Editorial on the news of the Day and Review of the Gridlock around the world.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Movement to Get Congress to Start Working on Immigration Problems Again

It is true that we have many problems to confront in the United States today.  That said, you can bet that when Congress sees a lot of balls thrown into the air that need some juggling, Congress will run away first and go on vacation.  Well, immigration issues still confront the United States and we need reform now to encourage legal immigration and stop or discourage illegal immigration. Most people think of immigration issues and think about protecting American jobs in business, but they don't always consider some of the other problems involved with illegal immigration that harm both citizens of the US and illegal immigrants and their children.

Click Here

 

Illegal Immigration has Many Dangers and Causes many problems

Population growth

Population growth which exceeds the carrying capacity of an area or environment results in overpopulation.[21] Spikes in human population can cause problems such as pollution, water crisis[22][23] and poverty.[24][25] World population has grown from 1.6 billion in 1900 to an estimated 6.6 billion today. In Mexico alone, population has grown from 13.6 million in 1900 to 107 million in 2007.[26]

In 2000, the United Nations estimated that the world's population was growing at the rate of 1.14% (or about 75 million people) per year. According to data from the CIA's 2005–2006 World Factbooks, the world human population currently increases by 203,800 every day.[27] The United States Census Bureau issued a revised forecast for world population that increased its projection for the year 2050 to above 9.4 billion people, up from 9.1 billion people. We are adding a billion more every 12 years. Almost all growth will take place in the less developed regions.[28]

Dangers

As with any illicit activity, illegal immigrants expose themselves to dangers while engaged in illegal entry to another country. Aside from the possibility that they may be intercepted and deported, some considerably more dangerous outcomes have been known to result from their activity. As an example, illegal immigrants may been trafficked for exploitation.

Slavery

After the end of the legal international slave trade by the European nations and the United States in the early 19th century, the illegal importation of slaves has continued, albeit at much reduced levels. Although not as common as in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, some women are undoubtedly smuggled into the United States and Canada.[29]

People been kidnapped or tricked into slavery to work as laborers, for example in factories. Those trafficked in this manner often face additional barriers to escaping slavery, since their status as illegal immigrants makes it difficult for them to gain access to help or services. For example Burmese women trafficked into Thailand and forced to work in factories or as prostitutes may not speak the language and may be vulnerable to abuse by police due to their illegal immigrant status.[30] In the Dominican Republic, Haitian migrant workers are sold into slavery on Dominican Sugar plantations, including children.[31][32]

Prostitution

The so-called "white slave trade" referred to the smuggling of women, almost always under duress or fraud, for the purpose of forced prostitution. Now more generically called "sexual slavery" it continues to be a problem, particularly in Eastern Europe and the Middle East,[33][34][35] though there has been an increase in the number of cases in the U.S.[6] Some Haitian children have allegedly been forced to work as prostitutes in the Dominican sexual tourism industry.[36] Currently the Dominican sex trade ranks third in the world, only behind Thailand and the Philippines.[37]

Rape

The possibility of being raped has become a problem for some women illegally entering another country. “After the coyotes get the women across the [U.S.-Mexico] border, safely on U.S. soil, they gang rape them to show they have total control over them. They hang their panties in the trees as signs of the conquest. . . If the women are young and pretty, they are kept in houses of prostitution where they have to have their families buy them out or work their way out. Of course, none will testify to this because the coyotes know where they are from and can seek revenge on their families in Mexico."[citation needed]

Death

Allegations have been made that thousands of illegal immigrants attempting to reach Europe have died since 1986.

In order to arrive to the sea, the dangerous passage of the Sahara is necessary. People have crossed it on trucks and off-road vehicles along the tracks between Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali one one side and Libya and Algeria on the other. On this passage at least 1,069 people have died since 1996. The Libyan, Algerian and Morocan Governments have been accused of abandoning hundreds of migrants in open desert border areas.

Abuse has been reported of migrants in Libya. There are not any official data, but in 2006 Human Rights Watch and AFVIC accused Tripoli of arbitrary arrests, beatings and tortures in the migrant detention centers,[citation needed] In September 2000 in Zawiyah, in northwest Libya, at least 560 foreigners were killed in racist attacks.[citation needed]

247 stowaways in trucks were found dead in Albania, France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Hungary.

There are still minefields along the Evros river between the Greece-Turkey border.[citation needed]

Additionally, 51 people drowned crossing rivers delimiting the frontier between Croatia and Bosnia; Turkey and Greece; Slovakia and Austria; and Slovenia and Italy.[citation needed] Forty-one people froze to death travelling over the icy mountains at the border between Turkey, Greece and Slovakia;[citation needed] 20 people died under the trains in the Channel tunnel trying to reach England;[citation needed] 33 people were shot dead by Spanish and Moroccan police or injured along the border fence of Ceuta and Melilla Spanish enclaves in Morocco;[citation needed] 11 people burnt when a deportation center in the Netherlands caught fire;[citation needed] and eight men were found dead hidden in the undercarriages of planes.[citation needed]

Death by exposure is also known to occur in the deserts of Southwestern United States during the hot summer season.

~Wikpedia: Illegal Immigrations

The United States is not alone in experiencing this problem, but that does not mean we have to suffer a problem either due to inaction.

This is just to important of an issue for our Congressional leaders to ignore. They need to know how important this issue is for you, your family and our country. Act Now! Click to send a fax to your Congress man or woman and get them to act as well.

This is not a time for our leaders in the capital of Washington DC to do nothing on Immigration!

No comments: