He’s an... Illegal Eh-lien
He’s stealing our jobs and our women. Plus, he talks funny.
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 Draft Dodger in Reverse: Morgan in his attic bedroom and art studio in Northeast Portland. IMAGE: darryl james |
[February 20th, 2008]
On a construction site in North Portland, an illegal immigrant pounds nails and cuts two-by-fours. With each swift motion, he’s breaking the law.
He could be the poster child for anti-illegal immigrant zealots: He’s nonchalant about his status for the most part, unconcerned about not paying U.S. taxes and indifferent to the fact that he’s “stealing” the job of a U.S. citizen.
But he passes through Portland mostly untouched by the spittle spewing from the seal-our-borders-now camp.
Why? Because he’s not Mexican.
He’s an illegal Canadian. A Canuck. An iceback. A frostback. A canalien.
A hoser, eh?
Morgan (who agreed to let us publish his photograph and his first name, but not his last name) is not the face of undocumented immigrants in this country.
Tall and white with a light-brown fauxhawk, Morgan, 27, looks more like a typical Portlander, someone born and bred in the nation of Bruce Springsteen.
With his piercings and tattoos, he might stick out in The Dalles or on the campus of the University of Portland. But on Northeast Alberta Street, where he sometimes hangs out, Morgan is just one more passing soul, an artist and a painter who skateboards or bikes to work because he can’t afford a car. “I’m just your average Joe,” Morgan says. “A honky and a hoser. Irresponsible. A dreamer.”
Morgan’s been in the United States—undetected and unbothered by federal immigration authorities—since fall 2002.
One could argue that Morgan’s reasons for coming to the United States are less understandable—perhaps even less admirable—than those of the immigrants who come to the United States illegally from south of the border. Morgan’s just a single guy with a GED who’s looking to clock his 40 hours a week, spend time with his friends and pursue his art. He’s not escaping crime-filled cities or harsh economic conditions at home. He’s not “homeless, tempest-tossed” in search of higher wages to feed his family. He’s not yearning for a better education for his future children.
He says he has no aspirations of buying a house in the United States. He doesn’t want a bank account, a credit card or even a movie-rental membership, all of which he currently lacks. Compared with the estimated 6 million undocumented immigrants from Mexico in this country today, his goals are much more modest—perhaps even a tad selfish.
Much of what he needs—including health insurance—he could get in Canada. Instead, he wants a green card. He says he loves America, and Portland specifically, more than some Americans do. “I’m constantly defending this place,” he says.
Yet if his American dream were to end suddenly, he wouldn’t be totally devastated. He could return to his home in British Columbia—just six hours north by car—and resume his life in a similar fashion.
Morgan admits he has much less to lose. “The Mexican immigrant has more right to be here than I do,” he says. “It’s almost more noble. The idea is, he’s trying to find a better life for himself and his family. I don’t have an agenda.”
He’s not exactly remorseful about leaving the North to flout U.S. immigration law. He appears to have company. The Urban Institute, a research group in Washington, D.C., estimates between 65,000 and 75,000 undocumented Canadians currently live in the United States.
“If I wasn’t told I was breaking the law, I wouldn’t know I was breaking the law,” he says. “Am I supposed to apologize for that?”
He then jokes: “For the record, I’m sorry.”
At a time when politicians at all levels of government—from Portland City Hall to the Oregon Legislature to the U.S. Capitol—are grappling with undocumented immigration, Morgan’s story punctures the ideological perspectives of the left and the right.
He is no model immigrant. Nor is he a threat to our national identity, unless the occasional use of the word “eh” and maple syrup one day become as horrifying to the foot soldiers of the Minuteman Project as hola and arroz con pollo.
But whether lawmakers are talking about opposing work sites for Portland day laborers, requiring Social Security cards for Oregon drivers or building fences to curb the flow of illegal immigrants to the United States from Mexico, Morgan’s presence in this country is both a confirmation of the failures of U.S.
current immigration policies and a testament to the absurdity of attempts to change them.
The immigration debate in this country is, in fact, no longer a debate. It’s a three-ring circus with a very crowded clown car.
 Barred Entry: Morgan meets a friend outside a bar on Alberta. If carded, he flashes his Canadian ID. |
A half-inch scar runs down a finger on Morgan’s left hand, evidence of one central irony of Morgan’s life in the United States: If he lived in Canada, he would have easy access to one of the world’s premier healthcare systems.
In the United States, he doesn’t even have health insurance.
About two years ago, Morgan cut a tendon in his right hand while demolishing a wall at a construction site. He was alone, and he learned the hard way the degree of risk involved in living in the United States without health coverage.
When he emerged from the house, he was bleeding profusely, but he stopped a passerby on the street from calling an ambulance for him because he knew he couldn’t afford to pay for emergency transportation. The bill for stitching his wound alone was $2,700, which his bosses covered and Morgan repaid several months later.
Now when he cuts himself he sews his own wounds, and the half-inch scar on his left hand is one example of his handiwork.
The accident again happened while he was at work—when a cabinet fell on his hand and an exposed nail pierced his skin.
After work, Morgan went to a Rite Aid pharmacy and bought doctor soap and butterfly bandages. At home he boiled a sewing needle and gathered fishing wire, which he did not think to clean.
The wound was small enough and shallow enough that it required only two or three homemade stitches. Morgan didn’t try to do anything to dull the discomfort. “I just gritted my teeth,” he says.
Morgan would never ask anyone to feel sorry for him. And, besides, he enjoys living off the grid, he says. But his life in the United States does present a number of other challenges that wouldn’t exist if he were permitted to live here legally.
He doesn’t have a Social Security number, so he can work only for employers who will agree to pay him under the table. He earns $10 an hour, a wage that puts his annual salary at $20,000.
Most banks require just two forms of picture identification, which Morgan has. So he could open a checking account here. But Morgan says he doesn’t want to put down too many roots, in case he ever has to leave in a hurry. When he needed a cell phone, he turned to a friend to find him one. Now each month when it comes time to pay his phone bill, he puts cash in a sock and shoves the wad through the mail slot at his friend’s house, he says.
