Press One For English

I never understood why everything is geared toward Spanish. We have hundreds of languages spoken in this country yet all my household products, including the potato chips, have everything written in English and Spanish. Just try calling any company in this nation and it'll ask you to press one for English or two for Spanish.

I read an article today in the paper titled "Report: Missed Family Members Deportations under '96 law separates loved ones".

There is a lot of boo-hoo in this, but you have the read seemingly, between the lines.

An estimated 1.6 million children and spouses have been separated from family members forced to leave the country under toughened 1996 immigration laws, a human rights group said Wednesday.

Toughened? Since when? Come on, your pulling my leg!

The widespread impact on American families has been truly devastating.

American? If they're so easily getting deported--they're not American!

In 1996, Congress toughened immigration laws making immigrants, legal and illegal, deportable according to an expanded list of "aggravated felonies". ...Since the law has passed 672,593 immigrants have been deported for crimes...."

672,593....that's it?

If they're legal and actually paying taxes like the rest of us working slobs, I doubt they'd get yanked onto a boat unless it was truly a heinous crime.

"How do you explain to a child that her father has been sent thousands of miles away and can never come home simply because he forged a check?" said Allison Parker, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch.

Simply forged a check? Apparently this lady has never had anything stolen from her. Forging a check is stealing. It's in the Ten Commandments, people! I mean, if one is to forge a check, what's to stop that person from going further? Why not hold up a bank and shoot from folks for their money?

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas said in a statement, immigrants who violate the law forfeit their right to be in the US.

Right on. And further more, families are legally allowed to leave the country with those deported for criminal offenses. If your parents are born on US soil, and you are born on US soil, and your parent commits a crime and is sent to jail--guess what?--the family will still be separated. It doesn't matter to a judge whether you are foreign born or not. If the judge is a decent judge, he or she will recognize a crime for what it is and yes, perhaps separate a family in order to punish the crime. If someone in my family performs a violent act--I would certainly like to be separated from them.