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Living on the Border -

S-Comm, Illegal immigration, deportations and continued ignorance?

by on Aug. 12, 2011, under Border Issues, Uncategorized

Young man at the border fence attempting to return to his family. Photo by Karl W Hoffman

The Obama administration has already deported more than 1 MILLION people.

So I went to the border, not just a border crossing but the border between America and Mexico deep in the Sonoran Desert to personally ask an illegal border crosser, why?

The answer I got;  This young man said he had been working in a restaurant in Illinois. He has been in the US for over 15 years, originally coming across as a child with his parents. Juan (not his real name) has a wife and children he is supporting. He was stopped for a tail light out and arrested for being in this country illegally. Juan spent the next few months in a detention facility and then was transported to Arizona and deported at Nogales.  His entire family had to contribute to raising the $2,000 it would take to pay for the Coyote to get him back into the US plus travel expenses.

Separate the issues of drugs and criminal actions, forget your party or your stand on border security and immigration and lets look at this from a purely logical and objective viewpoint.  Lets forget that Juan is here illegally and how and why he got or came here and whither or not he should be here. It is a case of human nature and the bonds we adhere to.  Just the fact that a man or women is separated from his or her family and transported several thousand miles away in another country does not mean he or she will not return to his or her family.  This is who we are as people! Holocaust victims have spent their entire lives searching for their lost loved ones. Every one of us would do the same thing.

Taxpayers are going to pay for a public defender and the prosecution, plus the court costs, inflated incarceration fees, transportation and deportation, then of course for the family to go on welfare. The icing on this cake is that the Cartels laugh all the way to the bank with the family’s savings. So is deportation a great idea?

Even if one has no compassion for families being torn apart or the immense financial burden on U.S taxpayers, how hard is it to see some simple solutions that even a politician could understand?  Secure the Border by any and all means, and then repair the country through comprehensive immigration reform by whatever the citizens of the U.S deem to be fair and compassionate. I do have great faith in the humanitarian and civil rights directions that our country eventually takes but immigration reform will not happen over night.

There should be plenty of fodder for liberals, humanitarians and open border activist to keep them busy away from the border, anti government types can sign up for voluntary deportation, the Sierra Club has enough to do in their own back yard, and No More Deaths can concentrate on their Middle East projects, conservatives can quit worrying about the foreign invasion and the high cost of ammo, and the minutemen can go home and drink beer knowing they helped defend our country.  Did I leave anyone out? Oh yea, Russell Pierce and Raul Grijalva can please just fade away and empty the prison space can be used for a new reality show “Break Out.”

 

Karl W Hoffman

Documentary Film Producer

Freelance Photojournalist

Multimedia Reporter

Reporting from the field not the desk

For information on photography exhibits and prints, lectures, interviews, photo usage, border tours and to order the documentary on DVD and view Living on the Border documentary trailer please visit: www.skullcreekmedia.com

 

 

 


This entry was posted on Friday, August 12th, 2011 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Border Issues, Uncategorized. Tags for this post: , , , , , , , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • http://TUCSONCITIZEN THOMAS D WILSON

    GET REAL BECAUSE YOU MAKE A LIVING WRITING THIS KIND OF TEAR JERKING STORY THE ISSUE IS HE HERE ILLEGAL STOP YOUR SELF SERVING WRITING AND TRY GETTING A JOB WHERE YOU NEED TO WORK

    • http://www.livingontheborder.com Karl W Hoffman

      Ahaaa, The first comment and the lion has reared it’s nobel head in ignorance. Frankly, I am surprised by your english that you could even read the article.

      Let the Games begin! LOL

      • Puzzled

        @ Mr. Hoffman, insulting another’s English writing ability and highlighting his/her typing errors does not further or strengthen your argument.  It just shows your poor manners and that you use your poor manners to argue rather than use facts and logic.  However, I do acknowledge that Mr. Wilson should not be attacking your choice of professional vocation .