All of Morgan’s financial transactions are cash-based. When he can’t afford to pay for something outright—like his tattoos—he pays for his purchases in installments. He also doesn’t have a credit card. “I’ve always hated plastic,” Morgan says. “Banks and all that.”
Compared with those hurdles, Morgan’s day-to-day life is relatively hassle-free. In fact, it is shockingly easy for him to get by.
His friends and bosses know he’s not supposed to be here. If anyone else asks, he repeats the line he uses at border crossings and airports. “I’m just visiting,” he says.
That he can fly under the radar so comfortably is not lost on Morgan, who grew up middle-class in British Columbia. His mother is a kindergarten teacher at a private Christian school, and his father works on a road-maintenance crew. They live in a Dutch Reformed farming community east of Vancouver.
Morgan moved to Portland from British Columbia after a friend from Canada moved to Oregon to attend Multnomah Bible College.
Six years ago, border agents had no reason to stop him. That first time Morgan crossed the border, on his way to Oregon in his friend’s car, he was automatically granted permission to travel in the United States for six months. Unlike Mexican citizens who enter the United States, Canadians aren’t required to obtain visas. (They have six-month “visa waivers” instead.)
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly half of all undocumented immigrants entered the United States lawfully but have overstayed their business or tourist visas, which calls into question the wisdom of the plan to build a higher and longer wall along this country’s southern border.
Morgan wasn’t just visiting, of course. He moved into an artists’ co-op in Southeast Portland where rent was about $300 a month. To pay for it, he immediately set about trying to find work. That, too, came easily.
Morgan’s first job was through a friend of a friend and was off the books: He sold Oregon Christmas trees out of a parking lot in Sarasota, Fla., for $10 an hour. For four weeks, he lived in a motor home with other vendors who were also recruited by the grower.
Story continues below
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 Canadian Lowrider: Morgan gets around on a skateboard. |
He moved back to Oregon and has easily gotten work through word of mouth ever since. And because he doesn’t have a Social Security number, he’s always been paid under the table. “’It’s wrong,’” Morgan says his mother tells him. “’What you’re doing is wrong.’”
In all his years here, Morgan has never sent a cent of his earnings to Uncle Sam. He also doesn’t pay Canadian taxes, he says. Instead, he spends a good portion of his money on helping the homeless, he claims. “My measly little morsels,” he calls his salary. “My crumbs off the table.”
At first, Morgan returned to Canada every six months to visit friends and family and, more importantly, to restart his six-month visa waiver. He has sometimes driven across the border. Other times he’s flown. (But because he was working during his trips to the United States, he was nonetheless breaking the law.)
Now he goes home just at Christmas. His friends in Portland say they never know if they should expect him to return. When Morgan leaves, they ask him if he’s coming back. “’Don’t know,’” he tells them.
He has been searched and questioned at the border before, but only once have border agents turned Morgan away. They told him that he’d be “red flagged” if he tried to return. He did anyway. He simply waited a week then crossed at a different border gate in the car of a friend from Portland who drove to Canada to get him. “I don’t know what they know and what they don’t know, whether it’s all there and they turn a blind eye or it’s all guesswork,” Morgan says.
On and off for one period, Morgan worked for a contractor who employed other illegal immigrants—men who happened to be from Mexico. They weren’t treated as well at work, Morgan told his friends.
“He was in the same boat as they were immigration status-wise, yet they were much worse off than him for doing the same job,” Morgan’s friend Amber Whittenberg says.
When Morgan realized this contractor was going to stiff the illegal crew, Morgan quit in protest.
Off the job, Morgan walked around Portland carrying a backpack with a Canadian flag. At a bus stop one day he met a Latino worker who joked he would never do the same with a Mexican flag.
“America is still racist, you can’t deny that,” Morgan says. “It’s woven into its history.”
He says he feels a certain connection to other undocumented immigrants, but he doesn’t pretend to have the same reasons as they do for coming here.
Nor does he face the same pressures. He lives in an attic that serves as his bedroom and art studio in a Beaumont-Wilshire home where a friend lets him stay in exchange for landscaping and housework.
“I just feel like I’m observing,” Morgan says. “I feel like a bench warmer for the real players who are actually playing the game. I would never call myself an alien. I would never call myself an immigrant.”
The central debate in Oregon concerning illegal immigration right now doesn’t faze Morgan.
On Feb. 11, the state Senate voted 23-7 to strip undocumented immigrants of driver’s license privileges. On Feb. 13, the House overwhelmingly approved the same measure. Two days later Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed the measure into law.
Senate Bill 1080 directs the Oregon Department of Transportation to require valid Social Security cards for Oregon licenses. Last fall, Kulongoski’s office said Oregon had become a “safe haven” for people seeking official American identification cards, even though they could not establish “legal presence” in the United States.
On Feb. 4, the first day of the special legislative session and the day SB 1080 was introduced in Salem, protesters from both sides of the immigration debate gathered at the Capitol.
To each shout of “Go home!” from the anti-illegal-immigrant front came equally jarring taunts from the pro-immigrant side. If anyone has any doubt that immigration has become a highly charged and seemingly intractable issue, spend two hours listening to an unhappy chorus of “Sí se puede,” or “Yes, we can,” and “What part of ILLEGAL don’t you understand?”
“This reminds me of the Alamo,” says Robert Heriford, who stood with three dozen people and his wife, Betty, on the steps of the Capitol earlier this month. “We’re being surrounded by illegals.”
Across from the couple, on the sidewalks surrounding the Legislature, nearly 1,000 Oregonians—almost all of Mexican or Latino descent—gathered in protest to show their opposition to SB 1080. If they weren’t undocumented themselves, many of them professed to know someone who was.
 What part of illegal don’t you understand?: Morgan on his way to work in Portland. |
“They target Mexicans first, then Latinos in general,” says Romeo Sosa, an organizer for VOZ, a Portland group advocating immigrant workers’ rights. “It’s obvious they’re not going to accept it, but it’s real: This country has a history of racism.”
