proof that americans are against anti-immigration sentiment

[albatross23]

okay guys, this article shows that americans doesnt support anti immigration sentiment cause if they did, they would have been more people protesting against illegals during those nationwide anti immigrants rallies
---------------------------------------------

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Few Drawn to Illegal Immigration Protests
By Michael R. Blood
Saturday, January 7, 2006
Illegal immigration protests organized across the country Saturday drew small numbers, and some were
outnumbered and out-shouted by those who support immigrant rights.
The so-called "Stop the Invasion" protests were organized in 19 states, demanding the government
increase border security and penalize employers who hire illegal workers.
"We are keeping the debate on illegal immigration in the forefront of the American consciousness," said
Joseph Turner of Save Our State, who was among about two dozen protesters who waved American flags
outside a home-supply store in a Los Angeles suburb.
But Turner's group in Glendale was surrounded by more than 100 drum-beating supporters who chanted,
"Racists go home." The two groups traded shouts and obscene gestures for more than an hour. One man
was arrested for assault, police said.
In Farmingville, N.Y., where immigration-related violence erupted several times in recent years, only about
a dozen protesters showed up and argued against the growing number of day laborers on eastern Long
Island.
Paul Streitz, who organized the demonstrations, said members believe illegal immigrants are taking jobs
from citizens while driving down property values.
"This is not a racist thing," said Daniel Anastasia, 46, a construction worker from Westchester, N.Y. "We
pay taxes, they don't. I get paid what the union says. The contractor pays them cash. It's not fair to me."
In Framingham, Mass., near Boston, a small group protesting illegal immigration was met by a much larger
group of counter-demonstrators, some of whom surrounded them and temporarily disrupted the protest.
"What they are doing is just harassing people who are out here to go to work every day, and they're doing
it in a hateful manner, which is against everything this country stands for," said Manuel Olivera, pastor of
the nearby New Life Presbyterian Community Church.
In Danbury, Conn., about 50 people calling themselves the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control
spent about two hours chanting and holding signs that read "Arrest Illegal Employers." Several dozen
people held a counterprotest across the street.
In Las Vegas, John Holiday, 43, and his son, Conner, 9, held signs near a convenience store where
undocumented workers are picked up by employers. The boy, who held a sign that read "Our lawmakers
encourage lawbreaking," said illegal immigration has divided the country.
"Do you think the problem will be over when I grow up?" Conner asked.
Associated Press writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

[albatross23]

okay guys, this article shows that americans doesnt support anti immigration sentiment cause if they did, they would have been more people protesting against illegals during those nationwide anti immigrants rallies
---------------------------------------------

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Few Drawn to Illegal Immigration Protests
By Michael R. Blood
Saturday, January 7, 2006
Illegal immigration protests organized across the country Saturday drew small numbers, and some were
outnumbered and out-shouted by those who support immigrant rights.
The so-called "Stop the Invasion" protests were organized in 19 states, demanding the government
increase border security and penalize employers who hire illegal workers.
"We are keeping the debate on illegal immigration in the forefront of the American consciousness," said
Joseph Turner of Save Our State, who was among about two dozen protesters who waved American flags
outside a home-supply store in a Los Angeles suburb.
But Turner's group in Glendale was surrounded by more than 100 drum-beating supporters who chanted,
"Racists go home." The two groups traded shouts and obscene gestures for more than an hour. One man
was arrested for assault, police said.
In Farmingville, N.Y., where immigration-related violence erupted several times in recent years, only about
a dozen protesters showed up and argued against the growing number of day laborers on eastern Long
Island.
Paul Streitz, who organized the demonstrations, said members believe illegal immigrants are taking jobs
from citizens while driving down property values.
"This is not a racist thing," said Daniel Anastasia, 46, a construction worker from Westchester, N.Y. "We
pay taxes, they don't. I get paid what the union says. The contractor pays them cash. It's not fair to me."
In Framingham, Mass., near Boston, a small group protesting illegal immigration was met by a much larger
group of counter-demonstrators, some of whom surrounded them and temporarily disrupted the protest.
"What they are doing is just harassing people who are out here to go to work every day, and they're doing
it in a hateful manner, which is against everything this country stands for," said Manuel Olivera, pastor of
the nearby New Life Presbyterian Community Church.
In Danbury, Conn., about 50 people calling themselves the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control
spent about two hours chanting and holding signs that read "Arrest Illegal Employers." Several dozen
people held a counterprotest across the street.
In Las Vegas, John Holiday, 43, and his son, Conner, 9, held signs near a convenience store where
undocumented workers are picked up by employers. The boy, who held a sign that read "Our lawmakers
encourage lawbreaking," said illegal immigration has divided the country.
"Do you think the problem will be over when I grow up?" Conner asked.
Associated Press writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

