The Associated Press

Several new bills in the Senate would require much more of this.

Featured Topic | Posted 17 weeks 16 hours ago

Should illegal immigrants go to prison?

A group of Republican Senators led by Jeff Sessions of Alabama introduced 15 bills this week aimed at toughening immigration enforcement. Sessions' bill would require mandatory prison sentences for immigrants convicted of illegally entering the country. Another piece of legislation would sanction countries that refuse to take their citizens back when U.S. immigration officials deport them.

"It is important that we send the message to the world that America is enforcing the rule of law," Sessions said.

Does the United States need stronger measures to discourage illegal immigration? And what should the U.S. do with more than 12 million people in the country illegally?

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Ben likes: Conservative Senate Republicans get serious

Michelle Malkin

I heard from a Senate source a few days ago about two very promising initiatives from conservative Senate Republicans committed to comprehensive immigration enforcement. Not shamnesty. I repeat: Comprehensive immigration enforcement reform. This is good policy. Smart politics. And it’s about damned time.

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Joel likes: Too tough on illegal immigration

Los Angeles Times

That illegal immigrants living in the United States place an economic burden on schools, hospitals, prisons and other public services is undeniable, but it's also true that they contribute to our economy and our society in myriad ways. Bullying them into leaving is counterproductive and downright mean. It's also shortsighted. Many immigrant families are blended, made up of legal immigrants, illegal ones and U.S.-born citizens. Harsh laws and deportations may satisfy the popular hunger for instantaneous immigration reform, but the result will be a legacy of anguish and resentment among millions of people who aren't going anywhere.

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Where do you stand on this issue?

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Thoughts

this what you guys are saying is WRONG!

Submitted on May 13th, 2008 by Anonymous

immigrants come here to the U.S. to better themselves. today Americans say that they are taking their jobs but they aren't they are just to ignorant to share. look at all the Americans today they are supported in welfare, they can get up and work. immigrants that come here and work hard. Then when they go back to their home country to support their families. So their intentions are good!

illegal immigration

Submitted on May 1st, 2008 by Anonymous

the employees should go to jail. if they know they are hiring illegals. the employee should be responsible for checking each person. if you crack down on the employee the illegals will go home thereselves. the american will not have to pay a dime. stop all illegal welfare.

Should illegal immigrants go to prison

Submitted on April 27th, 2008 by Anonymous

Send them home back where ever they came from. American workers need jobs. I'm tired of my taxes paying welfare for these people.

Ridiculous insensitivity and skewing of issues...

Submitted on March 8th, 2008 by Anonymous

The last thing we need to do is add more to our prison population. If anything, though I am not quite in support of this, we should simply send them back, keeping them here gives them the chance to escape if anything. You people always complain they are a blight on our economy well, paying for them to stay alive in prison is not going to help.
I believe we should unite the United States with Canada and Mexico, under different terms than the EU, to aid our economies and gradually dissolve racial tensions. We should be learning French and Spanish in doses, not as a requirement, but as an act of respect to the members of this great Continent.

Yes, let’s cram illegal

Submitted on March 7th, 2008 by Civilian

Yes, let’s cram illegal immigrants into our overcrowded jails next to the drug users, prostitutes and other social pariahs that shouldn’t be locked up, that’s a sensible solution. This suggestion is an example of reactionary politics at its finest. That’s our solution to everything, to throw it in prison, or in some cases to kill it. This approach toward crime prevention, which Reagan and his iron fisted cronies adopted, has been an appalling failure; so why would we want to perpetuate it? I believe in comprehensive immigration reform, but reason and compassion, rather than ardor and wrath, should be the policy’s cornerstones . It’s time we realize that these are human beings, and that they deserve to be treated with respect. The violent raids that have been conducted against these unfortunate people remind me of the round up scene at the beginning of Planet of the Apes. Such draconian measures have no place in a civilized society, especially one that prides itself on defending the rights and dignity of individuals. An increasing number of these people are coming from countries such as Honduras and Guatemala, and they brave starvation, inclement weather, deadly trains, and roving bands of gun toting outlaws to get here. I guess it’s easy to dehumanize them by forgetting that they have the same hopes, dreams, fears and anxieties as the rest of us. Every human being has a right to safety and satiety, period. How will we achieve that? That’s the question.

Not part of our prison problem

Submitted on March 7th, 2008 by Joel

I refer you to the TIME article linked above:

Despite our melting-pot roots, Americans have often been quick to blame the influx of immigrants for rising crime rates. But new research released Monday shows that immigrants in California are, in fact, far less likely than U.S.-born Californians are to commit crime. While people born abroad make up about 35% of California's adult population, they account for only about 17% of the adult prison population, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) showed. Indeed, among men ages 18 to 40 — the demographic most likely to be imprisoned — those born in the U.S. were 10 times more likely than foreign-born men to be incarcerated.

"From a public safety standpoint, there would be little reason to limit immigration," says Kristin Butcher, an economics professor at Wellesley College and one of the report's authors.

Part of our prison problem

Submitted on March 7th, 2008 by oldgoat

Part of our prison problem is because of illegals that commit crime. I would go for sanctions against countries that won't take their illegals back and also that don't enforce their own borders to keep them from getting here. If they are blended families then yes that is a problem, but one that the illegals created for themselves. What happened to the stories about them coming here to get jobs to help their families back home. In that case it is sympathy for wanting to go to another country illegally, but when it is the other way we are suppose to have sypmathy for them having to leave their family here. Kind of wanting it both ways. For those that we deport we can start letting people in that have been waiting legally to get here. Maybe businesses will actually have to obey the laws that some of the other businesses do and pay a wage that is worth the job. Businesses have in many cases become dependent on illegal labor and the artificial low wages.

We Already Have Enough People Serving Time For Silly Crime

Submitted on March 6th, 2008 by Chuck_Johnson

Right, because we don't already have enough people serving time for ridiculous crimes, like say, smoking marijuana?

The real question is how can we best promote the best features of the U.S. -- property rights and economic liberty --
in the rest of the world. It's a problem, to be sure, but the solution is greater economic liberty, not prisons for those who fight to work.

Chuck Johnson is a student at Claremont McKenna College. Feel free to contact him.