The new rules have little relevance to Morgan. Sure, he can’t get an Oregon driver’s license. And if he wanted to buy a car, he couldn’t get car insurance without that identification.
But Morgan can and occasionally does drive his friends’ cars using his Canadian driver’s license, which—by itself—is not illegal. Spokesmen for the Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division and the Oregon State Police confirm a Mexican immigrant could legally drive using his Mexican driver’s license, even under Kulongoski’s measure.
Latino groups have still come out in force against the executive order and SB 1080 because they say the changes unfairly punish undocumented immigrants. They also say the new rules will make Oregon more dangerous, not less, because some immigrants who drive to work will now do so without insurance.
Morgan prefers not to drive if he doesn’t have to, in part because he worries about being stopped and questioned by police. “Part of being here is, you always feel a little edgy,” Morgan says. “You want to keep yourself safe.”
On the two occasions Morgan actually has been stopped by Portland police officers, for making an illegal left turn in 2005 and then again in 2007 for jaywalking across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, he gave the police his Canadian license as identification. (He was driving a friend’s car when he was pulled over.) Both times police mailed his tickets—with fines of $154 and $144, respectively—to Canada. As of February, he hadn’t paid either of them.
In 2007, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 273,289 people, up steadily from 116,017 in 2001.
In roughly the same period, the estimated number of undocumented immigrants climbed from 8.5 million to 11.6 million, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Meanwhile, the fury grows over what some people call a problem and others see as an opportunity. Portlanders will continue to fight about the appropriateness of building a site for day laborers, many of whom are here illegally. Oregonians will push their battle over identification cards to the next front: the fight over the implementation in Salem of the federal REAL ID Act, which imposes stricter nationwide standards on driver’s licensing programs.
And Americans, including several presidential candidates, will carry on in their efforts to builder bigger, tougher, more expensive walls along the southern border.
None of this will stop Morgan. He romanticizes his evasion of U.S. policy, alluding to a previous migration of young men across the U.S.-Canada border during the Vietnam War.
“I am a backwards draft dodger in a war that doesn’t need me, in a war that exists to Americans only in the protests they attend, the flags they fly,” Morgan writes in an email.
His attraction to the United States—and Portland in particular—isn’t the same as the pull for other immigrants, to be sure. It’s not as plain as wanting a better life.
His parents say their son gets a thrill from living in the United States, in part because he’s breaking the rules. They don’t think he should be here. “His mum feels he’s always liked to live on the edge a little bit.” Morgan’s father says. “I think he’s rubbing [authorities’ noses] in it a little bit, saying, ‘I’m here and you haven’t done anything about it.’”
Morgan admits his parents’ assessment is true; he enjoys being here in some small way simply because he’s not allowed. He jokes about finding an American woman to marry him.
His friend Amber Whittenberg says Morgan’s reasons are even simpler. “It’s because it’s his home,” she says. “He’s here because Portland is his home.”
But his friend Eric Roser says Morgan’s dreams could be satisfied in Canada. “It really comes down to the fact that he wants to be here,” Roser says. “Does it mean he has any less right to be there than, say, a refugee? Yes. But does it mean he shouldn’t be here? I don’t think so. I think there’s room enough for him.”
Using U.S. Census data and Department of Homeland Security figures, the Urban Institute gives estimates of the undocumented population in the U.S.
The Urban Institute estimates there are about 250,000 undocumented immigrants from China and between 65,000 and 75,000 from Canada in the United States.
Mexico is the largest contributor of illegal immigrants in the United States, with about 6 million. Another 2 million-plus come from other Latin American countries.
The Canadian Consulate in Seattle estimates a total of 80,000 Canadians, including students and professionals with work visas, reside in Oregon.
Canada has one of the world�s premier healthcare systems?
No it doesn't. It is underfunded, provides less than premium care, has excessive wait times for standard treatment, and doesn't have enough MDs to staff the system.
Do you demand any level of fact checking before these types of broad statements are placed in print?
How about cites for your own silly health insurance industry spin-job?
Anyone working for the American health insurance industry should be ashamed of themselves: making a living watching others die for lack of basic healthcare. Privatizing your profits and socializing your losses.
No insurance companies would mean a lot of death. Socialization has its faults as well.
I heard the publisher of WW suggest the "right" wouldn't be entirely pleased with this story. I'm not pleased, but it has nothing to do with the ethnicity of the illegal alien the story is concerned with. He meant to leave the impression that because this guy isn't Mexican it would displease the right because they're a bunch of racists. Most illegal aliens in this country are from south of the border and most of those are Mexican. This is true.
However: Illegal means illegal.
It's not about ethnicity/nationality/color; it's about coming to the US ILLEGALLY.
I'm glad to see that the Willamette Week would do a story about illegal aliens.
Now will you do a story about the fact that Mayor Moonbeam and the Rainbow City Council want to open a labor center to match ILLEGAL aliens with employers who hire them ILLEGALLY at a cost of $200,000.00 a year?
"Now will you do a story about the fact that Mayor Moonbeam and the Rainbow City Council want to open a labor center to match ILLEGAL aliens with employers who hire them ILLEGALLY at a cost of $200,000.00 a year?"
That's called dealing with reality, and it's cheaper in the long run than trying to drive out every illegal immigrant. I'm sure you'd also prefer abstinence-only sex education in schools - but that, too, doesn't work, because it doesn't take into account what real life is like. for the people who live and commute in the area where the labor center would be put it would be a fair sight better than what we have now: a lot of people standing around on street corners, littering, and cat-calling as you bike or walk past. They're just trying to get some work (though it would be nice to not leave trash and to not cat-call me), and companies here want their work for cheap. if you know of a whole lot of americans willing to do shit work for little pay, then please send them on down to SE 6th & Ankeny to stand around with everyone else.
Yakes! What a mess!
