Posted by Nick at 12/09/09 11:21AM        Post ID#: #19947

We wouldn't even have needed this money in the first place if the Sheriff and Federal Government would have enforced existing immigration laws. Now, the taxpayers are paying the price in many ways. All for the benefit of greedy farmers and other employers who are profiting on the backs of the hidden subsidies from taxpayers for the extra costs of the impact of illegal immigration.

Time to start more prosecutions of employers and deportations of illegals.

Getting sick of hearing it? Well, I'm getting sick of seeing it and helping pay for it every single waking moment of my life.

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Posted by craig at 12/09/09 11:36AM        Post ID#: #19951

Sounds like a good deal, free money??? Well, guess who's going to pay for it .... yep, taxpayers. And, for every dollar sent to the Federal Government, guess how much you really get back after all the "overhead". Let's address the problem with a local solution. Hold those responsible for the crimes and those enabling them accountable, whether they are the gang members or businesses or social agencies or elected officials, and maybe even voters. There are solutions, but it seems that those in authority aren't willing to risk their image to implement them. It's still true .... "there's no such thing as a free lunch".

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Posted by Gracious at 12/09/09 12:18PM        Post ID#: #19956

Nick, I think you're largely ignoring the legal immigrants that are members of these gangs. Trying to enforce immigration laws would be too much, too late.

The reason I say this is beacuse it would be counter-productive, considering that if we did turn the focus of this into some illegal immigration issue, we would be left at square one of how to fight the illegal immigration anyway. As a nation we're already pretty much at a loss at how to combat it, even in regions where these immigrations laws are heavily enforced. We would only succeed in milking the taxpayer to pay for a futile anti-immigration effort instead of trying to fix the problems that are already here.

Suppose we did a marvelous job of it though, figured out the best strategy, all of the tax payers voted for it and executed it, we deported all of the illegal citizens, and kept them from being able to enter illegally again. What about the millions of legal, natural citizens that are gang members that are still here? We just wasted millions of dollars deporting their family members and have no budget to take care of the gang problem that is there, which at that point will probably get much worse.

Saying that it wouldn't be in this situation if we had done this that or the other thing is not helpful anyway, and when you propose illegal immigration enforcement as the solution to the gang problem, as I already said we'd basically be exhausting our resources paying to fix half a problem, while at the same time making the other half worse.


I'm not saying that immigration is not a part of this, but frankly we need to focus on a way to reduce the crime rate in this city when it comes to gangs, drugs, whatever before we're going to see any improvement by stricter immigration enforcement. As tough as it may be to swallow, the problem is here... I mean, think of it as if half the members of a gang were natural citizens, and the other half illegals. Say we deport the half of them, what do you think is going to happen? Even if for some reason their buddies get arrested, our justice system has so many holes in it, they will be back on to the street ( or doing it from prison even ), funneling all of our money that could be going into our economy, down to Mexico just to wind up getting their friends back from a U.S. taxpayer paid visit to their relatives. Then they'll continue to send money back to them, and the same thing could happen over and over again...

Lock the other half of the gang up for good, and then all of the sudden the other half of the gang has no real way to get back in, to stay, etc. If we could find a way to get our prison systems to handle the load, I think imprisoning them here would be the best idea, because it wouldn't make the U.S. justice system look like the free ride it is to illegal immigrants.

So I really do agree that the illegal immigration is part of the problem, I just think that it's not the right time to focus on that, we need to focus on enforcing our fundamental laws rather than trying to prevent people who we think are responsible for the most of it from getting into the nation, because even for states that have extremely strict immigration laws, that battle is not panning out so well.


I agree with craig that local solutions would probably be in our best interest. Trying to focus on immigration laws has too much of an out-reaching scope. We should be thinking about ways to make Yakima seem like less of an ideal place for a criminal to take advantage of. I mean, why can't we seize the assets of the gangs, the illegal employers, etc.? I mean, if we interrupt the money flow, it becomes pretty unattractive for the gangs, the employers and the illegal immigrants. We probably already do something like this, but I think thinking in these areas would be more productive than trying to tackle the issue of how to keep illegal immigrants out, and at this point how to even get local officials to properly enforce the immigration laws.

