<p>So what do we do, Kayf, shoot them when they try to break through the wall? I know you are not advocating that but let’s get real here. These people are desperate. Much of that desperation is driven by the fact that they are parents.</p>
<p>For those of you so upset with this young woman and her family, I want to hear from you how you woud stay in Mexico and not even try to get to America. Come on, you feel so strongly about it, let’s hear how you would settle for the education and medical system your child was born into. </p>
<p>Further, I completely disagree that we cannot educate all the children in this country. If this young woman were allowed to stay, she would pay in taxes many, many times over what it cost to educate her.</p>
<p>But her skin is brown and her parents made a decision for her when she was a minor, so we have to follow our vicious, inhumane, financially stupid immigration policies. </p>
<p>I really have no patience on this topic. I’ve lived in southern Calfornia and now I live in south Texas. I see who does the hard labor to keep this nation fed and thriving. I am so tired of the hypocracy that drives this and other issues. It’s so much more important to us to appear to be tough than to actually be smart. When are we going to learn?</p>
<p>Ah protectionism. Let’s shut out all the foreign carmakers too, and ban all foreign cars. That would restore the jobs lost at GM. Put some AMERICAN MONEY back in AMERICAN HANDS!!!</p>
<p>Please, lets leave skin color out of this. I have never seen anyone here say anything about immigaration that is based on skin color. </p>
<p>Smart – how is it smart when 1/3 of the prisoners in federal prisons are illegal aliens? When the ACLU is challenging the right of the US to deport illegal aliens who have comitted crimes? And the plantiff they have selected is responsible for massive identify theft? </p>
<p>You go back and forth between this one girl, who would likely pay taxes and the illegal immigrants as a group. And why do you say this girl would likely pay taxes and not ask – is her family paying taxes. Or the millions of other immigrants.</p>
<p>None, I just know there is a direct correlation between lack of women’s rights and lack of economic development, and that lack of women’s rights usually keeps economic development back. (Google “the girl effect”.) No place with substantial women’s rights is economically developed, so it follows if you are not economically developed, you do not have substantial women’s rights.</p>
<p>Gal – protectionism refers to not buying foreign goods. I never said anything about that. What I do object to is Americans paying taxes and supporting the healh care and education of the maids and gardners of the rich.</p>
<p>I most certainly will not leave skin color out of it. I just wrote that I have lived in southern California and currently live in south Texas. This is not a color-blind situation. </p>
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<p>Yes. They pay taxes on the fake social security numbers their employers get them. Of course, they will never get those wages back. </p>
<p>I beg of you to do some basic research into this issue before deciding that it’s the fault of the children of the “maids and gardners.” Start with who works in chicken processing plants.</p>
<p>Case by case basis. After the fact. There is no need to use deontological ethics here. We’re talking about social utility. </p>
<p>The girl has proven her mettle.</p>
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<p>On the contrary, many in the word have rationale-based, talent-seeking immigration policies, or a very loose immigration policy. The costs are very real, but I think you’re not looking at the payoff. The costs of public education for American-born babies are very real too. The cost it takes to educate an illegal immigrant is not substantially different from the cost it takes to educate any other child.</p>
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<p>Because we want to shut out criminals and those who bring disease, those who are unloyal and those who won’t be productive? </p>
<p>The main rationale for migration policy is that we don’t want millions of unloyal leeches who will defect in war or be disloyal to other Americans.</p>
<p>But if you have a child who grew up here, is loyal to the country, is productive, etc. then that child is the ideal immigrant. There is no need for her to through the line. The line is a utilitarian process. It should not a process of justice. If you prove your means through some other way, so be it.</p>
<p>If half the world wanted to migrate here and they would be productive, successful Americans, then even if the initial capital costs would be 50% of the GDP, it would be a golden opportunity. America would emerge much much stronger. Instead of merely 320 million loyal Americans, you have 3 billion loyal Americans… enough to put a shame to the PRC’s undemocratic ambitions. For a developed country, population growth is an asset.</p>
<p>According to economic theory, protectionism refers to any application of the Broken Window Fallacy – not allowing an economically efficient outcome under the guise of protecting some domestic interest. In fact, such a prohibition generally hurts domestic interests. </p>
<p>In this case, you have job protectionism. You realise that migrants may occpy jobs, but they also demand goods and labor that create jobs? And in turn, they produce economically useful goods and services of their own? And in general, the economy grows because of them?</p>
