Reuters : California "Dream Act" approved for illegal immigrants

[Hubbs]

The point I'm making is if you're here illegally, you should make an effort to become a citizen if you plan on staying here permanently. If you don't plan on staying/or do plan on staying but don't give a crap about becoming a citizen and are illegal, you should be punished (as in leave, peace out, deuces, GTFO, nice knowing ya, etc).

The immigration policies are so laxed right now that I find it hard to believe that anyone who attempted to make a real effort at citizenship would actually be deported. For crying out loud, some of the illegals that live in my city get DUI's, DWI's, and commit other crimes and end up in county jail and eventually released like every other citizen. If illegals commiting crimes aren't being deported, why would a law abiding illegal (well, you know what I mean...) who is trying to work and going to school get deported?

Okay.

You're an illegal immigrant from Colombia. You were brought here when you were 3 years old. You're just about to finish your college degree, and you recently heard that the Obama administration has set a record for deportations. Do you:

A) Try to lay low and get some sort of low-level job where you might be able to fudge the paperwork and nobody will ask too many questions so you can stay in the country that you very much feel is your own, because after all you grew up here, and it's where everyone you've ever known lives.

Call up the ICE, tell them you're an illegal alien, and give them all of your information in the hopes of getting some sort of form that will allow you to stay here and get a top-notch job, all the while knowing that you very well could be signing up for getting arrested, being held in jail, being thrown out of a first-world country and into a third-world country, being torn away from everyone you love, facing the need to put a life together in a strange new place where you've never lived, and surviving in a nation with half a government and lots of drug cartels. But don't worry, there are lots of anecdotal stories about illegal aliens who should have been deported a long time ago, and when it comes to gambling your entire life and your entire future, anecdotes are good enough for you.

Doesn't B sound great?

[Special K]

I wish I was an illegal immigrant. Maybe then I wouldn't be over a hundred grand in debt for school. Yay.

[Destino]

I wish I was an illegal immigrant. Maybe then I wouldn't be over a hundred grand in debt for school. Yay.

Wish granted. Tell an ICE agent that you are an illegal alien and you are tired of living a lie. You could be on your way to illegal status tomorrow. yay!

[NavyDave]

I keep having this fantasy where we swap one legal American Southwest republican/tea-party resident for one Mexican illegal immigrant to the tune of a few million, and imagining the much better country we end up having. :evilg: :pfft:

My fantasy is trading sniveling liberals who just want to get high and get govt handouts for those highly educated doctors, engineers, teachers and upper middle class types in Europe and Africa who have been purposely thwarted from coming in legally. Former USA Liberals could drink an espresso while ordering a salad and an after dinner blunt / minibag of chronic in Amsterdam while we have an increase of productive self sufficient types that do not need a govt program to just get by.

[Larry]

My husbands co worker did it. BTW- If they're letting them go to school/college here, why the hell wouldn't they???

:secret: Politics.

[renaissance]

See, and maybe I'm a total beeyotch for thinking like this, but It's hard for me to feel sorry for them. Why can't they go and get a greencard or visa until they get their citizenship???? My best friend came here from Turkey in the mid 1990's and that's what she did, along with her WHOLE family. Why can't illegals do this, especially if they're getting an American education on what may soon be public funding? What are they gonna do- Get their degree off of pell grants, financial aid and then move to Brazil without paying back their financial obligations?

I'm sorry but this does nothing but encourage illegal behavior IMO and I don't like it AT ALL!!

Umm, it's not that simple as going to pick up your green card from DHS. For the one engineering major, he was here with his mother who eventually married and had a kid with an American citizen (the kid's dad who came here w/ them was abusive and eventually left his family and died). So now that is mom is married and has an American citizen kid, it will be much easier for her to get citizenship. Though don't get me wrong, it's not a lock as I've sat in immigration court and seen the things some of these people have to go through. The kid on the other hand, is pretty much screwed. He came here illegally and can't get citizenship through his mom or step dad. His only options really are to stay here and work illegally, go back to Venezuela where he's from but where he doesn't know anyone or have any family as they left when he was like 4. Or he can go to France where his dad had dual-citizenship. Of course, the kid knows nobody in France either.

Also I'll just add that these kids who are here illegally, they don't apologize or blame anything on their parents. So giving them the argument of "oh it's not your fault, you shouldn't be punished your parents should" is worthless. Their parents did what was best for their future and the kids know that. And despite coming here illegally, most of them have done everything right.

[Corcaigh]

To be clear, he was granted some type of permit allowing him to live and work here legally, but it had stipulations that he must actively be working on full citizenship and he also had to take ESL (English as a second language classes- which he is all doing).

That doesn't sound like the way CIS operates.

The point I'm making is if you're here illegally, you should make an effort to become a citizen if you plan on staying here permanently. If you don't plan on staying/or do plan on staying but don't give a crap about becoming a citizen and are illegal, you should be punished (as in leave, peace out, deuces, GTFO, nice knowing ya, etc).

There is no path to legal presence if you are here illegally. Making yourself known to Federal immigration authorities should result in your deportation. CIS doesn't get to decide what you plan to do. They simply adjudicate whether you meet the criteria for being here temporarily (and if so for how long), being able to work here temporarily, eventually whether you can stay here permanently, and finally whether you are eligible for citizenship.

The immigration policies are so laxed right now that I find it hard to believe that anyone who attempted to make a real effort at citizenship would actually be deported.

Absolutely false. What is lax is border security in certain places such as the southern border. What is not lax is how CIS treats people who they know are here illegally.

[twa]

The root cause is that America is usually a better place to live than where these immigrants are coming from.

If we want to truly solve an immigration problem - the only true solution is to become a 3rd world country.

Bump

Cali is getting there obviously

Improving Mexican economy draws undocumented immigrants home from California

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/28/3799513/improving-mexican-economy-draws.html#ixzz1TbR6o7HD

There are fewer undocumented immigrants in California – and the Sacramento region – because many are now finding the American dream south of the border.

"It's now easier to buy homes on credit, find a job and access higher education in Mexico," Sacramento's Mexican consul general, Carlos González Gutiérrez, said Wednesday. "We have become a middle-class country."

Mexico's unemployment rate is now 4.9 percent, compared with 9.4 percent joblessness in the United States.

An estimated 300,000 undocumented immigrants have left California since 2008, though the remaining 2.6 million still make up 7 percent of the population and 9 percent of the labor force, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

[sacase]

Okay.

You're an illegal immigrant from Colombia. You were brought here when you were 3 years old. You're just about to finish your college degree, and you recently heard that the Obama administration has set a record for deportations. Do you:

A) Try to lay low and get some sort of low-level job where you might be able to fudge the paperwork and nobody will ask too many questions so you can stay in the country that you very much feel is your own, because after all you grew up here, and it's where everyone you've ever known lives.

Call up the ICE, tell them you're an illegal alien, and give them all of your information in the hopes of getting some sort of form that will allow you to stay here and get a top-notch job, all the while knowing that you very well could be signing up for getting arrested, being held in jail, being thrown out of a first-world country and into a third-world country, being torn away from everyone you love, facing the need to put a life together in a strange new place where you've never lived, and surviving in a nation with half a government and lots of drug cartels. But don't worry, there are lots of anecdotal stories about illegal aliens who should have been deported a long time ago, and when it comes to gambling your entire life and your entire future, anecdotes are good enough for you.

Doesn't B sound great?

Dude, Colombia man....I would be there so fast. LOL you obviously don't know much about Colombia. LOL you act like that is punishment. LOL