Should Ice be enforcing immigration laws?

Ed, humor us...it is about immigrants to you.  You just hide behind the letter of the law.

Police called to Essex to investigate european prostitutes....probably with tourist visas?

Guess I'm glad the economy has picked up so much we can import some foreign talent!

970 views mebbe would should have this conversation?

One of your so-called "illegals" helped return a disoriented elderly relative of mine to my house when he became lost.  We could take a cue from him on the role of family values.

I've traveled through Central America, and have always been greeted with warmth and hospitality.  I am ashamed that my own countrymen have not provided the same welcome.

I perform manual labor here on island.  I have no trouble finding work or out-earning my hispanic-latino competition.  I find that truly discerning clients are more interested in a total job than the bottom line.  It's not a smear on our foreign working population, they are fun to hang out with, and most work incredibly hard to support their families.  I don't know what kind of business you are in, but perhaps you should examine all facets of your own enterprise before scapegoating others immigration status.

Are you are still church shopping, Ed? I hope that you stop to reflect on The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) before you choose. 

Also, as a Libertarian, I assumed you would be for free enterprise, and the rights of corporations and small businesses to hire who they please.  In fact, the official Libertarian party platform calls for free movement of human and financial capital across boundaries.

Most Native Americans think we're illegal aliens. Ed, what's your tribe?

Sorry to be so dense, but I can't figure out how to vote on this in the poll.  I've really been trying, honestly, to figure it out.  And, it took me a while to find the latest post in this thread from EssexEd, scrolling up and down until I found it, going by date and time.

How can I vote in the poll?  How can I make it easier to navigate, as I seem to be able to do in other threads?

How can I get more ICE for the Holiday Weekend?   

 I agree with you 92%, (flick dave) - where is the "quote" button

i think the ivory towers need to fall, so many of those who preach it, are not in the trenches.

THose who are so secure need to look at the other foot.

Arizona is thinking right and look, the national gaurd has been mobilized, go figure. I could discuss this further but, I know what I know but only want todiscuss it with those with in speaking voice, to type and discuss, is so, antiquated, gone are the days of actually having a face to face discussion.

 
I like the old the YACK, less hassle to post

Jim, I know you do and I appreciate how much you all do with the resources you have. All I ask is that you have some compassion for those that aren't lucky enough to have the job security that you are lucky enough to enjoy whether you agree with their politics in general or not. Thanks again for the great job you do.

It is very easy to not care about illegal immigrants when your own job isn't threatened by them. It is a whole other story when you have been busting your hump for years and decades and in a short time see a massive influx of undocumented foreign nationals invade your local work force and offer to work at such a low rate that you literally can't afford to match their rate and be able to pay your bills. Luckily, I am not in this position myself but I can empathise with those who are.

We have borders. We have immigration laws. We have a cynical reluctance to enforce said laws because the 2 major political parties that are in charge of enforcing those laws are to busy pandering to the hispanic caucus in an effort to gain support for their party in future elections or they are being told by their big business cronies that they need more cheap labor. The end result is a swift kick in the pants to the unskilled or semiskilled legal American worker. All we are doing by allowing a free flow of illegal labor into this country is creating downward pressure on labor costs which force more and more people into poverty. Family values indeed! The illegal aliens can't get an education and better their situation by getting more skills for fear or getting dicovered and deported so obviously they can't move to CT and go into the advertising game. Instead, they stay here and take jobs away from people who weren't fortunate enough to get your education and weren't lucky enough to get your breaks in life.

It must be nice to be able to sit up in the Ivory Tower and cast aspersions on your fellow Nantucketers that are obviously struggling while your background, education, and contacts allow you to weather the economic storm fairly unmolested. It must be nice to have a union that will fight to protect your job. Some people here on Nantucket aren't fortunate enough to have those things. Believe it or not, some people in the construction trades didn't make a bazillion dollars during the boom. For those people the lack of jobs here coupled with the increase of undocumented laborers (who couldn't find work elsewhere so they came here) is a double hardship. All because no one has the political will to do something about it.

We can't stop the flow of illegals into the US? Frankly, I don't buy that argument. We haven't even tried. Militarize the Mexican border and see how that affects the flow. Build our own Berlin Wall. I have a feeling that might slow some people down. This would have the additional benefit of stopping the cross border drug/weapons trade that is having such a devastating effect on Mexico right now. Enforce the laws that fine people and corporations for employing illegal workers. That, alone, would just about stop the northern migration. Of course none of that will happen because the fine folks in Washington are too busy posturing to actually do anything. Grant, you like to rail about racism. How about the fact that Blacks have been struggling since emancipation to advance their position in our society. How is this unfettered flow of illegal workers working in their favor? Hmmm?