[albatross23]

this articles tells iT all..this is why i laugh when i hear a racist biggot like sundevilusa or someone12 explain to us how the majority of theamerican people are totally against immigrants...the truth is the americans people do not care about immigrants because they dont see them as a threat to their high paying jobs because they do unattractive, low paying jobs.

Only racist biggots have the time to attend racist anti immigrant rally.

[albatross23]

notice how the racist biggots got out-numbered everywhere?

this is laughable, they can not even field more then 100 americans to support their racist views ANYWHERE IN AMERICA!.


i was right all along, americans see this anti-immigrantion ideology as pure racism and anyone that supports it is a racist biggot..Americans dont want to be seen supporting racism, that's why they did not attend those racist rallies

THIS IS A BIG STATEMENT TO OUR LAWMAKERS

AMERICANS WANT COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORMS

[AliBA]

Go check out the articles on how the Massachusetts legislature last week voted down by a large majority an in-state tuition bill for illegal aliens that had been expected to pass--until the legislators started getting a lot of mail from constituents opposing benefits to illegal aliens. Note also that Massachusetts is the home state of Teddy Kennedy, co-author of one of the amnesty bills in the Senate. Kennedy has the family fortune and name, so can disregard public sentiment. Not all Congresspeople are so lucky. One doesn't have to hold signs and stand around in the cold getting called names to be effective.

[ImmortalE]

1. Just because so called "albatross23" is nuts doesn't mean that all he writes/copy-pastes here is untrue.
AP article reflects what in fact has taken place recently.
As far as motivations behind the most extreme anti-immigrant movements, read about those , in detail, here:

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intel...cle.jsp?aid=93



2. I support cutting all welfare support, and we had this discussion before , Aliba.
Remember the Shaun's article about welfare itself being a problem rather than scapegoated immigrants?

3. As far as tuition benefits for "illegals", this really is undefensible position: you can't advocate any kind of State/Federal benefits for people who are not supposed to be here in the first place.
Instead,
a)I would support cutting all the existing welfare programs to bare minimum, make it totally impossible for immigrants (not just illegals) to apply and obtain it.
b) I would support "DREAM ACT", help the innocent kids get their status adjusted and then let them apply for in-State tuition(NOT WELFARE!) like everyone else.


4. As far as "stream" of protests go , it's NOT that the MAJORITY of American people share those feelings, but simply put anti-immigrants are much better organized, financed and guided than immigrant rights advocates,
and most of the people who are in the middle don't care much one way or the other.

Most recent "National Uprising" (read OP article) has has clearly and convincingly demonstrated how truly LITTLE Public support the anti-immigrants have in this country, yet their voices are heard louder than anyone else's - once more confirming what I said above: they are perfectly orginized and work in unison.
Just check out this website:

http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServe...=team_involved


5. Forget about Kennedy. Stop Demagoguery. Instead focus on issues and suggest feasible, FAIR (not www.fairus.org) ways to solve the problem.

6. Have a Nice Day !

[AliBA]

All the articles show is that Americans generally don't care about immigration at all, unless and until it affects them. You also don't see activities such as the work stoppages pro-illegal-alien activists had last year drawing large numbers of Americans. And whatever happened to the "Freedom Ride" for rights for illegal aliens?! Remember, as a nation we're not known for liking physical activity such as marches (the constant cry of those who want illegal alien stoop labor), hence the high rate of obesity.

