Englishmum

I've just read this Associated Press release in today's breaking news section of 'The Guardian':

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlates...=ticker-103704

I'm astonished at the numbers of Mexicans whom have managed to cross the border.... :scared:

Does George Bush honestly think that his 'guest worker' scheme which he is proposing is actually going to work? Once these guest workers are in the US I doubt very much that they will return to Central and South America at the end of their visa period....

I should imagine that the situation must be very difficult in (southern) California where pupil numbers in schools are escalating due to the large influx of Latinos, plus extra help needed to teach English as a second language?

UJ_99

No, but I'm sure he does think this might get the Republicans a few more votes from the Hispanic population at the Mid term elections....

Lion in Winter

As long as it remains impossible for so many people to escape grinding poverty within the borders of Mexico, they will come. Mexico has its own illegal immigrants from Guatemala and points south, where the situation is even worse for some. They come because people here are willing, very willing, to hire them. Many come because they are unable to feed and house their families where they are. I would do it in a flash if it were to provide some sort of semi-decent life for my son.

Could I just say that Mexico is, in fact, in North America, not Central America. Not that it's relevant to the migration question.

nxylas

Considering the hoops you have to jump through to get documentation, I'm not bloody surprised.

ukemigrant

All the gardeners at the business park where I work are South American looking. I always wonder are they just really good gardeners down there or are they all illegal? There's an FBI office in the park also so I'm assuming they wouldn't tempt fate..........

Howard

Except that illegal immigration is not a red button issue for the FBI.

Lion in Winter

Sounds unlikely. They are probably Mexican and hence North American. Very few, if any, of the migrants from Chile or Argentina or Columbia are in the gardening business.

Bob

depends what kind of gardening it is though don't it

Pimpbot

Look, if the government really cared, they start by rounding up the 50 plus people who stand outside our local Home Depot awaiting day work each and every day. Costs too much to ship them back, but the burden on states like mine is running into the billions. But when our governor asked the government for the money they were rightly owed, they turned her down.

fatbrit

Surprisingly, I find that hispanic USCs are as often as not against further amnesties or increasing immigration, temporary or otherwise.

The Republicans chose to allow the status quo of not enforcing the law with respect to illegal immigration not for the hispanic vote but for the greenbacks from their paymasters - the corporations - who want to continue to use a cheap workforce who are less likely to demand their rights than USCs.

AdobePinon

NM senate just passed a bill to prevent local and state police from enforcing federal immigration laws. Now there's some smart thinking for you!

anotherlimey

So who will do the enforcing? There are so many law enforcement agencies here I don't know which one does what .

I'm quite cynical about all this, cheap labour equals cheap products, this keeps the US exporting goods to help close the import/export deficit.

scrubbedexpat099

For what its worth, we just came back from holidaying in Mexico, Norte Americano was certainly used there as referring to USC's and Canadians.

It is an intering dichotomy, most of the states mentioned were previously Mexican, there was a new book I would like to read but my Spanish is not good enough, Mexico Multado, I sought of translated it as Mexico Mutilated, all about the loss of 2m sq km to USA, the history, impacts etc.

The population of Mexico is surprisingly static, about 1% increase a year, due to migration.

I have always asumed that if this was perceived to be a serious issue by the US authorities, they would have done something about it, my presumption is for a whole series of social, economic and historical reasons it is accepted.

Bob

A lot of the migration is only seasonal...there's loads that get bused up to maine to pick blueberrys by hand...don't know why they don't use hoppers, but anyway, and lots of people to come pick spuds and mac apples....hell, loads of canadians come down too for the season...about the only time there's an ethnic mix in this state to be honest *lol*