        • Loaner

          karl writes:
          “Lets forget that Juan is here illegally and how and why he got or came here and WEATHER or not he should be here.”
          And then rags on a commenter about ignorance?
          So, karl…did you OVERRIDE your spellchecker to use “weather” when you meant “whether”?  Or does weather have a connection to your argument?
          WINDBAG……..
          Watch for edits…

        • http://www.livingontheborder.com Karl W Hoffman

          I didn’t see any facts or logic, only ignorance and hate  in his castigation.

    • Larry

      I cannot believe that Secure Communities is controversial.  It is the only program Obama has championed that I like.  If someone is arrested, they are automatically run through the federal database to see if he is wanted somewhere else.  It makes perfect sense to see if that person is an illegal alien.  If he is, then, yes, deport him.  After all, he was guilty of illegal presence AND whatever crime that landed him in jail.  No brainer, not controversial.

  • hacimo

    Oh Boo hoo hoo. You are making me all teary. I hear there are some soap operas that need writers.

    • http://www.livingontheborder.com Karl W Hoffman

      I’ll gladly write you a part.  You can be the dog chained up in the back yard.

  • Pedro A.

    If there wasn’t a process for people to come to this country legally, I would understand and even simpathize with illegal aliens, but the fact is entirely different.  There is a process, it is long, tedious and sacrificial but there is one, and I’m an example of it, and about 1 million new LEGAL IMMIGRANTS enter this blessed nation, every single year.  BUT THE ILEGAL ALIENS feel that the process is too hard or too sacrificial for them, so they make the decision to break the laws in order to accomodate his needs or ambitions. Then they have 4,5 and even 6 children in the U.S.  and then complaint that they are been separated from their families.  HOW IS THAT OUR RESPONSABILITIES?…. This is not about feeling pity but about receiving consequences.   HOW ABOUT DOING THINGS IN ACCORDANCE TO THE LAW?  … This is why i truly hope, congress will clarify the fact that children of illegal aliens are not American Citizens, so when they leave the country, they would also take their children with them, and there it would be.  no one would be able to complaint that they are been separated from their families….

    • http://www.livingontheborder.com Karl W Hoffman

      Well Pedro, your reasoning is valid, but the point I was trying to make is that the expense of incarceation and deportation only to have that person return is a costly solution that does not work.

      • Puzzled

        That person then committed a felony and will probably face jail time and then be deported again.  It is costly cycle for both parties, but this reality does suffice to argue against enforcing the laws.

  • usmctrucker

    Pedro should go on the lecture circuit.  He’s just like my in-laws.  They could make a movie out of their sacrifice and nobody would believe it, but real people do it all the time.  They are the ones who should be congradulated; not those, who by their very presence, demean the honor and validation that guys like him have earned.  In my opinion, the deportation of illegal immigrants is like mining uranium: it costs what it costs and we’re better off for having it. 

  • Archie Bunker

    Thomas, you only show your IGNORANT HATE.
     
    http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/immigration-court-troubled-system-899690.html

    The Fact is that there is NO SUCH WORD AS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN BLACKS LAW DICTIONARY. I Bet you did not even know that there is a LAW DICTIONARY :)

    Now to Facts, When a person enters without passing border control, they are called E,W,I. Entry Without inspection, This is a MISDEMEANOR and is tried in civil court, IT IS NOT I REPEAT, NOT A FEDERAL CRIME.

    When a person overstays their visa, its called O,O,S. OUT OF STATUS, which is a MISDEMEANOR and tried in Civil Court, Its not a FEDERAL CRIME.

    In 2003 the Republicans and Sesenbrenner tried to change Immigration Laws of the above and make it a FEDERAL CRIME. The BILL DID NOT PASS.

    In 2007 the day The Republicans killed the Immigration Bill, our Nation Started its DECENT. THINK ABOUT IT for a moment. ALMIGHTY GOD DID NOT CREATE ILLEGAL HUMANS, ALMIGHTY GOD CREATED ONE RACE THE HUMAN RACE.
    THOSE WHO HATE OTHERS ARE FILLED WITH HATE AND THEY BETTER HAVE A GREAT ANSWER WHEN THEY’LL BE ASKED BY ALMIGHTY GOD, WHY DID YOU HATE MY OTHER CHILDREN????????