I'm a Canadian working/living in pdx. After 9/11 the US Visa is really hard to get. It costs me a lot of money and a team of lawyers to apply, request, and finally received my work visa. You guys have no idea how ridiculously unfair the Bush Administration and the Homeland Security has made any foreigners to work in the US (talk about unfriendly disrespecting service I received too). The so called "global free market" is not so free if it costs me over thousands of dollar. What I don't get is why is Morgan continue to stay in US? I guess Portland is that awesome, which I feel the same way. But if I were in his situation I wouldn't have gotten into that illegal immigrant mess. The US government treat illegal immigrants like animals.
BTW woogie, I never had to wait for any healthcare back in Toronto. But here in the US, I had to fuck'n wait one hour or more for a doctor appointment, and it costs me money. The whole myth on excessive wait times for standard treatment is bullshit. Apparently there are too many doctors in Canada. My friend who is a Canadian surgeon branched out to work in Australia.
Stop your bitching and whining. It was your choice to come to the US. You don't like the way we do things, pack your stuff and go home. Cry in your own Country
I am a Canadian living in the US. I can honestly say that people are waiting for health care in Canada. A family member waited 3 weeks to get an MRI. That is standard care.
My best friend in an MD who left Canada to practice in the US. Why? Poor pay and over worked because of too few MDs for the population.
The health care system in Canada is heading for some very bad times.
Why can't I whine? Its that stupid American attitude that starts racism and hate crimes in this country. I've never heard a Canadian saying that to another foreigner moved to Canada. I thought this country was built on immigrants.
The Canadian healthcare may not be perfect, but in my personal experience I feel more protected with the Canadian healthcare than the US healthcare. What if I get a hit by a car and had to go to the hospital for surgery? I can't afford that! Not even with my insurance coverage. In Canada, I don't have that fear, ever.
I don't really endorse this guy's tax-dodging, though he wouldn't pay much on $20,000 anyway. I do admire his willingness to buck the system and take responsibility for himself. His lifestyle isn't for me, but on the other hand I don't want to live in a society where his kind of bohemian drifting is Verboten either.
There's a perfect illustration above of the difference between conservatives and liberals. Faced with illegal or immoral behavior, conservatives want to punish the criminal and correct the behavior. Liberals shrug their shoulders and say "Well, that's just the way life is." Want to know why society's so screwed up? Too many liberal-thinking parents applying that attitude to raising their kids.
How many "anchor babies" is he having? How many of his children are we paying to educate? How many services is he stealing? How much health care is he stealing? What? None? I guess there is a difference between illegals after all contrary to the feeble attempt to say otherwise in this article/pablum.
This story is interesting, but it is incredibly skewed.
This Canadian speaks english, is not a main stream example of a Canadian in the US, and his government is not spending time and money to push its people into the US instead of using its resource to fix itself (Mexico). Canada takes care of its people and most return home. Canadians aren't asking for a "Princess Patricia" school or street. This illegal Canadian even avoided using public assitance or the emergency room. I would begrudging this illegal Canadian and I would begrudingly help an illegal Mexican with such medical needs no matter the status, but
If he is caught he should be deported, but he is still sits so far off the curve and he because he was blessed to be born Canadian melts into the US very easily.
The main crux of the matter is the Canadian is one of few and a Mexican is one of many. The Mexican attitude exudes entitlement and its government is assisting many illegal Mexicans with manipulating local, state, and federal laws instead of addressing its own issues. Canada is good health, so there aren't many pouring accross the border.
I don't believe in the border fence, but I believe in the military on the border. Most Oregonians would be shocked by this state unless it was Germany, France, or Switzerland issuing it.
I would be interested in a follow-up on this guy and one on the immigration debate that is more balanced that anti-illegal immigration = racist and pro-illegal immigration = holy humanist who is quick to label the US racist and Mexico just poor "pobrocito".
>Canadians aren't asking for a "Princess Patricia" school or street.
Cesar Chavez was born in Yuma, Andrew. He's a native-born American labor hero, and honoring the dude, whether you want stick his name on a street or not, has zilch to do with illegal immigration. You really need to find a different focus for your xenophobia.
So, this dude Morgan works, he gets paid for his work, he spends his wages in the local economy, and he apparently does not avail himself of any services funded with public dollars.
And the problem is? Work, make money, spend it, stitch your own damn wounds, it doesn't come any more American than that.
Anti-immigration zealots are, in my humble opinion, a sad-sack bunch of knuckle-draggin', chicken-fuckin' imbeciles. These morons are too dumb to understand that without inexpensive illegal immigrant labor everything would cost time and a half or double, and that that would be a far greater nuisance to their strained lower-middle-class wallets than catching a glimpse of the occasional roadside carniceria while driving to their shitty suburban tract homes.
Like Morgan I am white and I used to be an illegal alien. That lasted a decade or so. In due time I got a green card, started to pay taxes, and became a productive and proud American citizen. I couldn't have done this in post-9/11 America, and I don't think that's an improvement.
Looks like Beth Slovic gets a kick of putting aliens at risk of deportation when she's not busy trying to wreck school choice. At least this time there's only one guy on the line, and he seems to have given some sort of informed consent.
Er, does anyone know who in the fuck Victoria Taft is?
So you found a non-Mexican illegal alien who is breaking the law. How very nice. Glad you don't care he is taking work from a felow citizen. Why do some folks here want to excuse bad behavior so readily ?
Bragging about working under the table?
Who are these Employers that are hiring him? Where is our Oregon Dept. of Labor?(run by a Democrat) Where is ICE?
So our economy depends on people not paying taxes? This is good? really?
And we should all compete for a Job with an Illegal working under the Table?
(You will soon have no choice w/Obama or Hillary running the show)
Democrats like Sen. candidate Jeff Merkley STOPPED an Employer check their status Bill, so this can continue.
Legally here? Paying Taxes? Does that make you a sucker? This guy thinks so and this paper is in obvious support.
If Democrats continue to have their way, we will become that Turd World hell hole so many are fleeing.
you misguided sympathy hurts us all.
