examiNation DC: What do you think about approaching the issue of illegal immigration with compassion?

Compassion for whom? The law-breakers or the families of the deceased and disabled whose Social Security #s are stolen? Compassion for the people living close to the border who have to put up with the stream of folks across their property in the middle of the night? Compassion for the disabled folks who can't get Medicaid because their disability pay of 900.00 per month makes them over income while illegal and legal alike get 100% Medicaid with vision and dental? Compassion for people that would rather slip through somebody's back door, make themselves and their family comfortable in your home and then never leave? Compassion for a people that lacks the fortitude to demand their rights in their own nation so they go next door because its easier than fighting for better conditions in their homeland? Please clarify.

Oh c'mon! 62 is not that old and she knows better than anybody that she broke the law. She should have never been hired. She should be charged and deported.

I think they should be jailed/fined for breaking the law. most of these people, I 'm guessing, are ILLEGALLY here so they are breaking the law by being here and these CASA people are protecting them.

At this rate of infra-structure abuse by criminals in these sanctuary cities they will be like third world slums in no time. There's a reason for occupancy laws. Sewer systems, garbage capacity, road way use, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Citizenship is not free and should not be treated as such.

Apparently he did not pay tax for the old lady houseworker. She may get sick and get hospitalized. Who is going to pay the doctor bill ? US , the taxpayers . Therefore it is very cheap for him to hire her in the first place without paying a penny for her health care and many other social services. Imagine one day the tax payers revolt and stop pay tax . ...

Someone posted that the immigration reform bill should have been passed. Are you even aware that it had tax payers funding illegals and their lawyers if they got fired and wanted to sue?

Can a citizen obtain a driver's license without proof of residence? What gives CASA the authority to hand out ID cards anyway?

If you give a chance to illegal criminal they will do samething they did in Newmark NJ KILLING inocent US CITIZEN people.

The same guys who used to print fake Ids on college campuses seem to be working consultants on this project! It's amazing a private citizens group has the audacity to print up some Ids on some cheap computer and printer and laminate them and distribute them at grocery stores or rallies to garner votes at rallies. I can't recall Muslims getting this idea in France when they had their riots not too long ago. I guess the entire immigration problem in Europe can be solved by printing some ID cards that say, "Welcome to European Union. Please stay. No need to pay." I'm shocked the Casa folks haven't been arrested for fraud and shut down. Maybe a terrorist with a name like Jose Padilla can enlist with Casa and get an ID and go on a plane and do what they have to do.

A qualified Greencard became displaced with identify theft to illegal ding-dongs and scavengers--no kidding, somebody is cashing$.

How about some compassion for the poor broke TAXPAYER. Illegals come here and work for far less pay than any American would. It's not about that we won't work. WE WON'T WORK AS SLAVES! Then these DORKS in appointed positions of power RAPE our pocketbooks to line their own. HANG EM HIGH!

I don't think this should be allowed seeing as those of us who have moved to montgomery county from out of state have to prove residency and we are legal US citzens

You guys have been instrumental to the death of the immigration bill filed in the senate. For me that comprehensive bill if it passed the senate will solve once and for all the problem on immigration- 1. strict border control will lessen or totally wipe out the problem on illegal border crossing 2. illegals will be given the opportunity to respect American laws 3. with the 12MM+ that will be legalized, there will be an added revenue for the fed. govt. thru taxes and other fees and etc.

One day, our skilled workers found out they are out of the job because some unqualified illegal immigrants are willing to do it for nothing. Here we go. Your paycheck is out of the door together with your job. Are you willing to work for nothing to compete with that illegal newcomer ? In the mean time, Maryland state continues to collect tax on your few pennies to support that newcomer to take away your job. The support of your family is also out of the door . Your house will be gone soon. Remember you did vote for these guys : O Malley, Wyn, Van Hollen and Ike Legett. They are the guys who use your tax money to bring in illegal folks to take away your JOB .....If you want your job back, send them home in the next ELECTION .

watch out, one day an illegal immigrant will become prez of the US and make arnold his yeepee! what happens then?