    I AM NOT SAYING DON’T CONTROL THE BORDERS, I AM SAYING STOP THE FOOLISH IGNORANT USELESS HATE IT WILL ONLY CONSUME THE PERSON THAT HATES. GOD BLESS YOU, YOURS AND AMERICA.

  • Archie Bunker

    THE UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS ARE PAYING MORE TAXES THAN YOU THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    IMMIGRANTS AND TAXES:
    Q: “Is it true that illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes and drain our economy?”
    A: As Ben Franklin said, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Like the rest of us, unauthorized immigrants pay taxes on their property and anything they buy. More than half of them have taxes taken out of their paychecks, but because our immigration system is dysfunctional, these taxes are paid under false Social Security numbers. We need a new regimen in which we know who is paying taxes and can ensure that no one is getting a free ride. The only way to do that is to pull unauthorized immigrants out of the shadows and get them on the right side of the law.
    Three state-level studies have found that unauthorized immigrants pay more in taxes than they use in benefits. In Iowa, unauthorized immigrants pay an estimated $40 to $62 million in state taxes, while they and their employers contribute an additional $50 million to $77.8 million in federal, Social Security, and Medicare taxes from which they will never benefit. In Oregon, unauthorized immigrants—who are not eligible for any state benefits—pay between $134 million and $187 million in taxes each year. Finally, in Texas, the State Comptroller found that, without unauthorized residents, the gross state product in 2005 would have been $17.7 billion less. 

    THE BOTTOM LINE: Undocumented immigrants are an important component of the U.S. economy. They meet the labor demand in sectors in which they do not directly compete with U.S.-born workers. The great majority of migrant workers are taxpaying, hardworking, and law-abiding people who are integrating into U.S. society.

    The economics of immigration, Stephen C. Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration and someone who enjoys bipartisan support for his straightforwardness, said that by 2007, the Social Security trust fund had received a net benefit of somewhere between $120 billion and $240 billion from unauthorized immigrants.
    That represented an astounding 5.4 percent to 10.7 percent of the trust fund’s total assets of $2.24 trillion that year. The cumulative contribution is surely higher now. Unauthorized immigrants paid a net contribution of $12 billion in 2007 alone, Goss said.

    Previous estimates circulating publicly and in Congress had placed the annual contributions at roughly half of Goss’s 2007 figure and listed the cumulative benefit on the order of $50 billion.

    The Social Security trust fund faces a solvency crisis that would be even more pressing were it not for these payments.
    Adding to the Social Security irony is that the restrictionists are mostly OLDER AND RETIRED WHITES  from longtime American families. The very people, in other words, who benefit most from the Social Security payments by unauthorized immigrants.

    Comprehensive Immigration Reform Would Boost the Economy & Help ALL American Workers:  As opposed to the mass deportation, enforcement-only approach, addressing and fixing the immigration system in a wholesale manner will be a boon to the U.S. economy and all U.S. workers.  That is why both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win created The Labor Movement’s Joint Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  Dr. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda conducted a 2010 report for the Center for American Progress and the Immigration Policy Center that found that “Unlike the current enforcement-only strategy, comprehensive reform would raise the ‘wage floor’ for the entire U.S. economy—to the benefit of both immigrant and native-born workers.”  According to the study, granting legal status to undocumented immigrants and creating flexible legal limits on future immigration flows would generate enough consumer-spending to support 750,000-900,000 jobs.  The report also found that the mass deportation approach would reduce GDP by 1.46 percent annually, amounting to a loss of $2.6 trillion over 10 years.

