War seems inevitable.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=us&cat=immigration

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, no?

Unreal.

yeah, i read that this morning on Reuters. I'm entertaining pitches for other countries to reside in.... go.

Buchanan must be thrilled.

That really pisses me off. Right now, our country is trying its damnest to convince the Islamic/Muslim world that we are not declaring war against their religion. Then they (whether it was the local government, federal agencies, or whoever exactly was in charge of this) go and do something like this. That is a great way to envoke hatred and resentment among the very people you are suppose to be pacifying.

God life confuses me. I am raised with parents and grandparents who have retired from the service and have had wave after wave of patriotic speeches from them about how America is the greatest country on the face of the planet, and how I should thank god everyday that I live here and not some doomed third world country. I have heard how Mexico is the armpit of the North American continent, and how the French don’t bathe, and now that Arabs are taking over. And then I read that people obeying societies rules are being imprisoned. I am not trying to paint the people as martyrs, but something doesn’t make sense and I just know that my generation will pay for these things. I don’t have the voice to stop them now and in all truth if my country asked me to fight for her I would, but I know arresting those people wasn’t right (just as it was not right to arrest the Japanese in WWII). I know they had legal recourse to do so but it doesn’t make it just. And the whole damn thing confuses me.

Now all they're missing is the "delousing showers" and boxcars...

pca

I get the distinct impression that those in charge in the Police States of America have never even opened a history book.

pca

it's shameful. imagine if the same thing was to happen in another country, jailing americans that show up to comply. we'd freak, we'd wave our flag, impose sanctions and drop bombs.
but I'm sure in 50 years we'll apologize.

Strange...I've been watching CNN for about an hour now and they haven't even mentioned it. I'd think this would be a big news story?

My parents were also in the service. They didn't retire until I was in my senior year in college. I now work for a (large) defense contractor, with a whole lot of retired military people. I believe that this country is great, but these actions still piss me off.

I read the whole article, they are rounding people up who aren't supposed to be here. Their visas are expired,etc. I bet they aren't doing this with our spanish speaking friends who provide cheap labor. Folks that aren't supposed to be here should be sent back to where they came from, but this is a very sad way of choosing to do it. There will be many innocent people caught up in this due to the inefficency of the INS. A very sad day for our country if this turns out to be true. I feel bad for those with expired visas, but legally they don't have a leg to stand on.

Strange...I've been watching CNN for about an hour now and they haven't even mentioned it. I'd think this would be a big news story?

Well I'm sure they would post it normally, but with important stories like this one in the news, I reckon they don't have room for anything else...

I agree. If they're not supposed to be here any more, deport them. That's fine. But rounding them up and cramming them into jail cells that the term overcrowding doesn't begin to accurately describe is just wrong. In fact, cramming people together in too little space seems to have become a mantra for our goverment these days.

Strange...I've been watching CNN for about an hour now and they haven't even mentioned it. I'd think this would be a big news story?

All the more reason to get your local news from outside the country. I preferred the BBC coverage of 9/11/01, and it looks like I'll be reading the real news about the war on Iraq there as well.

The United States' self-image, and to a certain extent their image abroad, is all about equality, opportunity, civil rights and so on. But it's increasingly looking as if the period between Jim Crow and McCarthyism on the one hand, and Homeland Security on the other, was a brief island of civil rights in a sea of inequality.

Peter

In reply to:

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The United States' self-image, and to a certain extent their image abroad, is all about equality, opportunity, civil rights and so on.

But it's increasingly looking as if the period between Jim Crow and McCarthyism on the one hand, and Homeland Security on the other, was a brief island of civil rights in a sea of inequality.

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Yes, but those rights only extend to people with Green Cards/US citizenship.

If you have no Green Card and you are in the US (or in its way, in another country - friendly to the US or not), you should have realised by now that since September 11 - you have no rights whatsoever.

Its the same reason why the UK government routinely locks up (and locked up) all refugees and asylum seekers in prisons that look very much like Auswich (minus the ovens) - and this occurred long before September 11.

In reply to:

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INS spokesman Arcaute said those arrested had violated immigration laws, overstayed their visas, or were wanted for crimes.

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In that case, it's about time they round these people up. I'm not saying put them all in jail indefinitely, but either make sure they got their visa green card or whatever or send them back home. I don't know about you, but I don't want foreingers who aren't here legally to be here, especially arabs since arabic terrorists are our #1 enemy.