Here's my take: When you go to court and there is a witness or a plaintiff that comes before the court, he or she is never asked by a judge if they are in the USofA legaly or ilegally...in fact many a times, a lawyer will try to raise the legal status of a complainant to score some points for the defense and the judge is quick to overrule that ploy. Same thing applies here: If you are here, you are here. Yes, that does encourage immigrants to have more babies since they are in a prosperous nation, but countries where people mae $4 a year have the largest populations booms so babies are a reality everywhere. Now if you have babies, I guess you'd prefer they be in the US but not go to school and do what? Join the gangs, like the one from El salvador that operates here? We already know what happens when kids don't make it to class, so stop this stupid move of going after kids going to scvhools legally or illegally. ID card or no ID card, kids are our future.

Proper residency is not an illegal alien issue. Proper residency limits out of control student growth where Montgomery County students may be deprived of a decent education because of overcrowding. If you did not have legal residency requirements, every person from lower rated school districts will enroll their children. This is another case of lawlessness for the sake of illegal aliens.

As your poll sez, leave the kids out of this mess. Every few yrs, we go after migrants and nothing really happens, except that tighter visa restrictions end up getting enforced on folks trying to get here on work or student visas. It seems every time we have a crash of some kind, stock market, post-war, stock market, or the real estate crash, we are now experiencing that we decide to go after the weakest sections of inmates inhabiting america: immigrants, be it legal and illegal. Now why involve their poor kids in this crossfire? Where will this stop? I bet when the market boomerangs, nobody will pay any attention to this issue.

The fundamental truth about illegal immigration is that if we continue to allow it, half the 3rd world would want to come here. I don’t know why that simple concept is so hard for some [people to understand. If you truly want to know why it MUST be stopped, check out some of the video presentations by Roy Beck, the President of NumbersUSA on www.youtube.com. [type in his name in the search box] He provides the most compelling video titled “immigration gumballs” that cannot be ignored. After you see the numbers and financial impact on our Country, consider this. Virtually every hospital in the Country is in losing money due to the volume of illegals that use these facilities as their primary care physician. Diseases that were eradicated or virtually unknown here are now on the rise. A new strain of TB resistant to almost every antibiotic is spreading across the country. This is in addition to Leprosy, which is usually associated with the Island of Molokai over 100 years ago. A rec

I need a cleanr. She can come work for me and I really don't care if she's illegal. She's here, She wants to Work, She should work....

Hopefully he did not outrage the modesty of this poor woman and then report her in.

Certainly, compassion is preferable, but for illegal immigrants that means taking responsibility for a third world people that doesn't respect American law. Too many illegal immigrants are hurting Americans -- murdering, taking jobs, stealing identities and social services. Our resources should be spent on citizens and legal residents. If some illegals are good employees, let their employers sponsor them for citizenship. Let employers pay them a livable wage, including health care.

I would talk her into applying for legal residence, even find her a US citizen spouse which may help convert her from illegal to legal overnight. Not sure if the immigration types would go for that but I do believe that we need to give people a chance. Once they are here, they are family. This just goes to show that we don't want to offer someone a seat at the dinner table if they have come to our home. Now whether they should have never been to that home is another matter. Just remember, a slave will only follow his master's footsteps. If this problem was an epedemic in the African American community, than no noise would have been made for people coming here from Africa. Leave the poor people alone!

Many are trying to make a argument for how they don't want to be here illegally. Sorry, but people around the world want to come legally, so that argument holds zero foundation.

If that person outright lied about it, they deserved to be fired. If the official failed to ask when he/she hired the housekeeper in the first place he should be fired and the alien should take over his/her job in the government law practice.

Many of these people also take physical advantage of their workers offering slave like conditions and ruse for exploitation.

In response to Ms. Harris' comment, my sympathy goes to the families and friends of the three students who were senselessly killed. Do you think deporting these people will make America safe from this kind of criminal acts granted all illegals were deported. Who started the trend of killing innocent students like what happened at Columbine? This is just an example - there will always be a "black sheep within the family". I condone drug use, drug smuggling, drunken driving, and RACISM (there is no such thing as perfect race), etc.

It was the so-called "compassion" of the wealthy limousine liberals, and their wealthy (read greedy) conservative counterparts, the first group wanting cheap house help, and the second wanting a poorly paid, subservient labor force, that got us to where we are today!!! These people are involved in treason against their own fellow Americans. People out there are homeless and penniless because the invader labor force SCABS are working their jobs and living in their houses!!!!! All these people need to be de-housed, fired, and deported! And that's just the wealthy traitors I refer to! The rest can tag along behind!!!