So basically you found a douchebag who snuck over the border and lives here illegally and figured that it was some big journalistic jackpot because he's white and it would expose the racism of those of us who are against illegal immigration? Nice try, but instead Beth Slovic merely illustrates, yet again, what a completely incompetent and ignorant journalist she is, only now she exposes her own racism on top of that! You see Beth, if you lifted your head out from under your rock for even a minute you'd find that the immigration issue isn't actually a race issue at all. In fact, those of us who want to secure our borders don't care about race. Be they white, black, brown or purple those who sneak in illegally are breaking the law and burdening our nation and we don't want them. We instead welcome with open arms those who acquire permission and come in to work or study legally and by their actions help to make the American dream of opportunity a real and valid one. And we don't care what color they are, we like them all just the same. So kudos to you, Beth, for utilizing your lack of anything resembling journalistic integrity to illuminate by your absurdity in reporting what the real issue is: that regardless of color people need to immigrate legally and responsibly.
Jefe...Is that a'Merican name?
It's a nickname. I'm actually Italian. We're the original "don't let them in" immigrants. ;-)
I actually knew this "douchebag" and that is exactly what he is. A conceited portlander wanna-be, he actually tells everyone he knows that he is "creative" because he is also a artist wanna-be. He is living this life for no reason but to get attention and for that he should pay extra taxes! (ie sewing up a wound with a dirty needle...who forced him to do that and then talk about it???) I avoid him in the streets and you should too.
Whether immigrants enter the country by air, land, or sea, whether they hold a visa or of what kind, is relevant only to simple-minded pinheads. What matters to society at large - the rest of us - is their contribution once they're in our country.
Have you noticed how the phrase "those of us who want to..." usually defensively precedes some sort of aberrant behavior, as in "those of us who want sex with large farm animals" or "those of us who want to secure our borders", as if the fact that their deviancy is shared by others somehow made it less sordid?
Nice try kid, but you are hardly "society at large." And saying "the rest of us" while criticizing the use of "those of us who want to" only reveals your own ignorance and hypocrisy. But good for you for trying. Keep it up and with time and maturity you may actually find yourself beginning to form cogent and relevant arguments. Hang in there!
Nah, it might reveal sophistry if you insist, but "ignorance" and "hypocrisy" it does not, Don Jefe, dust off your Webster. By the way, there are foreigners so desperate to be American that they rabidly insist on pulling the ladder after themselves. Basic self-esteem work usually helps. Just saying
Why is it so very common that whenever a discussion about immigration is had, one side says they welcome legal immigration with open arms and the other side uses foul language and cries of racism to say anyone illegal is welcome too?
Morgan (last name withheld) is one of the most amazing people I have ever met in my entire life. I am extremely proud to know him and to call him my friend. I am also incredibly proud of him for participating in this article, which hopefully shed a bit of light on the issue of racism that people are so happily ignoring in this country. Fuck you Fox News. Fuck you George W. Bush. And a great big fuck you to anyone bitching about immigration. The only people who have any right at all to bitch about this subject are Native Americans. You know, those people who were here FIRST...? Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Actually even the "Native Americans" migrated here too, oh and they forgot to write immigration law so technically the land was up for grabs.
Amidst her eloquence, Lydia pdx serves up two of the "big three" lame arguments about immigration (the missing, and lamest of all, is that "we're a nation of immigrants").
The American Indians of 500 years ago were less "native American" than I am, since it wasn't "America" until the Europeans came and built their version of civilization in what they regarded as a wilderness. (You could say it was wrong that the Europeans came and shoved the Indians aside, but then you're duty-bound to come down just as hard on the sequence of Indians-shoving-Indians around that had preceded the European arrival. This is simply the history of mankind.) Some of those tribes that inhabited the western hemisphere land mass before the Europeans called it "Turtle Island," so we might call them "Turtle Islanders." But "Americans"? No.
Then there's the "huddled masses, wretched refuse" trope, taken from what's typically called "the Statue of Liberty." But the statue's name is actually "Liberty Enlightening the World." The statue was a gift from the French people honoring the U.S. centennial. It celebrates the workings of ordered liberty in American society and suggests that such liberty is a useful example for the world. The statue isn't about immigration, and it doesn't invite everyone to move here.
Further, the Emma Lazarus poem from which Lydia pdx quotes isn't part of the statue. It was added to the pedestal years later without the permission of Congress or of the American citizens who would have to make room for the "huddled masses."
Today our country is overpopulated. The resulting increased interference with each others' activities and the growing government regulation needed to referee it are making our lives ever less free. In short, continued immigration (the biggest driver of our population growth) is destroying the liberty extolled by that famous statue.
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
Nightclubs want as many people as possible to be succesful. But there is a occupancy limit as well as a cover charge.
Should everyone on the Titanic have jumped into 1 lifeboat so they didn't seem racist?
The simple cure, so that we don't have a vacuum of people, is to check and kick out anyone who is arrested and doesn't belong. Or a simpler cure, follow Mexico's own immigration policies. For all of their statements they are harsher than us.
I watched an episode of Cops and the officer near a border said they had caught people entering illegally from 140+ countries.
Thank the Devil for him he's WHITE! He never ever has to worry about being trampled under the jack-boots ov I.C.E. He never has to worry about having the shit kicked out ov him by the police or hysterical zenophobes. He never has to worry about NOT getting the benifit ov a doubt. When ever he goes out in public, people will just assume he's from here.
Thing is, by [highly unlikely] chance he were to get deported, he could just move back in with mum & daddy, live in THEIR basment, rent-free, & have acccess to some ov the world's best health care... for free.
Why the Hell does he like THIS place soo damn much, i don't get it?!
To answer your question and comment on your response Damos I must say:
It sucks because of people like you, let me guess you are a mexacon or married to juan right? To bad so sad, the fact of the matter is that you suck! I am the guy that drives the bus that will dump your ass out in TJ after my ICE brothers stomp your ugly face into the dirt. So you and your greasy friends should leave now and save yourself from the boot. White is right the kanook cheater can stay but my greasy friend you have to go.
