LETTER: Why does F.A.I.R. deserve credibility?
Published: July 3, 2009
I was surprised the News & Messenger would headline a recent “study” by F.A.I.R. on the costs of undocumented immigrants in Virginia (June 25).
By virtue of the headline, the paper gave instant credibility to the numbers in the study. F.A.I.R. is as biased as other extremist groups in making up statistics, taking others out of context, forming
unfounded conclusions and otherwise serving as a lobby group for their causes. The article did point out that the Southern Poverty Law Center characterizes F.A.I.R. as a “hate group.”
The June 20, 2007 report by President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers concluded that taken together, immigrants contribute a net of $30 billion a year to the U.S. economy. Perhaps President
Obama and the current Congress can come up with some rational long-term solutions to this matter.
KEVIN M. RAYMOND
Dale City
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
Phdee:
Thanks for your insight. My point was very simple and literal. You can’t be outside the law (illegal) if there is no law in which to be outside. But, the indians (a term in itself that’s icorrect term as we of “native american” heritage are not from India)were also immigrants and by your rationale, albeit flawed, illegal. However, I can not bear the sins of those from many generations before me (on either side of that equation) I can only do my best to ensure things like this do not happen again.
The point is this, if you are here illegally either get out or make yourself legal. I am like many other Americans who welcome immigrants, but simply want the law to be followed. That’s it. Please come to this wonderful country, work and be a productive and law-abiding member of society. I love the cultural diversity and the things I learn from those who are from a different country. So, please, stop looking down your nose at me for wanting those in this country to respect its laws and its citizens.
45jhp:
You’re grasping for straws to support your anti-illegal bias.
The world from years back was different than today. The Indians didn’t have immigration laws - they like the British didn’t know Brfitain existed. Yet, when settlers arrive, and FIND Indians - what happened? Why it was the start of the Indian Holocast. The Indians got killed for the most part. Perhaps it would be better to say the US was founded by murderers and rapists. Is that bet4ter for you??
The British logic was to explore, and if you find anything out there we don’t know about, then claim it - it’s ours. Ah yes, law and order.
To get a feel for those pure settlers (illegal immigants) feeling toward the native Indians, read the Declaration of Independence (it’s posted under July 4), and note “...merciless Indian savages…“ therein.
By the way, when do you say “immigration laws” first started in the US or world for that matter? And why?
Seems like if you don’t like illegal immigrants you don’t like the legal ones based on some posters comments (phdee). So, by that statement is fair to assume that if I don’t like speeders I hate all drivers? You can’t mix the two. One is here ILLEGALLY the other is not. Therein is where the arguement lies. Our founding fathers and those before them were not here illegally as there were no laws governing immigation. Why is it that some bleeding hearts can’t see that if you do something illegally it’s WRONG and you should be punished? It is the illegals that put the drain on society and NOT legal immigrants. Can’t you all understand that?
willow:
I see ching ding-a-ling has not answered your post. Just like joni, zcx, and others, THEY HAVE NOTHING - just lots of flatulence.
zcx: why don’t you ask a native Indian what the country’s name was back then. What did the illegal immigrants (i.e. settler) call it before they sailed to it? Or was their logic: if you discover a land we don’t know about, claim it, it’s yours.
By the way, ZCX, when are you going to pro vide the DNA material on the Indians I asked for? Like NEVER cause you ain’t got any. Go sit on your whoopie cushion.
ZCX:
I’ve heard that allegation about the lands being connected, and how the Indians cazme across from Asia. Pure speculation - no proof. And why couldn’t the Indians have gone from America to Asia - there are 2 directions. Duh. No one thought of that.
As for DNA, if you are big into the religious side or allegations of how the world was made, then consider that Adam and Eve, according to the Bible, were the first humans. That can only mean that the world is one big incest pool. How does this fit into DNA, since you I guess are the expert.
What was the name of that country of Indians Phdee? Incidentally even the Indians were not native to the Americas, having crossed the land bridge from Asia over 10000 years ago. Does that mean they were native? DNA records support this as well. Shot full of holes again Phdee, your name belies the lie. LOL Chris Cummings
phdee,
“Europeans didn’t know about America either.“
By 1492, there had been settlements in Iceland & Greenland for almost 500 years. Scandinavians may have sailed as far south as Cape Cod.
“Was there literacy as we know it today?“
Perhaps not, but there plenty of written records. On 6 July 1227, Henry III of England made a gift of the 72 acres in Wylinton to Hugh de Kynardesle, which Hugh had held as a minor, for a yearly payment of 18 shillings to the Exchequer.
In 1292, Edward I told his corn takers not to interfere with the taking of corn on the lands of a number of his subjects who were then upon his service in Gascony.
Google: Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Calendar of the Charter Rolls, Calendar of the Close Rolls. Read the Google Books you find, then understand that this is is just some of the English records. What was being done in England at the time was also being done in Scotland, Ireland, on the continent, & in Asia & Africa. What exists today is a small fraction of what once was.
When the Europeans went on crusade in the 11th century there were among them those who spoke & wrote more than one language, some spoke three, including Arabic.
Literacy? Perhaps not as we know it today, but not unknown.
willow:
I don’t get your point. Yes, in 1492 there were lots of things nonexistent and unknown. Europeans didn’t know about America either. But the Indians were there. Maybe they were nomad or unsettled, but at that time was that abnormal in the world. Was there literacy as we know it today?
I think you are trying to put today’s world, with its laws, rules, etc. back then. It seems the existing “law” for Europeans was to explore the world, and if you find something we did not know existed, then claim it, it’s yours. Civics? In those days there was drswings and paintings.
Americans sure love to romanticize their history. I prefer to tell it like it is - the good, the bad, the ugly.
phdee,
“It was a country of Indians.“?! Where did you study civics?
It was an area of many linguistic groups, some settled, some nomadic. Actual control was confined to relatively small areas. Spheres of influence were in some places quite large, but there were no surveyed, recorded, widely recognized, borders.
Look at a map of Europe in 1492. Where are the nations of Germany, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Belgium, & Austria; just to name a few?
Advertisement