Immigration woes
From the Northwest Arkansas News:
The Arkansas House of Representatives voted 63-31 to pass a bill that would allow illegal aliens who graduate from Arkansas high schools to qualify for in-state tuition rates and taxpayer-funded state scholarships at state universities. "We have allowed these kids to dream," said Rep. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, in support of her House Bill 1525. "We have put them in our schools, we have urged them to dream, and then we cut them off the moment they get out of high school."
Uh, these would be ILLEGAL immigrants, right? If they are ILLEGAL, then why wouldn't they be arrested and deported?
...meanwhile...
From NewsMax:
Using a new approach, Columbia University economists David Weinstein and Donald Davis estimate the net economic losses from immigration to Americans.
Unlike earlier studies, this new model does not treat the movement of immigrant labor into the country simply as a result of abundant resources and demand for labor, assumptions more appropriate to the 19th century.
Rather, the model takes into account globalization, the technological superiority of the American economy, and the resulting high standard of living.
Among the report’s findings:• In 2002, the net loss to U.S. natives from immigration was $68 billion.
• This $68 billion annual loss represents a $14 billion increase just since 1998. As the size of the immigrant population has continued to increase, so has the loss.
When we try to make other countries more like us -- we're the bad guys, but when the people in those countries come here, they slowly make the US more like the bad countries they are getting away from. The solution is to improve the quality of life in other countries, not to have as many of them as possible packed in here.
...meanwhile...
From AgapePress:
Lawmakers in Nebraska are discussing how to deal with a mass exodus of white families from public schools heavily attended by non-English-speaking Hispanics.
Small towns like Lexington and Schuyler have experienced a large influx of Hispanics seeking employment at meat-packing plants. The immigration, often illegal, has prompted white families to enroll their children in small elementary schools outside those towns.
Lawmakers in the Nebraska Legislature have been debating a measure than would force a merger of elementary-only "Class 1" districts with traditional K-12 districts across the state. State Senator Adrian Smith has concerns about shutting down high-quality, rural schools.
"Right now there are already districts merging at a rate of one district every two weeks, so the number of districts is already decreasing -- and I think the natural flow of that is certainly going to address the problem," the senator says. "The racial imbalance is an issue that's difficult to deal with, and certainly forced consolidation does not answer the problem."
Here's the scenario: the ship's sinking and over a thousand passengers are doomed. One life boat is already in the water and has more occupants that it was designed to carry. Rather than try to get more lifeboats in the water, the passengers dive in and all try to clamber aboard the one lifeboat.
Does that make sense? But that's what's happening with the way we treat immigration.
Posted by Jack Lewis at February 25, 2005 09:02 AM