I think I have very different opinion about today’s politicson immigration. After arriving here from Lithuania in 1993 I arrived to America that was full of potential and growth. All current and future immigrants wereseeking path to a better future.

 

… Now seems to me that everything changed. All immigrantsare being blamed for economic failure and soon we will build a Great China Wallon Mexican boarder. Are we going to send immigrants to bring bricks from Berlin?

 

Let me expose some facts that are unknown to American public.All things happen for a reason and the reason for illegal immigration is asystem that benefits illegal immigrants, sponsors and supports the system andtogether protects them by making immigrants illegal so when something happensillegal immigrant always gets blamed.

 

It is a fact and just like in corporate world big companieshave their own rules and regulations to protect themselves from general publicand intruders. Try opening successful business and you will see what I mean…Soon you will be contacted for not having permits, or not meeting zoning requirements,or not paying enough taxes. There will always be an excuse and you will alwaysbe at fault.

 

So let’s get back to illegal immigration issue. As I wastelling you that there is this system that controls illegal immigration. Theyset the rules and they know how to milk this “illegal immigration caw”. Forexample Chicago, Illinois has its own immigrant communities, activity centers,social clubs and newspapers. Everyone contributes to economy and works hard toserve public by working in mostly service industry. Most of constructionworkers, cooks, drivers and others work hard and believe American dream.

 

 

But most of them only have illegal immigrant status anddrivers license if they were lucky and arrived here before September 11 or paidcrooked lawyer. White States like Indiana, Michigan, Colorado, and Arizona andother States are protecting themselves from intruders. They make life impossiblefor illegal immigrants and hard for legal immigrants by singling them out. Itis impossible to obtain drivers license in those states that makes living therevirtually impossible. Although all illegal immigrants have bank accounts, newcars, homes and mortgages and all of them in a lot of cases paid ways more orwere “screwed” just because of their immigration status. Let’s ask why they arehere? ...and I will give you a clear answer. They are here to be an Americansto raise their children who will be our future.  

 

 

 

Only think how easy is for immigrant to find a job. First heneeds to learn a language and second he needs to find a job and compete withothers to get one. And trust me that money is no longer an issue in country whoseeconomy is falling apart and unemployment raises. The issue is ability andcompetition. And I guarantee that every single immigrant is worth three timesmore for the work that he performs and every immigrant who worked and paidtaxes was exploited and suffered enough. But now times they are being blamed.It is a same way as you would rape someone and then instead of being punishedwould call victim a “hooker”. Slave nostalgia makes human exploitation nolonger a big issue, lets just “screw them and deport them !!!”. I will tell youexactly how you can stop this mess. Every time you are getting serviced askthem who delivered your food, who washes your dishes, who cooked your food, whomade your bed at the hotel, who is nursing your disabled parents, who isbabysitting, who is driving trucks when diesel is over $4.00 per gallon, whoworked on your new dream home you simply to refuse the service. And let me tellyou the place for racist like this does not exist anymore. Every good has itsbad and if we would to accomplish this another thing would surface… the welfarerecipients would no longer have what to receive because there would be no oneto work.

 

 

 

I hope our new president will be Barack Obama. If I was a U.S.Citizen I would definitely vote for him. But here money and power buys thevotes and although he is promising change it is very sad to see that somecorporations, lobbyists and other crooks are afraid of this change.

 

I had a chance to speak to few Americans from Michigan. WhenI asked what they think about Barack Obama I was exposed to real racism and insulting comments just because mycolor and ability to clearly speak English gave them a confidence to expresstheir true feelings.

 

I can only hope for a change…. What about you?

I don’t believe everything is being blamed on illegal immigration, but I don’t think you make some valid points on the subject. 

 

 

 

There do need to be controls on how many people come to the US and how they get here.  There cannot be an endless stream of people with no control.  The economy will die if we have an endless stream of people coming here.  The economy is so bad now because George Bush is an idiot and has no idea what he is doing.  He has dug the US into huge debt with the War and his endless spending. 

 

 

 

There are thousands of immigrants who come here every year legally and it doest seem fair to me illegal immigrants by pass the system and get rewarded for this.  It’s not fair to the people who have jumped through all of the hoops necessary to become a citizen and others have not. 

