Reader Comments
These are our reader's opinions and thoughts.The opinions on this site are posted by our readers, and are not edited by Appen Inc.
Illegal Immigration = American Greed
August 17, 2007 | 06:26 PM
This an American made problem that started because we wanted to pay less to get more. Then we made it easy by having dual language everything and offering benefits that people in our own country don't get. I personally know legal and illegal immigrants and my personal experience has been that most are hardworking, and have left their families and culture out of necessity - most have families and elderly relatives that they send money to and want to learn English but are afraid to sign up for classes because they are illegal. It is not easy or cheap to become legal anymore. People are afraid to stay and afraid to leave. How come no one cares what political situation has caused this to happen? These are our neighbors to the south - why don't we try to help them so that they can stay in their own culture and communities and not have to live in a cardboard box? Personally, I am a lot less afraid of Hispanic immigrants than I am of arabic students here on their "visas". And I bet they would be a lot more appreciative and helpful to the US than the Iraqui community will ever be.
My 2 cents
Situational ethics
August 05, 2007 | 10:16 AM
If I am reading this right, what you are saying is that it is acceptable to BREAK THE LAW as long as there is finacial gain?!?
Kathy Noble
WE SPEND NOW $338 BILLION (YES, BILLION) ON ILLEGALS YEARLY!
August 05, 2007 | 03:28 AM
MR. APPEN TALKS ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING WILL COST MORE. NO - THE ONLY ONES BECOMING EVEN RICHER THAN BEFORE ARE THE BIG BUSINESSES WHO ARE RUNNING THIS VERY CLEVER SCAM ON AMERICANS: INFILTRATE THE GOV'T AND STOP THEM FROM ENFORCING OUR LAWS, THEN BRING IN CHEAP LABOR FROM POOR VIOLENT COUNTRIES (THEY DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE DEALING WITH YET) TO REPLACE AMERICANS. FORCE THE AMERICANS TO PAY FOR THEIR EVERY NEED (FREE MEDICAL, FREE EDUCATION, FREE...AND THEREBY IMPOVERISH AMERICANS SO YOU CAN MAKE ANOTHER REGIONAL GOV'T (SIMILAR TO THE EU)& CALL IT THE NORTH AMERICAN UNION (SPP) ON THE WAY TO MAKING BUSH'S DAD'S ONE WORLD GOV'T. AMERICANS ARE PAYING $338 BILLION EACH "YEAR" FOR THESE ILLEGALS. I WOULD LOVE TO PAY A LOT MORE FOR MY LETTUCE (ILLEGALS BARELY WORK IN AGRICULTURE ANYMORE AS THEY GET PAID BETTER WHEN THEY TAKE AMERICANS' JOBS! THEY DON'T CARE!) SO I CAN PAY FOR MY FAMILY'S MEDICAL INS. INSTEAD OF BEING FORCED TO PAY FOR ILLEGALS' FREE MEDICAL CARE!
JUSTICEFORALL
Who is going to cut our country clubs' greens
August 04, 2007 | 11:37 PM
if all the illegals leave? You? Me? Heck no!
If your house is falling down
August 04, 2007 | 08:00 PM
SUE THE BUILDER AND WHATEVER COUNTY INSPECORS THAT APPROVED IT!
duh
Sick of the same old story.
August 04, 2007 | 01:56 PM
Let me give you some facts. My home was built by illegal aliens and guess what it falling down. This is what cheap labor from illegals gets you. I have had to replace almost everything from rewiring, to the roof. I am sick of their demanding their rights. Have you folks ever read the constitution. I bet most of the bleeding hearts have never read it and don't even know what it says. If they had they would know that our goverment is suppose to protect us our boards and that the illegals in this have no rights.
R. Stevens
Prices Are Set by the Market, Not by Costs
August 04, 2007 | 01:30 PM
When a new home sells, it sells at a market price, not at a cost plus price. The single greatest financial factor in building a home is purchase and development of the land. The builders will continue to figure out how to make a buck when their labor costs, which is about 30% of the sale price of the home, goes up 30%. Some builders will leave the industry and some will become involved in methods of building with greater savings in labor. during the Great Depression, when nearly every job was filled, wages were exceptionally low, which was part of the reason that the Depresion lasted so long. When WWII broke out, and there was a labor shortage in defense plants (15 million Americans in uniform) the productivity measures over compensated and wages skyrocketed. I never heard of an essential contributor to the war effort going out of business because he couldn't find cheap labor. In summary, high wages has been the making of U.S. prosperity, low wages is presently being its destruction.
Lee B
Illegals leaving the workforce?
August 04, 2007 | 10:18 AM
Great! It will give those businesses that refused to hire the illegals the opportunity to make a decent living for their American Citizen families!
ahester
The poor local businessman who's in jeopardy
August 04, 2007 | 10:12 AM
Mr. Appen's "local business person" who is "behind in his bills" is in dire straits, all right. He might actaully have to keep his Mercedes Benz for 3 years instead of trading it in every two years. He might have to limit to 1 a year his jaunts to the French Riviera or to Aspen for skiing. Cry me a river.
