Don't Shoot The Messenger

Some or none.

This is what I've been picking up on for a while now.

On the one hand, the folks who deeply want our nation completely cleared of all illegals, and not let any more in from anywhere for quite a while, are willing to meet somewhere in the middle.

On the other hand, the folks who want all illegals to remain and to automatically and immediately become full citizens are not the least bit willing to even talk about it.

The irony is that if it were put to the current American citizens as a whole in a nation-wide referendum the folks on the one hand would allow the DACA folk, and likely the rest too, to remain so long as they aren't felons or some such, get them started on the citizenship path that already exists, and go with border control and some guidelines for application and quotas (already existing) for any new immigrant applications.

If the folks on the other hand block it out of spite, we're all stuck with a situation nobody at ALL wants. With compromise out the window, it will be not some illegals being allowed to stay, but none. Because that's our current law. Illegals are ... well ... here illegally - and subject to deportation.


Here's a bit from a legal site:

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 defines an alien as a person who is not a citizen or national of the United States. In other words, an alien is anyone born in a country other than the United States to parents who are not United States citizens.

An illegal alien is someone who is living in the United States illegally; either without the correct legal documentation or by violating the terms of documentation, such as overstaying the time period specified on a tourist or student visa. Illegal aliens have no legal status in the United States. Among other things, illegal immigrants cannot vote, receive social services from federally funded programs, social security benefits, or hold United States passports.

Illegal aliens are subject to detainment and deportation at any time, as are legal aliens if they commit and are convicted of a crime. In many cases however, unless an illegal alien has committed a crime and been convicted, most are not detained or removed from the U.S. simply because they cannot be identified as illegal aliens.
https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/becoming-american-understanding-legal-and-illegal-immigration


Here's an excerpt from an Allen B West article:

71 percent call on companies to offer jobs to Americans before foreign workers.
82 percent of voters support a law that would strengthen sentencing penalties for illegals who had previously been deported and strengthens laws against illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the U.S.
76 percent want more ICE officers.
75 percent support Trump’s focus on jailing MS-13 members
73 percent believe immigrants must be able to support themselves financially.
By a 2-to-1 margin, voters support limiting the number of immigrants who are seeking to live here just because their relatives do, so-called “chain migration.”
59 percent said new immigrants should be required to speak English.
64 percent back legislation that would create a point system based on factors such as English-speaking ability, education levels and job skills to rank applicants for the 140,000 employment-based green cards that are granted annually by the United States.


If the nation is (hypothetically) evenly divided among democrat, republican, and independent folk there are more people represented by some of the above numbers than all of the republicans and independents combined. The democrats have some of their own siding with the compromise.

As it stands right now, from my perspective, if the democrats alone block compromise, yes they can do it, but it will cost them voters from their own ranks likely getting almighty sore at them - because if there is no compromise, guess what.

If democrats want to protect the Dreamers, that's fine by the other side - but if they attach a caveat that includes ALL illegals to the wagon of the Dreamers, it flat will not fly. It will not even roll along a flat road.

DACA expires in March of next year (2018), in just a few months, and all 800,000 of the Dreamers will have to go to the homelands of the parents who brought them here.

You can bet your bottom dollar that ICE will up the ante and, together with every other agency, will become a lot more aggressive in locating and deporting (first) every violent offender they can.

Unless the democrats cooperate in changing existing laws, enforcing said existing laws rather than ignoring them is going to become 'the way it is'. No exceptions for anybody. If you're here illegally, home you go immediately as you are in violation of our current immigration laws and subject to immediate deportation. Say there are 20 million illegals currently within our borders. That's a whole lot of deportations taking place all of a sudden.

So ... what will happen?

There will be a compromise; the illegals will understand that the democrats sold them out for political purposes; those who remain will NOT be happy about it, and they'll switch their allegiance to the folks who worked to get them the compromise - as opposed to those who resisted it and put all 20 million of them at risk for immediate deportation.

The same will go for a hefty hunk of democrats who would be in favor of a compromise. Down the hatch go the democrats - and for what? It's like throwing a game by carrying a weapon onto the field to sack and shoot the other team's quarterback - and the sack totally fails anyway because your own team-mates block you from committing murder, the very attempt being more than plenty to get the whole team pulled for all eternity.