 

 

 

I agree many illegal immigrants are serving food, taking care of old people, baby sittings and driving trucks.  Part of the reason why this type of work is being done by illegals is because it is relatively unskilled work.  Many say Americans don’t want this type of work and this is why illegals are doing it, but I’m not so sure about this.  Who was doing this type of work before the illegal immigrants?  I believe it was High school kids looking for extra money, college kids helping to pay for school and people who maybe didn’t want to go to college and just wanted to start working.  It gave them an opportunity to get into the work force and gain some work experience.  I believe there would be Americans filling these jobs if there were no illegal immigrants doing them.

 

 

 

Businesses also are to blame here, because they exploit a lot of illegals by paying lower wages then they would Americans.  Businesses make more of a profit because of the lower wages, so they like illegal immigrants.

 

 

 

Now, what is the answer to the problem?  Who knows… I certainly don’t belive current illegal immigrants who have been here for years should be thrown out of the country.  There are some wonderful people I have met who didn’t do it the legal way and I don’t think they should have to leave.  Maybe an amnesty for ones who have been here 5 or more years is the answer?  I do feel though if I came here legally, I would be angry with people who came here illegally got a free pass under an amnesty plan.  I don’t think there is an easy answer to this issue and this is why so many people have argued about it for so long.

 

 

 

I too hope Barack Obama gets elected president.  I also have seen the racism some people have towards him, but when I see states like Wyoming and Iowa (who are primarily white states) vote for him in the primary elections; it gives me hope.  I believe most people in the US are not racist, but the ones who are stand out more. 

 

 

 

I’m tired of corporations running the country and I believe Obama will make the changes necessary to bring the country back to the people.  He will also restore our respect around the world.  I for one haven’t been proud to be an American in a long time.  If Obama gets elected; I believe he will make the changes needed to make the US a great place to live again.

I knew this FORUM will be a success  :).

I think you need to be an immigrant to understand one. What media is showing daily is simple brainwashing of hard working people and that is what made me to write this article.

I am not a professor and had no chance to ever obtain education here in U.S. (or I would be paying my student loans at 14% rate for 150 years and out of state tuition because of my status) but I will try again to prove I'm right.

Economy is a difficult thing. That is why we have a economists who advise George Bush what the future holds for us. Although so many innocent lives are being lost in Iraq it is hard to judge our President... maybe that is why gas price is only $4.00 and not $10.00 per gallon.

No questions asked future will bring us instability, high unemployment and crime and who knows how long it will take for the things to get better. Remember that besides Iraq we are becoming friends with Columbia... and media already telling people to boycott Olympic Games in China. Yes we are the greatest country in the world but who knows what the future will bring if we just build a wall around us and think that we can live by draining savings of baby boomer's.

People in U.S. are loosing millions daily. Old money are being washed and dollar is becoming worthless. Sure we will receive $300.00 stimulus package but Indiana's sales tax is up from 6% to 7% before people received this stimulus. And why is that did we ran out of ink to print more dollars?

And let me go back to immigration issues. It is not the way like it is being pictures in the media.

There are plenty of jobs for college kids and American people. The problem is that money is being waisted and instead of taking care of our own crooks are steeling grants and money from tax payers and pocketing billions while it is cheaper to pay minimal unemployment for poor people.

Every year money is being awarded but look at our bridges, streets and aging homes (Chicago as an example).

Real Estate prices made some immigrant's very rich and although they are not legally here trust me they are more powerful now then system wanted.

Sad thing is that all this anger is being transfered to all immigrants. Legal or illegal. Latino or Eastern European.

It is hard to notice this in Chicago ... because of such high immigrant population. But trust me Indiana and Michigan.


Illegal immigrants contribute to Social Security but will never see the benefit of it. Here is a part of an article from The New York Times ...

"One reason is that many undocumented workers pay taxes during their work lives but don’t collect benefits later. Another is that undocumented workers are entering the United States at ever younger ages and are expected to have more children while they’re here than if they arrived at later ages. The result is a substantial increase in the number of working-age people paying taxes, but a relatively smaller increase in the number of retirees who receive benefits — a double boon to Social Security’s bottom line.

We’re not talking chump change. According to the report, the taxes paid by other-than-legal immigrants will close 15 percent of the system’s projected long-term deficit. That’s equivalent to raising the payroll tax by 0.3 percentage points, starting today."

What angers me that I hear so much bull shit about immigrants from people but they do not understand that I  am one of those immigrants.

