What are your views on immigration?

Violence and gang activity is not always or just perpetrated by Hispanic immigrants. I think immigration has always been the lifeblood of this country, which is a country of immigrants. You may have been born here, but there were immigrants in your family tree. There were Irish gangs in New York in the mid-1800s. There are organized Russian and Albanian criminal networks now. My point here is those groups were all Caucasian. What it comes down to is a matter of economic opportunity and poverty. Those are the factors that feed violence.

have u guys watch Gangland. Pretty scary shit!

I think that only Native-Americans have any real moral authority to complain about immigration in general, since the rest of us are products of immigration. There is also a very compelling economic argument for immigration: our birthrate is nowhere near the level that will sustain our rapidly aging population. In other words, we need lots of new, young people in the workforce to pay for our Social Security, and we aren’t breeding enough of them.

So I’m all for immigration. The big question is how to do it right. The current system makes it all but impossible to immigrate legally (the current average wait for naturallization is 18 years!), so people come illegally and are forced to live on the margins of society. As long as they have no opportunity to feel invested in our culture and have no stake in it, they won’t have any incentive to be “good citizens”. Right now, we’re busily making “criminals”, not members of society.

I don’t know what the magic solution is, but I’m convinced that it isn’t to militerize our borders and force people who are only seeking a decent life to live in fear. Our institutionalized animosity towards immigrants even effects those who are here legally; hearing mainstream Americans rail against foreigners only only further alienates legal immigrants and forces them deeper into isolated enclaves.

I think it’s a shame that gangs are the primary thing you associate with immigration. I’ve moved country twice and the vast majority of friends and colleagues I have are ‘foreigners’ too. It makes things a lot more interesting to know people from different countries. Nations and cultures are no more just something you’ve read about, but something you get to experience and hear first hand accounts of.

I also know of people who have been greatly inconvenienced by strict immigration laws – to the point if a married couple living in separate continents for two years because they’re still trying to get visas/ residency established.

My opinion is: if you can get there and support yourself, you should be allowed to.

Obviously most of us are here because of immigration at one point or another in history, and if it were Caucasian kids doing it I would be saying the same shit about them. If you think I’m wrong then by all means go to the website In the link and see how long it takes you to find 10 news articles involving Caucasians committing a crime in this area.

I think your issue is with poor urban kids more than immigration. Have you determined how many Latino gang members are born to parents who are American citizens?

racial profiling is not the way about but on the contrary, the facts speak and we all seem to ignore them. I live in new Orleans and when I look at the crime section I’m not surprised to see a black man’s picture. And I see it every day. What am I to think?poverty? Maybe. But I also work in the neighborhoods and when every day I see black kids not in school or there parents on the porch drinking there 40’s. Again I ask what am I to think? Even Bill Cosby speaks harsh about the black youth and culture and I find alot of other minorities aka mexicans follow suit.
And as far as being Caucassian go. We all are imigtants. My wife is Spanish (Honduran) and we have a daughter so she too is half minority. But as she too gets older and blends in with society maybe marry a man of Spanish decent or a caucassion there kids and kids kids will just be called cacaussions themselves. And by the way by daughter looks like a total white girl. Lol

Harp has an excellent point about the marginalization and alienation of immigrants as a root of crime. One huge reason that you won’t find articles about Caucasian crime on the website you linked to- or any media source- is that Caucasians are more integrated into American society. The system favors them, so they’re unlikely to work against it. One factor that works against assimilation by immigrants is geography- as a rule, they can only afford the cheapest housing, and they also tend to move near friends and family in order to strengthen their support network. This segregates immigrant groups from other people in their community, and strengthens their feeling of identification as outsiders. It’s for this same reason, among others, that you see much more crime in black neighborhoods. It’s also widely acknowledged that racial profiling plays a huge role in who’s arrested and at what rates in many American cities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration

Why are you masking a question about racism with the word “immigration”? This has nothing to do with people moving from one country to another one. You’re making generalizations about behavior based on race. I really thought our generation was better than that.

One more point. For every immigrant gang member or criminal, there are dozens and dozens of law-abiding, tax paying, hard working Mexican immigrants. It does not make sense to single out this “loud” segment and then label the entire group for the actions of a few.

maybe you should move out of northern mexico!

considering that more than half of all immigrants in California are from Mexico, I’d say that actually does make this about immigration, since they moved from Mexico to California, wouldn’t you say?

and who the fuck did I single out? I never said all of the immigrants in the united states are committing crimes, I never even said that all of the immigrants in California are committing crimes, all I said was that I am sick of the ones who have no respect for anything around them and are only interested in making the city look like shit. Do you think graffiti on everything looks nice? It sure as hell doesn’t make our property value go up any

Illegal Immigration is a massive drain on resourses,i say Obama should set up hit squads and round all these leaches up and ship em back.
If they have anchor babies,change the law and ship them back also.
If they come back then make em do 4 years hard labour and then ship em back.
Dont know where they come from?
Shoot em as aliens.

I’m American living in America (don’t know if you’ve other country members here) and I think (from experience) our legal immigration system is lousy. It’s no wonder people come illegally. That aside, most illegals I’ve known/know work, pay taxes, buy homes, cars and other products to support our economy as well as follow the laws.

No one is following the law if he is here illegally. That alone is a crime. Immigration must have reasonable limits. Illegal immigrants must be deported immediately. Giving them sanctuary, welfare and voting rights are criminal, and people responsible belong in prison. Law and order are collapsing in the USA. There are illegals who commit crimes. Someone claims to know only nice ones. If you know some of them and do not report them, you break the law and deserve prison.