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Posted by thetruth at 12/09/09 12:34PM        Post ID#: #19959

Nick is somewhat right. Laxed immigration has led us to this road of social destruction. We need to filter out the ones here, now. As well as to start getting tough on immigration or the ones we fixed will just be replaced with new ones.

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Posted by Nick at 12/09/09 12:56PM        Post ID#: #19961

Gracious, you are correct, of course. My comment was addressing "look what happened because we didn't enforce the laws fro the beginning. I have often state that most gang members are LEGALLY living here, since they are likely citizens due, if nothing else, than to the fact they may be "anchor babies". Yes, it is like closing the barn door after the cow is gone, but we simply must start somewhere. ALl this time we are wrangling about the law, we are still letting in more illegals - and therein lies another part of the problem. Until we stop the MAGNET that brings them here - Jobs, and welfare benefits, that accompany our lax border enforcement, it will only get much worse.

And, I haven't forgotten our LEGAL immigrants, who have performed a valuable service to our country for several generations. Unfortunately, two things seem to be happening: They are losing their jobs to illegals as well, who will work for even less and can't complain for obvious reasons; They are getting short-shrift from our system of schools and so on because they, and others who follow the law are literally being crowded out by their illegal brethren. The ultimate culprit is the employer who takes advantage of all these vulnerable people, whether they are legal or illegal.

Of course, our current government sees this as an opportunity to perpetuate the low-wage workforce by simply sweeping the problem under the rug and granting amnesty to all illegals, with a fast-track to citizenship - something that is just one more slap in the face of those who followed the rules to get here.

Gangs: our main stumbling block now seems to be the fear created by the ACLU, who is patently against passing any laws that would work toward arresting these hoodlums. The ACLU makes victims out of the criminals and ignores the real victims - society in general.

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Posted by convergent at 12/09/09 03:22PM        Post ID#: #19980

Still seems that we need a change in the law which allows the children of illegal's born in this country to become U.S. citizens. Seems these are the majority of the people in local gangs and causing problems for all of society. I feel for the legal aliens who are taking heat for what a bunch of lazy, freeloading idiots are doing.

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Posted by MoxeeKid at 12/09/09 06:59PM        Post ID#: #19990

I made this post in a comment on the closure of the Ahtanum View Corrections Center but it is applicable here.


"I'm curious. The Governor has stated a budget crisis has caused the necessity for the Ahtanum View Corrections Center to be closed.
Does anyone have any figure on the amount of money the State spends on the illegal population in this county in medical, educational, and legal expenses?
Think about it. They are here because of lax government rules and enforcement.
They will get the medical, educational, and legal needs met, regardless of any other budget needs. Present law demands we meet these needs, legal or not.

In reality, the presence of the illegal population has caused the employees loss of their jobs and the loss of the use of the Ahtanum View Corrections Center for the residents.

Is that fair to the citizens of Washington ??
In my eyes, no."

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Posted by American_Voice at 12/10/09 07:00AM        Post ID#: #20006

Gracious, look at the family lines of most of these "legal" gang-bangers. The majority got here through the illegal train ride! We have got to stop the "Anchor Baby" incentive to break our laws! WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO THRIVE AS A NATION by giving it all away!

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Posted by ForYourInfo at 12/10/09 12:11PM        Post ID#: #20059

Gangs will forever be. why, they are simply a produce of their enviroment. We the people have created the perfect enviroment for these groups to form and thrive.

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Posted by Nick at 12/10/09 01:30PM        Post ID#: #20070

FYI - When you say "WE", please don't include me, or many others of us. If YOU want that distinction, please take it - since your liberal buddies and soul-mates are the basic cause.

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Posted by ForYourInfo at 12/10/09 03:44PM        Post ID#: #20094

Ok, we the people except for nick and others because they dont live in this enviroment.

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