3 comments

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  Ann

  1 year ago

  It is legal to buy car insurance with a foreign drivers license in California. I would guess the same is true in NY. If this was Spitzer's true goal, he would simply leave it up to the foreign consulates in New York to provide licenses for their citizens who could then purchase insurance. Then their would be no possibility of using the document to vote or get any benefit that is for US citizens.
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  Richard

  1 year ago

  >> virulent anti-immigrant crowd
  
  Why is it anyone who doesn't think illegal immigrants should have the same benefits as legal citizens or immigrants is cast this way?
  
  I'm not against immigration and resent the broad brush you paint with that statement. If you want you maid, housekeeper or gardener to be legal then tell congress! But keep in mind, once they are legal you won't be getting them for substandard wages and you will have to pay state and federal taxes!
  
  I think most people (probably you too) who carry on about illegal immigrants actually want to exploit the cheap labor (below minimum wage, no benefits and skipping out on the taxes owed).
  
  So I want them to become citizens or get worker visas and be recognized for their efforts and have protection. You want them to stay hidden and be paid scraps for doing the work no one else wants to do.
  
  Believe it or not there is a real difference between a legal immigrant and an illegal immigrant! Real immigrants work very hard for their citizenship and you cheapen all of their efforts by lumping all of them together.
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  Jim Harper

  1 year ago

  You may be an exception, Richard, but most people who rail against illegal immigration do not actually want there to be higher rates of legal immigration. They're just anti-immigrant.
  
  The debate in the Congress fit that mold exactly: legal immigration was shrunk by amendment and ANY path to citizenship for people illegally in this country - including provisions for PENALIZING illegal immigrants before they could get legal status - was branded as "amnesty." Your 'anti-illegal-immigrant' colleagues just don't want immigrants here.
  
  Nice try with the ad hominem, Richard, but I don't have a maid, housekeeper, or gardener. I would like to have more laborers in this country to drive prices down for American consumers (while earning more money than they could in their home countries). That's just free markets growing the pie for everyone.
  
  People who pay attention to these issues know that illegal status makes it *easier* to exploit people. Legal immigrants are in a much better position to demand better wages and working conditions.
  
  So dry your crocodile tears and look in the mirror, Richard. I think you'll see an opponent of immigration. You're welcome to prove me wrong by arguing for increased levels of legal immigration and some realistic plan for resolving the legal status of the millions of immigrants that are here.
  
  I don't buy your argument that the nobility of the legal immigrant must be preserved. Just like illegal immigrants, they want to be here and work and pursue the American dream. They're not any more noble for being lucky enough to get one of the few slots for legal immigration and navigating our immigration bureaucracy.
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