Immigrants Scared To Drive In Nashville
By Kleinheider Posted on July 2, 2009 at 7:28 amBecause, well, there are not supposed to be here:
When the Martinez family drives the half-hour from home into Nashville, wife Deanna is behind the wheel every time.
It’s not because of some standing debate between husband and wife about who is the better driver. It’s because Deanna Martinez’s husband is one of the estimated 130,000 to 170,000 illegal immigrants living in Tennessee.
He can’t renew his driver’s license since Tennessee tightened the documentation requirements a few years ago. And Davidson County is the only place in the state where the sheriff’s office participates in a federal program in which a traffic stop can lead to deportation.
“Imagine sitting at the breakfast table one day and your husband saying, ‘I’m going to be deported because I forgot to use my blinker when I changed lanes the other day.’ That’s just not a risk we like to take,” Martinez said.
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Mr. Martinez should be deported for being here illegally. That fact that he got caught for committing another crime is irrelevant to his illegal status.
Please take the time to read the comments below the Tennessean’s article, is asking for a journalist to be killed OK?
What is wrong with this people? The say NO to every opportunity of reform and then they complain because nothing changed, because everything stayed the same.
The only way to solve this problem is comprehensive immigration reform.
Fabian..
WE DO NOT NEED REFORM! We need our immigration laws ENFORCED. period.
The problem is not current immigration legislation. The problem is we are not ENFORCING the Current legislation.
Your side have been saying this for years, and that is the only thing you will agree to, isn’t it time to try something else? To look for a broad solution?
You complain about amnesty, but don’t explain that the thing you don’t agree to is allowing an undocumented person to apply for a visa without leaving the USA for 10 years (the current punishment for overstaying your visa). That is it! If people get the opportunity to apply for a visa you scream! I don’t understand why is that such a huge problem to your side of this issue.
The laws not being enforced are the ones that allow employers to hire illegals and not face serious penalties.
The illegals are not coming here for the weather and they’re not coming because they love country music. The entire problem should be laid at the foot of business.
You anti-immigrant assholes know this, and yet, you’re unwilling to call small and large business owners on to the carpet to account. Until you can keep your own house in order, stop bitching.
Spaz those need to be enforced too.
No beef from me on that one.
I love people to immigrate to our country, and strive to become citizens. LEGALLY.
How can we expect to have immigrants that come to this country to become Citizens that respect our country, when their first act is entering our nation ILLEGALLY. Thus not showing respect for our nation’s laws.
Spaz.. you need to get learn the meaning of 2 words, with the same root word.
Main Entry: 1le·gal
Pronunciation: \ˈlē-gəl\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Anglo-French, from Latin legalis, from leg-, lex law
Date: circa 1500
1: of or relating to law
2 a: deriving authority from or founded on law : de jure b: having a formal status derived from law often without a basis in actual fact : titular c: established by law ; especially : statutory
3: conforming to or permitted by law or established rules
4: recognized or made effective by a court of law as distinguished from a court of equity
5: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the profession of law or of one of its members
6: created by the constructions of the law
THIS IS GOOD AND PROPER AND ACCEPTABLE
Main Entry: 1le·gal
Pronunciation: \ˈlē-gəl\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Anglo-French, from Latin legalis, from leg-, lex law
Date: circa 1500
1: of or relating to law
2 a: deriving authority from or founded on law : de jure b: having a formal status derived from law often without a basis in actual fact : titular c: established by law ; especially : statutory
3: conforming to or permitted by law or established rules
4: recognized or made effective by a court of law as distinguished from a court of equity
5: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the profession of law or of one of its members
6: created by the constructions of the law
THIS IS BAD, IMPROPER, AND UNACCEPTABLE.
Main Entry: 1il·le·gal
Pronunciation: \(ˌ)i(l)-ˈlē-gəl\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle French or Medieval Latin; Middle French illegal, from Medieval Latin illegalis, from Latin in- + legalis legal
Date: 1538
: not according to or authorized by law : unlawful, illicit ; also : not sanctioned by official rules (as of a game)
— il·le·gal·i·ty \ˌi-li-ˈga-lə-tē\ noun
— il·le·gal·ly \(ˌ)i(l)-ˈlē-gə-lē\ adverb
Guys
You guys love soundbites and generalizations, unfortunately this issue is more complex than that, and that is why the proposal is for a comprehensive solution.
Millions of people that are in the USA without an immigration status (you call them “illegals”) never entered the USA illegally, they just stayed here after their Visa expired. You should look for other words in the dictionary, like Status Quo, or do-nothing.
