Categorized | Domestic Affairs, Immigration, Latino, Politics
Does America Really Want the Tired, the Poor and the Huddled Masses?
by Babs
Posted on 16 December 2009 | 9:40 am 
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Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009 ” on Tuesday, December 15.
“We have waited patiently for a workable solution to our immigration crisis to be taken up by this Congress and our President,” said Rep. Gutierrez. “The time for waiting is over. This bill will be presented before Congress recesses for the holidays so that there is no excuse for inaction in the New Year. It is the product of months of collaboration with civil rights advocates, labor organizations, and members of Congress. It is an answer to too many years of pain —mothers separated from their children, workers exploited and undermined security at the border— all caused at the hands of a broken immigration system. This bill says ‘enough,’ and presents a solution to our broken system that we as a nation of immigrants can be proud of.”
Rethuglicans and their minions have already declared the bill dead on denouncing it amounting to amnesty for people illegals.
Read more from the New York Times:
Representative Brian Bilbray, a California Republican who heads the House Immigration Reform Caucus, said the bill would only generate a new wave of migrants to compete with Americans for jobs at a time of 10 percent unemployment.
Democrats in the Senate who would steer an immigration overhaul through that chamber generally welcomed Mr. Gutierrez’s bill, though aides said it was too liberal to win passage as written.
Still, the legislation hewed closely to some recent statements by Obama administration officials, mainly in its call for improved border security, a crackdown on employers who hire unauthorized workers and some way to open the door to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Under the bill, to gain legal status and possibly citizenship, illegal immigrants already here would have to demonstrate they had been working, pay a $500 fine, learn English and undergo a criminal background check, among other provisions. Unlike previous proposals in Congress, they would not have to return to their homeland first, something known as “touchback.”
The measure also calls for additional training and equipment for border guards, though not the hiring of new ones, and would require the Homeland Security Department to improve immigration jails and eliminate a program that deputizes local and state officers as immigration agents.
The bill lacks a broad program championed by many Republicans, as well as Democrats including Mr. Obama, to address future labor demands and to better control the flow of immigration. To do that, they have advocated a program under which people could work only temporarily in the United States and then return home. Instead, the bill calls for a federal commission to study the best approach for the “future flows of workers.”
Start popping the corn.
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WHITE AMERICANS’ MAJORITY TO END BY MID-CENTURY
The estimated time when whites will no longer make up the majority of Americans has been pushed back eight years — to 2050 — because the recession and stricter immigration policies have slowed the flow of foreigners into the United States.
Census Bureau projections released Wednesday update last year’s prediction that white children would become a minority in 2023 and the overall white population would follow in 2042. The earlier estimate did not take into account a drop in the number of people moving into the United States because of the economic crisis and the immigration policies imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
* The United States has 308 million people today; two-thirds are non-Hispanic whites.
* The total population should climb to 399 million by 2050, under the new projections, with whites making up 49.9 percent of the population.
* Blacks will make up 12.2 percent, virtually unchanged from today.
* Hispanics, currently 15 percent of the population, will rise to 28 percent in 2050.
* Asians are expected to increase from 4.4 percent of the population to 6 percent.
The projections are based on rates for births and deaths and a scenario in which immigration continues its more recent, slower pace of adding nearly 1 million new foreigners each year:
* The point when minority children become the majority is expected to have a similar delay of roughly eight years, moving from 2023 to 2031.
* The population 85 and older is projected to more than triple by 2050, to 18.6 million.
The actual shift in demographics will be influenced by a host of factors that can’t be accurately forecast — the pace of the economic recovery, cultural changes, natural or manmade disasters, as well as an overhaul of immigration law, which may be debated in Congress as early as next year.
As a result, the Census Bureau said the projections should be used mostly as a guide.
Source: Hope Yen, “White Americans’ majority to end by mid-century,” Associated Press, December 16, 2009.
For text:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jO8jbAnwaP-wLfs93UGI -l_-llMgD9CKGBS00
For more on Social Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=28
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Maybe it’s time we wrap up the Statue of Liberty and fed ex it to that Housewife of NY “Countess” so her ex-hubby can return it to it’s rightful owner, France.
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December 16th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
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“Class with the Countess: How to Live with Elegance and Flair” is her new book. Perhaps her hubby grew tired of all that class.
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December 16th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
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LOL, I know! Are you serious about the book? I did not know that. Elegance? Where? Although, truth be told, she was probably one of the “normal” ones, for whatever that’s worth.
Is her book fiction/comedy/tragedy/insanity? I wonder how many times she mentions the SOL story (is it even true) in her tome?
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Somebody once said something about the decline of a nation being directly coincident with the suspicion of strangers. I have found that a wise observation. As a nation of migrants (we all came from somewhere else, even the Native Americans) we really cannot cast a finger at another for we are all different and this has in the past been our greatest source of strength.
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December 16th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
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but were they…BROWN???
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December 16th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
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Believe it or not, I have Native American in me from my Mom’s Mom. And my brother in law is part Cherokee. It is hardly my fault that I look like my great grandmother on my Mom’s Dad’s side.
One of the strange things about this current obsession with Spanish ancestry, especially in the Western states, (Florida also) is the fact that almost all of the western states were originally Spanish possessions. It makes me wonder why they think they can change history by denying people on the basis of BROWN or BLACK skin color.
I have this really neat book of photographs called “Children Of The West, Family Life On The Frontier” by Cathy Luchetti It has photographs of Native, Spanish, Chinese, & Black families, as well as all the shades of white.
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December 16th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
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I’ve always been amazed by that, too, Kit. The Spaniard offspring was already well-entrenched into both Florida and Texas (and Calif., for that matter) by the time the Anglos got there. Guess they never heard of St. Augustine….
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December 16th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
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Better more immigrants than the hillbillies we’re apparently breeding like mushrooms who portray themselves as the REAL America.
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December 16th, 2009 at 11:29 am
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No. They don’t. That being said, I hope the bill passes.
But we definitely need to the end the HB1 visa program. It’s just a corporate scam.
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Funny thing about our system of government… they have just noticed that a problem ignored doesn’t just “go away”. This one is a Gordian knot of immense proportions.
We have always been a nation of immigrants and until relatively recently that was just fine. But now we can clearly see the “Old Guard” hanging on tooth and nail to a concept that has been obsolete for over a hundred years.
I’m pretty sure I won’t live long enough to see its resolution… I wonder if my grandchildren will.
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BTW, the Pew Hispanic Center, http://pewhispanic.org/ , is an excellent resource that provides research “to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos’ growing impact on the nation.”
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