Before we even start discussing immigration issues - let's remember that we all are immigrants in this country, with exeption of Native Americans. I do not want to go into history lesson here and recap what we did to American Indians, Mexicans, and African slaves.

America suppose to be a palce where human rights for freedom, hapiness, and pursuit of better life are core values.  

However, it is beginning to resemble deceased Soviet Union more and more. Can we blame it on one person - our current president Bush?  Yes and no.

He is stupid and ignorant. He is constantly making bad political and economic decisions. But what about the rest of us? Why do we hate everyone, who is not exactly the same as us?

We live in a new subdivision and I see mexican guys working hard, building our homes. Once I heard a story from my co-worker, who's husband works in construction. On a very hot day bunch of guys were working hard an got very thirsty. They ran out of bottled water and  rang someone's dorbell to ask for some drinking water. The construction guys happened to be mexican. The homeowner called the local police and had the construction guys arrested for trespassing. Chicago police officer was very happy to take them into custody, called them all sorts of names, threatened to deport them. Grown up men were crying. Their foremen, my co-worker's husband, begged to forgive the guys, but police officer just threatened to arrest him as well for harboring illegal immigrants. Is it human? What have we become?

Strangely, I am not for illegal immigration. I think that people should not abuse the system, get undeserved benefits, and live on welfare.

But wait a minute, does that sound like hard working illegal immigrants, or more like another social group that we are supporting in this country for many years?

It is sad that illegal immigration issue is like a huge elephant in a room - everyone sees it, but nobody knows what exactly to do about it. It is so large, that it seems there is no apparent solution.

If I could sit down with our Mister President, I would tell him that billions of dollars that he spent on the war in Iraq could have fixed illegal immigration, economic crisis, failing education system,and real estate market. Moreover, instead of puting a band-aid on illegal immigration and creating more and more discriminatory laws that violate basic human rights, why don't we do something positive and constructive? My advice - completely open our national borders and let people come and go as they please. Believe me, there are tons of people that would be happy to go home to their families or just come here and stay for awhile and then leave. Many families are being torn appart because of unjust immigration laws. People are afraid, that if they leave America, they never will be let to reenter and never will see their wifes, parents, and children again. They are forced to stay in some cases. Why do we let japanese, germans and italians come here freely, but not lithuanians, lathvians and estonians? Are we less civilized that the rest of the world? No - they call us "potential immigrants".

All honest, hardworking people that want to become American citizens and love this country should be given that opportunity. Amnesty should not be a free gift to everyone, but a hard earned priviledge. Candidates for American citizenship should meet rigorous standards of proving their good moral character, knowledge of english language, costitution,and goverment structure. They should prove that they will be productive, contributing members of society, not just a burden to welfare system and tax-paying citizens.

People that do not meet these standards should be deported at their own expense. Tough, but fair. It is unlikely that Bush will join Friend Finder Space and read my suggestion, but I spoke my peace.

I also hope that Obama will be our next president. We have a great country, full of opportunities and possibilities. We should be proud that people want to live here, not to run away from here. God bless America and our hope for a better future. We, americans, never lose our hope, we try hard and do not give up easily.

I too once was an illegal immigrant. Now I am proud american citizen and I definitely will vote for Obama in upcomming presidential election.

 

I for one don’t believe I am being brainwashed by the media.  I believe I know the facts on both sides of the issue.  I consider myself someone who thinks for themselves and doesn’t fall for the media hype I see.  The news channels used to be about reporting stories and now it has turned into a ratings game, but I’ll save that for another discussion.

 

 

 

My great grandparents came to America, so I was fortunate to be born here.  That was a much different time though.  Immigrants were needed for a new country which was growing fast.  I have to disagree with Adrija about a completely open border policy at this point in time.  Unemployment is at high levels and there are not enough jobs as is for Americans.  Corporations are sending jobs overseas and they have no loyalty at all to the American people.  An endless stream of people coming here to find a better life would overwhelm the county and put people out of work.  You’d have people who would be willing to take work for very low wages and this would seriously lower the standard of living for many Americans forced to work for lower wages.  I also believe the country would eventually collapse with unregulated immigration. 

 

 

 

I of course agree we are all Immigrants unless we are American Indian and it’s horrible what we did to them and the African people with slavery.  All countries have their horrible histories and all people make mistakes.  The world was a much different place back then and I believe most of America has finally moved beyond the past with the support I have seen for Hillary and Obama. 

