[Sly Fox]

Guess I missed this when it came out last week ...

Conservative evangelicals call for immigration reform
By Bob Allen, Associated Baptist Press
Thursday, May 13, 2010

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A group of conservative evangelicals is endorsing immigration reform that secures America's borders and provides a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million people living in the United States illegally.

Religious leaders including Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Matthew Staver of the Liberty Council and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention signed an open letter denouncing efforts to politicize the immigration debate by labeling any earned pathway toward citizenship as "amnesty."

"Let us be clear -- an earned pathway to citizenship is not amnesty," the letters says. "We reject amnesty. And we ask those who label an earned pathway to citizenship as amnesty to stop politicizing this debate needlessly and to honestly acknowledge the difference."

The religious leaders say immigration reform must begin with securing the nation's borders.

Click Here for Full Story

[LUconn]

Well, now that we've got that settled...

[ALUmnus]

"earned pathway to citizenship", okay, so what does that entail? And what happens when a majority of those here illegally decide to pass on this "earned pathway"? Do we then finally deport them? I doubt it. I'd like them to explain the differences between this plan and amnesty. I think amnesty has become a bad word, so they came up with a better term for it, thus politicizing things themselves.

And if the answer is in the article, sorry, I didn't read it.

[From the class of 09]

"earned pathway to citizenship", okay, so what does that entail? And what happens when a majority of those here illegally decide to pass on this "earned pathway"? Do we then finally deport them? I doubt it. I'd like them to explain the differences between this plan and amnesty. I think amnesty has become a bad word, so they came up with a better term for it, thus politicizing things themselves.

And if the answer is in the article, sorry, I didn't read it.

Well first I might suggest you read the article you’re commenting on as otherwise we may be forced to appoint you Attorney General

But seriously the first step that must be taken is to figure out a way to control the boarder period. Until then it is simply a waste of money to pay for illegal immigrants to be deported back to wherever they came from. I have seen people be deported and be back to work in the US within a month under a new name (and this was in a town over 1,000 miles from the Mexican boarder).

And to be honest I’m in favor of some sort of conditional amenity, if for no other reason than the cost. There are somewhere between 12-20 million illegal immigrants in the US. How much do you think it would cost to find, arrest, and deport this many people? Instead fine them and put them on a process to become a citizen (of course assuming they are contributing members of society). Of course this is all conditional on being able to control the boarder if you can’t really threaten them with deportation then obviously many would ignore it but with a controlled boarder permanent deportation could be a reality.

[4everfsu]

Secure the border, just land mine it or an electric fence.

Also the prez from mexico instead of talking about how we treat his illegals in our country can patrol his own border to keep them from coming here.

Lets make a deal with him, we will not sell any automatic weapons to his people, if he stops the flow of illegals here.

As far as amnesty to those here illegally, NEVER.

[RubberMallet]

1st things first if you ask me. Its time to Streamline the immigration process. to become a citizen of the united states is an absolute nightmare. It wouldn't solve all our problems but it certainly would help.

[SumItUp]

Streamlining the immigration process is a separate, unrelated issue. The United States already accepts more legal immigrants than any other nation in the world. The issue is illegal immigration.

Two things are urgent. We need to secure the borders and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records.

[RubberMallet]

Streamlining the immigration process is a separate, unrelated issue. The United States already accepts more legal immigrants than any other nation in the world. The issue is illegal immigration.

Two things are urgent. We need to secure the borders and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records.

i don't care how we compare to the rest of the world. its still a nightmare. illegal immagration numbers would decrease if the process by which one became a legal citizen was a much simpler process. my buddy married a Phillippino and getting her to be legal has taken 3+ years and she still isn't a legal citizen. he's almost ready to be done with whole process and just have her here illegally. this is actually a huge number of the illegals we have here....not just jorge hoppin the fence.

[SumItUp]

I do not see any issue with someone waiting years to become a naturalized citizen.

Again, the issue of illegal immigration does not correlate directly to the citizenship process.

