Tuesday February 3, 2009, 3:23 pm
Check the personnel files of the Wall St. financial institutions which are importing workers from India and Ireland, to replace higher paid workers just layed off ...


Bailout Banks Gave The Finger To The AMerican Taxpayers
Banks collecting billions of dollars in federal bailout money sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S. for high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

Oh, and let's look at THE BIG 3 AUTOMAKER$ and what they did to American worker$...

Yes, GM is gonna take our money and "invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market."
Every single person who made this possible should be put in the stocks
and left to the judgment of the American people. In February, in Detroit.

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 11:47 am
So these immigrants can then get the outsourced jobs in their own countries!

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 12:10 pm
Good riddance - this woman was here illegally, making $1000/wk TAX-FREE for 12 YEARS, and sending all the money out of the country! I'm sure she used plenty of taxpayer-subsidized public services in those 12 years, too, so this woman single-handedly cost our economy well over $700,000. That's more than I will earn in my entire LIFE, and I pay taxes on all of it, to support leeches like her! Now, she's going home to live off her husband's pension!!! I don't have a pension - do you?!? SHE does, but she came here to live off of us all those years.... GRRRRR!!!!
Thanks, Cal - noted.

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 12:17 pm
Tia, illegal immigrants do pay taxes. They pay sales and real estate taxes, and many do pay income tax. [http://www.urban.org/publications/900898.html].
It is unfair that the woman you mentioned made money tax-free, but she worked for the money -- why do you judge her on how she spends the money? And it's highly doubtful that she spent every penny overseas...Many come here to work to support families back home because there are few opportunities. My mother regularly sends money back home, because without it my grandmother would not be able to have enough to eat.
*And I object to how immigrants are assumed to be illegal. Legal and illegal immigrants are returning home.

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 12:22 pm
We are all immigrants or descended from immigrants. I do not advocate amnesty for illegal immigrants, but I also don't agree with having an "us against them" attitude. Times are hard for everyone. Why pick a group to scapegoat? We need to concentrate our energy on making sure our lawmakers create policies that will help us get out of this economic crisis and create jobs.

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 1:24 pm
Tia, illegal immigrants do pay taxes. They pay sales and real estate taxes, and many do pay income tax.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH! PAY ALL TAXES!
Many come here to work to support families back home because there are few opportunities.
WHY IS THIS A GOOD REASON TO BREAK OUR LAWS?
If we are flooded with people there will not be any opportunities here either.
For every person who comes here we should get a square mile of their country!
Then we can export our government, culture, and language to them and they can stay home and have opportunities!

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 1:39 pm
Natasha- there are many Americans who are paid under the table and do not pay income tax. The title of the article said Illegal but it did not indicate that all immigrants are illegal.

Tia, nowhere in the article does it say that she received any benefits. So your number is a little high. BUT, and this is important, you too could get one of those house cleaning gigs and earn that money under the table. It doesn't give you health insurance or benefits, but you say you don't have a pension anyway. Go for it!

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 2:40 pm
BB K - I'm not saying that illegal immigrants should be excused from the laws. I'm explaining the reasons why they come and dispelling the assumption that they are simply here to be leeches. And FYI: thanks to NAFTA which gave much more power to US corporations, many Latin American farmers and other workers were put out of business -- it goes both ways. And the US gov has been exported, selling arms to opposing factions and helping to overturn govs (see Panama, Chile) causing more instability. Again, I'm not excusing ppl who come here illegally, I'm just saying that there's more to the story than the US being a poor victim taken over by foreigners.
Nancy - I know that it doesn't say that all immigrants are illegal, but the article first mentions that "immigrants" are returning home, and then suddenly it switches to "illegal immigrants" and so forth, as if they were interchangeable.

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 2:47 pm
Goodbye.

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 2:56 pm
Quote from the article where she herself admitted to being here illegally:
"She came as a tourist, overstayed the visa and never tried to seek legal status, she said." Staying here and working after your tourist visa expires makes you an illegal alien. Period. And I'm not just picking on illegal aliens - I fully blame those who hire them, too.

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 3:10 pm
Nancy, thanks for the kind advise to clean houses. Unfortunately:
#1 - I'd be competing with my own customers, as many of them clean houses for a living, and they're barely making it.
#2 - I don't know ANYone who makes $1000/wk around here cleaning houses - most those jobs pay $8-11/hr and you're lucky to get 4hrs/day - that's $160-220/wk before taxes, and yes they DO pay taxes.
#3 - I'm a LOUSY housecleaner! That's why I fix the housecleaners cars.
But thanks anyway. LOL! ;-)

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 3:24 pm
Natasha- got it, I hadn't noticed the first time.

Tia- glad you appreciated my comment. And you are right. It is those who hire them.

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 3:28 pm
OK, explain to me in your own words
Why are there more opportunities in this country?
Why are there no opportunities in your country of origin?
If there are no opportunities in your country why should you have a family?
I do not have a family and I was born here, but can't afford one!

