Comments on: America’s Porous Borders

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:35:40 +0000

The pathetic things about every response so far is that,

1. They are (with one exception and he/she should know better) commenters who haven't been in other discussions here on border security.
2. They seem totally oblivious to the fact that it is the other side that uses the strawman arguments.

Take bains for example, did he bother to read the footnote that explained my sarcastic opening comment? No. As such he is a fool for not considering the actual logic of my position.

Same with Boyd, and BJ Feng is somebody who appears to favor central planning at least at some level. Sorry, but you guys all fit right into the typical anti-immigration crowd for the most part. Fueled mostly by emotion and unable to deal with the logic.

By: For President » Links for 2007-06-10 [del.icio.us]

For President » Links for 2007-06-10 [del.icio.us] — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 06:07:28 +0000

[...] America’s Porous Borders » Outside The Beltway | OTB [...]

By: Boyd

Boyd — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:42:35 +0000

Yes, Steve, accusing your opponents in the debate of holding positions they don't hold and using contemptible tactics that they don't use certainly justifies you using those same contemptible tactics. Okay, you're right, some do what you accuse them of, but "nyah nyah-nyah, you did it too" is hardly a justification for ad hominem and mischaracterization of your opponents' position. Way to advance the debate. Good job.

By: bains

bains — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 14:28:34 +0000

The common refrain from the anti-immigration crowd1 is that the American border is porous, that is it is like a sieve and just about anybody can trot across the border and go steal a low skill job from a God-fearing, patriotic American.

Nice job building a straw-man. Whether or not you were being fatuous I do not know because that is all I read and all I am going to read - sermons to the choir dont interest me much.

By: just me

just me — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:27:46 +0000

I pretty much agree with BJ.

You have essentially lumped a large number of people into a view that don't hold it.

I am all for raising the number of legal immigrants permitted in the US each year substantially.

I just think it is poor policy to turn a blind eye to people coming here illegally and various businesses employing them knowingly.

Assimilation into American culture is an important component of immigration-and having huge pockets of unassimilated illegals don't do much to benefit the country.

By: BJ Feng

BJ Feng — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:14:48 +0000

I think your assumptions regarding the "anti-illegal-immigration crowd" are completely wrong. Most, myself included, have no problem increasing legal immigration significantly as we can choose the skill set of legal immigrants and they would not be uniformly poor as the illegal immigrants are now. One of the main problems the "anti-illegal crowd" has is the strain on public resources. That problem would be greatly reduced with legal immigration. The second problem is with the lack of assimilation. With legal immigration, the diverse mix of cultures and races from all around the world would prevent the formation of large unassimiliated monolithic communities, thus making assimilation easier. Given the positives of legal immigration, I see no reason for allowing illegal immigration which has fewer positives and more negatives. Those who support illegal immigration must come up with a convincing reason why we should continue allowing illegal immigration to continue. So far, they have not been able to do so.