Im not a liberal nor am I white or rich. Canadians really arent an issue with me. Its the people who have the "take over" attitude and mentality. I moved to Portland from Lost Angeles Mexifornia a year ago. Boy did I make a big mistake. I think I'll be moving to Canada in the near future.hehe. Im tired of people comparing the other immigrants to justify these mexicans coming in at rediculous rates. Not gonna work for those of us who lived in it and have done the real research called life. Portland is just a bubble, soon to explode. I give it less than 10 years. Learn spanish. NWO
"Take over" attitude & mentality, eh? You mean the same "take over" attitude & mentality that Christian Anglo-Saxon aliens had when THEY started invading this country 600 years ago?
No one is taking away your jobs, Americans... There're always jobs. Its either you are too lazy to find it or you are too busy to find scapegoat and blame the foreigners. If an illegal Canadian can find a job in the US, why can't you? Your government is already making so much restrictions on legal and illegal foreign workers, and you tell me with all the advantages you have, you can't find a job. Do you live with your mom or something?
What a bunch of hateful garbage many of you are spewing(ahem, Jack Bootay, for one). How did you become this way and an even more important question- what does it take to deliver you from such a destructive, misanthropic, racist mindset? Expend that energy elsewhere.
Ignore Jack Bootay. He sounds like another angry white dude who has never really known a Mexican beyond the stereotype. My daughter is dating an illegal who is far and above, more honorable and hard working than most American citizen slackers I know. I'm Italian, and my ancestors were given the same treatment as racists such as Jack. Same old shit. I agree, we need immigration reform, but it's more complicated than your xenophobia can handle right now. So bro Jack, maybe you can come down off your horse and see what's it's like not being you for a moment.
Rational thinking will always expose the fallacies of a pro-illegal immigration posture. Morgan's story is the exception to the rule. If only the current problem in the US were so delightfully simple! Imagine what nations like Canada would do if they were forced to gapple with a constant invasion by millions of people, most of whom do not possess even a high school education, who didn't speak the language, and who were forced to rely on at least one form of welfare to provide food, shelter, clothing, and education for themselves and a growing family.
The generosity of the U.S. citizens has limits. Although we welcome strangers, we have to teach countries like Mexico how to fish for themselves if we are to solve this growing and unacceptable problem.
"Imagine what nations like Canada would do if they were forced to gapple with a constant invasion by millions of people"
While the way you phrased it is bizarre (invasion? Really? Are they landing on the beaches, rifles held high?) it's a good question. What does Canada do with its immigrant population?
Canada has a much smaller number of undocumented immigrants than the US, but they do have over 200,000 of them: migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?i...
Lately, the Canadian government has been deporting a higher number of them, too.
But Canada's immigration system makes a lot more sense than our own. The fees aren't as sky-high as they are to get a US green card, and the Canadian gov't supports family reunification.
WOW! What a mature response. Well, nazi, you guessed wrong. I'm actually Black. But i DO support my fellow Latino/Latina komrades in arms. We get out in the streets all the time demanding action, human/civil/worker/immergrant/indigenous rights; demanding what's rightfully OURS! Where as you racist cowards wouldn't know a fight if it were right infront ov you!
How un-educated you must be...
What's rightfully yours? You mean, what isn't actually yours but that you want given to you for free anyway because of some perceived injustice that you made up to have an excuse to bitch and moan in public, right? Let me guess, you also carry around a sign that says, "We're not illegal!" and march in protest for the rights of illegals, who have no rights here because they're not citizens.
Yeah, why don't you just change your name to "Hopelessly Naive" while you're at it because you have no clue what effects immigration has on society or what the issue is even about.
It is rightfully yours if you were BORN in this country or whet through the proper process to become an American Citizen. What gets me is that illegals DEMAND to have the rights that we have but are so quick to put down our country. If you dont like it GO HOME! I pay for the things I have. They arent given to me. I dont use government services and my husband actually qualifies because he is a VET, yet illegals demand to have all of us that do pay taxes, pay for their housing and medical costs. Maybe if our government quit handing out money to everyone BUT our citizens, those that dont belong here will tire of it all and go back home.
That makes the two of you, Jefe.
It is actually a little frightening to realize the level of ignorance and hate revolving around the issue of immigration (I don't watch Fox News - I'm not a chimpanzee - so pardon my naivete).
If "most immigrants do not possess even a high school education, and don't speak the language", blame your own government, who decided some 45 years ago that unemployable parents and illiterate spouses of existing immigrants should enjoy priority over Ph.D entrepreneurs with no family ties to the U.S. You reap what you sow; you get what you deserve; in this instance, you get inexpensive lawn care. Enjoy, instead of bitching!
Ya know, I'd respond properly, but your posts are so nonsensical that I don't know where to begin. Makes the two of me? What? Blame my government for the lack of education in other nation's citizens? Huh? Where did I even mention education? My argument all along has been that anyone should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. so long as they do it legally. Where do you get all of this other stuff?
Oh wait, I think I get it. You're not so goods wit da english, is ya. If its ain't fulls of da curses at the goverments you don'ts understands it. Okay. I feel ya now dawg. Carry on then. Carry on.
Morgan, go home please. You're undermining the labor market. The blue collar workforce gets bent over by illegal immigration. It has depressed wages for the last 30 years.
Also, universal healthcare is not free. There are trade offs to be sure. By limiting the supply of doctors, you'll have long wait times and shortages. No doubt the healthcare industry needs tweaking but I'm not so sure that universal healthcare is the answer. It's a very complex question and we do have socialized medicine called Medicare & Medicaid that will be underfund by 20-30 trillion dollars in roughly 20 years. These socialized programs will collapse.
One thing i've noticed as conspicuously absent from this whole immergration debate is WHY. WHY are people from Mexico/Latin America coming here, "illegally" or otherwise? Could it be b/c ov NAFTA rules set in place back in the early '90's (signed by Bill Clinton, yes i know that) took 100,000's ov jobs out ov Mexico & sunt them over-seas?
