Why do you oppose amnesty for illegals?

Although you make very good arguments, I don't think amnesty is the answer. It sends a message that if you break the law, all will be forgiven if enough of you do it. I do not want a guest worker program, either. That makes a permanent underclass in our Country, and lowers wages for everyone. The only people who benefit from it are Company's looking for cheap labor. I am a Democrat and I feel for the plight of the illegals, however, my first concern is for American Citizens who's standard of living will be impacted by the guest worker program. I also realize that deportation of all illegals is logistically impossible. In short, I don't know what the answer is , I do know what it isn't and that is amnesty and guest worker programs. I think a first step to helping this problem would be to ENFORCE the laws we have and to SECURE our borders so that no more illegals get in, some of whom may be terrorists with more on their mind than a summer job.

I oppose it because their first act in entering the country was to break the law. Their second was to seek employment illegally. Their third is to operate a motor vehicle illegally.

I oppose it because they have proved that they have absolutely no respect for our laws or our citizens. They do not deserve to be rewarded. They deserve to be deported no matter what the cost.

Yes it is always easier to ignore a situation until it is you personally that is being harmed. That is commonly known as cowardice.

The fact that even legal they will work for a substandard wage means that the jobs that once built the middle class will become jobs whose workers must be subsidized by the government. Construction is the largest field that the illegals work in not picking crops or any job that Americans won't do. They don' have insurance and they don't pay Workman's comp and they don't pay taxes. What they do do is work for a price below what anyone who does the work legally can charge. Builder love them because they pocket the difference and if the Mexicans complain they just run them off and hire some more without paying them. No contract no paper trail.

I oppose it for many reasons but I'll refer you to some of the reasons Lou Dobbs came up with:

Lou's Top 5 List

Top 5 Dumbest Things in the Immigration Bill

5) Taxpayers will pay for the immigration lawyers for illegal aliens if working in agriculture.

4) Illegal aliens would be given legal status just one day after their application is filed even if a background check is not completed.

3) Gang members are eligible for amnesty if they renounce their gang status.

2) Borders do not have to be secure before the amnesty program begins.

1) $2,600,000,000,000 -- That is the cost the Heritage Foundation estimates to cover the retirement benefits of 12,000,000 illegal aliens if this amnesty bill becomes law.

Because it encourages future illegal immigration by undercutting immigration law.

Case it point: the last Amnesty was proposed for the ~ 3 million illegals here in 1986, and was ultimately granted almost 5. In the ensuing years, more than 12 million have come here illegally. If the current Amnesty turns out like the last, then, it will ultimately go to something like 20 million, and attract 48 million by 2028.

I'm going to answer with a question.

Why don't we just free every criminal who is currently serving time in our prisons, haven't they also committed crimes?

Why reward a criminal with the end result he desired when he committed the original crime, isn't that a reward for illegal activity?

OK, but where is the punishment for the illegal border crossers if we give them their reward?

I understand your analysis of crime/punishment, but jaywalking has no impact whatsoever on society as a whole, therefore does not have any relevance to this debate.

Simply "Trespassing" has no real effect either, but there is going to be a huge financial cost to society when you "Squat" and use the social programs of the land you are "Squatting" on.

I consider them to be felons.

Lets see........There's more active cases in the USA of Polio, Lepracy, and TB because there coming into our country without being tested for diseases. I pay taxes and contribute to the system, they dont pay taxes but yet can benefit from it and get free healthcare, foodstamps, ssi, etc... thats absolutely ridiculous. Hospitals are having to file for bankruptcy in Arizona and Texas because so many illegals are coming into this country and poppping out babies, who pays for that? OUR TAX DOLLARS!!!! FBI reports say more then 75% of all your violent gangs in the USA are all illegal immigrants.

It's pretty funny, they dont understand or can ever write english but they know all about the 14th amendment. Anybody born on U.S. soil are automatically granted U.S. citizenship. Since there child was born here, they get to stay here and live off our money that should be going towards roads, parks, school.

Everyone says we need them because they pick our crops and everything. What about in the 1920s 1930s? Who picked our crops then? YEP hard working americans did so! We dont need them to pick our crops. Tell the people who are to lazy to find a job to go pick the crops. Whats the worse that could happens, the pound of tomatoes go up a few pennies?

They comes into the USA, get drunk and harm men, women, and children! Thered be less sex offenders (Thank god for Jessica's law), less drunk drivers, less crime.

Tell them to get there stuff, get on the next plane or bus, go back to there country and stay there!

Face the facts, how are illegals great for this country?

The best way to restore law and order is to ship back as many as possible and punish severely those that hire illegals. Naturally special interest groups manage to keep that from happening to maintain cheap labor and easy votes. My ancestry suffered and struggled to make it to this country legally and were practically indentured servants for many years. Each group of immigrants paid their dues by working in near slavery conditions until moving up the ladder in society. Enabling illegals to stay here and continue to disrespect our laws only encourages more to come and will lead to the breakdown of our society.

because my husbands family had to save, learn English, sell almost everything they owned, get a sponsor and wait to be able to come to America. why should people that WON'T go thru the proper channels get a free pass to live here putting them in front of all the others that are doing it legally and waiting at home to be able to immigrate to the USA. My in laws had to work very hard to get here with their 3 kids and i think it is an insult to every immigrant that worked so hard to get here legally.

Well put. Iwould only add that history tells us that the great majority of the illegals, given a chance, can be expected to be law-abiding, productive, and to assimilate into American society--just as immigrants have always done (including the forebears of the right wing yo-yos that are screaming their idiot heads off about "amnesty").

Move to Houston. There are about 200,000 reasons why I oppose amnesty for illegals. Just because you give them a free pass for breaking the law doesn't mean they will all of a sudden decide to pay for doctors visits.