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Should immigrants have a path to citizenship?

Should law abiding immigrants be given citizenship?

  • Total voters
    83
Allan

Allan

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Trump has recognized that undocumented immigrants are important for several industries and has backed off arresting and deporting them. I would argue that there are a lot more industries that need these workers to operate effectively.

Those immigrants who haven't committed crimes and are productively employed - should they be allowed to remain and given a path to citizenship?
 
ttwtt78640 said:
No. Should undocumented (unlicensed) drivers be able to operate motor vehicles on public roadways?
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The analogy is a bit weird. Unqualified drivers aren't capable of safely driving a motor vehicle.

Undocumented immigrants who aren't criminals and are working are capable of being a good citizen.
 
Allan said:
Trump has recognized that undocumented immigrants are important for several industries and has backed off arresting and deporting them. I would argue that there are a lot more industries that need these workers to operate effectively.
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Allan said:
Those immigrants who haven't committed crimes and are productively employed - should they be allowed to remain and given a path to citizenship?
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They need to go to the back of the line, as they tried to jump that line.
 
I much prefer we turn the country into a police state where everyone must have their papers, law enforcement is invading workplaces and homes and spend billions in order to deport 12 million people or put them in camps.
 
I think we have to recognize that it is a very complicated issue and there is a difference between someone that has came here recently and is here illegally, and someone that has been here for years if not decades and is here illegally.

We can't just open the doors to rest of the world. We would get far more immigrants than we have the capacity to take, and criminal groups would take advantage of open borders. At the same time, we have to recognize the sins of the past. If someone came here years if not decades ago, has worked, has been a productive member of their community, has a family here - often a spouse and children, then it is utterly unconscionable to separate them from their family here and we need to give them some way to obtain legal status.

On the right, we have people that are willing to rip apart families - they just don't care. On the left, we have such idiocy that in places like Portland, Honduran drug dealers are selling fentanyl on the streets, and they still aren't deported when they are arrested for it, even though they are here illegally.

I think most people believe we need secure borders and order to our immigration system. I think most people believe that if you are here committing crimes, you should be deported. At the same time, I think most people believe that the country depends on immigration, and if someone has been here for years, been a productive member of their community, established ties here, they should have a pathway to legal status. Try getting any concrete poured or your house roofed if we deport everyone here illegally.
 
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j brown's body said:
I much prefer we turn the country into a police state where everyone must have their papers, law enforcement is invading workplaces and homes and spend billions in order to deport 12 million people or put them in camps.
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Sadly, you're not alone.

 
Allan said:
The analogy is a bit weird. Unqualified drivers aren't capable of safely driving a motor vehicle.
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Nonsense. Why should so someone (living here legally) have to ‘qualify’ to drive. I’m not saying they should be immune from getting traffic tickets or even be allowed to operate unlicensed or uninsured vehicles.

Allan said:
Undocumented immigrants who aren't criminals and are working are capable of being a good citizen.
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They’re also capable of obeying traffic laws.
 
Illegal aliens are not law-abiding.
 
Allan said:
Trump has recognized that undocumented immigrants are important for several industries and has backed off arresting and deporting them.
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That's what he's said. I'm not sure that's actually happening. It's a matter of time before his own Einsatzgruppenfuhrer Stephen Miller throws a tantrum and demands 4,000 - no, 5000 people rounded up and deported daily.

Allan said:
I would argue that there are a lot more industries that need these workers to operate effectively.
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Indeed, in the agricultural sector, it's not just harvesting but also processing. Some of the work at meat processing plants, for example, is back-breaking and extremely dangerous. They risk severe injury and even death on a regular basis. You're never going to convince me that people born here in the U. S. and who've either done service work or the trades is going to give up their job to go work in a meat processing facility or harvesting in 100+ degree heat.

It's not just agriculture, though. Immigrant labor is crucial for everything from restaurants to lawn & landscaping to stocking grocery stores. Without immigrant labor, which almost certainly includes undocumented workers, these businesses don't just suffer decline; they collapse and go out of business - overnight. There's nobody to do their work. There are probably places in the U.S. where that's not true, but that's only because migrants haven't settled there. Anywhere you have larger populations and demographic diversity, migrant labor is a crucial backbone to many sectors of the economy.

Allan said:
Those immigrants who haven't committed crimes and are productively employed - should they be allowed to remain and given a path to citizenship?
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Yes and no. I guess this gets into a semantic debate about what path really means.

This is one area where I'm somewhat of a centrist/pragmatist. I don't think they should be allowed to violate immigration laws without at least some consequences; otherwise, we just encourage more mass migration, and we do have borders and immigration laws for a reason - every nation does.

But I think we could set up a multi-pronged approach whereby maybe they voluntarily self-report their lack of status and then start a process of review and compliance. I just wonder how many would truly be interested in that, though. I think the reason many arrive without documents is that the process is long, bureaucratic, and expensive, and they don't have the resources or the time to wait.

I kind of feel like the better path would be to make legal immigration a lot more flexible, but we live in the post 9/11 world and everyone's afraid of being blamed for the next domestic crisis caused by furriners.
 
I had to vote no because the poll question is much too broad.
 
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Hi Allan,

Sorry mate, you question is confusing. The question itself is if immigrants should be given citizenship. I voted 'No' to that.

But both the title of the thread and your first post question whether or not there should be a PATH to citizenship. If this had been the question of the poll, I would have voted 'Yes' of course.


Joey
 
Allan said:
Trump has recognized that undocumented immigrants are important for several industries and has backed off arresting and deporting them. I would argue that there are a lot more industries that need these workers to operate effectively.
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Trump has done no such thing. And specifically what industries require undocumented immigrants????????
Allan said:
Those immigrants who haven't committed crimes and are productively employed - should they be allowed to remain and given a path to citizenship?
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Legal immigrants gain citizenship in the US all the time All they have to do is go through the legal process. Illegal immigrants have by definition committed crimes.
 
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