Well, I had been holding that in for a few days and it's nice to have let it out. I await your intelligent responses.

David Martin

Dude, we do more, with less, every day. I say, bring 'em on!

Far too intelligent for this discussion. 

So you would be in favor of illegal aliens being able to bid out, say, hmmm....union town jobs perhaps? Sounds like we might come in under budget next year if that happens!

It never ceases to amaze me that dyed-in-the-wool free-marketeers and libertarians can be opposed to the aspirations of people who walk hundreds or thousands of miles and risk death or imprisonment simply to get a job and support their families. Family values, indeed.

What happened to freedom of competition? You are effectively proposing tariffs. Why shouldn't they be able to bid on American jobs?

The fact of the matter is that the border moved south in 1848 and bifurcated an Hispanic culture that already existed. We're not going to keep them out, nor should we. What we really need is an effective guest worker program that allows them to come and go in an orderly and regulated fashion so that they can work here and return home to their families when the day is done.

Or could it?

Jose Lopez Madrigal rape suspect deported 9 times. Yet still able to commit crime?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qBJ_vT_JP3c

You can't argue a negative and thus I won't.

But I am curious. Did your in-laws come in on a raft or tunnel through the desert? Probably not. I really like facts.

Edited- Facts show almost 300 views, would love to know what that means.....

Edited again==crickets

Racism is where one race discriminates against another. Now, of course ICE should do their job and uphold the law of the land. People who truly are here illegally should not be here. But your assumption that anyone here looking for work is here illegally is incorrect.

You are making a sweeping generalization that anyone who wants to feed their family and work any job to do so must be illegal. You assume that anyone who would live cheaply in order to make enough money to make a better way for their kids is illegal. You assume that your kids, because they are your kids, deserve the whole playing field to themselves. I know my in-laws slept six to a room in the 60s and 70s in order to make a better way for their children, and guess what? It worked. 

Racism is where one race blames another for their own problems. It's where one group of people who look different or talk different is targeted and singled out. It's where lies are spread and hate is used as a blunt object. I personally would rather have 100 illegal people here working hard to feed their family on Nantucket than a single racist. 

G. 

Ed --- if you see someone looking for day laborers again just send them to Lucky's..... there is usually a contingent early in the morning...

My opinion is that the Massachusetts State Police should re-activate the team that was searching for and deporting illegals.... How long do you think that we, as Americans, would be allowed to live in any other country with out the proper papers?.... Why should people from other countries be allowed to live here without proper paperwork, when we would be arrested almost instantly if we were in another country...?

Grant, I think that is more than a bit unfair. I haven't heard Ed ever call for any legal immigrant of any race to be deported. I wonder if you would take the same attitude if you were unable to find any work due to illegal aliens taking all the advertising jobs. There are immigration laws for a reason and maybe with a tenth of our LEGAL population out of work it might be time to enforce some of them.

Please Grant, Racist is an old rant. I bekieve I have operated honestly with principles that my clients appreciate. Yet I'm racist for opposing "illegals" from sharing space with my kids on the playing field?

Or by allowing "anchor babies" to do what I worked 30 yrs for because they are willing to live two or three deep in one room. This is the answer?

Remember a few years ago, one of the companies that had won a bid to build a border fence, Golden State Fence I believe, was fined for what.....hiring illegals!!!  Also, Mitt Romney had a couple mowing his yard,  Lou Dobbs had an illegal taking care of his daughter's horse......probably more than a handful of senators and congressmen have illegals working on their yards....I personally don't like the word, somehow makes a person sound less than human......I've always said, if they were paying 400.00 per hour in Canada, we might find that we are all the same....just sayin'

Before we try to do something about the illegals, I think we ought to take a crack at ridding the island of racists. That's a huge problem here.

From their own testimony and the testimony of others that know them. Also because when ICE has visited the island in the past they stay inside and draw the curtains. I don't know why people don't care about this, it is a huge problem on Nantucket.

I had a guy from New York in his Mercedes trolling through the neihborhood yesterday as I was on my front porch. I was eyeing him suspiciously, because I thought he was looking for drugs, when he asked if I knew any "workers". Being a "worker" myself I asked what he was looking for, he replied "you know, day laborers". My kids talk about friends they would like to play with, but when we try to schedule playdates, no one in the house except the child, speak english. MMM....just seems odd don't you think.

How do you know they are illegal?

I'm sick of seeing these illegals, some that I know are hiding their status, at Marine Home Center, and at jobsites while taking jobs away from the rest of us. Ice will not enforce the law. Our own AG won't enforce the law. What do we do?