And if all you narrow-minded racists want ALL the "illegals" to go home, then let them. Mow YOUR OWN DAMN LAWNS! See how long that lasts.
The Mexican government is responsible for much of the illegal migration. It has even provided maps to would-be migrants to ensure they get to the U.S. safely so they can eventually set up shop and begin contributing to the flow of remittances sent southward. Mexico is richer than 80% of the world's nations. It has the resources and human capital to build prosperity. What's stopping it? Violence, corruption, an irresponsible birthrate contribute to much of the problem. Rather than working hard to mitigate the causes, the Mexican government exports its problems to the U.S. That's counterproductive. Why draw off the very people who might turn Mexico into a true democracy without all the graft and corruption?
Your argument about NAFTA falls on deaf ears, amigo. The U.S. has lost a tremendous number of jobs to overseas concerns as well. The middle class is shrinking as a result. And exactly who is benefiting from this transference of labor to lower-wage regions on the planet? Why, the upper echelons of big business, that's who. But we must not forget that there is no such thing as cheap labor. If businesses were forced to trade fairly, respecting humans and their environments, NAFTA and other global trade agreements would have to be revised and, arguably, would lose much of their 'punch.'
Bottom line -- times are tough for the middle and lower classes. But that doesn't give anyone the right to break the law (e.g., enter a sovereign nation illegally).
Damos; Not only will these racists have to mow their own lawns, (maybe some of them do), they're going to have a hard time finding someone to work in all the motels and hotels, not to mention work in redmodeling houses that the wealthy flippers are hiring them to do at pathetically low wages.
An illegal immigrant couple from Mexico came up from California (where they can't get a license) and stayed with me and my then wife (Mexican) just to get a drivers license. Exactly what the new law is stopping.
My experiences with Mexicans (Latinos) I am white and was married for 5+ years to a Mexican woman-
Latinos hate they are all assumed to be Mexican.
They hate they are all assumed to be illegal.
Illegals share information how to use the system. WIC, Churches, hospitals.
I know of three illegal immigrant women who came here to have babies.
I know of an illegal caught for drunk driving and the judge knew he would change his name but didn't not hold him or report him. He was still here 6 months later with a new name.
A couple of years ago a SSN was $40 in Woodburn. I don't know if that has changed.
Some laugh at the US as they take advantage of our services.
Some are thankful that there are opportunities here and make the best of it.
Some go home knowing it is easy to sneak back in even if it is a little dangerous.
Someone I know easily slipped through San Diego with a Passport where they looked similar. San Diego officials barely looked.
A Portland car dealership had no problems loaning money to people they knew had a bad social security number.
Until last Spring, the vast majority of illegals could get a home loan with someone else's SSN.
I know of some who put 10 dependents on their tax forms and then change their names later to not pay taxes.
In 2005, people sending money to Mexico was the #2 source of revenue.
A Newspaper in Mexico said if it wasn't for that money, a specific state would be bankrupt.
Even with drivers license they still lack car insurance.
Based on my relationships and knowledge I would say this data is pulled from a group of 500 people. In the end that is all we can do is base our information on what we know.
When I visited Mexico the first time, I expected them to dislike me as I would be taking away one of their own.
They treated me like family every time I visited. even random people I would meet in Mexico were great and kind. I love them and still stay in contact with them through my ex.
We should enforce the laws we have. But I have wondered if we allowed the situation to be what it is because in the end it strengthened Mexico and might lead us to a border like we have with Canada.
There's my 4 cents. Go ahead and attack.
Nate, thanks for your insight. It's appreciated, from me atleast.
But for the "GO HOME" crowd, let ask you this: If ALL "illegals" were to "go home" today, would you fill their positons? Would you all be willing to: do your own landscaping?
Clean your own homes?
Wash your own clothes?
Do the farm work?
Do all the construction?
Why is there nothing to be said about EMPLOYERS who willingly hire people who are un-documented? A friend ov mine used to work as a server in an Olive Garden - a big, fancy, National chain/resturaunt. She told me they had several un-documented workers on staff & KNEW it.
Jefe:
Your previous post said: "you have no clue what effects immigration has on society or what the issue is even about". Hence my comment: "That makes the two of you". Get it now? Get it?
Damos:
You are right, of course. But consider that the "Go home" crowd is more likely to clean their homes themselves than have it done, etc. and you can see how that argument matters little. Immigrants do benefit them, though, but in ways they don't have the intellectual tools to understand. But it's OK. Society would be a tougher place if everyone were smart.
If everyone were smart and honest, they wouldn't blur the distinction between illegal immigration and legal immigration. They would also understand the myriad problems unchecked illegal immigration brings.
The United States has the most liberal immigration policies on the planet. It also has the authority to determine who enters, on what terms, and when. Don't demonize people who aren't in favor of open borders. You obviously have an axe to grind. Listen up --http://www.numbersusa.com/video
So then, you're attempting to accuse me of not understanding the effects? If so then I have to advise you to actually pull your own head out of your own ass and educate yourself because all you've demonstrated here, aside from your tenuous grasp of the English language and its rules of syntax and grammar, is that you are yet another sad and naive anarchist whose only goal is to use pseudo-intellectualism to rattle the sabers of other malcontents and defame those with legitimate arguments. Where others offer facts and rational arguments you scream back with incoherent, hate-filled rhetoric. Where others call for responsibility on all parts you cry for disobedience and free rides. Sadly you are stereotypical of your side of this debate. Ignore facts, ignore rational debate, ignore critical thinking; simply yell louder and cry fouler. This is why you and your ilk do not and cannot understand this debate. It is complex and it is far reaching, two criteria which your sophomoric mind obviously cannot grapple with.
Well the "go home" crowd doesn't just include poor-middle class Whites, but also much richer, wealthier hypocrites. Rush Limbaugh's un-documented maid was also his drug currier. Mitt Romneys' mormon mansion is/was something ov an "illigeal" sanctuary ov un-documented servants.