Thursday February 5, 2009, 5:10 am
Maybe they finally found out that our streets are not paved with gold, unless you are one of the Wall St. elite.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 10:46 am
Tia said: "I'm sure she used plenty of taxpayer-subsidized public services in those 12 years, too, so this woman single-handedly cost our economy well over $700,000"

Interesting math. And what "services" could you be referring to? Did she have kids in school? Use a library or a public road? There are very few "services" that an illegal immigrant can take advantage of to the degree Tia claims.

Just more xenophobia programmed into you by those who wish to divide the public against each other. CEO's avoid more taxes in a day than an "illegal" can ship out to their family in a year.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 10:49 am
BB K said:
"OK, explain to me in your own words
Why are there more opportunities in this country?
Why are there no opportunities in your country of origin?"

There are few opportunities in most immigrants country of origin because of American trade policies like NAFTA that destablize economies and open boarders for commerce but not people.

stop blaming the victims. America is a nation of immigrants, fer Christ'ssake.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 11:51 am
There is a problem worldwide with illegal & legal immigrants and residents earning cash in hand and not paying taxes. However, it is more likely to be an illegal as they would not wish to draw any attention to themselves.

People do look for an improved opportunity, with some it is perception that another country is a land of opportunity/grass is greener and some do come from poorer countries and the little that they earn are riches.

Bottom line is that people who pay taxes are stiffed by those who don't for whatever reason. The woman who earned $1000 per week should be sued for the money and those who paid her be made responsible for deducting it in the first place.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 12:54 pm
noted with great interest

Thursday February 5, 2009, 1:17 pm
fairtax.org

If we had the fairtax everyone would pay taxes, all the drug dealers, rich, visitors, companies and we would all get to keep our hard earned paycheck. No IRS!

Thursday February 5, 2009, 1:20 pm
I had a hard time with it at first but I went to the site and read up on it. What I like about it is that it would help bring jobs back. This has been the major problem with the US since the late 1970s.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 1:22 pm
I think we lost more from NAFTA than we gained.
If they send money home to support their family then more
of their family members survive and think it is a good idea to come here.
The reasons that there is more opportunity here is because we have a democracy, freedom of and from religion, a common language ENGLISH and a lower population growth rate, SO FAR!!!!!!
If we make it easier for people to come here instead of fix their own country then their country won't get fixed and ours will crash TOO!
We have decided that slavery is a bad idea but letting people come here and work for low wages is just as bad.
A lot of bad things can happen, but even if the best thing happens, they work hard and prosper, then they want low wage immigrant to work for them TOO!
Can you see how this is never going to end!
There was a time when there were very few people here and we though incorrectly that we needed more people here, that time is LONG GONE and if you think about it that is when all the bad things that CARE2 is against happened, Destruction of the environment, pollution, reduction of animals populations and habituate.
If care2 is going to reach its goals we need to limit our population growth through birth control and immigration control, both legal and illegal.
Do you really want the USA to look like CHINA?
Why do you think CHINA has begun their ONE CHILD ONLY POLICY?
Don't think it could happen here?
KEEP IT UP AND YOU WILL SEE!!!!!

Thursday February 5, 2009, 6:37 pm
There are all sorts of reasons and yes, sad stories for folks who come to this country, but generally they are absorbed and DO make use of services here. Medical, social, food. I worked for a non profit and the majority were illegals (no, reporting them was not part of the Center, it frustrated me to no end.) The employees worked, and worked hard while many folks came in and got rent subsides, free food and clothing, use of a social worker, legal aid. I'd work the Food Bank after work (five hours of intensive labor) and would see folks drive up in huge new trucks and pick up their free food, and the women would have several children tagging along after them. Who is supporting all those kids? We are, our taxes are. we'd have people adopt families and spend their hard earned money to get gifts and clothes for Xmas and then many of the families would not show up, as they took a vacation instead and went home to Mexico for the Holidays.
Are our people treated with respect and care in Mexico? No. Break a law and you end up in a Mexican jail, no resources, abuse. Until Mexico responds in kind why should we pick up the tab? Mexico should try and work hand in hand with the USA and combine efforts to stabilize their own country and raise up the standard of living. The Catholic Church does no favors to the people either, telling them children are "gifts and as many are sent to the women they should have them."
Yep I agree, population control is of the essence for the human race as a whole, that is the only thing that will save us.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 9:12 pm
NAFTA was really bad deal, it cost us a lot of high paying jobs and now we are being told it cost us a lot of low paying jobs too.
How about a care2 petition to get rid of NAFTA?
Has it already been done?
Would it help immigrants, legal and illegal go back home?
or is it too late?

Thursday February 5, 2009, 9:22 pm
OK, so our forefathers stole this land from the native americans.
There isn't much we can do about that now, but holding the door open for everyone else in the world is just another slap in the face for them.
RIGHT?

Friday February 6, 2009, 6:30 pm
I think it's only fair to have all those immigrants in the US (and in Europe too, for that matter). I mean, come on here to the third world and take a look at all of the atrocities that all those American and European multinational corporations are doing. Selling false hopes, that's what they're doing, and much more. And also your right-wing think-tanks elaborating their plans and international institutions like the IMF and the World Bank which were built on the idea of corporate expansionism with the encouragement and protection of the European and American governments.

Friday February 6, 2009, 9:23 pm
No, I think they should go to brazil