Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [POLITICS] What's wrong with McCain?

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Sat, 2 Feb 2008, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:

> This border issue really puzzles me.  Main-stream politicians seems 
> somewhat reluctant to put up this fence.  However this is also a time 
> when politicians are scrambling to put security in place, so that old 
> women get searched in airports, etc.  Furthermore, despite the obvious 
> apparent lack of any security at the US-Mexican border, I have never 
> heard of terrorists using this way to get in.

I think it is harder to sneak in that way than to just fly into JFK. 
Also, if I were a terrorist, and I couldn't fly into JFK, I'd go to Canada 
and sneak in from there instead of going to Mexico.

Terrorist groups that have money can pull off all kinds of crap really 
easily.  I have heard that for an illegal alien to get legitimate 
permanent residency costs about $10,000 to $15,000.  There are workers in 
government who have access and cook the books for the cash.  That might 
not be true, but even if it isn't true, I find it hard to believe that no 
amount of money would do it.  Same for getting visas, fake 
identification, etc., etc.

Even without buying documents, it is possible for terrorists (who are not 
known to be terrorists) to get student visas, tourist visas, work visas 
and many other kinds of access to our country.  Once they are here, they 
are very hard to remove.  They just stay indefinitely.

I have met dozens of illegal immigrants here in Minneapolis.  The first 
was a Brazilian au pair working for a friend.  The au pair was suppposed 
to leave on a certain date, but she didn't leave.  Then what happens to 
her?  Nothing.  She even kept on using her Social Security number at 
various jobs and there was no problem with that.  She had friends from all 
over the world, but mostly from Latin America living here and all of them 
were "off status" ("illegal").  They all had come here legally, none had 
snuck across a border.

So my perspective, which is clearly influenced by having met these people, 
is that the government is letting people in and doing nothing to police 
their departures.  Nothing at all.  Not even checking SS numbers against 
IRS records.  They don't even send warning letters.  I have to conclude 
that the government really doesn't care that these people are staying 
here, and they probably are trying to encourage it -- it is a source of 
cheap labor.  The labor glut keeps wages low and low wages is just what 
powerful people (employers) want -- not so for many voters, but they 
aren't able to figure out what is going on and they can be fooled by 
things like plans for border fences or tough talk about putting tanks on 
the border.

Mike

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