Your qustion is overly broad and vague. First we must know just what "compassion" means. Second, some immigrants may be entitled to "compassion", but to lump them all together in an all or nothing approach fails to take account of the many distinctions in their situtations. A large majority of votes are No, as I voted, probably out of fear that a Yes could be distorted into a claim of support for legislation such as that recently defeated in the Senate which would have granted a virtual amnesty to illegal aliens, even through its supporters unsuccessfully tried to avoid that characterization.

While I agree all people should be treated with compassion, the issue of illegal immigration has completely polarized the nation into 2 camps. On one side you have a group of liberals that feel the USA is required to absorb the world's poor and downtrodden....noble idea but extremely unrealistic. On the other side, people like me recognize the impact that this group of 12-20 million has imposed on our Country. I grew up in CA, and witnessed first hand the economic damage it has brought to the legal, educational and healthcare systems. Over 80 hospitals have been forced to close, 60% of the one million students at LA Unified school Dist, don't speak English, and about 30% of all violent felons in LA County jails are illegal. Sanctuary cities are springing up around the Country and they refuse to report violent criminals to I.C.E., and citizens continue to be assaulted and killed. Compassion has a price and we are drowning in political correctness. It time for a change.

To the reader who speaks of the humanity of criminals and who states that if given a chance & wish to change, they will turn into good citizens. I would like to see him pitch this garbage to the parents of the three Newark college students executed by illegal alien criminals who were apparently also drinking at the time. These were good kids forced to their knees and shot in the head. A fourth surviver was shot in the face and stabbed. She remains in critical condition. The mother of one of the deceased just sits in her chair and rocks. As an African-American woman who is familiar with our methods of grieving, I can tell you this woman may never get better. What happens is the body remains and goes into its own world. The soul goes as well as the connection to society. People like you ignore drugs, drunken vehicular homicides, rapes, robberies, and murders these people commit. They do not belong here. I do not want them here. You want to call that racism, go ahead.

Yes I feel compassion for the illegal immigrants. If I was in their shoes I might do the same thing. These are not educated people, they are just trying to survive. But that said, there is only one way to enter the USA and that is legally. We are a nation of laws, one law for everyone, applied equally. Right now we have one law for the illegals which is preferential to those legal immigrants who are on the outside looking it. That cannot continue. The illegals must leave and apply for admission like everyone else in the world. The problem is that the US taxpaye is subsidizing the illegals at $30,000 per year. So businesses love to hire the cheap subsidized labor. And they are not goling to play ball with the deporation of their profit source.

I don't have any compassion for someone who breaks our immigration laws, and then uses false, or stolen identification to steal an american job. I'm sick of supporting people who don't want to assimilate, and then have the audacity to complain, when they are caught for their criminal behavior. One third of all the people in jails and prisons are now illegal immigrants. Are these the type of people you want to have in your country? I don't! Build the fence, enforce employer sanctions, and cut them off of all the free services they steal. Then they will self deport!

No lie like a big lie. The fact is that allowing illegal immigration or giving amnesty is not compassionate, it's just a sop to corrupt businesses and governments. It's not too compassionate to tell people that if they can just make it across the desert they'll get to stay: thousands have died because of that "compassion". It's not too compassionate to allow Mexico to avoid their responsibilities to their own people and allow them to send 14% of their workforce north in order to get the money they send back home. It's not too compassionate to allow banks and even the federal government to profit from illegal activity, thereby encouraging corruption. Let me suggest the Examiner stops hiding behind illegal aliens in order to support massive illegal activity.