Let’s review:
http://www.politicalvine.com/opinion/opinionview7294.html
Like I said, do-nothing.
Worked really well so far…
Janell Ross and Chris Echegaray have bylines on that Tennessean story, which follows pattern. The paper’s various immigration-beat reporters of the past few years have employed little actual journalism in their “reporting,” which in their case is better termed as advocacy. Here is part of an e-mail I sent to Ross and editor Mark Silverman a few days ago regarding another immigration-related story Ross “reported.”
“Ms. Ross:
I am catching up on some newspaper reading today and saw your June 16 story about immigrants. Your story contains several inaccuracies, among them your statement that illegal aliens are ineligible for public benefits.
Actually, illegal aliens are eligible for a number of public benefits, including Medicaid for ‘emergency’ care (which in the documentation of the immigration control movement has included a lot of nonemergency coverage in emergency rooms). Illegal aliens are also eligible for WIC [WIC has another name now] and other nutrition programs, access to free or reduced-fee public clinics and health care programs specific to certain states, the ‘free’ school lunch program, and public education. In addition, they get free translators/interpreters in our system, free English instruction, and assorted other taxpayer-subsidized benefits for which they do not have to pay.
The costs of illegal immigration far exceed any payment in taxes made by illegal aliens, as their payments in income taxes are relatively minimal, according to IRS data on use of and filing by Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, which illegal aliens would use to file. According to IRS data analyzed by the Center of Immigration Studies and others, illegal aliens are most likely to file when they have refunds coming. Otherwise, not, though some do pay taxes in hopes this will help them attain U.S. citizenship later on. Payment of sales taxes barely dents the costs of public education and English instruction for illegal aliens and their U.S.-born offspring, much less other benefits they use.
Their U.S.-born children are eligible for all public welfare programs, and these payments go to the households, so illegal aliens benefit greatly from those handouts as well and are well aware of the benefits of having children here, as we have seen in some recordings made undercover by off-duty Latino law enforcement officers in California and Georgia. These recordings were given to the immigration-control movement. I saw one recorded in Georgia about 9 years ago in which a Mexican consul general was seen and heard addressing a roomful of apparently illegal aliens and advising them how to tap into our welfare system, including by having children here as quickly as possible.
This sort of ‘advice’ and ‘assistance’ is common in the vast receiving networks for illegals in place all over this country. Connection Americas indeed.
I told an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter about the recording I had seen and introduced him to the high-ranking Georgia INS officer who held it. As far as I know, the newspaper never reported about this….
Immigration controllers in Georgia analyzed county-by-county data on births to foreign-born mothers who used Emergency Alien Medicaid (which would kick in for illegal aliens, since legal aliens are eligible for regular Medicaid), and based on that and other data, including labor, I estimated that at least 1 million illegal aliens of assorted nationalities were living in Georgia when I left there in 2002 to return to my home state of Tennessee.
My daughter was a victim of an illegal-alien driver in Atlanta in 1999. She survived. Many did not.
The Tennessean is known for its slanted reporting on a number of issues — you so obviously take your marching orders from the chambers of commerce, no friend of average American taxpayers and workers. The paper is an unprofessional, inaccurate, highly slanted advocate for illegal aliens and an unapologetic excuser of illegal immigration….
A futile suggestion: Try some investigation of the other side for a change. Follow the money.
Donna Locke
Columbia, TN”
Mrs Locke
I understand that you are mad about what is going on, I am too; yet you refuse to propose any way to deal with this problem that can ever succeed. If we where to follow your lead this problem will never get solved.
Let people apply for visas, and everything you write on your letter will be addressed.
Fabian, you say true enforcement and true securing of the borders can never succeed. It has never been tried. We’ve had a hit and a lick here, a hit and a lick there, we’ve had distraction, deception, smokescreens, pretense. Because the profiteers (by money and power) have been in control. We’ve been had.
What I say is that we have a solution at hand, and you are letting it get away because you have a definition of True that is, I believe, unattainable.
My best wishes to you for a wonderful 4th of July. I am looking forward to it.
Yes, and he loves your enthusiasm, Donna.
Or, you know, passion.
Fabian Comprehensive solution. ENFORCE THE CURRENT LAWS.
No problem, no need for reform, no need to give 22 million illegals work permits when 27,000,000 US Citizens are UNEMPLOYED
Fabian… if they are here after their VISA has expired… they are here Illegally…
To be LEGAL they would have had to had their VISAs RENEWED…
and I am not talking about their credit card.
Wait a minute — I thought I was writing to this guy:
http://www.fabianforte.net/