Funny how you claim "anti-immigrationists" are better organized, when, as I've pointed out before, it's the pro-illegal alien lobby that actually has the big money and the big guns, including the Catholic church, AILA, the financial services industry, Agribusiness, and major corporations, such as Anheuser-Busch, as well as the Ford Foundation. A-B and the Ford Foundation both fund Maldef. And of course, the Mexican government.

Of course, you're totally ignoring the polls by major organizations such as Gallup, which consistently show that Americans do not want higher levels of immigration and do not want amnesty. Those say far more than any turnout for demonstrations. (I don't go to demonstrations when they're here--I haven't the time. Does that mean I don't oppose illegal immigration?)

[AliBA]

I wonder just how many AMERICANS this little effort will draw? Are we going to be inundated by Americans demanding that illegal aliens be given amnesty? or even a guest worker program?

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006...1606192913.txt

[ImmortalE]

I wonder just how many AMERICANS this little effort will draw? Are we going to be inundated by Americans demanding that illegal aliens be given amnesty? or even a guest worker program?

Aliba, no matter how many AMERICANS the above mentioned rally draw, it doesn't defeat the argument that MAJORITY of Americans did NOT supoort the anti-immigrant rally mentioned in OP.

Polls are consistent with what we see :

1. Few Americans are sharing extreme-anti-immigrant views/sentiments.

2. Most Americans don't care about immigration unless asked about it directly.

3. When asked, MOST Americans Support sealing/securing borders and enforcing immigration laws in the interior, but they do not support the draconian measures like making felons out of 12 million people , with zero regard to individual circumstances.

4. When asked about possibility of registering/regularising the status of illegal aliens already present in US, more than 50% of Americans say they would agree with it.
______________________________

P.S. That's what POLLS say.

[AliBA]

There's a difference between "not supporting" and "not showing up". As I pointed out, I don't attend rallies, either, but that doesn't mean I don't support the cause.

Americans may not want mass deportations, but they do want immigration laws enforced and people deported. Your false choice again.

"Legalization" includes a range of possibilities, including leaving the country in order to apply for a guest worker program (Cornyn-Kyl bill), so claiming Americans support "legalization" really depends on the definition of "legalization". It does not necessarily mean allowing people here illegally to remain, work, and adjust status. Even I wouldn't object to a bill that required illegal aliens to leave the country to apply. That's "legalization".

Re, your point number 4: that depends on whose poll (and their bias). The Republican party has a nice little poll that Tamar Jacoby selectively uses. Of course, the main questions in their poll indicate that legalization was one of the key items people (Republican voters) didn't like in the proposed program, but that isn't what she hypes. Instead, she picks out one of the later questions showing Republicans strongly want legalization--something which directly contradicts the earlier questions, and indicates that the poll doesn't have internal validity. That is, it doesn't measure what it purports to. Probably due to that pesky little problem of defining "legalization" again. Pro-immigrationists probably think of legalization as "amnesty", but it again could entail a requirement to leave the country. It all depends on what the respondent's definition of it is.

I referred to Gallup precisely because these are not done for a particular interest group. The Gallup poll analysis from July 26, 2005, finds, "Americans say the United States should not make it easier for illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens. Twenty-eight percent say the government should make it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens, while 70% say it should not. These results have shown only modest fluctuations in the three times Gallup has asked this question."

[ImmortalE]

Americans may not want mass deportations, but they do want immigration laws enforced and people deported. Your false choice again.

What false choice are you talking about?
I referred to well publicized polls, and I will quote myself "MOST Americans Support sealing/securing borders and enforcing immigration laws in the interior..".

But MAJORITY of Americans ALSO, according to same POLLS, "do not support the draconian measures like making felons out of 12 million people , with zero regard to individual circumstances " and feasibility of proposed measures.

