Illegal immigrants rarely have the opportunity to qualify for public benefits, they lack the documentation necessary, and fear exposure if they attempt to access services. The biggest cost we all suffer is from emergency room visits--otherwise, they are out of the social services loop altogether in most states.
cjhsa, I know what you mean, really. I worked in Van Nuys for 3 years. I hated that sh!t when I first moved there, and never really got to a point where I liked it, but eventually I got it. They wolf-whistled and did elevator eyes but they never actually did anything that endangered me in any way.
My staff was mostly Mexican (and Salvadoran and Nicaraguan but mostly Mexican) and the vast majority of my clients. I got to know them and when I walked with them they made little "cut it OUT!" motions at the wolf-whistlers or looked intimidating. (When necessary, usually walking with a man was itself enough to put a stop to the whistling et al) I got to the point where if I didn't get all that I'd decide my outfit just wasn't working for me.
Point is, I can argue for a while about the good and bad points of machismo culture, but that doesn't automatically translate into criminality.
kickycan wrote:cjhsa wrote:It's truly frightening, especially when this is what you see in many neighborhoods in Mexifornia.
Where is the scary part in this picture?
Would you want your daughter to walk that gauntlet of illegals on her way to school?
I know several illegals, who have applied for and received section 8 housing, one of them who got pregnant, had a baby and now receives food stamps. They are very adept at finding ways to get assistance and bypassing their illegal status - one way being the use of stolen SSNs. Now I care about my illegal pal but it pisses me off that I can't afford to live like she does and I am legal and earning a great salary, but I pay taxes.
That "scary" photo looks a lot like a stretch of road I walk on once or twice a week. If anyone is scared, it's those guys, because they're afraid of being picked up as illegal.
They just want jobs.
Just out of curiosity Cj,
Does this picture frighten you?
I'm also against the Illegal part of Immigration, but any employed under bogus SSNs are clearly paying taxes - into someone else's SS account.
cjhsa wrote:kickycan wrote:cjhsa wrote:It's truly frightening, especially when this is what you see in many neighborhoods in Mexifornia.
Where is the scary part in this picture?
Would you want your daughter to walk that gauntlet of illegals on her way to school?
They don't look any scarier than anyone I see on the street in Manhattan everyday. Maybe you have to be a racist to see what you're seeing...
cjhsa wrote:
Would you want your daughter to walk that gauntlet of illegals on her way to school?
I have heard this argument before...
I am from an interracial family-- I have two adopted sisters who are black. In the seventies someone actually asked my father... "Would you like you daughter to be with one?". To which my father answered quite emphatically-- "My daughter is one!"
Incidently my daughter is half Mexican and some of our close friends are undocumented. They have treated her quite well.
cjhsa is kinda "old school" in some ways. It's almost entertaining, the things he says sometimes...
"Gauntlet of illegals..." my friends are going to love that one.
I guess I hang with a dangerous crowd.
I can guarantee that any one of you, if you watched your own daughter walked down that street, would be apalled at the behaviour of said illegals. I speak from experience, and an unpleasant one at that.
Why do you call me a racist kicky? What part of "illegal" don't you understand?
Anything to slur a people to further a private agenda. Nuts.
Did you see the part where I said I'd experienced it, myself, cjhsa?
Cj, I just checked with my daughter (that's her on the left)...
She is appalled at your behavior. I speak from experience, many of my friends have dealt with this kind of idiocy every day.
(Can you give us a baby update sometime, ebrown?)
cjhsa wrote:I can guarantee that any one of you, if you watched your own daughter walked down that street, would be apalled at the behaviour of said illegals. I speak from experience, and an unpleasant one at that.
Why do you call me a racist kicky? What part of "illegal" don't you understand?
I didn't call you a racist. I just brought up the POSSIBILITY that you might be. It just occurred to me when you said that those mexicans in the picture, who look just like anybody else to me, are somehow scary.
Just a possibility you might want to consider.
(sure sozobe, but not here, this topic really get's under my skin.)
Immigrants, even illegal ones are people. In my group of friends, legal or illegal doesn't make much difference. We are all decent people.
If you work hard, treat your family well, act decently towards others... that should be enough.
If people are from different cultures... that's all the better in my book. I feel sorry for you Cj (and your daughter), that you will never taste a good tamale, eat homemade papusas or learn to dance salsa.
My kids all consider being connected to and accepted by the immigrant community (which includes legal and illegal) a great blessing.
(that's why it was a parenthetical, you can put it on sozlet stories if you're looking for a place...)
Well ebrown, the hammer is about to come down on the "illegal" community. It has to.
