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we have to read all that dubage- couldnt you make it simpler?

This poll made me laugh so many times... gypsies, whim...

I struggled with the supremacist thing, because if they're committing crimes back home related to that, then of course. But if it's just in their tiny little minds, and they aren't criminals, we can't really do anything about that. I just voted "none of the above"

The for or against question seems kind of flawed. I'm not "for illegal immigration" but I'm not against it either. I'm for a whole new system.

I agree Alex. I was struggling for another answer.

And what is this 'on principal - the law must be paramount' choice?

C'mon people, we aren't talking murder here. Immigration law is too confusing, complex, inequitable, and shrouded.

Why would we be grouping them together and why would we vote to do anything with illegal to increase or decrease, if illegal you shouldnt be here, and im sure anyone on here would like to see their (legal) person here over all the illegal being allowed

Rebecca,

While many people have unclear immigration statuses, many more do not.

The poll is amusing, but since it is posted on an immigration forum (VJ) I would look at it more as a VJ poll than definitive poll of American opinion on immigration.

The only thing that really makes me mad is that I can't go through the Immigration process in the US and be with my Husband.

No vote, as you rolled up legal and illegal together. Separate issues alltogether.

Illegal immigration should be shut down.

Legal immigration can flow as needed.

Didn't vote

My husband's immigration status is 'unclear' and yet he came over here completely legally. Followed all the rules, filed everything in time, passed an interview for adjustment - the whole ball of wax.

Yet if he chooses to leave the country on advance parole and re-enters, his status will change and legally he will be at the mercy of a system so cluttered with ambiguities and ifs the normal person can't possibly navigate it alone if they hit a roadblock.

Immigration is not a 'clearcut' as many would like to think.

pls make the pole simpler
wasnt able to vote !

i think your questions are very confusing and a reflection of confusion of the questioner.

without going detailed into each and every question, the biggest confusion the questioner has is on LEGAL vs. ILLEGAL immigration. the politicians and the mexican lobbying groups would want you to define LEGAL the same as ILLEGAL but the reality not. simply put, as a USC, i have a voice (as through my congressional rep or votes) to influence the LEGAL immigration policy. however, for ILLEGAL, since it is ILLEGAL. there is nothing i, as a USC can do. it is up to the federal, local governments to enforce the law to stamp illegal aliens coming to our country. if the federal and local governments are doing nothing, then, i can say whatever i say, the ILLEGAL aliens will continue coming. Finally, let's check our statistics before making judgement too. US does NOT have an ILLEGAL immigration problem with the world. Our only illegal alien problems is all with one country, Mexico. So, many aliens, from Brazilians to Chinese, are going to Mexico and using Mexico as a bridge head to get into the US. Of course, the statistics also tells us the over 65% of illegal aliens are citizens of Mexico.

my suggestion is for the questioner to go back to the drawing board to rewrite the polling question. i will be happy to participate in the polling.

As someone who doesn't work for any lobbying group, allow me to respond.

I bunched them together to get a feel for whether respondents feel there are too many 'foreigners' coming into the US or not. I suspected that may be a large part of anti-illegal-immigrant sentiment.

I liked the poll

Interesting that the prevailing attitude seems to be "I don't want so many damn furriners here!" (see question 1) when this is a site for people who are TRYING TO BRING THOSE DAMN FURRINERS HERE.

Hypocrites much?

intereting poll gupt lol

I missed this poll...thanks Laura for linking it in another thread.

While I understand and agree with some of the restrictions put into place after 9/11, I think it is way too hard for certain people to ever enter the US. I would like to see a decrease in illegal immigration, of course. But not a decrease in legal immigration.

I feel like there is little chance Suj's family will ever be able to visit us here. And I wish that would change. I find it sad that some people will never be allowed to enter the US, who have only good motives, who just want to come visit here to see places like Disney World or visit family. If Suj's family really never will be allowed to come here, like if they are denied visas to visit if they try, I will be ticked off. They aren't rich, but aren't poor, just middle class in their own country. But it happens to many well intentioned people(visa denial). I know there has to be a lot of scrutiny for those who receive visas, but still, I just wish they'd be allowed to visit. We'll try one day for them to go to a visa interview to see what happens. I would be shocked if it was approved. It's not fair that they would never be able to see where their son's new life is.

i find the results pretty interesting for this site.

I know right...people like to keep it simple

1. increase
2. fluent English should be mandatory, certain professions (lawyers comes to mind) should be denied
3. illegals should be deported

People on VJ are no less xenophobic than anywhere else. People want "their" immigrant here but not the poor ones, the uneducated ones, etc. That's my take on why the number of "let's decrease immigration" is so high.

We really do need more immigrants. Especially H1B immigrants, although a need for unskilled worker visas would probably become very clear very fast if we deported all the illegal immigrants.

eta: I find some posts on here relatively shocking occasionally. For example, I recently saw a post complaining about Mexican culture invading the poster's town and that seemed to be that person's main complaint about the immigrants. Many people have a problem with change.

eta2: How can 15 people think English fluency should be a requirement!? For H1B seekers, sounds like a good idea (as long as it's necessary to the job), but family members? What about people bringing their mother from a tiny Southeast Asian village without a lot of opportunity for gaining English fluency? What about kids coming with parents? What about SOs of Americans who are fluent in another language? Frankly, if you come from a country where English skills are attainable and you had the time to do it, then you're a fool to not learn English before coming, but that doesn't work for every class of immigrant and I suspect xenophobia and bad experiences with immigrants currently here fueled people to answer that English fluency should be a requirement.