It is one thing to say "let's seal/secure borders and find some way to deal with 11-12 mln
we can't deport instantly, with some regard to overall circumstances", but it's totally different thing to say "Let's equate illegals to murderers and rapists and throw upon them the wrath of entire country!".

If you don't see the difference - then I am not surprised.
After all you are just one of those blinded by the anti-immigrant PASSION.

How could I expect a HURRICANE or TSUNAMI to agree with REASONABLE points and arguments I make???

[AliBA]

There's a simple answer for an illegal alien who doesn't want to be committing a felony: leave. Heaven knows, being "nice" has resulted in record levels of illegal immigration, and massive abuse of the marriage and asylum loopholes.

What you want to do, regardless of who actually does the poll, is look at who sponsors it. Gallup does do polls for various interests, or even just includes questions, but it also has a set of questions it does time after time, year after year--its basic public opinion research.

[Jan S.]

I suggest you watch Lou Dobbs on CNN on any weeknight. He asks a question about illegal immigration about 4 out of 5 days a week. He is watched by MILLIONS of EDUCATED VOTERS every day. And every day 90 to 95% of those people say they want the border closed illegals deported, employers to pay HUGH fines for employing them, all benifits except emergency hospital care to stop, and politicans who refuse to enforce laws removed from office. Why should Americans stand around in the freezing cold being shouted at by a bunch of uneducated trash, when Americans have the REAL power of the VOTE. There will be NO Amnesty. Most people will agree to some time given for self deportation. Then they become felons. To be arrested shot thrown out of the country, we don't care how... We want them GONE. And we will have our way. Rest assured.

[albatross23]

well, one thing is for sure, aliba and jan.s were the few dozen biggots that attended the anti immigrants rally and got embarrasingly out-numbered by pro-immigrantion supporters.


i have my own feeling concerning those rallies, i really thought that they would have drawn more amercain people because the anti-ammigration sentiment that tancredo keep screaming is getting so loud.
So when i read this article, which shows that amercian do not support anti-immigrant sentiments, i was so happy. I knew all along that they never supported such ideology.

[ImmortalE]

Americans Against The American Dream: To Be Anti-Immigration Is To Be Anti-American

by Robert Tracinski

The anti-immigration House Republicans who just pushed through a massive assault on immigration stand for a giant fraud. They claim to be patriots, acting out of a desire to protect America from an "invasion" of illegal immigrants. In reality, they are promoting an agenda that is thoroughly un-American, both in its goal and in its methods. It has often been said that America is a nation of immigrants, but few people understand how deeply this is true. It is not just that America was settled and built almost entirely by people from somewhere else--from English settlers in the 18th century, to Irish, Italian, and Eastern European immigrants who came at the turn of the 20th century, on through every other racial and ethnic group in the world. The deeper reason America is a nation of immigrants is that the motives and goals of immigrants--and the moral outlook they represent--are the essence of the American character.

Why do immigrants come to America? They come for the freedom to pursue a better life. They do not come merely for jobs that pay more than what they can make back home. They come for the kind of culture that makes those jobs--and a million other opportunities--possible.

The immigrants I know are drawn here by the distinctively American culture of work and achievement that is the essence of our national identity. America was founded on the idea that all men are endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And how is happiness pursued? By hard work and ambitious effort. To become an American, this is the only creed one has to accept: the political ideal of liberty, the economic ideal of a free market, and the cultural ideal of individualism. Many immigrants do not have a full, explicit understanding of all of these ideas. But they do know that they are escaping from stagnant and corrupt nations in which little is possible to them, and they are coming to a land in which everything is possible.

They come because this is a nation where anyone can improve his life through his own effort, limited only by his talents and his capacity for hard work.

That is the essence of what we call the "American dream." It's what most of our forebears did, from the first settlers in Jamestown nearly 400 years ago, to a Polish carpenter named Traczynski (the spelling was later simplified) who came here a little more than a century ago, to the Indian, Chinese, and yes, Mexican, workers who continue to come here today. They all came here in pursuit of the most American of ideals: the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

So why are so many Republicans coming out against the American dream?

