European amnesty
Amnesty doesn't seem to be such a dirty word in Southern Europe, The New York Times reports: Europe has had 20 legalizations in the past 25 years, granting visas to about 4 million illegal immigrants. Spain alone accounts for six of them since 1985.
So how's it going? Families get to be together and wages are up, but so is unemployment (particularly among the foreign-born), and that means illegal immigration is now a matter of political controversy.
The article also notes that France, Germany, and the Netherlands -- countries that don't have American-style citizenship by birth rights, and/or where immigrants haven't felt so welcome -- are raising complaints about newly-legalized immigrants migrating throughout the European Union. Right-wingers in Switzerland tried to give towns the power to deny citizenship petitions by secret ballot (the measure was defeated). And immigrants have new, powerful detractors in Italy, as the editorial board noted last month.
All of which is to say: at least the U.S. has the edge against Europe when it comes to assimilating legal immigrants, even if it could take a few notes on legalizing illegal ones (which, in turn, would go a long way toward helping them fit in).
No matter what is said about people using
drugs in the USA, it is Mexico's fault that
it has let itself become a new Columbia
and a Narco-Economy Paradise while
Carlos Slim 2nd richest men in the world
and his corruption cronies enjoy living
in the richest country in Latin America
with the poores people!t
Posted by: M.A.Andrews | June 12, 2008 at 10:42 PM
The US is the biggest drug user in the world and it's what's fueling the drug wars in Mexico and other Latin American countries. I find it revolting that people in the US refuse to acknowledge their role in the destabilization of Latin American countries. Ninety nine percent of the guns that drug lords are using come from the US! Yet I often go to parties where everyone casually uses drugs as if their actions are of no consequence. Visit craigslist and you'll see dozens of posts from people offering drugs. Even politicians like Obama, Bloomberg, Bill Clinton admit using drugs without addressing the illegality of their actions, or the destruction they have done to Mexican society. What bastards!
Posted by: C L | June 11, 2008 at 11:09 PM
Get serious, the onl y reason why Mexico has seen so much violence is because the U.S. buys all those drugs. The US and only the US is the reason why drug dealers cut off heads and send them. Do you want to stop hearing about the violence in my country? Then get off from your sofa, turn off the TV and stop doing drugs.
The LAPD understands that immigrants are not violent, and that they are the best line of defense. That's why special order 40 will not go away.
Posted by: ramon vines | June 11, 2008 at 09:16 AM
Its ridiculous to assert that the United States emulate European policies regarding illegal aliens. Overpopulation, congestion, urban sprawl, crumbling infrastructure, diminishing resources (water shortages throughout the southwestern United States), overcrowded schools and emergency rooms, vanishing green space and over priced farmland, lack of affordable housing, crime, pollution, depressed wages, increased tax burdens, the balkanization of our communities, the overall decline in quality of life, are all the result of unconstrained immigration.
Virtually every industrialized nation, even China and Mexico, have taken steps to end illegal immigration, and to curtail legal immigration to only that which is prudent, demonstrably necessary, and above all other concerns, in the best interests of their native population. Its dangerously misguided to suggest that the United States and Europe should not do likewise. There are no problems confronting the Citizens of the United States that would not be measurably, and substantially improved by securing our borders, enforcing our immigration laws, and controlling our population explosion! I daresay the same holds true throughout Europe.
Unlike parts of Europe, the United States has been considered population stable for decades. Indeed, if all immigration were suddenly stopped, the United States would not be any "less" overpopulated than it is today. There would not be any fewer "working age adults"!
Histrionics about "worker shortages" are the result of senseless pandering by cheap labor interests and mass immigration lobbyists, and are based on outdated, unsustainable social security and social services models.
One fact that cannot be ignored is that too many people competing for limited resources is not sound economic, environmental, social or cultural policy!
Posted by: Ed Weirdness | June 11, 2008 at 06:32 AM
On Tuesday a severed head and a note saying "you are next" was found outside a newspaper office in Mexico.
I wonder how long that coward Chief Bratton would take to rescind his special order 40 if his beloved hispanic gangs sent him a little present like that? It will take a real law enforcement officer like Sheriff Joe Arpaio to clean up the mess this idiot has done Los Angeles.
Posted by: dharc | June 10, 2008 at 08:10 PM