    • Loaner

      awcheeeeeeeeee!  awcheeeeeeeeee!
      Is your clipboard full of copy and paste yet?
      http://tinyurl.com/44tt8v4

      http://tinyurl.com/3wzpbb9
      Do you have any ideas of your own?
      I can counter most of your drivel any time I choose.
      The FALLACY of the IA forfeiting withheld income taxes is pure BS.
      Find an Employer’s Tax Guide.
      Have someone read it to you.
      See what must be claimed on a W-4 at the wages IAs work for to eliminate withholding of income taxes.
      Get back to me.
       

  • Archie Bunker

    UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT CRIMINALS. Its a Civil Matter.

    The whole thing is perplexing to people who don’t understand that being an illegal immigrant in and of itself is not a crime. The most pervasive comments made in news stories about Secure Communities go a little like this: “Illegal immigrants are what they’re called — they’re considered criminals by mere definition. Illegals who broke a bunch of laws to enter and live here should be subjected to immediate arrest and deportation — that’s fair for everyone.”

    That’s not accurate, but a lot of people have that same misunderstanding — even law enforcement professionals.

    During a teleconference last month on the troubles that Secure Communities is bringing to local law enforcement agencies, a few sheriffs on the call commiserated about their misunderstanding of immigration violations.

    “I was always told it was a felony federal violation of law and was always under the impression that turning over any illegal immigrants (to ICE) was mandated by federal law — and so did my employees,” said Sheriff Ed Prieto of Yolo County, Calif. “But after we met with the Mexican consulate in Sacramento we learned it’s not. Then I started looking into how many of our people are being deported before trial and I became very uncomfortable contacting ICE for nonviolent offenders.”

    Kane County, Ill., Sheriff Patrick Perez said that “90 percent of law enforcement officers believe (just being an illegal immigrant) is a crime, but I learned after talking to an immigration judge that it is just a civil offense.”

    Sara Dill, a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration and a member of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Council, explained it to me this way: “States are seeking to criminalize what is only a civil violation in federal law.” Dill said that failing to get a permit for home construction is one example of a civil, not criminal, violation. “Putting illegal immigrants in a criminal context confuses merely being present in the United States without authorization with crimes such as falsely claiming citizenship or identity theft, which are crimes under federal law.”

    Everyone knows that of the universe of illegal immigrants, some have committed nonviolent and violent crimes — and everyone believes these should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

    But believers of following “the letter of the law” cannot continue equating all illegal immigrants living in this country with criminals, who have plenty of civil rights of their own. That’s not the American way.

    ——- http://www.usdebtclock.org/
    Immigration reform would generate $4.5 to $5.4 billion in additional net tax revenue over three years,” the letter says. “The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office scored the bi-partisan 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill that was proposed in the Senate as increasing federal revenues by $15 billion over the 2008-2012 period and by $48 billion over the 2008-2017 period.”

    Studies from groups across the political spectrum have proven the economic and fiscal benefits of comprehensive immigration reform. By requiring illegal immigrants to register with the government, pay fees and back taxes, and correct their status, we can drastically expand our tax base. A report by the Center for American Progress found that passing comprehensive immigration reform would generate $4.5 to $5.4 billion in additional net tax revenue over three years. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office scored the bi-partisan 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill that was proposed in the Senate as increasing federal revenues by $15 billion over the 2008-2012 period and by $48 billion over the 2008-2017 period.

    In addition to expanding our tax base, economists have proven that comprehensive immigration reform would also increase wages for native workers, thereby boosting tax revenues generated by all workers. The CATO Institute found that forcing undocumented immigrants to get right with the law by registering with the government would boost the incomes of U.S. households by $180 billion in 2019, which would also lead to increased government revenues, without increasing tax rates.

    Just like our budget deficit, immigration reform is an issue that we cannot afford to ignore. Bipartisan proposals that are tough, fair, and practical have garnered support from across the ideological spectrum in Congress, as well as from President Bush and the current administration. Comprehensive immigration reform would clearly help us reduce our deficit and debt, and would do so without raising tax rates.

  • Puzzled

    Yes, I agree let’s get logical.

