Latino Issues, A Conservative Blog

The Townhall.com blogging community seems to be in a celebratory mood . My boss reports on the vote and has the count .

It's just as well. Like I said before, I wasn't sure about the Bill. I suspect for most Democrats, this is simply a vote for the status quo. Let's hope they can take some effort to get some border security. Here is the story from the Hill. The comprehensive immigration reform bill that has dodged attacks from the left and right for weeks, survived “poison pill” amendments, and was once pulled from the Senate schedule failed its most important test Thursday. Passage of the legislation now appears unlikely.

I have consistently said for a long time that the border needs to be secured before any other "comprehensive" aspect of dealing with the issue of illegal immigration is addressed. Now, I don't mind border security being dealt with in combination with other aspects of the immigration bill. I don't know enough about the current bill being debated to endorse or stand against it, so I won't. But having that said, if this is true , then I would have to stand against it. But the business of securing our borders isn't just an issue of law and order for House Republicans - it's a matter of national security. Unfortunately, in looking for partners to work with across the aisle, Republicans have found a majority party convinced that less is more when it comes to border security - consistently voting to defer or delay the construction of hundreds of miles of security barriers along our southern border. I'm ok if the barrier includes the use of drones, cameras, a...

Reagan has it right on this -- get tough on Mexico and put a stop to the corruption ! I have been saying this for years now. Why is this concept so foreign? Saner minds, more concerned with the almost-total collapse of border security than with the longstanding issue of the 12, 15 or 20 million illegals now here, caution that we had best solve the problem of our all-but-open southern borders before even thinking about dealing with those illegals now here. Stopping more of them adding to their numbers is the first priority. Instead of signing onto Teddy Kennedy’s bill and attacking the majority of Americans who demand that our borders be secured, George Bush should be attacking the problem where its roots lie – in Mexico. Mr. Bush needs to hold Mexico responsible for all of these people sneaking across the border, and I’d be one of them if I were a citizen of a country run by corrupt government officials who are more dictatorial drug lords than public servants. The only way to clean u...

For those of you trying to stay on top of this important issue, here is a collection of headlines and summaries for news stories on immigration (Via the Center for Immigration Studies). This is for information purposes only, not necessarily an endorsements of the positions advocated. My intent is to educate on the issue from multiple perspectives. Only then can we have a reasonable and educated discussion. Employment Down Among Natives in Georgia As Immigrant Workers Increased, Native Employment Declined in Georgia By Steven Camarota Center for Immigration Studies Announcement, June 21, 2007 http://www.cis.org/articles/2007/georgiarelease.html http://www.cis.org/articles/2007/georgiarelease.pdf (pdf) EXCERPT: Some businesses in Georgia argue that they need large numbers of immigrants because there are not enough native-born Americans to fill jobs that require relatively little education. However, state employment data show that as the number of less-educated immigrant work...

According to the Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward P. Lazear, "immigrants not only help fuel the Nation's economic growth, but also have an overall positive effect on the income of native-born workers." They have a full report in PDF available over at the White House web site . You can download the PDF right here . Here is a summary: Introduction In 2006, foreign-born workers accounted for 15% of the U.S. labor force, and over the last decade they have accounted for about half of the growth in the labor force. That immigration has fueled U.S. macroeconomic growth is both uncontroversial and unsurprising – more total workers yield more total output. That immigrant workers benefit from working in the United States is also uncontroversial and unsurprising – few would come here otherwise.1 Assessing how immigration affects the well-being of U.S. natives is more complicated. This is because immigration’s economic impact is complex and may play out over generations, ...