So how are the presidential candidates doing at addressing the fears of the people in this state concerning illegal immigration?
Quote:
The subject went largely unaddressed in Wednesday"™s Republican debate in Des Moines after the moderator discouraged discussion of immigration, suggesting that Iowans already were familiar with the candidates"™ positions
They wouldnt even let them ask about it.
And how bad is the problem there?
Quote:
Two decades ago, less than 1 percent of the people in Buena Vista County, where Storm Lake is the county seat, were Hispanic. By last year, the county had the highest percentage of Hispanic people of any county in Iowa, with 19.2, compared with less than 4 percent statewide. Buena Vista County also ranks highest in Iowa in percentages of those learning English in school, of recent international immigrants and of residents born in other countries.
Quote:
Today, minority residents make up more than 40 percent of the population, law enforcement officials here say; the numbers in the local schools, the authorities there say, are even higher "” 49 percent Hispanic, 10 percent Asian, 4 percent African-American.
Now this isnt a border town, this is about as far from a border as you can get actually.Ive lived around here my entire life and 15 years ago when I got out of high school this town was doing well.There was several meat packing plants there and they paid a decent wage, people from all over this corner of the state would drive there for work.The town was expanding, lots of small businueses existed, and crime was relatively low.
Same town 15 years later, nobody wants to work there, the influx of Americans to the town for jobs has completely stopped, the packs are almost entirely minority based.People are actually afraid to work at them.Where there were many small businuesses years ago theres now a lot of empty buildings, crappy little stores that cater to only certain ethnic groups and once well maintained nieghborhoods now lookmuch like they portray crack nieghborhoods in movies.
My wife works in the ER as I said, theres a huge problem with Mexicans coming in speaking no english, skipping out on paying thier bills, and giving false information.Where there used to be little violent crime theres now assualts almost nightly, theyve got people coming in being attacked with machettes and baseball bats on occasion.Sexual assualts, theft and drugs have become common place.Drugs go through that town in mind blowing amounts, I used to run with a pretty wild crowd and some of them still know the drug scene pretty well and the authorities have no idea how much meth, pot, and other drugs move through there.Classes are being taught in the schools there in Spanish instead of English, somehow with all the other stuff this bothers me more then any of it.Theyve taken over to the point classes have to be taught in foriegn languages to accomodate them, and they let it.
The artical while informative,glossed over much of whats happened there as a result of the rush of immigrants to the area.The candidates wouldnt even address the issue thats affected these people the most.While theres no actual numbers to go by a large chunk of the population of this town could be deported in one large raid by INS if theyd do thier job.And all this in rural Iowa, makes me wonder how bad it really is in the rest of the country[:'(]
I usually get a quiet chuckle out of conspiracy theories, but in the case of illegal immigration, it certainly appears that many people are working in concert to just let it continue on as it stands.
In this case, the voting public is literally being told to shut up and sit down.
Yep, from less then 1% to close to 20% for the county, almost 50% for the towns population.The media sugar coats it, the politicians ignore it, and the citizens are told not ask about it.Crimes up, drug usage is up, the entire workforce has been replaced, and the schools are overwhelmed.Right north of us theres a somewhat smaller town but its got just about the same statistic for immigrants moving there in the last 20 years.
Knowing full well theres a serious problem guesses how many raids have been staged on the packing plants that employ the majority of them.Exactly one raid that Im aware of, and it seems they ay have been tipped off about that one because it netted few arreests and even fewer deportations[&o]
Of course it's a conspiracy. Big and small business love the illegal immigrant labor and always have. Low pay, no benefits. Their companies would not be as profitable if they paid white americans to do the same type of work. In fact many whites don't want to do that type of work anymore so this just fuels this problem even more. These businesses who hire illegals are the ones who donate good sums of money to political campaigns so of course politicians will do JACK about any of this. They are simply adding lip service to all of this like politicians generally do with most issues in this country. We have a free market society in this country where money IS everything. The more money business can make the better our nations economy functions. Do you think the immigration laws won't be overlooked in order to keep our economy looking and functioning good? We surely don't have anyone to complain to about any of this, because this is what America and it's capitalist ideology has always been. Do you think it was any different in the past when immigrant labor worked in mines, building railroads, etc.? People like the Carnegie's and Rockefellar's were getting rich off cheap immigrant labor also. Back then this labor force might have been legal immigrants because we were allowing way more people to enter this country back then. These days it isn't as easy to come in so now we have an illegal labor force. Just as everyone fears the Mexicans these days, same type of fear existed against the Italians, Irish, Chinese in the past. Before them we had slaves where slaveowners were getting rich from their services. All this is nothing new guys. This is just our economic system at work as it always has.
Back then this labor force might have been legal immigrants because we were allowing way more people to enter this country back then.
You were rockin' till you made the above statement and tried to pass if off as the same difference. Illegal immigration is categorically wrong, if for no other reason than we have no way of knowing which are criminals and which are not. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Comparing slavery and illegal immigration and trying to use both as a method to excuse anything and everything because greed exists is a seriously lame argument for illegal immigration to exist and continue to exist.
I know what you mean. I live in northern Iowa too and our town has been lucky so far (no illegals), but there are some around that are being overrun. Lots of fun stuff going on now, drugs, crime and other great things![:@]
__________________
Buck Rogers
HNI clique member wannabe
Don't let school interfere with a child's education
-Mark Twain
I never said illegal immigration was right, but obviously most if not all immigration laws are being overlooked by our government. I wish you luck in trying to get answers from them as to why this is. Immigration whether illegal or legal has always been a cheap source of labor in this nation and slavery served the same purpose at the start of this nations history. I am in NO way excusing any of this but just telling it like it is. Obviously the outcries by Americans about illegal immigration has been falling on deaf ears and that should tell us all what the deal really is here. It's not like the laws are not already on the books on illegals, but obviously the government don't want to do JACK about it!
Back then this labor force might have been legal immigrants because we were allowing way more people to enter this country back then.
You were rockin' till you made the above statement and tried to pass if off as the same difference. Illegal immigration is categorically wrong, if for no other reason than we have no way of knowing which are criminals and which are not. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Comparing slavery and illegal immigration and trying to use both as a method to excuse anything and everything because greed exists is a seriously lame argument for illegal immigration to exist and continue to exist.
second point: all those waves of immigrants eventually assimiliated, and furthered their economic standing generationally to move out of poverty. poverty is the socio-economic indicator which correlates most closely to the negative type of social issues mentioned by peta. the mere fact of the illegality of this current wave prevents them from assimiliating and moving up the economic ladder.
oh, and Steve, when you said "white americans" i presume you meant "american citizens," as when last i checked, we had more than a handful of non-caucasian citizens lawfully and productively contributing to the common good.
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