You are right about the dual benefit of a controlled border. It would not only cut down on the illegals but also drugs. Just think how putting a dent into those two problems would greatly enhance the quality of life here in America.

I don’t see the local level being patchwork. Every town can and will pass laws as it sees fit to take care of a particular issue. I see illegal immigration as being one of those issues. A town like Manassas may have a worse problem with illegal immigration then Erie PA does. Erie may decide to not pass any laws since they feel they may not have a problem. Yet, we know Manassas sure does.

Securing the border would be a good way to wage war against illegal drugs also. Just a thought.

I am not a single issue voter. But alas, I do have my litmus tests. My problem always ends up being narrowing the field to say 5 issues I consider important. It is darn hard to find a candidate who sees things my way on 5 issues.

I wonder how many people here are grossly disappointed in the performance of the candidate they voted for in the last presidential election? Until our borders are controlled, I see very little that can be done about any of our immigration problems. We cannot have uncontrolled immigration. Nor can we be a patchwork of local ordinances if we truly want to get a handle on the situation.

I guess I look at it from a couple of different ways. Just like the war against drugs, I believe the best way is to not only go after the drug dealer, but also the drug user.

You can do something about illegal immigration. Vote for elected officials who will pass bills and or ordinances that target illegals.

I believe that you and I just have a different focus. I am certainly not going to stand in the way of those who chose to focus on the issue of illegality. I personally just don’t see how I, sitting in Prince William County, have any real control of the immigration situation if that is my only focus.

What I can do, realistically, is monitor my own neighborhood for zoning and housing violations and network with those who know more than I do. Right now, that is pretty much the only power I have and that is darn little.

The ordinance is a starting point. I don’t expect it to be a magical panacea that cures all of our immigration woes. Until our national government listens to the will of the people and controls immigration, our national resources will continue to be drained, both for the short term and the long term.

I said illegals who overcrowd should not be able to do so, because it does put an unfair burden on others. Illegal is illegal, I don’t understand how and why some people are unable to grasp it. We have an estimated 250,000 illegals in the Commonwealth, that is a pretty sizable population. The fact hispanic groups are leading the protests seems to suggest most illegals are hispanic, but of course not every hispanic is illegal.

I don’t care if you and I do know how to spot an illegal or not, that is why the resolution or ordinance was done, so that immigration status can be checked, and help prevent illegals from receiving services they are not entitled too.

I am not in favor of single family homes being used for multiple families. However, there is a lot of that going on in the Prince William area that isn’t being done by hispanic folks. I suppose it is hard to find where to draw the line when discussing families. A mother and father living with a family? Not unusual. A single brother or sister living with a married brother? Not unusual. Young adults renting a house and sharing costs? Not unusual. A couple having 7-8 kids? A little more unusual but not unheard of. That family certainly is going to be using more than their fair share of house allocated resources. I had a family of 13 children living very close to me for about 15 years. Perhaps I am just immune. Not all 13 of the kids were at home, only 9 or 10. I lost count.

I am more concerned about single family homes are being converted into boarding houses/motels. This behavior clearly violates zoning laws and it brings an unhealthy atmosphere into neighborhoods. I don’t like bunches of unattached young men living in an area where my grandchildren are playing…for obvious reasons. Additionally, parking becomes a problem. In general, men who are unused to our community standards just have a tendency to create problems in general. If that is sexist…sorry. Just an observation….

As I have said on here many times, I am more concerned over behavior than I am over legal vs illegal. I have no way of verifying one’s immigration status for sure. I do have a way of verifying behavior I find unacceptable and I am far from being a stickler for good neighbor habits.

Dolph

If there are more than one family living in a single home, that home still only produces one tax bill. Yet, if there are children in each of the families living in the house that attend public school, they are using more in services then they are paying, since the home is only producing one tax bill, that is spread out among mutiple families.

We already talked about health care. What about fire and rescure? The police etc. Those are freely used by illegals. Yet, for those illegals that either live in overcrowded homes, or are being paid in cash, they are paying their full share of the costs.

I agree the Federal Government can do more and should. However, until that happens the State and Local Government must be able to do it.

Which programs specifically are you referring to? I need to know this before I answer.

You mentioned public schools so I will go forward with that one. Yes, I support public schools even though they have been severely impacted by immigration (legal vs illegal is not differentiated in schools) and the No Child Left Behind Act. I am not ready to suggest we do away with them because an illegal immigrant might get to attend. In fact, I support them attending because we don’t need another entire generation growing up totally illiterate.

The reality of the situation, as I see it, is that until the federal government ensures that our borders are secure, we will continue to have uncontrolled immigration. If we don’t have the manpower to accomplish securing our borders, then we need to pull every soldier out of Iraq and put them on our borders. Securing our homeland is the most important job of the federal government and the President has failed to do this.

Having an entire generation of illiterates is not my idea of doing away with costs.

Dolph

If you do not support illegal immigration, why do you support programs that end up supporting illegals? How many illegals who live in overcrowded homes send their kids to public schools? Well, guess who pays for that? How many illegals do not pay taxes, local or Federal? Yet, they are able to take advantage of programs that are funded by taxes.

Just because we have our own criminals and health care cheats, does not mean we need more from outside the Country.

Or is your comment just another one of those convenient general aspersions that those who can’t take a little heat for disagreements and/or my choice of other than their preferred Republican candidate like to lodge against me?

I can say with absolute assurance that I’ve (still) never attacked you publicly and personally the way that you’ve attacked me here.

We are paying for a lot of other people’s health care also. I do not see the abuses only in terms of legal vs illegal immigration.

Once an employer is no longer footing some of the bill for health care, one starts paying a great deal more attention to the true magnitude of the problem.

I agree that runaway, uncontrolled immigration is making a bad situation worse, but lets not pretend all was well before the latest wave hit.

The bottom line is, we are paying for it. We can pay for it in unrecovered debt being attached covertly to our premiums, we can pay for medicaid, or we can look at plans that include all people, rather than just some. It is a complex problem and there are no simple answers. I refuse to listen to sound bites from either end of the political spectrum. This issue is going to get worse.

If all we can reduce this discussion to is ‘dems support illegal aliens health care’ then we are truly in worse trouble than I thought.

Do you support illegal aliens? If not, why do you want to provide another incentitve for them to come here, and or stay here? Yes, we are paying for their health care in a round about way, but just think how much lower our health care would be if we did not allow them to suck of the system?

As long as we have a sizable portion of the population not paying for their own medical expenses, it is going to really run the bill up for those of us with insurance. Last year, Potomac Hospital and Prince William Hospital had to eat $50 million dollars in bad debt. Guess who will ultimately pay that price?

When we have schips for kids, medicaid for the poor, medicare for seniors, and $50 million in bad hospital debt locally, I am wondering why *I* am shelling out the big bucks for my coverage.

Perhaps it is time to stop looking at national health care as ’socialized medicine.’ We already have it for a large percent of the population. I am about ready to be included in the count. Why should *I* be shelling out $500 bucks a month.