Today is a national call-in day to oppose the new wave of just-for-show enforcement legislation and support comprehensive immigration reform.
It is very important to make three calls on Wednesday (your two Senators and one Representative), even if you know he/she already supports comprehensive immigration reform.
Here is a suggested script:"Congress should stop the piecemeal, enforcement-only approach to immigration reform. I support a comprehensive bill that reunites families, legalizes the undocumented population, and provides future immigrants with a safe and legal way to live and work in the U.S."
Find your Senators and Representative and their phone numbers at http://www.irishlobbyusa.org/toolkit/contact.php.
You can also call the Congressional switchboard to be connected to their offices: (202) 224-3121.
17 comments:
OK, you lose. The Senate capitulated so it is time to fold your tent and slink away.
Not much blogged by 'Nina'. A pity too, given the cracking good idea of tugging at American heartstrings.
Perhaps the ILIR can recycle this blog to debate Ireland's unannounced labour restrictions on her soon to be newest EU family members, Bulgaria and Romania.
There's a topic - a precedent in EU law (free movement of labour) and act (Ireland welcomed the EU10 in May 2004) coupled with unabashed Irish hypocrisy.
There is nothing unabashed or hypocritical about the hopes of undocumented Irish for a chance to stay in America and earn their way to legal status.
European Union immigration laws have nothing to do with the undocumented Irish who have lived and worked in America for years, paid their taxes, and raised their families.
The life of the undocumented Irish is in America. They do not set EU immigration policy. They simply want to come out of the shadows and live in America openly. There is nothing hypocritical about this simple goal.
Nobody is "slinking away." This is a marathon run, a full length bout and we will seeing comprehensive immigration reform passed at some point. The irish Lobby for Immigration Reform is less than one year old. It has had an enormous impact on the issue (just look at you reading this, fake sean).
America is my country and I will continue to fight for real security and real solutions to our broken immigration system.
The piecemeal "BS" (border security) approach being rushed through Congress will do nothing to solve the problem of illegal immigration. If you are buying the phantom fence as the solution to the immigration problem, I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
The phantom fence bill calls for just that, a phantom fence, with no money to pay for it. Any undocumented construction worker can tell you you nothing gets built without the money.
If the phantom fence ever does get financed, the first thing they will build is roads for the construction crews to get out to isolated border areas, creating a nice new infrastructure system for the drug and alien smugglers they say they want to stop.
The House anti-immigrants don't seem genuinely concerned about border security. They spent the summer stalling real border security and immigration reform and are now scrambling to pave the way for a few redneck-ready tough-talking soundbites to pretend they did something about the issue at the eleventh hour.
The hardworking family-oriented undocumented Irish have invested their lives in this country. Of course they want the country secure. Scapegoating the undocumented as terrorists and calling for phantom fences is not going to provide security for anyone but the cynical members of Congress hoping to trade in scare tactics for votes and two more years of job security.
If you are serious about border security, please review the Senate Bill (S 2611). If you are intellectually honest, you will see that it provides for tighter and more practical security than the House's Billl (HR 4437) and the current piecemeal BS bills. The Senate Bill also provides for real funding to tighten up security.
BTW, Are you just having a laugh disparaging the undocumented Irish from afar, or do you have a real stake in this issue?
steve brodie wrote... the undocumented Irish who have lived and worked in America for years, paid their taxes, and raised their families.
Substantiate your statement over the 11 - 12 million illegals and you have a point. It's an odds on favourite that of the claimed 50K illegal Irish that you cannot stand over your words.
Your sweeping generalisations belie a personal interest in this issue which is of no concern to the greater citizenry. The subject is well beyond that.
FWIW, I have personal interests on both sides of the Atlantic.
FWIW I live in a community with many Irish undocumented and I don't want it to die because some phony-baloney do-nothing politician in another part of the country wants to say he "got tough" on immigration.
I have no sinister "personal interest" to "belie." I don't own a business that profits off the undocumented. I am just an average guy looking to help the decent people in my local community.
"Greater citizenry?" Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to act as custodian for the "interests of the greater citizenry" of the United States. Put on your wellies before you "stand" on that "sweeping generalization."
As for your demand for substantiation, please provide documentation supporting your negative claims about the undocumented Irish.
If the undocumented were documented, well then you would be off disparaging some other group for attention now wouldn't you.
