The Statue Of Liberty; for immigrants

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Author: Emma Lazarus

This is the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. Many folks are justifying giving instant amnesty to individuals who entered the country, not through the golden door, but through the window or under the fence.

If you want to enter, knock on the door, you are welcome if you are not sick with a contagious disease or are here to break our laws. But just so you know, there is a line of people ahead of you, so please be patient.

 

Sort of ironic, the statue being in NY.

Fair point though, before the 20s the US had a relatively free system of immigration.

 

Question: Why do you see that a being ironic? I'm puzzled.

HHowever, I happen to believe in the sustaining nature of that poem, still, on the other side of the coin, I wonder how the indians felt when we came in and took over "their" country

 

Its not an inscription on the Statue, its on a plaque in the pedestal and wasn't added until some 20 years after it was built. No immigrant ever saw it as they did not pass though the pedestal while being processed at Ellis Island.

I agree with the rest.

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Then what was all that Chinese Exclusion Act about, or the other laws limiting immigrants?

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Most Indians in the beginning gave the settlers portions of their lands to live upon, but being as how even the Indians were migrants living on lands they claimed and conquered.......

 

As I explained, the poem is inviting the hudddled masses in through the door, not through the locked window.

Probably like any other conquered people throughout history. What do you think?

 

IIRC, That was in response to a treaty with the Chinese government to not permit Chinese immigrants to become U.S. citizens, until U.S.A. v. Kim Wong Ark.

 

Wow.....just.....wow.

Here are some bans before 1920.

Chinese...couldn't come in
Anarchists...couldn't come in
Political extremists...couldn't come in
Polygamists...couldn't come in
Infectious disease people...couldn't come in
Mentally ill people...couldn't come in
Beggars...couldn't come in
Epileptic people...couldn't come in
Imbeciles...couldn't come in
People with disabilities that prevented them from working...could not come in
feeble-minded persons...could not come in
Tuberculosis people...couldn't come in
Children without parents...couldn't come in
Those who committed moral crimes...could not come in
Homosexuals...couldn't come in
Idiots...couldn't come in
Alcoholics...couldn't come in

I don't understand what they are teaching you guys in schools anymore.

You need to research this topic further. Look up the immigration acts of 1917, 1907, the naturalization act of 1906, the Anarchist Exclusion Act, The Geary Act, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, The immigration act of 1891, the Scott Act, and so on..........

its embarrassing
You had to pass a literacy exam by reading a random 40 word selection in your native language
You needed to speak English to become a citizen
Chinese who were here needed to carry an ID card at all times

 

That's just it. It's not supposed to be about who comes in legal or not. It's supposed to be about those who are willing to make the journey. Even if it's a journey filled with many perils, then America would want them. If they're willing to suffer and show their strength in making the journey, then they're wanted by the US. If it's traveling by boat on overcrowded ships or crossing the border through the help of Coyotes, then they would be wanted because they have shown their willingness to work hard and become Americans.

 

Where did you hear that?

We turned boatloads of Jews and sent them back to Nazi Europe because America had hits its quota on Jewish immigrants already.

Read the Emergency Quota Law of 1921

 

Um.....no.

 

That's it, we believe you because you say so?

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Should we have quotas? Should we have borders? Should everyone who wants to be permitted to immigrate?
<br>[video] http://youtu.be/LPjzfGChGlE[/video]

 

Do I need to walk you through WKA and show you that you dont know what granted Chinese citizens the ability to apply for citizenship in the US? WKA was a 14th amendment birth case to someone here who was both domiciled and allowed by our govt to be here. It wasn't until the 1940's that Asains were allowed to apply for citizenship here.

 

The 14th Amendment was to grant citizenship to newly freed slaves. If they were never granted citizenship, their decedents would never be citizens since as non-citizens they were never under the jurisdiction of the laws of the U.S.

Bone up on your history and law.

 

Huh? NO. The 1870 Immigration and Nationality Act did that. The 1866 Civil Rights Act granted children born to freemen citizenship at birth. The 14th Amendment BRC is nothing more than declaratory of existing law.

No need to bone up on it, as I know it extremely well, which is why I have been pointing out your fallacies of it.

 

Except for the fact that we also require people to pony up loads of cash and have skills that would already make them wealthy in their current country.

We are deliberately turning away the poor, the tired, and the hungry.

 

You do realize the the U.S. Constitution with all Amendments is foundational law, RIght?

 

When the Statue of Liberty was erected, there was not a 6-10 year wait for otherwise qualified immigrants. In addition, there wasn't a quota system from different countries. Anybody who got to the correct place could come in.

The current system is broken. The President did nothing to fix it, but Congress hasn't done anything to fix it either.

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We should permit the sound of mind and body to come here, as long as they have a means of support. We shouldn't have a quota system based on country of origin.

 

The 14th amendment did much more than grant citizenship to newly freed slaves:

 

OK so what.

 

&#8216;I've now been to all fifty seven states' said I
But one state Mexico and El-salvador skipped by
Fifty seven states of mind
Fifty seven states to blind
Fifty seven states of mine
Fifty seven states to fine
Fifty seven for the rule of mob
Fifty seven for the world to rob

 

This isn't true at all. We turned away people who were sick, who had no marketable skills, who couldn't pass literacy and intelligence tests, etc. We were a lot more selective.

And, before the 20's we didn't have a welfare state for people to come take advantage of. It's no coincidence that we had an extremely low level of Mexicans back in those days.

 

Actually, before the 1960s (when we "tightened" the border), Mexicans would go back and forth--it wasn't a big deal. Then when the border tightened up somewhat, albeit not enough to stop them, they started staying because it was too hard to come back if they left. Our immigration systems is broken, and needs to be reformed.

 

Or they could simply use whats already in place with a no cap on the H2A visa that gets unused. Or they could use the many other visas available, the TN specifically for Mexican and Canadian citizens, goes barely used. border crossing cards, etc. How can the system be broken if people refuse to use the proper channels?

 

A Mexican citizen, who is related to an American citizen and is otherwise eligible to immigrate, takes about 6-8 yrs to "wait" in line to come over as a resident alien. That is evidence of the broken system. The TN is for a very limited set of professions. All the various visas you are mentioning is part of the problem with the system. It is byzantine and the only people that like it are bureaucrats.

 

Not really, but whats the problem with that? Nearly every country in EU does it, but they actually stick to it. Look at their laws. FAR harsher than ours, yet they're applauded for it and we're called monsters.