80 illegal immigrants found in two separate home raids Two smuggling suspects are taken into custody By DALE LEZON and ANNE MARIE KILDAY Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Ben DeSoto / Chronicle Sheriff's deputies received an anonymous call Friday about illegal immigrants in a house in southwest Harris County. A man who appeared to be in charge of them was taken into custody, officials said. Sheriff's deputies found a large pot of freshly cooked eggs and sausage, a loaded assault rifle and more than 50 barefoot people suspected of being illegal immigrants in a southwest Harris County home Friday. A man who law enforcement officials said was in the house and appeared to be in charge of the immigrants was taken into custody by the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The immigrants told the lawmen a second man also was caring for them, but was not at the house when deputies arrived, authorities said. Fifty-three immigrants — 43 men and 10 women — were loaded onto a bus and taken to ICE offices, officials said. About five hours later, police called to an apartment in south Houston found another 27 undocumented immigrants crowded into an apartment in the 1400 block of Main. "It was all males, and one of those is a suspected smuggler," ICE spokeswoman Luisa Deason said. "In the case at the apartment, there were Hondurans, Mexicans, Guatemalans and Nicaraguans." Deason said ICE was putting together criminal complaints against the smuggling suspects in both incidents. "Neither has been formally charged," she said. "It will be up to the U.S. Attorney to file those charges. Immigration has become the number 1 problem in America something needs to be done to stop this from happening.
I for one would not like to pay 50% more for my lawn care, maid, etc. Stopping illegal immigration is trivial. Make hiring an illegal alien a felony offense with a mandatory jail sentence and a mandatory $50,000 fine. That stops it immediately. I wonder why right wingnuts have never suggest this plan. (Hint: making harsh criminal laws that affect your constituency more than your opponent's is a nonstarter.)
I think that's rather harsh. There are many small businesses or home owners who probably hire illegals without knowing it. Fake identification is easy to come by. Punishment and enforcement should be meted out on both sides. People who knowingly hire illegals should be given warnings and exacted fines. On the other hand, it is no great sin to enforce US borders. A large percentage of the illegal immigrant population are women or children who will not work - but are rather here for free health care, education, or other such services. Tax-payer funded services such California Healthy families or WIC do not ask about immigration status. The US takes twice as many immigrants as the rest of the world combined. I've heard that over 20 percent of Californian prisoners are illegals. Does not Mexico maintain a military patrol upon its own southern border? There are many of us who are against illegal immigration - but do welcome a reasonable, sensible (and perhaps expanded) immigration policy. I do not understand why people have to make this (and every other issue) some sort of partisan war. Has not the great "neocon" in the White House himself pushed for a guest-worker program?
We are all well aware of how the Mexican people and other latinos have helped shape our country into what it is today. However, considering our country is constantly under attack and our public services are being depleted due to drastic increases in immigration something has to be done. While many illegal immigrants come to the US with an agenda of good, a huge number of them come with ulterior motives. Upwards of 25% of all illegals are criminals and the vast majority of them having committed violent crimes (see MS-13 gang). The main down fall of weak borders is probably national security. With countless miles of unguarded border from Texas to California the US/Mexican border is our weakest link in the fight agaist terrorists. Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations are continually trying to find new avenues of getting cells into the country, and since our coastlines and skies have gone more high-tech the weakest, cheapest and easiest opening is the US/Mexican border. Drug smuggling is another huge problem that needs to be resolved. Over 100,000 American lives are lost a year do to illegal drug usage which is a massive loss of American life... not to mention the gigantic financial costs for medical care, criminal justice and low income funding for millions of drug addicts, users and dealers. The largest effect of drug smuggling is the social repercussions of a large number of our society being addicted to low costs drugs that hamper their ability to succeed in life. There's no hiding the financial loses caused due to illegal immigration. Latest reports show that illegal immigration cost Texas 4.7 billion, California over 10 billion and the US combined over 34 billion in 2004. These costs will continue to grow at a huge pace if we continue to allow 1.1 million illegal immigrats to enter the country every year. However, trying to cut off the companies who hire these immigrants will not solve our problems alone, securing our borders should be the first and main line of defense. http://www.fairus.org http://www.cis.org http://www.ice.gov The High Cost of Cheap Labor - Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget
I think our resources are being depleted and money that could be used for public services was given away in tax cuts benefiting the wealthy. In addition to that wreckless spending has has also depleted the funds. We add to that the interest payments(wasted money) that our debt requires, and that is a far more serious drain on our economy than illegal aliens. I believe that priority 1 should be to fix the budget problem. If we didn't have the interest payments on the debt we could afford more public services.
Why can't we treat illegal immigration as an issue by itself - without dragging in the issue of tax cuts, spending, etc.? I just wish the politocs would focus on issues themselves - treating this as a symptom of general party platform seems to politicize it.
I have no problem treating border problems by itself. But issues do affect other issues. Also with many pressing issues for us to deal with, it is important to prioritize. So if someone talks about the economic drain of immigrants and not having enough money for public services, it makes sense to point out that there is a solution to that. The solution is fix the debt, and deficit.
Where are you getting these numbers from? [/QUOTE] I think he meant that 25 percent of the convicts in the Los Angeles prison system are illegals.
I can see what you mean - but I just happen to think that this should be a separate issue. It seems that if we link this with other issues - it can tend to politicize it - and people would be forced to, as usual, climb aboard their respective Party bandwagons. Some people think that the "fiscal" solution to this is to raise taxes and have the upper 50 percent fund the education and health care of ALL people. Some people think that public education and health care should only be provided to legal residents. Also - an influx of cheap labor does have a tendency (at least in the short run) to depress wages and increase the unemployment rate.
I posit that if the jobs were not there the illegals would not come. Here is the rub the religious right is all for stopping illegal immigration while the Country Club right are against it. My solution is tenable with the religious right while not so tenable with the Country Club right (since it is their *sses who will be thrown into jail).
I agree with you there. IF one is against illegal immigration, then one should also be against entities that knowingly hire them. That does seem to be a common hypocrisy. I also think that public services may have to be restricted if we truly want to reduce illegals immigration.
I guess it is easier to let cheap labor import itself here rather than continue to export Jobs elsewhere Rocket River