The democrats have already lost this particular hand. If they're willing gamble everything on a hand that ain't got a chance, that's all on them. At this point the republicans/independents are holding all the aces, and tag-teaming the democrats.

As the democrat party 'leadership' balks at compromises that their own constituents want, those constituents know where to turn.

It almost kind of reminds me of when Honorius had the families of 30,000 of his Getae soldiers slaughtered, just to make a pointless political point. Did he REALLY expect his soldiers to stick with him after that? They went straight to Alaric is what they did, and that was the end of Honorius' empire. (short version)

That seems to be exactly the direction the democrats are heading. I doubt they'll be any more successful than Honorius was. If they're willing to sacrifice the Dreamers, not to mention 20 million (or so) others, on the altar of making a pointless political point, what does that say about them? That they will not be allowed to do any such thing is moot - that they are willing to, and will try to, is the message that's going to stick like cockle-burrs in your socks.

At least those are the impressions coming to me from all directions.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Also, Canada get ready because come spring of 2018 they'll be heading your way to get out of having to go south.

You know what really irks me about this whole thing?

Millions of folks in our nation are on tenterhooks because the democrats have been using them as a population of pawns and will not tend to what has to be done to give them some peace and security. That, in my opinion, is just plain hateful meanness. Pretend you're doing somebody a favor and then leave them holding the bag out of spite because somebody else ticks you off ... it's a really mean thing to do.

It's like saying, 'Here, leave your poor home to help me rob this bank and you'll get most of the loot.' And then run out the back door as the law comes in the front to arrest your recruits - who not only don't get any of the loot but have to go to jail before they go back to their poor homes. That's a dirty trick to pull, I have to say.

SHAME.

SHAME.

SHAME.

DACA, Visa Over-stays, Illegals ... IF ONLY ...

IF ONLY our laws had been enforced all the way down the line.

IF ONLY our judicial system had stepped up to the plate and given a resounding 'NO!', backed up by the House and the Senate when somebody just upped and made a unilateral and unconstitutional decision all by his lonesome (because, you know, he had a phone and he had a pen).

We can 'if only' until the cows come home.

The fact of the matter is that we have been handed a rather daunting situation and somebody's going to have to figure out what to do about it. We cannot go back and change anything; all we can do is the best we can with what we have to work with.

Thankfully, we do have our Constitution. Although it has been kind of ignored in recent years it is still our guide and our law.

Because somebody did ignore it, and nobody stepped up to say, 'Hey, you can't do that; it's unconstitutional!' we've got a mess on our hands. That it didn't have to happen in the first place is entirely moot, except for the unlikely possibility of somebody getting held accountable for what he has wrought. As I say ... unlikely. I think the DACA folk ought to sue him as an individual (not the government), a class action suit, for landing them in this boat. He could have chosen otherwise; he could have enforced the law of our land; he could have insisted that their parents obtain citizenship; he could have made it mandatory that they apply for citizenship upon reaching their majority (or leave at that time) ... they've all got to be going through some powerful anxiety as a result of his actions ... he himself, out of his own pocket (although over a million/year plus a lot more for secret service is coming out of OUR pockets) ought to at LEAST pay any associated fees for them to obtain citizenship as well as any mental health services required for them to cope with their lot. HIS pocket, not OURS. We're the ones who are already lining his pockets; why should we have to pay multiple times for how he chose to use his phone and his pen? Which we also paid for, come to think of it. Uffda.

There are now hundreds of thousands of folks who are not guilty of anything except having had parents who broke the laws (which weren't  being enforced anyway). They are innocent (unless they've broken laws themselves - other laws, not the ones broken by their parents) and do not deserve to be punished for something they did not do. That's a fact.

Because one branch of our government, without being checked or balanced by either of the others, did something that was illegal, We the People have been saddled with the sorry situation of having to look askance at all three of our branches of government. Many of the 'guilty parties' are still right where they were when they failed us as a nation. That too will have to be dealt with.

The issue at hand is poignantly heart-rending. Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are on the line. Maybe not literally, but they will most assuredly be affected (as will we all) over the course of the next months as the legislative branch of government, who should have been the ones to either deal with this in the first place or at least stepped up to either confirm or deny what the executive branch chose to do unilaterally (AND - I presume - the judicial branch, who also should have come out with a very clear statement about the constitutional validity - as in the lack thereof - of said choice) are at last called to task about the whole thing.

