shacks,
so here are the reasons i dismissed your post/as well as further disagreements: 1) you couldn’t stop yourself from justifying your anti-immigrant position with the “come in the right way or don’t come in at all” stuff, even though i set up as a premise for the thread in the initial post that using that pretext is intellectually dishonest at best, manipulative at worst. i mean if you want to argue the point, fine, but to just mindfully exhibit the same behavior – c’mon, that’s funny. 2) you set up as your part of your criteria to allow citizenship for illegals that they can’t receive benefits and can’t vote. well, they already can’t. neither can legal immigrants for the five years you set up as the length the process should take. and english proficiency is also already a part of the citizenship process. it’s pretty hilarious, but USCIS is pretty much the least multilingual of any government agency in the us. 3) you want to build some giant rough ridin' wall, claiming it will cost less that our current system. i’m pretty sure that’s complete bullshit, but go ahead and give me your figures. how much does imperfect border protection cost our country? how much would it cost to build and staff your giant rough ridin' wall and how much do you expect it to reduce immigration? be sure to include costs like not permitting mexicans the possibility of vacationing, shopping, visiting family, studying and traveling on business in their neighboring country. economics aside, are you truly comfortable with a system where 95% of the citizens of our neighboring country would have no possibility of ever setting foot in the us, merely because some of their countrymen want to come and work here for a little less than americans will accept? 4) you state that you understand that it’s nigh-impossible for many people to become citizens because it’s a lengthy and expensive process. i don’t think you do understand. it is not a lengthy and expensive process. there is no process by which the vast majority of the world can contemplate becoming a us citizen. it is not difficult, it is impossible.
and it is important to also understand that the us denies tourist/business/student/etc. temporary visas to a considerable proportion of this vast majority of people than have no legal means of immigrating because of the (reasonable) fear that some percentage of people arriving on temporary visas would stay illegally. my own mother-in-law has twice been denied a tourist visa. she’s not impoverished, uneducated or criminally inclined, btw.
kk,
200k as a fee, as an required investment or as demonstrable assets (I assume you are aware that the us currently makes “entrepreneurial” visas available to those willing to invest 500-1000k in approved us enterprises)? i agree with allowing visas for phds, although many of the people that would effect already have the means to immigrate via other avenues.
why would you raise the min. wage rather than simply institute national id cards and require employers to verify citizenship/work visas and let the market operate?
i’m not sure what you really mean with re. to independent contractors. if i do understand you correctly, it is basically the de facto current system. illegals working as contractors or in trades are usually (always?) unlicensed, and there are substantial penalties for that (at least in ca). the same would be true of paying taxes.
i strongly agree that the us should enforce almost exclusively on the employment side, not at the border. much more efficient, economical and rational; fewer negative side effects.