    I have compassion for U.S. citizens/legal residents/legal immigrants and their families not being able to put food on the table because of unemployment.  I have compassion for U.S. families/legal residents/legal immigrants not having access to social services and healthcare because government debt forced budget reduction and cutting the funding of these programs.  However, illegal immigrants receive medical care for free.  How about some compassion for these families?!

    If amnesty were provided, the drain and pressure on the budgets in the short-term and long-term would be crushing.  It would destroy the quality of life for legal residents and U.S. citizens for generations to come.  That is reckless.

    It is true that illegal immigrants pay into the social security system by falsely and illegally using a stolen social security number (identity theft effectively).  These contributions help keep social security barely solvent.  If illegal immigrants were added to the system, the system would crash and no longer be solvent very quickly.  Fact.

  • wigglwagon

    “Just the fact that a man or women is separated from his or her family and transported several thousand miles away in another country does not mean he or she will not return to his or her family.”

    “Secure the Border by any and all means, and then repair the country through comprehensive immigration reform by whatever the citizens of the U.S deem to be fair and compassionate.”

    This is just more of the same old propaganda from the pro illegal immigration proponents.  First, they claim deportation does no good because you can’t really secure a border.  In the next breath, they say we should secure the border and give amnesty to those illegals who are already here.  We heard all of that from Reagan when we did the first amnesty.  It is time to either enforce immigration law or abolish it.     

    Why does this article totally ignore the 30 million already looking for work in America?  The author says we should be “fair and compassionate.”  Any solution that is fair and compassionate will have to put the legal residents back to work.   The bottom line is that ‘Juan’ should have taken his family with him when he was deported. 

  • hacimo

    Give it up. There is zero tolerance for the illegal scum and their ill begotten spawn! You democrats are going down big time in the next election. You have shown yourselves to be incapable of impartial and strict enforcement of the laws. The president has violated his oath of office! He is allowing our country to be overrun by invaders and does nothing. The people are going to teach him and his beloved illegals a hard lesson.

  • Delaware Bob

    If you are in this country ILLEGALLY, you have NO RIGHT to be here.  If you had a right to be here, you wouldn’t be here illegally, would you?  Who pays for all the anchor babies (illegal alien children), the schooling of these children and the FREE health care?  Who pays for this?  The one who is here ILLEGALLY?  Do you know how many anchor babies were born here in the last 18-20 years?  An estimated 4.2 million.  Wonder why our schools are overcrowded, our hospitals overwhelmed, and our economy in such terrible shape.  These people who say the illegal aliens pay taxes.  So would the Americans if they had the jobs.

    We have immigration laws and allow an estimated million or so to come to our country LEGALLY, yet we have these ILLEGAL ALIENS who snub their nose at our laws and think America owes them.  America owes them NOTHING!       

    If you want to come to this counrty, good.  Do it LEGALLY!  It’s easy, just apply and wait.  How easy is that?

  • Steve Johnson

    Motives of Illegal aliens May 8, 2008, USA Today reports 300,000 children, some as young as 5 years old are doing farm jobs on Mexican farms in violation of their child labor laws. They are just doing jobs Mexican adults won’t do. It’s low paying. Looks like the adults want to make more money, so they steal across the border, undercut American workers and still make more money than back home. The greedy, criminal employer makes a lot more money.

    Victims: 300,000 children south of the border; American workers that have lost $billions in reduced wages; 15 million Americans that have lost jobs, cars, homes; 10,000 Americans murdered and killed in DUIs; 100,000 Americans raped and molested; millions of Americans that have been robbed and assaulted, 100s of millions of Americans paying taxes for the new Welfare Queens and their ‘dependents’, welfare, education and medical costs of millions of felon illegal aliens from every country in the world. The 1986 amnesty from deportation was a total failure. Never again!

    • http://www.livingontheborder.com Karl W Hoffman

      SECURE THE BORDER

  • hacimo

    Go back to Europe if you don’t like  how we run things here. You are ungrateful scum.

  • leftfield

    I’m curious to know, if the border could theoretically be hermetically sealed tomorrow and everyone here without the proper documentation were to disappear, who would you then decide to hate?  Who would you next decide was responsible for your anger?  