Ahh, the sympathy card. Nothing more in your hand, steve brodie?
What you and the ILIR choose to avoid openly addressing is the larger numbers. A handful of 'decent people in my local community' are not the 11 - 12 million illegals that immigration reform would usher into America. Please address the majority when making generalisations such as 'who have lived and worked in America for years, paid their taxes, and raised their families.' when referring to the illegals. You cannot honestly expect anyone to believe your statement applies to all the illegals.
The point that I wish to drive home is that immigration reform does not serve the interests of American people. It may accomodate some people known personally to ILIR supporters but it stops there.
My votes in November will be cast against candidates that have pushed the immigration reform agenda without justification. It is a pity that Mel Martinez is not running this year, but time wounds all heels.
Good points, Brodie. You can look at people on a case by case basis. However, you may find someone who appears to be a saint, has a a rap sheet a mile long.
I don't think the negative attributes apply to individuals, but rather to the whole 'nod nod, wink wink" attitude of the "system". The illegality of it all makes it dangerous to the American public.
As supporting documentation, may I humbling submit the following links:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty34.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6097331,00.html
And it is unfortunate that the illegal Irish get lumped together with the illegal everybody-else. They include some pretty nasty characters.
the senate bill calls for criminal background checks. secure the borders and bring the good undocumented out of the shadows so we can focus on the criminals.
lads, why don`t the two of you belly up to the bar and have a drink, ye`re worse than children,i`m probably the only one reading your crap anyway,
problem is - the bad undocumeted wouldn't come out of the shadows.
OK, anon. Riddle me this: when the lawbreaking immigrant is footing the bill for their background check how many baddies will apply? One would speculate that they will remain undiscovered. But flying blind here for a moment, imagine the mirth and wealth generated in many Latin American countries by such a process. All those overworked and underpaid bureaucrats and police taking backhanders to emit clean reports should bring a good laugh at the expense of the stupid American gringos.
Has anyone speculated as to how all the associated processing will be handled? There must be some lucrative contracts in this for some Republican supporters.
But back to the illegal Irish. What do you offer as evidence to make anyone believe that an individual who has continually violated American laws can be trusted to subscribe to uphold them? This is a fox and henhouse condition.
If you drive through a red light you get a fine but you still broke the law. Just as overstaying a visa you get a fine maybe we should give everyone the chair who breaks the law that will slove the problem
Mark Murphy
sean,
Any Irishman who was smart enough to come to America and get away from daily life with self-hating Irish back-biters like you is welcome here.
You can "fly blind," but we can all see the through the thin veneer of your racist rhetoric.
No processing system will be perfect, but we have to start somewhere and do something. For you to accuse Republicans of looking to profit off a system the house republicans have purposely stalled, shows you are just a big stirrer with no real opinion on the matter. I hope this comment gives you the attention you are lacking in your personal life..
yawn wrote...get away from daily life with self-hating Irish back-biters
So why do they now want the right to return to Ireland if it is so despicable?
As for racist, you are way off the mark, yawn. Perhaps someone, you?, will set out a rational for immigration reform as opposed to all the hot air and personal attacks.
What the ILIR and its minions still turn a blind eye to is the other 11 - 12 million illegals.
This is a one-size-fits-all agenda.
yawn, please remain on message instead of filling the blog with shedloads of heat and no light.
And yawn, have all the illegals left their respective homelands for the reason you offer? Probably not.
To the present there have been no arguments put forward to support the call for immigration reform.
As for anon's call for fines, perhaps that idea has merit. A citation for a traffic violation carries a punitive fee to discourage further infractions. So what if visa violations attract $100K fines in addition to unpaid taxes and penalties? Insuring against the 'amnesty' argument, the fine be made payable in a fortnight or face immediate deportation (self-financed, of course).
Looks like yawn hit a nerve.
The red light violation requires that you remove yourself from the intersection, in addition to the fine. Just like the arrest for wife-beating requires that you stop beating your wife.
Caught in the act of illegal presence in the US, requires the alien to be removed from the "intersection" (read: the territory), in addition to the fine.
^^^^ Legalize the Incoherent!
You heard of drunk-dialing? This appears to be drunk-blog commenting.
Behold, the incoherent vaguely anti-immigrant musings of a racist Know-Nothing obsessed with the black panthers?
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