I'm just a little old lady and not personally affected by DACA, except in the sense that as a citizen of the United States of America I am inherently as culpable as anybody else.

So what are we going to do about all these folks who are just living their lives out as best they can, but are suddenly faced with the consequences of the actions of others?

Are we going to turn them out?

I think not.

That they are now adults is a factor that has to be taken into consideration.

That they have been well aware of their status for all this time has to be taken into consideration.

That they have, each and all, had ample opportunity to apply for legitimate citizenship, and could have done so as soon as they reached their majority, has to be taken into consideration.

Some of the culpability here belongs squarely on their shoulders as well as on those of the (now-ex) executive branch of our government, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch - and our own as we didn't step up to say, 'Hey that's unconstitutional, what are you DOING!?!' either.

We're all guilty, when it comes right down to it.

Solutions?

I have no 'solutions', only thoughts on the matter.

I'm thinking that every last one of our DACA folk need to get themselves posthaste to the closest immigration office and get their paperwork started.

I'm thinking the legislative branch needs to clearly and definitively put an end to the continuance of something that was unconstitutional in the first place.

I'm thinking that the judicial branch has got to present a decisive ruling on the matter.

I'm thinking that enforcement ought to be stepped up even more, to clear out the criminal elements.

All of these things ought to have been done long since but 'long since' is long gone.

Now is going to have to suffice.

I looked up the DACA thing and the guidelines are pretty clear. The people affected fall into specific parameters, which does help.

It's not like this is the end of the world, folks. It's just got to be taken care of so everyone can calm down and get on with getting on.

The same goes for those who are over-staying their visas. They can follow the rules about renewing them if that's an option, or they can go home. It's not complicated.

I have a feeling it's liable to come as a shock to some peoples' systems that there really are actual laws in our nation, and that (until/unless duly changed) they're (GASP!) supposed to be followed. I know there has been a great deal of 'flexibility' these past years about that little detail, and it might take a while for the concept to sink in. Hopefully it won't take too long.

When it comes down to it, the same goes for all of the illegals among us. It seems to me that, while our legislative branch is dealing with this one part of the whole they may as well extrapolate and deal with the rest of it at the same time. If your paperwork for citizenship is in the works, and; if you're gainfully employed or enrolled in a bonafide educational/training program, and; if you've been here straight through for five years or so, and; if you have no criminal record ... welcome home. Everyone else, so sad too bad, you had your chance, out you go.

Effective immediately, until we as a nation get back onto our feet and can assess our ability to take on anything more, the doors are closed. To everyone.

That's about the only way I can see the whole thing.

No doubt I'm not being 'politically correct' here but honestly I don't much give a rodent's behind about being 'politically correct'.

It's not the current administration's fault, this mess. It's part of the 'legacy' of the one/s before. A disrespect for the laws of our land, coming from the highest of our governmental positions, has been disheartening for a lot of us. For those who didn't know, didn't care, or welcomed it ... I don't know what to tell you except that now you know. You might still not care, and you might not welcome the return of our Constitution, but now at least you know.

God bless us all, and most especially those directly affected by what's coming down the pike including those whose paths are to enforce what has to be done.

And ... you know ... God bless our President. Mr. Trump's destiny is not one many of us would envy. His is the task of righting the wrongs of others, on our behalf I might add. The least we can do is give him our prayers and not get in his way.

Taking care of our DACA folk is a step.

Our legislative branch has six months to get something done that ought to take a whopping fifteen minutes tops. IF they can't manage to do even that much, I hope they're busy getting alternative careers planned and prepared for. It's too bad they can't be 'recalled', but they sure as heck don't have to be re-elected. None of them, on either side of the aisle. We can't repeal them, but we can most certainly replace them.

Our DACA folks have those same six months to get their rears in gear and get their paperwork started, get a job or enroll in a training program, prove their residency for the past five years, and make sure their records are clean and clear. The ones who can't/won't do those things might want to take this opportunity to vacate our nation voluntarily.

IF (yes that IF is in capital letters and in bold) our legislative branch isn't completely dead, and they know the meaning of the word 'extrapolate', it's not just the DACA folk who might want to be taking care of the paperwork, the job/training, the documentation of residency for five years, and proof of a law-abiding lifestyle.  As for the Visa folks, just get 'em renewed or go home.

Just sayin'.

Ach. But what do I know?