Steve_

Mmm, and people who quote this section generally have never bothered to read it, read a bit further, i.e. 8 USC 1325(b). Civil penalty not exceeding $250 in many cases. So yes illegal but not criminal.

Steve_

So that implies more visas available to people in third and fourth preference family-based immigration and also EB-3 unskilled worker.

Because it won't happen in ten years without more people being allowed in.

Unless of course they just scrap it and refund the application fees, but to do that to allow regularization of illegal aliens seems unlikely.

LinkTen

Still no sign of a bill after members of Congress could not resolve outstanding differences (supposedly to do with wages) last week. Obama put pressure on Congress today to introduce a bill in April, once they return from Easter break.

April shall be an interesting month for immigration reform.

KCK_DR

Arizona will be hit hard by the politics it chose. For some time now it is becoming "God's waiting room," full of old "white" people from the Midwest and California.

Now Intel is looking for engineers and guess what ...

It is hard to attract "dark" looking people in a place where a religious fanatic of a state senator decided to push for "Attrition through enforcement." The problem with that logic is that the attrition also happens to the legal immigrants and to U.S. born Americans.

It is not an economic issue for Arizona, it is a racial issue.

KK

scrubbedexpat099

Never been to Arizona but I am going to guess you can easily get a tan.

KCK_DR

You don't know the half of it!!!!

The best was flying in and out. The only time I was not everyone's "unwanted-looking person" du jour was when I flew to San Jose ... everyone on the plane looked like me

I lived in AZ for about 25 years, what a great people and place to live ... last four years things changed, I had to move, I left the place in terror about four months ago.

KK

Steve_

I think the lower taxes in Arizona though will win out over California in the long term. Also Joe Arpaio is the real problem but he can't live forever (he's 80).

What's happening in American it seems to me is just ongoing polarization. Someone goes to the left so someone has to go to the right, the rivalry between California and Arizona is an example. Look at this thing with guns, New York passes an OTT law so various States are actually considering laws that would make it illegal to enforce Federal gun laws. Allow sanctuary cities and whatnot in California. SB 1070 in Arizona.

It's all bonkers.

What would happen in any other country is the formation of another political party as surprisingly there are more than two answers to every public policy question, but there is one thing the Republicans and Democrats agree on - that they should be the only two political parties. Look at how all the election and campaign finance laws are written, shocking lack of any independent organizations overseeing elections.

It's insane in a country of 315 million people there are only two mainstream political parties.

You may have noticed that Montana elects a fair number of Democrats despite being about as right-wing as right-wing gets - the reason why is because the Libertarians split the right-wing vote. So it is possible, but it needs to be more mainstream.

KCK_DR

I must disagree with you. Lower taxes are not enough to make the difference, they are not as critical as many people think. The reason is that taxes translate to services. In Arizona I paid lower property taxes on my home than in California, but I had to pay:

• a private company for firefighting protection,
• a private company for water (much higher than a municipal company’s basic fees),
• very low investment in education,
• almost ludicrously small amount of unemployment insurance coverage (you get $240 a week whether you made $100,000 or $20,000)

• a year Colleges and universities are rank 3 and no rank 2 or 1 exist in the state, thus with few exceptions the state has not been producing high end graduates.
The graduate programs are pretty good, but how many companies can afford to have only MA and MS degreed people work for them? Also, most college graduates in other states may come to Arizona to work until they have children, then they will need to move so they can find schools that can educate their kids, that IS creating a transient work culture and is quickly making AZ into a training ground for companies in other states.
Also, ultimately, good students will choose other state schools, since in ASU, UA and NAU all rank 3 schools cost close or more than $10,000 per year for tuition alone for in state students, where as the better Cal State system costs under $8,000 per year and the mostly rank 1 US system costs close or under $10,000 per year.

And those elements are just a few problems that come to mind. Thus Arizona will have problems when the older white population, that came to die there, leaves for the Lord. This economic model is relatively new, it began in 1997 or so, before that time AZ invested in Education and it was a libertarian paradise (live and let live).

Joe “il Duce” Arpaio is not – in my opinion the problem, he is the expression of the problem. The problem in my opinion is that a critical mass of voters espouse the ideas he puts forth. Joe has been very keen in picking up the mood, I don’t like him, but I must admit that he is a great populist that can pick up the mood. He became anti-immigrant in the early 2000s when he saw great numbers of racist whites from the Midwest come to AZ. A secondary problem is that the “darker” minority populations and especially the Latino/Mexican-American U.S. Citizens have very low registration numbers and do not turn out the vote in acceptable numbers.



As for the polarization thing, it is not so new in U.S. politics, the 1960s were much more “bonkers.” It goes up and down.

Thank God this country is big enough where one can find a peaceful accepting place to be.


KK

sir_eccles

I think in certain areas, the voting demographics are changing. There are a lot of good young people in town who are fighting the good fight. Politicians like Sinema who I think are the new wave.

He is certainly very politically canny. Always seems to have just just enough clean hands to avoid any of the scandals that have followed him.

Steve_

California has the highest State income taxes in the US (although you pay more in NYC because of the local income tax) plus it also has higher corporation taxes, that does make a difference. Phoenix is the largest municipality and it has its own water board and it has a fire dept. I see in the press that various companies are thinking of moving to Arizona because it is less disaster prone as well.

Fastest growing cities: http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbr...rowing-cities/

Nowhere in California in the top 10.

Giantaxe

According to this, CA ranks 17th in total tax take, AZ 19th. Not a lot of difference:

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/total_taxes/


Thanks goodness for that!

Uncle_Bob

Gods waiting room? Isnt that Florida not Arizona?

Arizona can observe firsthand how the illegal immigrant problem contributes towards the situation in the bankrupt state of California.
Seriously what does any state have to gain over simply being racist?

scrubbedexpat099

Californians seem to get a very bad name, certainly noticed it in Colorado.

If we could secure our State borders, I am pretty sure that those from CA would be first on the list.

NY second.

Third, probably Texas.

KCK_DR

LOL
Yes, Florida is God’s Waiting Room East.
Arizona has aspired and succeeded in becoming the Western Branch. To this day the political and business leadership has openly been working to hit and keep that target.
I would like to state that I am against illegal immigration or anything akin to that.
But I still – despite effort s in my part – don’t see how illegal immigrants can bankrupt a state.
Is it because they get paid less and small businesses make more money to put in the bank?
Is it because the small businessmen and women do not pay for the health care of their employees be it legal or illegal workers so they go to the hospitals and as emergency cases and we all pay to subsidize the profits of the mom and pop businesses?
Is it because they pay – using fake or stolen SSI numbers – into the system and they will never take money out of it?
Is it because they send their U.S. born or non-U.S. born children to school, having paid rent and through that the property taxes that go to the school district for their education?
Anyway, let me clear up that confusion by noting that Russell Pierce – former state senator and current VP of the GOP in AZ – is a religious extremist with open hostility toward Mexican Americans and other “undesirables.”

Uncle_Bob

Theres very little taxes on minimum or low wages and they choose large catholic families. Along with extensive use of welfare programs and services, overcrowding emergency rooms, uninsured/underinsured drivers etc etc it all adds up.

They definately contribute to state bankrupcy IMO. And CA is proof.

Russell Pierce, Arizona has plenty of whacko Mormans just like him unfortunately. I disagree about Arizona being an old peoples state. Its growth in recent years, with transplants arriving from all over, now make it the sixth most populous city in the United States of America. Everyone that moved here is not old, lol