a couple of times, but the worst two provisions are that (1) it would make residing here illegally a felony, which both has the potential to further crowd our overtaxed courts and prisons, and would prevent any of those people who might later become *legal* residents from EVER being able to vote, and (2) it would make it a felony to HARBOR illegal immigrants, which would put churches, amnesty organizations, and shelters at severe risk. Another (less related to the protest but still really stupid) related issue is a push to divert funds from the army in Iraq--already at risk due to insufficient equipment and supplies--and pour it into beefing up the border patrol and building new installations there. There has also been a floating proposal to tighten limits on legal immigration, though I don't know if that's still in the current version.

I'll see if I can find the actual literature and post it later tonight. Like I said, though, the bill is in constant flux, and there have been a couple of rewrites, so I'm not sure what the exact provisions are as of this moment. However, the reason the bill was created in the first place was to beef up US/Mexico border security and to crack down on illegal immigration, so anything changed or added to it will be along similar lines.

[ghostparty]

I won't be able to get a good taco.

You could make your own.

ARE YOU MAD!?!

[Ex-Cyber]

The spanish version of our national anthem pissed off a lot of people.

I don't suppose those people bothered learning Hebrew and Greek to read the Bible.

The walk out is pissing off people and the new protest will simply show americans how many illegals are here.

How? Lots of Hispanic (and non-Hispanic, for that matter) citizens will probably show up just to show support, not to mention people who want to co-opt the protests to promote some other agenda (ANSWER, I'm looking in your direction).

A mexican who comes to california and works for 13,000 a year if they have 2 kids in school they drain the economy of 45,000 in education costs alone and thats if they paid taxes.

Even if that's the case (and it sounds like bull to me; AFAIK local property taxes are a huge component of school funding), it would be true whether the family in question is native-born, naturalized, or residing illegally. While a Mexican immigrant is more likely to get a low-paying job than an average American, they are still a minority among the working poor (just a larger minority than they are among the population as a whole).

[melancholy]

I won't be able to get a good taco.

You could make your own.

His tax money isn't paying an immigrant $2 a day so he could make his own taco!

[Yonke]

im taking part of the protest tomorow not spending a cent in any american franchise or product here in Mexico........

i hope the protest dont get any violent .........

[FETUS]

Everyone, it's all ok I found a taco after searching far and wide and finding that families that own there own business won't sacrifice a days income for stupidity.

[Roofus]

Everyone, it's all ok I found a taco after searching far and wide and finding that families that own there own business won't sacrifice a days income for stupidity.

Actually, there's a family-owned taqueria on my street that was closed yesterday and today.

Their tacos suck, though.

[404NotFound]

Anyone else a little miffed that CNN and other soucres aren't distinguishing between legal and illegal immagrants? They mostly just say "immigrants."

I really wish they'd give a bit more detail.

[Sir Savant]

Mass protest may or may not help, depending on whether there is violence. I have not examined the bill, so I cannot form and opinion. Does anyone have a link to it?

It's changed a couple of times, but the worst two provisions are that (1) it would make residing here illegally a felony, which both has the potential to further crowd our overtaxed courts and prisons, and would prevent any of those people who might later become *legal* residents from EVER being able to vote, and (2) it would make it a felony to HARBOR illegal immigrants, which would put churches, amnesty organizations, and shelters at severe risk. Another (less related to the protest but still really stupid) related issue is a push to divert funds from the army in Iraq--already at risk due to insufficient equipment and supplies--and pour it into beefing up the border patrol and building new installations there. There has also been a floating proposal to tighten limits on legal immigration, though I don't know if that's still in the current version.

I'll see if I can find the actual literature and post it later tonight. Like I said, though, the bill is in constant flux, and there have been a couple of rewrites, so I'm not sure what the exact provisions are as of this moment. However, the reason the bill was created in the first place was to beef up US/Mexico border security and to crack down on illegal immigration, so anything changed or added to it will be along similar lines.

Judging from that, I think it is safe to say that this is a measure cooked up by Fundamentalists who will later say how immigrants are draining the system, when it was they who started the whole bill.

Sounds like a bad plan to me.

SuperMegatron, I am pretty sure the story stays the same for poor white people. The only difference here is that they may or may not be illegal.

Would the bill change the status of children born to illegal immigrants? I read somewhere that a proposal is to make it so that even the children are illegal, which would go against 200+ years of precedent.

Of course, this would not be the first time America has screwed over a section of the population that it needs. I would even venture to say that this may adversely affect trade relations with Asia, bringing the prices of American-made goods even higher.

[jaredfogle]

I did not attend school today.

[Lartrak]

I did not attend school today.

I didn't have school today. Go me.

[that_guy]

So would firing someone who didn't show up for work today be racist and discriminating?