I don't think that's true....surely there's some middle groud tho between 'all' and 'none'?

As far as the English fluency...well I'm not so sure where I stand on that...but try driving in Miami where many signs are in Spanish and if you're not bilingual, you're pretty much screwed. That's not cool either. But these problems are on opposite sides of the spectrum really, but still problems nonetheless.

I believe that every American should learn a second language. Many other countries have English as a second...or at least unofficial...language. They didn't have to learn it, but they did, and I think that makes a more well rounded individual.

There are countries that require a knowledge of english to immigrate...Australia being one of them. I think that it should be a requirement...It's been addressed in 100's of threads and debated over and over, but that's just my two cents. Kids that come here with their parents...where the parents don't speak a work of english really suffer. I see them in our schools every day. They can't excel as much because they aren't getting the reading/speaking practice at home. They are behind their peers for the most part from MY experience.

Fortunately there are some people in the USA that recognize that mass relocation of billions of people to the USA is not the answer to the world's myriad of problems.

Why is it that the same people that advocate unrestricted mass immigration are also the same ones that complain the loudest about Global Warming, pollution, US energy consumption, carbon reduction, nature conservation, the environment, clean water, etc., etc., etc.?

Do you really think adding 100 million+ more people to the USA helps in any of these regards? Apparently most that responded to the poll don't think so either.

Geezes. Some of the options aren't even possible to implement. My wife doesn't speak English, but she's learning. I hope those who checked out English as a prerequisite will reconsider.

Where did I advocate adding 100 million+ more people? Do you even know what an H1B visa is?
I'm all for more regulation of immigration and I'm not for an open-door policy at all.

Who the hell is advocating mass relocation of billions? (Say "billions" in the Dr. Evil voice.) Where's the 100 million figure coming from? At max, there's about 15 million illegals here. Are they all going to split, like amoebas?

Seriously. Has anyone seriously advocated for unrestricted immigration? There's a whole middle ground between "NO ONE SHOULD IMMIGRATE (BUT MY FIANCÉE BECAUSE WE'RE IN LURRRRVE)" and "LET EVERYONE COME IN."

A work visa isn't unrestricted immigration. Neither's the H1-B.

- Legals only (there can't be laws for some, and different laws for others.... this IS America)
- Must speak English (as I would expect to have to speak the language of anywhere that I immigrated to)
- The whole immigration process needs to be made simpler and quicker

'd my arse off to the part in bold.

I still don't understand how people can be forgetting refugee immigration and other types when they say everyone should speak English when they get here. It suggests to me that people are conflating the influx of illegal immigrants and other types of immigration.

I came here without knowing English. And, I've contribute alot to the community more so than those families who lived here for generations. I don't like those who mentioned that a prerequisite be required for English.

I also think English fluency should be a requirement. I'd make an exemption for the
elderly and disabled, but 40- or 50-year-old "mothers" should learn the language.

Connie, with all due respect.....get over yourself, would ya?

I think at least intermediate English should be a requirement to live here, but opportunity should be given to learn it in the US. Maybe they have a year or two to pass a test. Clearly they can't naturalize without learning it, but maybe they need that in place for keeping a greencard.

I agree

Ehhhhhh. I sort of like the sentiment, but I also can't see deporting someone's Baba because she didn't manage to learn enough English to pass the test. Either that, or the test would have to be so weak as to be practically useless.

I would like to see mandatory classes or something as part of green card process, to help with assimilation, but there's plenty of people who have contributed to the country who didn't speak English very well. It's very hard to learn a language late in life. As long as the person is sponsored and isn't on welfare, I don't much care if all they do is chatter to their grandkids in Italian, y'know?

Hence the exemption for the elderly

ITA.

But I think the whole 'unrestricted immigration' might be a spillover from the other thread...dunno tho.

maybe there can be an exception for stay at home spouses?

Meh. People's brains lose the language plasticity much much earlier than legally elderly. I just figure that the best way to assimilate new immigrants is to ensure their kids are integrated. The older guys will just die off eventually.

Not enforceable, really. You'd be limiting someone's ability to work, and can you imagine the potential for abuse? "If you get a job I'll have them take away your greencard because you don't know English, get back in the kitchen, b*tch." Or if the family falls on hard times.

Just leave it as it is. If you want the benefits of citizenship, learn the language. If you don't, your loss.

They should have enough plasticity to to be able to answer "what's the purpose of your visit"
in English when asked by a POE officer.

that previous post of mine was sarcasm

That's not fluency, though. By those standards, I'm fluent in Spanish, because I can understand 'No sneakers in the washing machines please' at the laundromat when it's on the wall in Spanish.

Sorry charles. Thought that was a bit strange coming from you, who is normally sensible.

I understood , Charles

When I said there could be a test, I meant doing that rather than barring people because they didn't speak English. I don't think either is a good idea. Who knows, by 2050 we could have a choice of Spanish or English on naturalization tests... hmmm

By the way, when are you "immigrating" to New York?

They had me put in my top 3 choices of move-in dates, but I haven't gotten my housing assignment yet so I really have no idea. The last date would be August 10 I think. The earliest maybe July 27. I hope it's earlier because it gets me an excuse to not go to my friend's wedding.

Soon enough, with this time warp we're in.