<p>I am from a working class family, and while it may hurt me in the short run to compete with migrant workers, their economically efficient services to the economy benefit me in the long run.</p>
<p>To prevent an economically efficient outcome because it will hurt workers temporarily is to take a protectionist action, just as it is to prevent economically efficient outcome of importing a cheaper product because it will hurt some suppliers temporarily.</p>
<p>Gee, I wonder who gets to decide which ones are the good ones and which ones are the bad ones? </p>
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Yeah, why be fair to those who followed the rules, and actually waited to come here legally. Granting her head of the line status will in no way encourage others to sneak in, right?</p>
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<p>And America has unlimited resources & jobs to bestow on half the world population, right? Yeah. That’s why unemployment is currently at record highs and requests for public assistance are increasing as we speak.</p>
<p>About one in four youths in the United States are immigrants or children of one, and most appear to be elevating fine: working, studying and advancing at rates comparable to nonimmigrant peers. But a troubled minority offers cause for alarm.</p>
<p>About 18 million youths 17 or younger are immigrants or the children of immigrants. In an interview, Mr. Portes estimated that as many as 20 percent face elevated chances of long-term poverty — suggesting a risk pool of more than 3.5 million. While he predicts that only a minority of that group will experience the depth of disadvantage implied by the word “underclass,” he says their numbers are large enough to warrant policymakers’ concern.</p>
<p>Unlike their European predecessors, the majority of today’s immigrants come from Asia, Africa and Latin America, which some analysts say could make them more vulnerable to persistent discrimination. And while previous immigration was mostly legal, today millions of children have parents who live marginalized lives as illegal residents. </p>
<p>There shouldn’t be a line in the first place. It’s inefficient bureaucracy that is holding the process up.</p>
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<p>Standardized testing. Trial periods + GPS tag.</p>
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<p>America has unlimited jobs waiting to be discovered through private enterprise. Natural resources are scarce but human ingenuity always makes up for it. If America has such limited resources for new arrivals, the federal government should regulate childbirth. You’re seeing employment as a zero sum game. Migrants also create new jobs and stimulate the growth of new businesses.</p>
<p>That is true. It was a half-baked suggestion. Evaluation can be a hard decision. Sort of like reading college applications. But why deport a clear admit?</p>
<p>If you want to change the rules for legal immigration – I am all for it – Canada has much more rationale rules. But what you are suggesting is to reward people who come here illegally.</p>
<p>No, I’m suggesting we reward ourselves by keeping a person in this country who we’ve already paid to educate through the 12th grade and who desires to continue their education. </p>
<p>That’s it’s also the humane and right thing to not seperate a child from her family and country is wonderful. But if we’re looking at this from “what can we afford” pov, I can hardly think of a less effective system than deporting children whose education we’ve paid for.</p>
<p>Pug, the problem I see is that giving citizenship to people who come illegally will likely encourage more to come illegally. When people come illegally – the govt is not the one seperating families – the immigrants have chosen the path that may lead to it.</p>
<p>I do not see that further encouragement is needed. If death isn’t stopping people, what do you propose that will? </p>
<p>Yes, the government is seperating families base on irrational and financially unsound policy. I don’t accept any excuse when it comes to seperating children from their parents except for abuse. Nor do I accept the rational that children should be punished because their desperate parents took a chance on something better.</p>
<p>Blaming the victims is just a way to make ourselves feel better about sending people back for doing exactly the same thing we would do if the situation were reserved. I cannot relate to parents who would put obeying the laws of a country they are not citizens of above their child’s education and medical needs. I do what it takes for my son to have his best chance in life. </p>
<p>I’m lucky enough to be living in a time and setting that allows me to do that in a law abiding way but if I didn’t, I hope that I would have the courage to be the kind of mother who would grasp at any chance at making things better for my child. And it would be a dream come true to find that the place I landed to make that happen showed mercy on my hardworking child. </p>
<p>What we are doing? What we have done to this young woman? It does not make me proud. It is not what I know America can be.</p>
<p>To the OP-I am more than a little curious why she was denied citizenship when she applied as a 16 year old if her entire family was legal. Since you know her personally, can you answer that question? I’m not familiar with how the citizenship process works so any light would be helpful.</p>