5 Comments

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  Cheryl Moore - 12 years ago

  I strongly support President Obama doing something positive to help those young people who have done no harm, and more often than not bring many positive elements to our country.
  I think it is shameful and embarrassing that our government - and both major political parties - have used people as political footballs for years. I applaud President Obama for taking positive strides toward a more just solution. I also applaud him for skipping the useless, time and energy wasting step of involving congress. John Boehner and his lemmings have tried to stop every worthwhile program that President Obama has tried to put in place since his election. They don't care about the country or us as citizens, just about the wealthy people and corporations putting money in their bank accounts. Working with people with their feet stuck in the mud and their heads so firmly buried in the ground is a waste of time.

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  Connie - 12 years ago

  I agree with both writers. The U.S. never did anything before with the farm workers after season, but also never guarded applications for any government programs; social security, welfare, schools. I never felt children of illegal immiagrants should have been allowed to use our schools, which brought overcrowding and downfall of our schools. All the allowances gave incentives for illigals to stay in the U.S. If we never allowed babies to be instant citizens and reep benefits because they were born here, illigal moms would not have crossed the borders just so there kids would be born here and have the bill paid by our tax dollars. If they new their kids could not start school here at the elementary level without being citizens, I bet a lot of illigal families would not be here. I thing there needs to be total reform and something has to done to stop the illigal crossing. All benefits have to stop!

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  stephan - 12 years ago

  This is Obama at his most most calculating selfish worst. Worried that there might be a bipartisan deal on some form of reform, he blows up any chance of a real solution for political gain. He kicks the GOP in the teeth rather than work for a solution in an effort to cordon off the Hispanic vote. He leaves a million young Hispanics twisting in the wind indefinitely for his own gain. I only hope that people will see just how self serving this was.

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  Dori Saunders - 12 years ago

  When we start talking about the issue of how to treat the children of illegal emigrants we have to be completely honest with ourselves, as well as others. We can not deny that neither major political party has seriously tried putting a concerted effort for decades in resolving the illegal population in the United States. This includes all politicians. presidents, governors, Senators and Representatives, for they have all consistently and willingly "kicked that can down the road". If they had resolved the issue of the parents over the years, we would not be having this debate now. That fact #1 .

  This is a non-partisan issue because we have invited them to work on our farms and ranches for years. Farmers will tell you their produce would rot with out hiring illegal emigrants....another thing we must be honest about. We have done nothing to return them to their native countries at post-harvest time. We have little over sight involved with many government programs and each party blames the other, which is pure nonsense. Both parties bare equal responsibility for the mess we have. I now live in a H.U.D. (government owned building) where a land scape boss and crew come out every week of the year to manicure this huge property; from my 3rd floor apartment I can see the crews are made up of Latinos, but how would I know whether they are here legally or illegally. They do excellent work, however.

  So now we have millions of "unnaturalized children who have grown up here, are being educated here, most of whom speak English fluently, (they, not always their parents) and many who do not speak a native tongue, nor have resided in place but the U.S.A. through no covert or overt action on their parts. Like all kids, some are smarter, some play better sports, or maybe some do better in the arts, but for all things, they feel and behave like ordinary American kids. Could any of us begin to imagine how terrified our children or grandchildren would feel if they were suddenly, without doing anything bad themselves, were suddenly transplanted to foreign soil. Isn't "resting the sins of the fathers on to the children' just a bit archaic? If you have a little Latino child living on your block, could you bend down, look at him or her squarely in the eyes and say, "I'm going to make sure my country sends you where your parents used to live, and I don't care how much it hurts you." That's right, this is a personal decision we are making, these are innocent children we would be asking to be deported.

  Having said all that, I want to go on record as saying we should find a way to deport every criminal who sneaked into this country, regardless of age, which or what crime it was, be it a misdemeanor or felony. We have enough American citizens in our prisons and jails for tax payers to support, we don't need to import them. It is just that simple. And that certainly applies to "youth gangs". That applies to Russians, or any other country they leave to come here to indulge in criminal activity.

  Very Sincerely.

  Ms. Dori Saunders
  Milwaukie, Oregon 97222 2235

  We did not substantially guard our borders for decades.

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  Kathy - 12 years ago

  Unfortunately the President can't work with congress on anything because they don't support a thing he does. John Boehner said on day one that they were going to make sure Obama fails and they are doing everything they possibly can to block his every move.