Strange...I've been watching CNN for about an hour now and they haven't even mentioned it. I'd think this would be a big news story?

Thats because CNN reported it on December 17th in a rather less dramatic way.
They also included comments from the INS about why folks were detained.

Still not very appealing though.

Actually around 10:30 last night is when it was mentioned... Definately not appealing.

If you have no Green Card and you are in the US (or in its way, in another country - friendly to the US or not), you should have realised by now that since September 11 - you have no rights whatsoever.

That is correct. But the Immigration and Naturalization Service is a monument of inefficiency, and I can guarantee you that a significant percentage of the people who were jailed had done everything right with respect to their paperwork, and just had gotten lost in the red tape. The INS's screwups leading up to 9/11 are well-documented, and now instead of cleaning up their act, making things more efficient and stringent, they're just rounding up anyone who "fits the description" and locking them up until they can be sorted out.

Basically, because they can't account for the real terrorists, they're grabbing anyone they can. When we all know that the REAL terrorists aren't the ones that are going to get caught in something like this.

Yeah... but there has to be a better alternative then locking them up... Even deporting them would be better then locking them up... It's F#$$@@ ridiculous that 60 years of civil rights evolution can be flushed down the toilet just because we're a little paranoid (and rightfully so). It's obvious there are no easy solutions, but rounding people up and incarcerating them isn't the answer.... Why give the rest of the world any more reasons to think America sucks? This is not the way to win the support of the Arabic community.... It's giving them more reasons to hate which is exactly what we don't need.

60 years of civil rights evolution can be flushed down the toilet just because we're a little paranoid

Uh...are we just slightly overlooking the fact that these are not American citizens, and as such, have no civil rights.

Not that I agree with throwing them all in prison like criminals. Give 'em a one way ticket home and escort them onto the airline...of course you'd still need to hold them somewhere.

Are these the "white collar resort prisons with conjugal visits" or the "federal pound me in the @$$" prisons that they are putting these folks in?

are we just slightly overlooking the fact that these are not American citizens, and as such, have no civil rights

What about the doctor being sponsored for US Citizenship, but his sponsor died? True, a lot of the people that were collected probably were not in the process of obtaining a green card, but many were. Either way, holding them in stuffy small prisons isn't the right thing to do any way you look at it.

It is discrimantory, if we are collecting people of Arab descent, why aren't we collecting people of every other nationality that don't belong here, and sending them home? Its bad enough that decent, legit Arab US Citizens are being discriminated against for being Arab every day, and now this.

This is a HUGE mistake.

But the Immigration and Naturalization Service is a monument of inefficiency

You have no idea how true that is. My sister's husband has been applying for his green card for the last 12 years and they keep screwing it up. He's been legally married to a US citizen for the last 6 of those...

I was under the impression that if you got married, you could become a regular citizen... Not that I've read any of it. That's just my impression. (Mainly from TV)

Thats how it is suppose to work. Since then he has spent countless days at the INS for his turn, only to find out that they lost his paperwork (again), or they don't have his fingerprints (lost them again), or something else got [censored] up.

You should hear my parents tell the story. It is enough to piss anybody off. And he can't do anything except keep going back and wasting all those days sitting in the office, because if he pisses them off, then they can really start screwing with him.

It is discrimantory, if we are collecting people of Arab descent, why aren't we collecting people of every other nationality that don't belong here, and sending them home? Its bad enough that decent, legit Arab US Citizens are being discriminated against for being Arab every day, and now this.

Exactly. This happened in LA. If anyone knows even the basics of geography, they know that Mexico is pretty close to that area, and there must be a ton of illegal aliens from there that could easially be rounded up and simply drove back home. Why were arabs the only ones out of all the aliens here that were rounded up?

Why were arabs the only ones out of all the aliens here that were rounded up?

Well, of course the reason is they're not scared of the Mexicans bombing anyone.

Just giving you a reason.

Well I think all the illegal immigrants should be rounded up and they have to start somewhere. But if I had to choose between all the arabic illegal aliens or all the mexicans going home first, I'd choose the arabs for the simple reason that there weren't any mexicans hijacking planes on 9/11.

I don't think these people who are going to jail are being arrested simple because they're arabic. The INS guy said they all broke the law, and according to the article, the deadline for the thing they had to go register for was monday.