McCain addresses La Raza, reaffirms support for comprehensive immigration reform (a.k.a. amnesty)

[Heracles 417]

Officer Sheila Herring was lost to a bullet from an illegal alien in an early morning altercation at a Norfolk bar on January 16. The accused man, Mario Roberto Keen, a citizen of Jamaica, had reportedly shot a man in the bar after which the police were called. When several officers arrived, Keen opened fire and shot Officer Herring who died later in surgery. Keen was shot and killed at the scene. He had been sentenced to five years in prison in 1990 for selling cocaine and was later deported. Keen attempted to re-enter the United States in New York in 1997, but was reportedly barred from entering. It is not known when Keen succeeded in entering the U.S. But back to Sheila Herring: from all accounts she was an excellent police officer and loved her job. She had been a cop in Detroit for ten years before moving to Virginia. She was 39 and had an 18-year-old daughter.

At the left is shown Darlene Squires, the distraught mother of a disabled teenager, one of two girls who were raped on October 24, 2002, by three members of a Salvadoran street gang located in Somerville, Massachusetts. Aged 17 and 14, both victims are deaf and one has cerebral palsy. Mrs. Squires believed that the attacks were a retaliation against her family because her husband confronted the young men after they had harassed the Squires son. Later reports indicated the men arrested for the crime were illegal aliens.Law enforcement officials were concerned about increased violence from the MS-13 gang which was "believed to have originated in part with soldiers and their families who left El Salvador." Local residents estimate the gang has more than 100 members in their community. An update a few months after the Squires crime showed that the gang problem in the community has only gotten worse.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

So what? People get assaulted and murdered every day. Its heinous and tragic, but it happens.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Good for you, Boo, that still proves there's no correlation between someone coming here without going through the legal channels of immigration and criminality. You're just reaching for straws.

Edited July 16, 2008 by Jabberwocky

[Heracles 417]

In another case of justice denied, the murderer of Phoenix high school student Tanee Natividad merely crossed the border into Mexico to escape law enforcement. A local television station was able to track down the murderer in a bar just a few miles across the border without much effort. Max LaMadrid has no reason to hide because the Mexican government actually helps violent criminals escape American justice. According to Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano, action by the Mexican supreme court making it more difficult to extradite criminals has "created an incentive for people to flee into Mexico as a safe harbor." At one time, Mexico would not extradite criminals who might be subject to the death penalty; the Mexican court recently extended this "protection" to any Mexican who might receive a life sentence, thereby giving a free pass to rapists, kidnappers and child molesters. In fact, the investigating reporter found 100 cases of violent criminals from the Phoenix area escaping into Mexico in just the last few years. Meanwhile, the grieving family of 16-year-old Tanee gets no justice — like thousands of others in the southwest.

So what? People get assaulted and murdered every day. Its heinous and tragic, but it happens.

Collateral damage right? The only difference is that these crimes could have been prevented if the laws were enforced.

Good for you, Boo, that still proves there's no correlation between someone coming here without going through the legal channels of immigration and criminality. You're just reaching for straws.

Nothing to correlate here. Just showing the reality of what is going on in America at the hands of illegal immigrants.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Collateral damage right? The only difference is that these crimes could have been prevented if the laws were enforced.

More like - $hit happens and will continue to happen.

[Heracles 417]

Collateral damage right? The only difference is that these crimes could have been prevented if the laws were enforced.

More like - $hit happens and will continue to happen.

Funny that this is not happening to the same degree and from the same demographic in the UK or Australia. Which says something considering 1/4 of Australia's citizens were born overseas. Therefore immigrants are not the issue but the type of immigrant is.

Edited July 16, 2008 by Boo-Yah!

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

who is a gringo hater?

or just because you support an amnesty you hate your own people? kinda hard to follow logic

No. We just do not like any one group of people who thinks they can enter a sovereign nation as they see fit. Come in through the front door, like every other immigrant, and nobody will have any problem.

LOL...since when in history has it ever worked that way?