Look through the rationalization that these Republicans are only against illegal immigration. These same politicians have spent decades erecting barriers against legal immigration, and they are still doing so today. That is why they have refused to link their crackdown on illegal immigration with any provision to allow existing immigrants to legalize their status, or to allow new workers to come to the US under a "guest worker" program. They are not for legal immigration; they are against all immigration, period.

Also look through the rationalization that the anti-immigrationists are concerned that foreigners come here to mooch off of the American welfare state. Why, then, are restrictions on immigration aimed precisely at those who seek to work? And why do the controls target workers at all skill levels, from manual laborers to doctors and software programmers?

Consider this latest anti-immigration bill. The bill's most odious provision would make illegal immigrants guilty of an "aggravated felony"--the kind of criminal charge reserved for armed robbers and rapists--simply for looking for work in America. But it is not just immigrants who are made into criminals. Extending the provisions of draconian laws aimed at drug smugglers, this bill would brand as "human traffickers" anyone who even offers aid or support to an illegal immigrant. This means that a whole segment of Americans--including employers and even the family members of immigrants--will be threatened with criminal prosecution and jail time. If the problem is that illegal immigrants don't want to work--then why does this bill seek to make criminals of their employers?

One congressman defended this anti-immigration police state by explaining that he is merely responding to the will of his constituents, who are "berserk with fury" over illegal immigration. Someone has gone berserk, but it is unfair of politicians to project that hysterical state of mind onto their constituents. Rather, it is the House Republican leadership that has lost its capacity for rational thinking and self-control.

The real essence of the anti-immigrationists' argument is not that immigrants are unwilling to work, but that they are too willing to work, that they are so eager to work that they will come here and take "our" jobs--jobs that are supposed to be set aside, by governmental fiat, for American workers. Their crude version of being "pro-American" is that they want to protect a supposed monopoly on jobs by native-born Americans, a monopoly enforced at the point of a gun.

This is the welfare-state entitlement mentality of the left, adopted in a crudely nationalistic variation. The premise of the anti-immigration crusade is that native-born Americans have a right to be hired for menial jobs at high wages, not because they have the skills or initiative to perform those jobs productively, but simply because they were born in this country. But the idea that you have a right to a job and a paycheck, just as a reward for being born, regardless of your ability or willingness to do the work--isn't that the worst aspect of the welfare-state mentality of the left?

The message the anti-immigrationists offer to Americans is: you shouldn't have to work hard or compete for a job. You don't have to show your employer that you will be more productive than a Mexican or Indian applicant. You just have to assert your right to that job because you were born here--and your friends in Congress will enforce your claim by threatening to bash some heads in.

Any real American ought to be insulted by this offer. The American dream is not about holding a make-work job set aside for you by a paternalistic government; it is about succeeding through your own effort. The American dream is not the cowering vision of a people who believe that they can never make it in the world if they are exposed to the demands of free competition; let's leave that protectionist fantasy to the French. The American dream is the vision of a proud, self-confident people who know they can make it on their own--and who have often welcomed hard-working immigrants from around the world to join them in pursuing success.

A few weeks ago, I linked to a column by Robert Samuelson (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...092001412.html) in which he pointed out that the myth of "persistent poverty" in America is largely a statistical illusion. The percentage of people who are poor in America tends to stay the same, but the actual people who are poor are constantly changing: those who were poor a decade ago usually rise into the middle class, largely to be replaced by immigrants--who will also rise into the middle class, to be replaced, in turn, by a new group of impoverished immigrants. Some anti-immigrationists seized on these statistics to claim that we could solve the "problem" of poverty in America by blocking immigration. But the constant influx of poor immigrants who work their way up to become productive and prosperous citizens is not a "problem"--it is the glory of America.

This is the real American dream--and we should do whatever we can to protect it from the un-American vision of the opponents of immigration.



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About The Author

Robert Tracinski is the editor of TIADaily.com (http://www.TIADaily.com) and The Intellectual Activist.