Hampton Roads speaks out about immigration issues

The solution is to hold the businesses responsible. Until that is done, the problem with illegals will never be cleared up. Both parties refuse to go after the businesses, and that is where it will sit. The only solution is when the US ceases to be an oligarchic plutocracy, and an average Joe finally is elected in to some office with power. This will never happen in "capitalism", as all capitalisms are run exclusively by the wealthy elite. So good luck with holding your breath.

If US citizens are driving drunk and kill someone, they can and should be punished. But that doesnt mean that illegals that drive drunk and murder a child with their car, should be excused. They Have NO legal right to be here, and if that one illegal was deported or prevented from coming here, Mrs Tranchant's little girl could still be with her today. The issue isnt drunk driving,; its enforcement of our immigration laws to prevent these tragedies from happening.

Again "our" FAMILIES are at the mercy of ILLEGALS and their Anchor Babies being murdered, raped, infected with disease, or robbed. We can see the results of the ILLEGAL invasion in our courts every day! But NOT to worry the Chamber of Commerce will get their "cheap labor" increasing "their privatized" PROFITS, thanks to Bush, the Congressional Leadership(?) and of course the Presidential candidates of "our" two "major" Politicial Parties!!

Again and again and again, I just do not understand how our President and our congress can send our young men and women half way around the world in defense of the United States and refuse to defend our National Borders and Enforce our Immigration Laws while at the same time warning our military, for their own safety, not to wear their uniforms when traveling to "our" southern borders.

One thing can't be denied; the folks landing on the shores of Va., Mass., Fl., etc., (& their descendants), had to be quite happy the Native Tribal Govts. didn't have immigration departments with deportation laws being enforced!

If they are in the country illegally they are criminals and should be treated as such. I am sorry for their home country conditions, but quit making excuses about how it will hurt the economy if they are made to go home. They are freeloading on my taxes (which are used to pay for the roads they drive on, the schools their children attend and so on and so forth). I think what the government should do is grant them amnesty/resident status based on their ability to pay all their back taxes for the time they have been in the country illegally. That would go a long ways towards reducing the federal deficit I bet!

Ive been in the emergency room at least 9 times in the past 5 years. Every time I was in there, the room was filled with, what appeared to be, fluent English speaking legals.

You have managed to do nothing but show that you are a racist profiler by your comments ,especially with the welfare comment. There is no way to tell someone is on welfare by anything required to be filed to enter an emergency room. My guess is that you look at every non-white in the room and assume they are on welfare, and you assume everyone who happens to be hispanic/and or not speaking English is an illegal. That about sum it up? Speaking of ignorant rants......

I can only think that anyone being able to feel factual, in stating that emergency rooms have become clinics for illegal immigrants & welfare recipients, must be employed in a position to actually see documentation that anyone in the emergency room is on welfare. Better yet, how is it that one can be so certain that anyone in an emergency room is an illegal immigrant. My family, on my fathers side, has been in the USA over 300 years. On my mother's side, over 250 years. Yet members of my family, up to my father's generation, felt more comfortable speaking among themselves in their Patois. All were quite fluent in English. You will find this to be true within different communities. I have great nieces & nephews that are being reared to be trilingual, due to their grandparents varied ethnic backgrounds. To hear a different language spoken doesn't mean the speaker is an illegal immigrant.

Seems many of my fellow posters are unaware that there are places on the USA - Canada border that are wide open. One, from any country, originally, can go to Canada & simply walk across the USA - Canada border. Some of these crossing areas simply have a phone that one is expected to use, on the honor system, to inform the proper authorities of their crossing. Too often, the phones don't even work. It's not as hard as some think, to get into the USA by simply arriving by ship at some of our ports. It doesn't matter if they are private pleasure craft, luxury liners, or working tankers. The USA has always had different rules for different immigrants. Look at the difference in treatment of Cubans, requesting political asylum as they arrive in Florida & Haitians who request the same asylum from Haiti as they arrive.

What might historically correct description of illegal aliens is they are pirates (especially) by piracy of ID or U.D. Fed Social Security card documents, as includes the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union “unless infested by pirates”. Yes, the U.S. is infested by pirates.

I can never feel sorry for known criminals (violation of U.S. Code Section 1324 is a CRIME).

The system isn't broken, the system isn't being used. This statement equates you telling me your computer is broken because it isn't plugged in.

Coolguy, have you been in an emergency room lately, doubtful from your ignorant rant. They're nothing more than clinics for illegals and welfare recipients.

Funny thing is, if you have insurance, you're looked down upon...

My heart go's out to the family cause I cant imagine how I would feel if that were my little princess. but people we all know that could have well been any drunk driver lets focus on the drunk drivers instead of the illegal aliens because if we deported all of the aliens and I mean all of them. People would still be getting killed by drunk drivers.

