Protests Over Immigration Bills Continue

@Chris Misenzahl: While that was really funny, it also would have made for a poor precedent. I thought we learned that lesson back in the 60s. Ok, so it's illegal aliens this time and not white middle class college kids...this is still America and we already have enough official oppression here.

I support this bill, although I wish two things about it were different: that it was even harder on employers and exempted charitable organizations such as churches from prosecution for providing basic humanitarian assistance -- things like food and clothing.

I also wish that they would spend more time looking at ways to improve the legal immigration process. It is broken. I have several friends (who had advanced college degrees and extremely needed skill sets, as well as very good reasons to leave their countries of origin) who spent way too many years and thousands of dollars to get through the process. Though they ultimately did get their citizenship, they all have some pretty bitter memories of the way they were treated.

In closing, I have a Hispanic surname and I grew up in an overwhelmingly Hispanic area. But I am an American...and I think that part of being an American is to be that first, and to be whatever demographic you are second. I've watched the Hispanic power trip grow, and that 500,000 strong march in LA actually frightened me. I do not wish to live in a land in which people who are doing something illegal come out in the streets to be proud of it and to defy those living within the law to do something about it. We Americans had better not flinch at this; it is quite literally a challenge to our sovereignty. We should push on and pass this bill and then enforce it like we mean it, or this country will be held hostage by an invading force in our midst.

Hey. The senate committee stripped out all provisions in the bill concerning criminal prosecution of these law breakers. This is great news. Now we can choose which laws we will obey in this country and not get penalized. I'm starting with that law about paying taxes. Then, I'm sick of having to license my car, boat etc. I'll dump those too. I've always wanted to drive 95 on I-30..cool. No penalty for me there either..what a country!

The vast majority of these people have come here to earn a living - a living unlike anything that they could ever hope to achieve at 'home'. I don't particularly like the fact that their children, attending our schools, at our expense, are breaking more laws and upsetting our daily infrastructure by doing things such as walking on freeways, carrying and prominently carrying and displaying flags of a foreign nation. I find their behavior bordering on the offensive - repugnant and rude, especially based on the fact they have achieved some degree of economic freedom their precious homeland, goverened corruptly and brutally for decades, would have never given them at any price or effort.

Americans would probably welcome more and newer Americans - if they honestly endeavor to become Americans. Before Mexicans started coming in earnest in the mid 1980's, over the past 3 centuries came the Poles, the Irish, the Germans, the Russians, the Italians, the Africans, and even the Brits. They all became Americans at the invitation of Americans. They accepted their citizenship on the basis of which it was offered. There were no demands and they did not negotiate the terms and conditions of their acceptance. In the case of the Africans, they were even gracious enough to accept citizenship despite the fact that they ended up here against their will.

The problem of illegal immigration is mostly economic. While we are trying to find the best and most fair solution, lock up any and all employers who give illegals jobs, and when we get back to solving the problem, we will find there is no problem to solve. Simplistic? Yes. But it keeps the problem manageble while we talk about the things that we can do and never will - and that is why we have 11 million foriegners living in this country 'illegally'.

@Chris Misenzahl. Funny I was there at the march and I would have loved to see the INS take me anywhere. I am U.S. born, and I would have had the ACLU, National Council of La Raza, and other organizations suing every person/deparment/agency they could get there hands on.

Thank god for these Civil Rights organizations!