 

 

 

People tend to gravitate to others who are similar to them whether it be race, ethnicity or religion.  It’s human nature to do this.  It’s about being comfortable and a feeling of having something in common.  I do believe racism exists less in metropolitan areas then in rural areas, but we will always have people who don’t like others.

 

 

 

I do know about illegal immigrants paying social security tax.  There’s no doubt the government likes this money.  How many illegals working here use public services provided by government money?  How many go to hospitals when they get sick and don’t pay the bill? 

 

 

 

 

 

America is the most generous county in the world.  We give billions and billions of dollars each year to help others.  We are in an age where we cannot absorb immigrants at an unregulated level.  America will become just like every other over populated country if we do.  That Statue of Liberty says…

 

 

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these — the homeless, tempest-tossed — to me;
I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door.

 

We don’t live in these times anymore.  I wish we could help everyone and all countries could have the same standard of living we have, but at some point one has to say NO and preserve their own existence.

 

 

I dont know why my posts are double spacing!  Sorry about how much space their is in between paragraphs.

 …would you share your dinner?

 

 

 

It is what it is...

 

 

That was my point that Country was build by all and now only born here wants to rule. America was country of immigrants and now who knows what it is...

 

Only look at celebrities that come here form Europe. Why they never had to wait in line for their immigration status... I will tell you why because here people like to kiss ass for money.

 

It’s sad for me to see our friends work two jobs and raise American citizen children and being treated like "shit". Not everyone can succeed financially and it is sad to see good people to loose everything with no hope of regaining. 

 

 

People need to change... But I guess KGB is working and someone is destroying this country from within by dividing it. 

 

 

There are ways to fix everything very quick... but again the “system” needs poor people they need fake useless jobs with fake departments to keep those overmedicated minority leaders happy and busy.

 

And because of our Constitution some illegal immigrants are getting a peace of this welfare pie. I guess “system” don’t want to screw up and be sued by one of them.

 

And trust me that there are no hospitals in real life that treat illegal immigrants… if you brother don’t have an insurance and something is really wrong you will end up in public County hospital and if there are none then you will end up on street corner or under the bridge.

 

Sure in Chicago in other places you can probably enroll children to school… and on TV they will tell you haw they spend billions on education. Has anyone ever been in any of Chicago Public Schools? I have…and they are like from the horror movie.

 

And there is no generosity unless there is a gain or donations or tax write-off. Ask me and I will provide you hundreds of examples.

 

Once I was homeless and had nothing to eat. I slept in my car in Market Park in Chicago and went to work in factory 12 hour shifts. We had Catholic Charities come to our work and they asked how many % we each can donate and they had a video and presentation how they travel around helping poor and provide shelter for homeless.

 

 

 

I offered them 10% and asked if they would provide me some help… they did not take my donations… or gave me assistance. They were shocked to face someone who was not afraid to tell the truth.  They are fake! So is this publicly promoted generosity!

 

But again someone has been putting “shit” in people’s heads and I am 100% convinced that it worked.

 

I have a friend who has U.S. citizen son. His wife died and is berried here. They both were illegal immigrants and now he must raise his U.S. citizen son as an illegal alien. Or he should leave his wife? Or do what? Sometimes it is not only about the jobs and money… But who cares.

 

 

 

 I miss good music !!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is nice to see people sharing their thoughts. It is O.K. to think different who knows maybe we will soon be fenced up… and live happy and think the same just like in Soviet Union.

 

Boys, please, play nice! Let's agree to disagree. Illegal immigration, just like the war in Iraq is a painful issue. My proposal on opening the national borders was based on reverse psychology - isn't it our human nature to always want what we can not have? Maybe people should see for themselves that streets are not paved with gold in America, that here, too, people have to try hard to get ahead, that we have limited resources, problems, crime, injustice, prejudice, and materializm. Let's be frank - America is not the best place in the world. We score pretty low on happiness coeficient. Denmark is number one, Puerto Rico and Mexico is not far behind when it comes to happiest people on Earth. It shows that people's attitude, lifestyle, and social activities are more important that US dollars.

Let's be open, let's be kind. I sound like John Lennon, but I believe that one day we will be one human nation.

You may think I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one...