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame. -Benjamin Franklin

Take a minute and calm down. Now just visualize if your were in there shoes and you wanted to make a better life for your family what would you do? I deal with illegal aliens everyday at work and some of them do work hard and are very nice and well mannered. and when the verdict comes from the judge to deport them back to a country they abandoned when they were 3 years old is insane. They dont know the customs, they dont know government, they dont know the money value. (The Congo, India, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Indonesia.) They know absolutely nothing about the country. In my opinion that's plain sad. Some American's cant survive being dropped off in another State with no money. These people leave there families behind with the heartache of not knowing if there gonna see there sons, daughters, mothers, sisters etc.. again. I know it must be done but its just a sad affair.

U.S. Fed HUD Zone Warfare; The Specifications. How many U.S. Fed HUD Zones in Virginia.

Since the U.S. Fed by self confession to inflict all we know as illegal aliens, the U.S. Fed is the only lawful employer of illegal aliens as part of the U.S. Fed military; what are we doing arguing what law should be made; when we should take into account the U.S. Fed inflicting illegal aliens (law breakers, criminals) for U.S. Fed device (device per Blacks Legal (civil) Law Dictionary) to take sanctions upon U.S. citizens in the form of welfare, unemployment, 60,000 deaths since mid Nov 1994 is ALSO MORE THAN ALL U.S. citizens that died in Viet Nam conflict.

What kind of conflict do we have here that the U.S. Fed MUST OR DID take more lives than in Viet Nam. U.S. Fed inflicting a cheaper scab labor force for U.S. Fed economic gain, suppress wages, kill U.S. citizens, for U.S. Fed profit, greater severity of suf

I suggest a short trip south down I-95 to our neighbor state of NC. I go there often on weekends to visit friends and relatives. Johnston County NC is about 3 hours away. I actually was born and grew up there. Today, I hardly recognize the once quiet and lovely neighborhoods that made up so much of the rural areas. The "Latin" population is now predominate in most areas. Flea markets have taken the place of Mom and Pop businesses, run-down Mexican restaurants are predominant, and of course, non-English speaking Latinos are prevalent among the mass gatherings at malls, shopping centers, grocery stores, hospitals, etc.
At present, I don't see that here. Perhaps we do not grow enough tobacco, corn, wheat, etc. However, modern farm equipment dispensed with the need for farm workers. Now, NC industries such as carpentry, masonry, plumbing, and many or most of the blue collar working class jobs

The fact is, that Colette Tranchant's daughter could still be alive today, if the federal government did it's job and enforced our existing immigration laws. The drunken illegal alien that murdered her with his car, wouldnt have been here to do so. The system isnt "broken", thats propaganda; We have adequate laws in place to protect our borders and punish lawbreakers (illegals). The government just needs to step up and do it's job.

1. That $1 billion earmarked funds does not mean it COST 1 billion. On the contrary, I can bet my yearly salary, hospitals are inflating their "costs" to get additional money. "Costs" are not retail prices for services, which is what is being reported. It does not "cost" $10 for an aspirin, no matter what the hospital tells you.

2. 8 million in the US illegally (even though Im sure not even 1/4th live in California)....so, you say it cost 500 million in california alone.....if all 8 million illegals lived in California, that is $62 a year for every single illegal.

3. I have no clue how you are defining "health care". Health care is not defined as "being stabilized" at the emergency room.

Very few immigrants come here to specifically join gangs (MS-13 numbers less then 20k nationally, and only a fraction of them are foreign born), create terror, or run drugs, or the "free healthcare" as some would

I would like to comment about my own experience with people that are here legally. My first experience was with the hired help on my family's farm about 20 years ago. We had a worker that was here on a work visa that got injured. He was taken by ambulance to the local hospital where we were responsible for payment of his medical care. Why isn't it the same today? I don't get it.

Another experience was with a woman who was taking care of my dad at his home. Again, she was on a work visa and was from Eastern Europe and appeared to be a very nice and was a good worker. She found some checks and had my father sign them. He was in the early stages of dementia so he was unaware of what he'd done. She cleaned out his checking account for $21,000.00. Of course she beat tracks and headed home before the authorities could catch up with her. Thank goodness for Homeland Security because if she ever comes back to the USA she wil

I'll bet the illegal aliens in New York, the ones from Eastern Europe, came on tourist and or work visas and stayed when the visas expired. The government has no way of tracking people on visas. When departing the U.S., there is no checking out through Immigration as is the case in most countries. We sure are a trusting country. Maybe we need a national ID card.

"Everything must change ". If things never changed, it would still be illegal for me to eat a hot dog in a restaurant in Downtown Portsmouth, without standing up at the end of the counter. Likewise, our immigration laws need to evolve to ensure secure borders, while finding sensible ways to deal with people who've come only to provide for their families. I don't pretend to have the answers. I do believe, however, that we have enough bright individuals in our city, state & federal govts., to deal properly with these matters..., if only given the chance to sort it all out without being overly influenced by zealots on either side of the issue.

Where do you all think the derogatory term, "WOP", came from? It stood for "With Out Papers", as many of the European immigrants arriving in the USA, didn't have proper documentation, even ones arriving at Ellis Island. I personally know a gentlemen, of Nordic descent, whose father worked on a tanker that sailed across the Atlantic. When the shipped docked, he got off the boat to shop, & never returned to his ship. He lived & worked for years, married, sent his kids to school, bought cars, homes, etc., without ever becoming "legal". No one ever questioned his right to be here.
Yes, I believe in secure borders. I just think it should be more evenly enforced. Go to New York, for instance, many "illegals" are Eastern Europeans.
Remember, the 911 terrorists, came through Canada, not Mexico.