Try the process 50% of the people / spouses in this forum are going through. Then you may want to google the immigration policy of the other OECD nations.

It is stupid to expect legal immigrants to go through all of these hoops and medical checks while Mexicans, at will, can simply walk across the border. With no background, medical, criminal check etc.

No harm, no foul.

you've got to be kidding me.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Collateral damage right? The only difference is that these crimes could have been prevented if the laws were enforced.

More like - $hit happens and will continue to happen.

Funny that this is not happening to the same degree and from the same demographic in the UK or Australia. Which says something considering 1/4 of Australians citizens were born overseas.

Yeah yeah yeah - that old 1/4 of Australians were born overseas garbage. So what...

The UK and Australia has murder too. Its not an alien concept - we had Fred West, you had Ivan Milat and John Bunting. Yes - we can compete with the best of them.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Therefore immigrants are not the issue but the type of immigrant is.

There are approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in a country of 300,000,000. While I won't deny that there is indeed a criminal element in the illegal population (typically related to organised crime) to suggest that this one immigrant group is responsible for the majority of murder and crime in the country just isn't true IMO.

[Heracles 417]

Yeah yeah yeah - that old 1/4 of Australians were born overseas garbage. So what...

Unlike your 19,351 factual posts right.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yeah yeah yeah - that old 1/4 of Australians were born overseas garbage. So what...

Unlike your 19,351 factual posts right.

Right

[Heracles 417]

Therefore immigrants are not the issue but the type of immigrant is.

There are approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in a country of 300,000,000. While I won't deny that there is indeed a criminal element in the illegal population (typically related to organised crime) to suggest that this one immigrant group is responsible for the majority of murder and crime in the country just isn't true IMO.

Try over 20,000,000 people. 1/3 the population of the UK..

I see you are still up to your same old #######. Yes I said only illegal immigrants committed the crimes. Now just show me where I said this..

You do realize that more Americans are killed by illegal immigrants each year than troops overseas in a war right? Maybe that little fact is insignificant to you but even 1 death is disgusting and outrageous considering that the criminals are here illegally and should be on their best behavior.

Why would anyone be against saving even one life or one person from being a victim of crime from something that is actually preventable? I am sure you will dig up some historical event to justify this one. European imperialism maybe?

[Peikko 1,575]

Blather, blather blather on, and on, and on, and on...

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Therefore immigrants are not the issue but the type of immigrant is.

There are approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in a country of 300,000,000. While I won't deny that there is indeed a criminal element in the illegal population (typically related to organised crime) to suggest that this one immigrant group is responsible for the majority of murder and crime in the country just isn't true IMO.

Try over 20,000,000 people. 1/3 the population of the UK..

I see you are still up to your same old #######. Yes I said only illegal immigrants committed the crimes. Now just show me where I said this..

You do realize that more Americans are killed by illegal immigrants each year than troops overseas in a war right? Maybe that little fact is insignificant to you but even 1 death is disgusting and outrageous considering that the criminals are here illegally and should be on their best behavior.

Why would anyone be against saving even one life or one person from being a victim of crime from something that is actually preventable? I am sure you will dig up some historical event to justify this one. European imperialism maybe?

Well to correct you slightly - there's no exact number of how many illegal immigrants are in the USA, given that census data for these people doesn't exist. Hence estimates vary from 11 million to 20 million. I guess it depends how optimistic or pessimistic you are about the whole thing - but its a fair assumption that the number probably falls somewhere between the two.

The question I'd pose is what percentage of crime illegal immigrants contribute to the crime rates of specific States; and secondly as a proportion of the national crime rate.

I don't doubt that there are illegal immigrants who murder and commit other crimes, and I certainly do think such crimes are avoidable. But I don't think we should be in the habit of exaggerating this or taking it outside the context of the overall crime rate in this country. There is too much violent crime in this country, and illegal immigration is far from the sole reason for this - even if it does provide a convenient scapegoat.

Edited July 16, 2008 by Number 6

[Peikko 1,575]

Outrage disgust, outrage disgust. Are we all feeling better now?