    Do you think that the Holocaust started out fully engaged in mass killing?  No, it started out with the same kind of scapegoating and language we see right here on these pages.  The same kind of vilification that took place in Germany in the 30′s is what is happening right here; promoted by the same sort of people.   

    • Fraser007

      Who the hell is talking about the Holocaust? Are we going to kill all of the mexican illegal aliens? Foolish talk even from you. “Same sort of people”….People like you get us to the position where we have allowed the 12 million illegals here. Ohhhpoor illegals? What a load of crap. Ohhhh there will be  a Holocaust…..Crap.

  • Ted

    If we could magically seal the border and everyone here without proper documentation were to disappear, you’d see a lot of happy Americans, not people looking for someone new to hate. You’d also see, in Southern California, anyway, a lot of traffic congestion clearing up, less crowded classrooms, and emergency rooms without 6+ hour waits, to mention but three positive aspects of this utopian world you speak of where illegal immigration was not the problem that it is. This notion that those of us against illegal immigration “need” someone to hate is utterly ridiculous, short-sighted and juvenile. I’m sick of illegal immigration because I personally experience its effects every single day here in Southern California.

  • Kathleen

    It matters not whether it is Juan, Veejay, Mohammad, or Sean entering our country without proper documentation.  It is strictly a matter of legal or illegal.
    We have seen the results of lawlessness due to ignoring illegal aliens both in France and in England and any law-abiding, patriotic American should do every and anything they can to prevent it from happening here.
    Start by purging our country of the 30+ million illegal aliens now in our country, followed by a simultaneous sealing of the border.  Follow this up by recalling and/or impeaching any and every elected or appointed official who aids and abets illegal aliens.  We refer to this as restoring law and order.

  • Eva

     I liked the articule, I believe it stated very well what happens and what could happen, the government (taxpayers) will spend 1,000′s to deport them and they (illegals) will spend 1,000′s to get back, the government will make money if they pass some type of immigration reform and just to add something personal …..its a good thing the american indians didn’t ask the people on the mayflower for thier papers because… gosh wouldn’t it be a different world today!! They had compassion for the white man and look what they did for them….nearly extinct, the people, the culture, thier language……maybe they should of asked for thier papers, maybe they should have said stop right there go back home fill out the proper paperwork and we will get back to you in a few years and let you know whether or not you can enter..we don’t care if you have no food, or way to support yourselfs in your own country, go back and wait for our decision. Illegals come here to take care of thier families and it is a last choice, the road here to our beautiful country is not paved with gold……they take a chance of dying from the elements or being robbed and killed by the people that are supposed to be helping them get here.  Can anyone who dislikes the illegals say that they would not do the same if they were in the same situation…..what would you do to take care of  your family, what laws would you break to provide for your family? I know I would do the same as them…..I would do anything to make sure my children are taken care of.

  • aikanae

    The amount of hate precluding any excuse for rational thought is surreal. No one can have a debate on the issues with such thinking. How much did it cost to deport that one illegal for a traffic violation – does that waste really make our country better, more profitable, sound, or just? Illegal’s that have been in the U.S. since childhood are in a no-man’s no-win war, without a country. They aren’t ‘from Mexico’ any longer. They aren’t U.S. citizens either. “The path” to nationalize in the U.S. isn’t easy – they can get a degree and or serve in active duty in U.S. military and still not be eligible for “the path”. 
    Who in the U.S. isn’t from immigrant stock? 2 of my 4 grandparents came into the U.S. illegally. 1 of my ex’s parents was a stow-away when he was 13. He raised 5 children, owned and operated a successful contracting firm and never became nationalized. His retirement wasn’t funded by social security because of his status. He was also european, just like my grandparents – it wasn’t obvious they were ‘illegal’. 
    Follow the money. Who benefits from this war? The private prisions have had an enormous impact on state lobbyists, legislature and fully back the campaign against Mexican illegals (including SB1070).
     

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