"Also, many Americans of European descent, whose families have been here for sometime, are direct descendants of illegal immigrants."

Where in the world did you come up with this? How would a european immigrant get here without going through the channels? Swim? I am one of these that came through Ellis Island and I can assure you that the european immigrants came with permission before entering this country otherwise we would never have gotten a flight over the seas to come to this country and take on our citizenship proudly and learn the language fluently as we promised to do!.

I know, I was on one of those planes with my family eating rotted headcheese and drinking sour milk to survive the flight over. If you do not know what head cheese is , look it up...only the old timers would know this...

Ok, I read the Pilot every day, I did not hear a thing about this meet and greet about immigration! Maybe if they cared so much about what we actually think they would have advertised this a bit more and that includes the victims of the tragedy. Anyway, so one immigrant gets up to speak and can't even do it in english! Need I say more on that subject? And he was not arrested and deported on the spot why? Look, if you want change, do something about it, demand another meeting where we can all speak up, maybe advertise it a little more, or at all! And don't hold it during working hours because most of us hold jobs and pay taxes!

"Also, many Americans of European descent, whose families have been here for sometime, are direct descendants of illegal immigrants." - and THAT is old. Most countries in the world are exactly that way. It happened before absolute borders were set and current governments and laws were put in place to control it. America currently has the most LIBERAL immigration policy in the world. We accept more immigrants legally than ANY other country. What is wrong with having laws in place that manage that? Our borders have been open for years and while I have no objection to immigrants coming in legally, working/living here with the intent on becoming Americans, I do object to mass influx of individuals coming in with no notification, no criminal check, stealing other peoples identities and credit history, and getting millions of dollars of Health care and social services that they have no inti

So coolguy agrees with me that the system is broken and needs to be fix.

2005, Dr. Mark B. McClellan, administrator for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,said the agency has earmarked $1 billion for hospitals and doctors to provide emergency care to illegal immigrants. The money was allocated as part of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, which added a prescription drug plan to Medicare. The funding was requested from members of Congress from border states, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
California hospitals will get the most money of all states this fiscal year -- $70.8 million. Could this be tax paying money?
California hospitals provide an estimated $500 million a year in emergency care for illegal immigrants, according to the California Hospital Association.

About 8 million people are in the United States illegally, according to the 2005 U.S. census.

I was replying to certain comments in my previous post, but the comments I cited didn't show up. I commented about Jose, The Xenophic comment, free health care myth, and about how European immigrants were illegals in the past. In that order. I think. :)

"From the moment I stepped on American land, I started working as hard as I could so that I could pay my expenses in this country and in my own country," said Jose - I applaud his desire to succeed, but that 'my own country' comment pretty much says it all. He obviously considers this country just an opportunity to make money that he in turn sends back home. Time magazine had an excellent article on this a while ago on how much of the money illegal immigrants make to send back to Mexico. - But it IS a Law & Order issue. Seems like you just want to ignore that. It IS against the law to be here without going through the proper channels like all the other LEGAL immigrants are doing. - You are so wrong about that. THIS link shows what just ONE Florida hospital is dealing with in regards to cost

If there werent so many businesses here willing to take advantage of hired mercenaries (illegals), we wouldnt have a problem. These are not the first mercenaries with no ties to the US that have been here.

Foreign mercenaries were hired in every single battle fought on the US mainland to do jobs Americans/British/French/Spanish/Mexicans couldnt, or wouldnt do.

Hold the businesses responsible, not the illegals being forced here to take care of their families by garbage trade agreements (see NAFTA). If a business is caught with an illegal, the owners should be imprisoned, and have their business shut down permanatley and be restricted from ever operating a business again.

It is a MYTH that illegal immigrants get welfare or free health care.

To qualify for welfare, you must be a legal citizen in almost every state, and for federal assistance. It is certain a small number of illegals are able to forge documents or fall through the cracks, but the numbers of these are limited.

Second, illegals are only afforded the right to be STABILIZED at emergency room clinics. They are not afforded preventitive care, or follow up care, nor are they provided prescription medicine. Most illegals only will go to the hospital in absolute emergencies, and do not use it as a revolving door general practice as some would have you believe. Infact, the TOTAL cost to the hospitals is estimated at just $190 million dollars, and even less of that filters to the tax payers.

My condolences to the family that lost their daughter to a car accident. However, it shouldn't matter if the driver at fault was a citizen or not. Plenty of legal American citizens are at fault, daily, in deadly car accidents.
Also, many Americans of European descent, whose families have been here for sometime, are direct descendants of illegal immigrants, some who were criminals in their own country. Different strokes for different folks.

I am not xenophobic. We have immigration laws -- proper ways of entering the country. Of course tax money should not be paying for illegal social programs, education and such. I cannot believe that is even a question. I cannot understand calling something illegal but deciding ways to support the activity.