@ Thomas: To quote you in your comment no.45 "(e.g., enter a sovereign nation illegally)"
Kinda like when WE entered Iraq? Something similar to that?
Thomas, I'm familiar with numbersusa.com. They do make some good points. My problem is not with regulating or restricting immigration. My problem is with ignorant cretins who speak when they should shut up, with Fox News-brainwashed morons who think Panama is in Mexico and who bleat about "aliens who break the law" and other bullshit that thinly covers their racism.
I would have to add that your statement that the US has the most liberal immigration policies on the planet is incorrect. In fact US immigration policies have become among the most restrictive among democracies, topped only by Japan, Switzerland, and a couple of others. The exception is if you have a relative who is a US citizen, a loophole which it would not be unreasonable to close. Incidentally, you will notice that Japan and Switzerland have sky-high costs of living. Coincidence? I don't think so. Savings from cheap labor get passed on to everyone. Kick all the illegals out, and the resulting inflation would make 1981's 18% mortgage rates look tame.
listen here billy, your a complete jackass who has absolutly noting better to do than to complain about shit that doesn't concern you. Even if these immagrinants were doin wrong by coming over to feed there families, there also feeding ours beacuse, i own a farm that for a long time employed these workers but, they proved to be great people with great morals.That help work the felds now i may not be college educated but at least i know the truth of this economy from several perspectives.Not just the rich republican's
Do you pay them a good wage?
I have heard some stories of how farmers treated the illegals because they won't go to the authorities. I am not saying you do that but I am asking what you pay.
And it does concern all of us as illegals, the ones I have known, quite often add dependents that don't exist which in turn lowers their taxes paid. They also use WIC and other social services.
Just because you want the labor doesn't mean it doesn't concern others.
Wow - reading all these comments it is disgraceful and disgusting! People are SO full of hate, contempt and bitterness. One just has to read the comments on this page to see that there is NO way that America will EVER be able to get it's shit together. It is displays of pure HATE like displayed here that has brought me to the decision that I am going to leave the U.S. People state how there are SO many people trying to get INTO the U.S. but NOT people trying to get out. That's an INCORRECT statement because I am getting OUT of this WHACKED country and I know PLENTY of people that already HAVE left this country and more that are in the process of leaving. When it gets to the point where a person sees NO light of hope that things will change for the better for ALL people, or seeing how this country is going BACKWARDS, then it's time to leave. I'm just happy to be leaving all you HATEFUL people to tear at each other's throats. It will be nice to see from the outside looking in how you all self-destruct and how this country will IMPLODE from all your HATE. Good riddance to you ALL and all of your BULLSHIT! You all deserve each other!!
Good riddance.
Disgusted, i for one don't blame you one damn bit! And if i were enabled to join a union & earn a LIVING wage for myself, i'd save up my money & move to a much nicer, more tolerant, less bigoted country myself!
Word Disgusted! The outright dumbshit racism is a symptom of this country's unremitting regressive history, not to mention a probably flawed educational system and isolationism in which these people seem to be living. et off your damn white ass horses and open your eyes.
Please allow me to introduce myself - I'm a man of wealth and taste . . .
. . . But whats puzzling you is the nature of my game.
Tools Fools Tools FoolsTools FoolsTools FoolsTools.
We've only just begun . . . . . .eh . . tony?
I find it funny that liberals will scream for better wages but don't have a problem with Illegal Aliens working here and driving wages lower.
As someone in the Construction Industry in the 80s I paid a Sheetrocker $10.00 an hr. Do to the Illegal's working in the Construction Industry a sheetrocker today makes about $10.00 an hr. Go Figure.
I really don't care where they are from they are here Illegally. If they were gone the business would have to pay a better wage and the better wages would go up across the board in all industries. I do believe that is what the Unions and the Democrats Always Cry.
Oh Yea didn't Clinton help Create NAFTA and Defazio and the rest of the Oregon Ilk Voted for it.
For once I agree with the Unions.
Your blaming the wrong people. Yes, Clinton and the rest were wrong, especially since NAFTA and all the other global acronyms did nothing to consider labor standards or environmental protection (re: China). Illegals may be illegal, but there are reasone for the exodus that are a bigger picture than just calling them criminals. The mexican economy and givernment is unfavorable so migranst look for a better life here. Funny, that was never a problem when white Europeans did that and did not face the beaurocratic nightmare of becoming legal. I agree with your sentiment, but you can't just export 12 mill people who are actually helping the economy. The solution rests with curtailing further immigration, reforming the trade agreements and making these illegals legal without all the BS involved.
If the Illegal's put as much effort into trying to change their country as they do here with marches and such maybe they could change things over there. But that way is to hard and the US will just hand out to them whatever they ask.
As to how much they help our economy I would argue that. It's a fact almost 80% of their income goes to their homeland.
As for Becoming legal My father was an Immigrant here on a Student Visa. He spent five years here and meet all the requirements top become a US Citizen including learning to Speak English. It is actually eaiser to become a citizen now then it was 45 yrs ago.
Have you ever looked at the Test?
What colors are in the Flag??
Give me a break.
I must say you aren't educated on the Requirements to become a citizen. One of them is a restriction as to how many from a particular country due to the ability to assimilate into US socity.
Amnesty was granted in the 80's and it didn't work then and it won't work now. We need to enforce our law. The economy will struggle at first but it will survive and Market force will determine what you pay for a jar of Jelly.
Congrats to Morgan. He can make $20,000 a year and not pay taxes. As a U.S. citizen, I make $5.50 more an hour than Morgan does. Yet, after taxes, I get to take home a mere $27,000 a year. And I also have no health insurance. I simply cannot afford it.
What's REALLY wrong here? Morgans life? Or mine?
Very interesting story. As a Canadian who's lived in the states before I can't really relate to it. I followed the laws of the land and got my SSN etc. Why'd I bother? Apparently I could have gotten away with almost anything. Of course, I'm not swarthy or speak with an accent so that takes me off the suspicion list.