This "local business person" will manage just fine and make a reasonable profit by hiring legal workers. He won't make the obscene profits from exploiting illegals as he did before, and THAT's what the whining and sniveling is about.
This "local business person's" ride on the gravy train is over, with no more taxpayer-subsidized cheap labor.
That Appen and the "local business person" both tell the same story--the illegals left--is open evidence that the strategy of "Attrition through Enforcement" works!
Put out the "UNWelcome" mat to illegal aliens, and make your state, county and city "illegal alien unfriendly."
Then watch the improvement--reduction in non-English speaking students in schools draining the resources from legal students, no more day labor pests loitering on street corners, hospital emergency rooms that you may actually be able to get emergency treatment. And no more "press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish."
Cost more? Baloney. The higher cost will be to the employers who used illegals and their customers. If I don't use these businesses, I won't be subsidizing their cheap labor.
And if the "local business person" can't manage by making a reasonable profit that his business folds, that's what he deserves in a market economy.
Where was Mr. Appen with his crocdile tears when Americans running businesses went bankrupt because they couldn't compete with cheap illegal labor?
S. J. M
They're leaving Marietta anyway...
August 04, 2007 | 10:06 AM
Thanks to SB528 and the actions of our Sheriff, Neal Warren and the Marietta PD, the illegals ARE leaving Marietta. One of the favorite day labor pickup sites right off Sandtown Rd is basically a ghost-town in the morning now.
These people are CRIMINALS. They became a criminal the second they dashed across our borders without proper visas. Once they get here, they disregard other laws at will, including carrying automobile insurance, local ordinances regarding number of vehicles you can have, people living in the same house, etc...
I, for one, don't want my neighborhood turned into a third world country. Thinking that granting these illegals amnesty will magically make them reform their ways (heck, if they weren't paying for insurance before, why would they want to do so now?) is living in a dream world. In my opinion, the best thing to do is to make it as difficult as possible for these people to "live in the shadows" in the hopes they'll go home. If they want to then start the LEGAL immigration process then, I'll welcome them with open arms. But we already have enough of a crime problem without adding half a million more because they're "hard workers" and will work for cash off the books...most of which gets sent back to mother Mexico.
Bart Youngblood
No pirce too high to save America!
August 04, 2007 | 09:57 AM
I choose to pay any price that you "threaten" will come for the goods and services I need, rather than pay the prices I pay now---the prices I pay now are stripping AMERICANS of their hard earned money to funnel it down God knows how many endless drains leading straight to the grubby hands of the ILLEGAL ALIENS!!! (I agree with you, Neal Wells)
Kathy Moyer
August 04, 2007 | 09:46 AM
You are killing jobs for Americans and should be ashamed of yourself. No Amnesty will prevail inspite of the propoganda industry which used to be call publishing.
Sonny Davis
Senior Citizens League???
July 22, 2007 | 11:34 AM
You don't really believe that nonsense do you? Put the issue in context for once and include what happens if those "illegals" became legal and the country benefits from 7 or 700 or 7000000 people who actually work hard to better their lives, are more than willing to pay taxes, and who save money and don't wait on their posteriors for handouts like so many of those who currently plague our welfare Medicaid do - who are citizens. The real problem here is that we have a system that rewards those who do nothing - who live off our social support systems (and are legal citizens) - and we penalize those who actually want to work and earn a living - the majority of the illegal immigrants. What ever happen to being in favor of people who want to put in a days work for a days pay?
appen
Letter to the Editor
July 21, 2007 | 10:00 PM
Thank you Mrs.Kelly Huddleston for speaking the truth.
Lee Fleck
The cost of non-working social security cards - all 7 million !!
July 20, 2007 | 09:28 PM
Representatives of the Retired Enlisted Assoc (TREA) Senior Citizens League stated the just defeated Amnesty bill would have lead to over $966 billion in Social Security benefits payable to illegal aliens whom had obtained non-work Social security numbers that had been issued between 1974 and 2004. These Non-work Social security cards entitles foreign nationals (including illegal aliens) to services such as medicaid and food stamps during a period of less restrictive immigration policies. A period of time when State and Federal laws requiredjust just such (non-work) cards for applicants of these benefits.
Under the Kennedy Amnesty Bill the legislation would have allowed an estimated 7 million illegal aliens benefits totalling $ 1 trillion that would have resulted in the Social Security Trust Fund to run out of funds by 2040.
That is what caused the defeat of the Bill. But then our constitution allows "loose cammons" to make unsubstanciated claims.
Alexi Fenstermacker
You have illegal drugs smuggled into the US from every port in t
July 20, 2007 | 04:55 PM
They come from Canada, they come into Miami, NY, Seattle. Are we going to build walls there too? You will always have drugs shipped into this country as long as there is a demand and market for them. Make marijuana legal and educate kids. Those are the real 2 solutions.
Tell the truth Appen
July 20, 2007 | 01:00 PM
Your misguided liberal name calling for the majority of the population has nothing to do with the real estate business or Wal-Mart.
Your antagonism is driven by the fact that Georgia's new Security and Immigration Act which was given life on July 1st with the defeat of Ted Kennedy's Amnesty bill. And what you fear the most has come to pass. The new law strikes at the driving force of businessmen such as yourself - your profit margin.
