A little diplomatic effort could go a long way in immigration reform

[jana519]

The way I see it, rather than just voting to throw money at the problem, the United States could go a long way in dealing with immigration problems by reaching out diplomatically across it's borders. Mexico and all of Central America has a railroad system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Mexico#mediaviewer/File:Ferromex-map.png. Why not make use of this to transport immigrants back to their countries? I mean, it might be a little headache to set up and take some money initially, but over time it would provide a long-term, sustainable, and humanitarian approach to dealing with the immigrant crisis. Just give them food, water, and temporary shelter, then send them back. Just like the metro subway, when you get to the last stop, "all passengers must depart."

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Possible but unlikely. Resort towns will say not in my backyard, poor area's will rob them.
This is a tough question and I don't know the answer.

 

[shortylickens]

Our immigration policy is just fine.

We need to do something about illegal immigrants.

 

[jana519]

Possible but unlikely. Resort towns will say not in my backyard, poor area's will rob them.
This is a tough question and I don't know the answer.

The people/minors who are walking to the border from Central America are destitute to begin with. Some are even dying in the desert because they don't even have a bottle of water. Let's not be too concerned of getting robbed of nothing. :whiste:

An intake process would be ideal. Identify their nationality based on accent, speech, dress, etc. Shouldn't be all that hard for someone with knowledge of the region to distinguish a Mexican from a Guatamalan from a Honduran. Give them a wrist tag with their nationality and drop them off in the biggest city on the railroad in their country. The people who walk from Central America to the border are train-hopping to get there anyway. Let's simply make the trip back official.

 

[jana519]

Our immigration policy is just fine.

We need to do something about illegal immigrants.

That's exactly the point of the thread. I am mainly speaking of the illegal immigrants who cross the border and are being held in detention centers. I'm posing a very simple, pragmatic solution to this problem. Why hold them indefinitely? A diplomatic approach could send them back using already established railroads. The money it would take to accomplish this would be far less than the money it takes to house them, don't you agree?

 

[StoutMaster]

That's exactly the point of the thread. I am mainly speaking of the illegal immigrants who cross the border and are being held in detention centers. I'm posing a very simple, pragmatic solution to this problem. Why hold them indefinitely? A diplomatic approach could send them back using already established railroads. The money it would take to accomplish this would be far less than the money it takes to house them, don't you agree?

For starters, they aren't being held indefinitely. They are being processed and released.


But anyway... Why be diplomatic about it? Put them on a bus and send them back. Not Mexican? Put them on a plane and send them home.

 

[jana519]

For starters, they aren't being held indefinitely. They are being processed and released.


But anyway... Why be diplomatic about it? Put them on a bus and send them back. Not Mexican? Put them on a plane and send them home.

Sorry if I had my facts wrong, but the political sound bites made it seem that way. If they are being processed and sent home, then I don't see why it should be called a crisis or a big issue by the media. My impression was that there are immigrants and minors held in detention centers with nowhere to go.

 

[werepossum]

Mexico doesn't want them back. Mexico's second biggest industry is Mexicans in the USA sending money home, and smuggling illegals from other nations is probably a significant source of cash as well.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Our immigration policy is just fine.

We need to do something about illegal immigrants.

^ This!!!

 

[davmat787]

Mexico doesn't want them back. Mexico's second biggest industry is Mexicans in the USA sending money home, and smuggling illegals from other nations is probably a significant source of cash as well.

Exactly. Plus Mexico doesn't bare the welfare costs for the 11+ million illegal immigrants either, while they send back some 6-8 billion dollars annually!

Really is a great racket Mexico has going.

Looks like illegal immigrants send far more than what I stated above.

The Mexican citizens cross our border illegally. Some of them find work, and many of them send their earnings back to Mexico. Those earnings have added up to nearly $17 billion in the past year. Remittances, as they're called, are expected to become Mexico's primary source of income this year, surpassing the amount of money that Mexico makes on oil exports for the first time ever.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Trade deficit with Mexico for the last year surpassed $45 billion.
Hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are using bank accounts in this country to send those remittances home, and many U.S. banks are now aggressively helping illegal aliens open those accounts. Those banks refer to the practice in the political correct vernacular as banking the unbanked.

http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/000911.html

 

[Zaap]

It would be nice if the illegal immigration issue were simply a transportation issue.

 

[alzan]

Our immigration policy is just fine.

We need to do something about illegal immigrants.

That would take cooperation between the US and the Central and South American countries involved. Economies, living conditions, etc. within those countries need to be addressed and resolved to help stem flow of their citizens to the US and other countries. As well, at a current time frame of anywhere between ~7 months to several years the legal immigration to the US process that also needs to be fixed.

 

[piasabird]

Or we could blow up the rail roads so they cant get here in the first place. Not a decision to be taken lightly.

In Mexico and these other countries how you get things done is by bribing officials. Corruption runs like crazy in all these areas. So lets just throw money their way to solve the problem. It is cheaper than clogging up our courts, paying for border security, and foster care for a bunch of children trying to cross the border. Just call it foreign aid.

 

[SMOGZINN]

The way I see it, rather than just voting to throw money at the problem, the United States could go a long way in dealing with immigration problems by reaching out diplomatically across it's borders. Mexico and all of Central America has a railroad system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Mexico#mediaviewer/File:Ferromex-map.png. Why not make use of this to transport immigrants back to their countries? I mean, it might be a little headache to set up and take some money initially, but over time it would provide a long-term, sustainable, and humanitarian approach to dealing with the immigrant crisis. Just give them food, water, and temporary shelter, then send them back. Just like the metro subway, when you get to the last stop, "all passengers must depart."

Why does so many people think other countries should solve our immigration issues? It should be obvious already that Mexico and other Central American countries don't want to solve our problem.

 

[werepossum]

Exactly. Plus Mexico doesn't bare the welfare costs for the 11+ million illegal immigrants either, while they send back some 6-8 billion dollars annually!

Really is a great racket Mexico has going.

Looks like illegal immigrants send far more than what I stated above.

http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/000911.html

Hey, Mexicans know that when you find a chump with a lot of change, you milk him dry.

 

[shortylickens]

That would take cooperation between the US and the Central and South American countries involved. Economies, living conditions, etc. within those countries need to be addressed and resolved to help stem flow of their citizens to the US and other countries. As well, at a current time frame of anywhere between ~7 months to several years the legal immigration to the US process that also needs to be fixed.

We dont need their cooperation. We need trains and buses and maybe a boat or two.
Thats it.