This is a nation of laws. That is the bedrock of this country's existence. It is the reason for the very standard of living which illegal immigrants claim they sneak in for. It is most ironic then that they feel it is fine break and be disrespectful of our laws and our citizens. I am so sick of their "yes buts". It is wrong to sneak into the US but I want a better life. It is wrong to steal someone's identity but I need a job. One woman even stole a person's identity to buy and refinance a home! The victim is going through a nightmare trying to undo that mess. We sneak in but we work hard. Don't look now but being hardworking is not the special province of illegal alines. They sneak in but they take the jobs no one else wants. They take jobs at low wages which hurts everyone. They put themselves in place to be abused by bad employers. Then they claim that the US, read that taxpayers, owe them. No compassion here for those who think the law does not apply to the

People, The illegal imigrants are here for a better future.Nobody wants to be illegal,but they don't have any choice....They are trying to make some money to feed their kids,their families.Is this wrong?Maybe you shold try to live in one bedroom,4 people,trying to study for school,cooking,having a bath in a bucket and then maybe you will understand why the illegal imigrants are happy to do hard jobs (where the americans are not going to work) for some dollars.If you have a good job,a good status here,maybe you should think you are lucky you borned american.But you shouldn't forget illegals or legalls,we are humans,and we are trying to make a better way for our children! Thank you

Hallelujah!

This country was built on compassionate grounds. All the brethren that throw stones today at the less fortunate need to remember one thing: It's these very people they seek to ostacise that swell the ranks of churches every Sunday day after day year after year and they help with everything during the Holidays.

Compassion for whom? The working US citizen who has two kids in failing public schools overcrowded and with education funds drained to pay for ESL and family intervention for those here illegally, while draining of services means their retirement savings won't cover that and college for the kids as well, much less private school tuition costs? Where is our government protecting OUR people? This is not a victimless crime. I feel badly for all those poorer than we are, but making us poor to subsidize benefits for the 'cheap' labor for big business is not the answer.

It' not just the 12 million illegal immigrants we're talking about. I would guess that of the world's 6 billion or so souls -- most of them would like to live in America. The world's population includes billions of poor people who live in abject poverty. There is no way that we can absorb even a fraction of these people without turning the United States into a Third World Country. The situation that drives millions of illegal aliens from their home countries needs to be addressed by the international community and the United States government. There is just reasons for laws that restrict and control immigration and define and secure our borders, despite the wanton ignorance of those laws and disregard for their enforcement. Our infrastructure, economy, public health, and safety all depend on the very delicate balance that has been so upset and is listing dangerously further.

The problem with a lot of these comments is that the individual is not looking at the 20 million person problem. How do you know who is good and bad? The purpose for the immigration system is to have a standardized process for screening. What do you do with an illegal alien with T.B? There is no half answer to immigration. The system should be fair and applied equally for everyone. Those that have entered illegal do not get a get our of jail free card. Most illegal aliens are using fraudulent identification or are assuming someones identity. Where is the compassion for those who are victimized?

Criminals are human, too. If given the chance and the wisdom to change- they will turn into a good citizens just like you - and so with illegal immigrants.

When will the state enact a resolution to give a temporary working permit to these illegal immigrants? SSS should provide a set of numbers to be used solely by these temporary workers (no pension or other benefits should be attached to these numbers). By doing so, they will be able to collect state taxes from these people, they will be able to get drivers licenses and insurance, they will be able to pinpoint the "bad eggs" from the good ones, deport immediately those people who didn't pass background checks. I know this sounds silly, but illegal immigration is getting out of control, there should be a way for the state or federal government to get something back from them.

Would you show compassion to someone illegally TERRORIST in the United State?

I am very close to some of these undocumented workers,and they make me understand that many of them even have social security number with their own names and they've been paying taxes and contributing to the social security fund for years but will never be eligible for claims since they don't have resident permits.I don't think it will be good for us as a nation to treat them anyhow,for one thing,they really make some good contributions to society.I can understand if someone says that criminals amongst them should be expelled.I believe the new Alan Spector's proposal is a good one and should be supported by all....Jah Bless.....

Illegal immigration is defined as country intruder without entry permission. The illegal immigrants could be job seeker, terrorists or international criminals. In US we have tens of millions of illegal immigrants because of our porous borders. Our hospitals are required by our own laws to provide care at their cost unreimbursed by our state and government. We have 42 millions citizens without health care. Health care is becoming a burden on a few payers. With this trend, our hospitals will be out of business very soon . The main issue is CONTROLS. : control of our own border and identification of all people in US. Without credible population control, it is impossible to stop terrorist infiltration , and to do proper social planning for our poor and retired aging population .

ok like identity theft not paying there taxes yes this is all positive stuff oh wait no i Think its ILLEGAL WHAT positive contributions