[From the class of 09]

i don't care how we compare to the rest of the world. its still a nightmare. illegal immagration numbers would decrease if the process by which one became a legal citizen was a much simpler process. my buddy married a Phillippino and getting her to be legal has taken 3+ years and she still isn't a legal citizen. he's almost ready to be done with whole process and just have her here illegally. this is actually a huge number of the illegals we have here....not just jorge hoppin the fence.

Oh for sure the process needs to be changed but the issue of your friend is relatively minor. It would be interesting to see some actual numbers that constitute “huge number” As usually a spouse can still stay in the country legally while there paperwork is being processed on a temporary visa (assuming they entered the country legally to begin with).

This problem would have to be considered minor when compared with our southern boarder.

[RubberMallet]

i don't care how we compare to the rest of the world. its still a nightmare. illegal immagration numbers would decrease if the process by which one became a legal citizen was a much simpler process. my buddy married a Phillippino and getting her to be legal has taken 3+ years and she still isn't a legal citizen. he's almost ready to be done with whole process and just have her here illegally. this is actually a huge number of the illegals we have here....not just jorge hoppin the fence.

Oh for sure the process needs to be changed but the issue of your friend is relatively minor. It would be interesting to see some actual numbers that constitute “huge number” As usually a spouse can still stay in the country legally while there paperwork is being processed on a temporary visa (assuming they entered the country legally to begin with).

This problem would have to be considered minor when compared with our southern boarder.

his wife's visa ran out and has no extensions left. she is currently in the phillipines.

[ATrain]

Trust me, there are a whole lot of things our government needs to streamline, including immigration and work visas.

I do not fault someone for wanting better opportunities and to be able to provide a better life for their families. However, with the way the system currently is, many see coming here illegally as the best option. If we can streamline some processes, then while the number of legal immigrants may increase to compete with naturally born Americans for a jobs, there will be a substantial decrease in illegal immigrants and human trafficking, which will also lead to a decrease in crime.

[matshark]

A-Train is quite right on this... also, "Lets make a deal with him, we will not sell any automatic weapons to his people, if he stops the flow of illegals here."

Well, since we aren't currently selling automatic weapons to his people, how about he just stops his people from coming here illegally. You know, I have an idea - we could just use Mexico's immigration laws and enforce them. (Turnabouts fair play, right?) Oh, and for anyone that's wondering, those wonderful harmless poor little illegals currently commit 1 MILLION sex crimes a year here in the US. (Kinda makes you want to take all those automatic weapons we aren't selling to mexico and use them as a welcoming committee for whoever decides to violate our national sovereignty and security by waltzing across our border illegally...)

[Innocent Bystander]

Two things are urgent. We need to secure the borders and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Ummmm....if they are here illegally, doesn't that constitute a criminal record? Or do they have to commit a second crime before they need to be deported?

[From the class of 09]

Two things are urgent. We need to secure the borders and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Ummmm....if they are here illegally, doesn't that constitute a criminal record? Or do they have to commit a second crime before they need to be deported?

Yes, they are here illegally and yes in an ideal world they should be deported as that is the current law. However we don’t live in an ideal world and sometimes we have to make the best of it. With a country that is already loaded with debt we can hardly afford to spend the resources (ie. $$$) that it would take to round up the approximately 12-20 million illegal immigrants in the US; especially when they can come back across our southern boarder.

So yes, the first thing we need to do is secure our boarders and second deport the illegal immigrants who have a criminal record (which means they broke some other law as you pointed out).

[SumItUp]

Two things are urgent. We need to secure the borders and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Ummmm....if they are here illegally, doesn't that constitute a criminal record? Or do they have to commit a second crime before they need to be deported?

Being here illegally is breaking the law, but I was referencing the individuals that have a criminal record. Some are in local, state and federal prisons right now.

[Innocent Bystander]

Two things are urgent. We need to secure the borders and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Ummmm....if they are here illegally, doesn't that constitute a criminal record? Or do they have to commit a second crime before they need to be deported?

Being here illegally is breaking the law, but I was referencing the individuals that have a criminal record. Some are in local, state and federal prisons right now.

Gotcha...you're saying "let's deport the illegals that we currently have in custody". Makes sense.