The system is just broken everywhere...I was not just saying the US.
I am not saying that everyone needs to be perfect but respectful and tolerant yes.

Respectful yes..............no tolerance on breaking the law on illegal immigration............we just can't afford it

Good JW. It wasn't long ago that my great grandmother immigrated here from Canada after coming from Sweden. A great grandfather came here from Scotland. Pete's grandparents on one side and great grandparents on the other side came from Holland. Guess what the first thing they all did!!! They took classes and passed exams and learned English and got jobs AND BECAME CITIZENS. What a wonderful heritage to hand down to your family!

Amen to that Esther and it was something they could be proud of and they didn't have to take any easy freeloading from anybody.

I don't mean to be down on you Howell or the Mexican people in general. Because I live here in southern California and was a cop here for 30 years I have my own perspective and very strong and firm feelings on what illegal immigration has done to my state.

I live in Orange County California, a relatively affluent county. The county seat is Santa Ana, population of about 400,000. Many illegal immigrants live in Santa Ana. Santa Ana has a high crime rate compared to other cities in the county and it is considered by many, including its residents, to be the armpit of Orange County.

The life style of many of these illegals drives down house prices in Santa Ana. Some families convert their garage into an apartment and rent it out to illegals. A dozen or more young men will live in squaller in these garages. The public schools are filled with their children, most of whom are U.S. citizens simply because they were born here. A significant number never graduate from high school. All the public schools in Santa Ana give the children free breakfast and lunch, money that should go to education.

By law our hospitals cannot turn away emergency patients who can't pay and/or have no health insurance. Thus we pay for the birth of children of illegals......and they have lots of children because as I said the children born on U.S. soil are U.S. citizens. Their parents, although illegal, will collect welfare and health care benefits for their children and if the children are disabled they collect Social Security benefits as well. A recent CBS news report interviewed a Mexican woman living in Phoenix, Arizona. Because of the pending law in that state she was scared of being deported. The interview was conducted in Spanish because she spoke very little English. She and her husband don't work. They have TEN children, all U.S. citizens. Guess who paid for them and continues to pay for them? Illegals learn our system quickly and learn how to abuse it....... In the interview she said they are packing up and moving to Colorado. She was all teary eyed because she was losing her best friend, also here illegally, who she said was moving to California.... Lucky us....

The criminal justice system in California spends many millions a year on illegals. Police respond to calls for service, mostly drunkenness or domestic violence. The county jails spend money on housing illegals pending trial. The courts spend money on trials etc.....

The financial burden is tremendous because these people do not contribute significantly to their costs. They pay no property taxes and property taxes pay for police, fire, education etc. Many work under the table and therefore contribute nothing in either state or federal income taxes. They often have their own economy which does nothing to help. And of course many Mexicans send a significant amount of the money they earn back to Mexico. I have read of the remittances being as high a 9 billion a year.

Americans are extremely generous, the most generous of all nations in my opinion. Every church I have ever attended regularly sends members and money down to Mexico to poor areas to help those people. My wife and I financially support Christian relief organizations to help children in Guatemala, Haiti and Mexico. Many of our Christian friends do the same.

Several of my immediate neighbors either immigrated here from Mexico or their parents immigrated here from Mexico. They hate what they see happening in L.A. and Santa Ana because it reminds them of what they or their parents left behind in Mexico.

Our nation has been blessed by God; tremendously blessed, but we can only share our wealth and bless others as it has been given to us. Americans are willing to help Mexicans but the Mexicans must take the lead and help themselves.

You mention being respectful and tolerant. Coming here illegally is not showing respect. In reference to tolerance, we had this same situation back in the 1980s but not as many illegals. President Reagan, a Republican, worked with Congress and granted amnesty to roughly 3 million illegals. However, many illegals that didn't qualify for amnesty remained here. And typical of Congress, they didn't follow up and enforce the newly enacted legislation that was to stop illegal immigration here. Thus I would say we have been pretty tolerant.....

Great chatting with you Howell! Vive Mexico!

Well mikey, as I said before I am not pro illegals.
And what is wrong with people 10 kids....I am 22 planning on marry till I am 35 and barely having one or at last 2 but that is two risky now-a-days, economy is not good and I would love my kids to get all I have gotten and more.
Those people need to learn to use protection.
I once went to this poor neighborhood in mexico and there were families that had tons of kids and were living in a small house, I was like what the crap is wrong with them.
I was like don't they see that their economy is not even close to good.

Howell, would it make any difference if you were white and were stopped by a black cop? Green and stopped by a blue cop? Old and stopped by a young cop? Just because you are stopped should not be a matter of resistance or fear. Only if you have a reason to fear would it matter. LIke when I was speeding and got stopped....My heart was beating sooo fast because I knew I was in the wrong. It wouldn't have mattered what color the cop was. I had something to hide.

The same went with my son. Eventually he did some stupid stuff with that wrecky car. He didn't have insurance and even though they might not have had a good reason to stop him, it only made any difference to him because he knew he shouldn't have been on the road without insurance. So in that case, even if it wasn't fair (and fair is a four letter word), in the end they found him out and saved him from an awful mess if he had caused or been in an accident.

This profiling should only be a problem to the illegals. Sure, I'll show my ID etc. Thanks and I'm on my way knowing the police are following the rules that make life here better..

Profiling is common, we do it all the time inside our heads. That is what I was pointing out in the discrimination rant. WE DO IT ALL THE TIME, whether we'll admit it or not. Profiling, discrimination, judging, it's pretty much all the same.

My dad is the type of person that will check on you before you leave, as insurance card and all of that.
We are not allowed to leave the house without our DL and will never ever drive without insurance.
I have never been pull over for speeding but have been pulled over because I had a light out.
And to me it makes no difference I see people as people, some good some bad but still people.

I see people as people

And that's the way it should be for everyone.

My world view is anchored to my Christian beliefs which is my foundation. I truly believe we all came from Adam and Eve, and later the survivors on Noah's ark. We are therefore related, distantly related but related none the less.

But as we age and have experiences in life that train us to duck after being slapped one more time by a certain type, the next time that person raises their hand, I duck. Is that discrimination, profiling or judging?? I don't know what you call it but when I have been mistreated, threatened, abused, hurt, whatever often enough I learned something. It wasn't intentional that my mind remembers. I have to fight my feelings and try to control them so as not to be obvious butttt. What I'm saying is that if I get bitten by a purple dog often enough, I might just be leary of purple dogs.

My son lived on his own when he was doing the stupid stuff. In fact he was about your age Howell. He's almost 32 now and hopefully has wised up a bit.

I went to school with people of various ethnicities-- from kindergarten through high school-- none of us, so far as I know, ever looked at any one of them and said 'You're different, so you're dumb'. or 'You're different, stay away from me'.
Some of the most popular kids in the school had skin tones that didn't match the snow on the ground.
They were just kids. Chris, Toby-- Alicia. We survived high school together, and still occasionally contact each other, twenty years later. (Has it been that long already? It seems like only yesterday.)