Employers like you can no longer take advantage of "cheap labor" while attempting to convince those whom confront you by glorifying the work ethics of illegals. Sir, stop the hypocrisy.
Sorry Mr. Appen, but just as Senator Chip Rogers stated employers like you should have realized that it could not last forever.
Thank God Americans stood up for truth, justice and the American way.
Nicolas Seijo
How much are we spending on the
July 20, 2007 | 10:02 AM
ridiculous wall between Mexico and the US? Just like the Great Wall of China failed to keep invaders out, this wall be just as useless.
Judy, this is way off
July 20, 2007 | 09:38 AM
"Granting amnesty or conditional amnesty to illegal immigrants would, overtime, increase their use of means-tested welfare, Social Security and Medicare" - You know Judy, if someone just read this testimony - and had no real world experience with these illegal immigrants, I certainly can see how one would have an issue with "amnesty". But it seems to me that many of these academic assumptions are not based on real world reality. Ask any business person - ask any builder, ask any hotel operator, ask anyone who employs people, about the work ethic and values of these illegals. Most have the same drive, ambition, and hunger to better their lives that our grandparents and great grandparents had before they came over to this country. If the rest of the population had the same work ethic, this country would be the most productive one in the world for the next thousand years.
Then come back and talk to me about things like "means tested welfare impacts".... I am sure that parts of what that foundation states is relevant and accurate, but, again, reality, common sense, and an open mind are, to me, better approaches to solving complex problems like this one.
appen
The real cost
July 20, 2007 | 09:09 AM
If advocating a policy of common sense;recognizing economic facts; and calling politicians on the carpet who pander to the voters by advocating inflammatory and damaging political garbage "liberal" , I guess I will gladly accept that label.
appen
The Real Costs !
July 19, 2007 | 09:55 PM
The Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector has shared the following analysis in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
Some 50 to 60 percent of illegal immigrants lack a high school degree. Granting amnesty or conditional amnesty to illegal immigrants would, overtime, increase their use of means-tested welfare, Social Security and Medicare. Fiscal costs would go up significantly in the short term but would go up dramatically after the amnesty recipient reached retirement. Based on his current research, Robert Rector estimates that if all the current adult illegal immigrants in the U.S. were granted amnesty the net retirement costs to government (benefits minus taxes) could be over $2.5 trillion.
The calculation of this figure are as follows. In March 2006, there were 9.3 million adult illegal immigrants in the U.S. Most illegal immigrants are low-skill. On average, each elderly low-skill immigrant creates a net cost (benefits minus taxes) for the taxpayer of about $17,000 per year. (This includes federal state and local government costs.) If the government gave amnesty to 9.3 million illegal immigrants, most of them would eventually become eligible for Social Security and Medicare benefits or Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid benefits. Normal mortality rates would probably reduce the population by roughly 15 percent before age 67. That would mean 7.9 million individuals would reach 67 and enter retirement. Of those reaching 67, the average life expectancy would be around 18years. The net governmental cost (benefits minus taxes) of these elderly individuals would be around $17,000 per year. Over eighteen years of expected life, costs would equal $306,000 per elderly amnesty recipient.
A cost of $306,000 per amnesty recipient times 7.9 million amnesty recipients would be $2.4 trillion.
Judy Honebrink
What the real cost is !!
July 19, 2007 | 09:49 PM
During the period Oct. 1, 2006-June 30,2007 - Border Patrol agents have seized more than 1.478 million pounds of marijuana (a 27 percent increase) and 9,514 pounds of cocaine(a 22 percent increase) compared to the same period in fiscal year 2006 along the southwest border Agents in the Tucson,Ariz., sector accounted for 48 percent of the southern border marijuana
seizures with 710,337 pounds and the Rio Grande Valley sector accounted for 60 percent of the cocaine seizures with 5,740 pounds.
The combined estimated value of the narcotics is $1.487 billion. And these ceasures are only at supervised points of entry !!
Complete article at :
http://www.customs.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/07072007.xml
Lee Fleck
Nonsense yes
July 19, 2007 | 05:41 PM
If you are looking for something dramatic you won't see it. But if you talk with people who have businesses you will start to hear about these workers leaving or starting to feel the heat of our anti-immigration "initiatives" . I would not expect a non-employeer to notice anything. Read some, keep your eyes open. You'll see what i am talking about. But don't get me wrong, it's a bad thing, a very bad thing.
appen
The illegals come here because of the jobs.
July 19, 2007 | 05:34 PM
Make it easier for them to get citizenship and most of the 'illegal' problems will be resolved.If you lived in that hell hole of a place, Mexico, you would want to leave too.They are not criminals when they come here. They are families looking for a decent place to live and have a job that actually pays something. Treat them like criminals and they will act like criminals. Treat them like human beings!
Nonsense
July 19, 2007 | 04:23 PM
Do you really think the illegal workers are leaving? I suggestyou take a drive by the Citgo station on Hwy 9 this Saturday.
Oh Brother!
July 19, 2007 | 04:17 PM
What do I think? I think whoever wrote this nutty as a fruitcake.
Neal Wells
