Bleeding Fiction

I'm gone for almost a year and already the neighborhood has returned to shit. Interesting.

You know I was going to let it go but even the state Gov gets away with putting made up words on their stuff now.... this is getting pathetic..

Jeni - Neighborhood turned to shit the day you moved out.

Zach - Not so much a made up word as a made up spelling for a stupid phrase: "Say What?"

Yeah well with the new imigration laws it wont be long till it says "habla que?"

you should see some of the slogans in my city.

One I particularly recall is.

"the city of Hope"

which many opposition parties turned into.

Hope you don't get robbed

Hope you don't get stuck in traffic.

etc...

@Zach:

many inmigration laws being tossed around which ones you don't particularly approve?

The law where each inmigrant without papers is considered a criminal.

The law where helping any inmigrant without papers is a criminal act.

The law about building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico?

other?

Sorry Gus I didnt mean to offend and actually your point of view would be really interesting.... the parts I have problems with arent really the immigrants. Everyone that lives in this country that isnt native american descent is an immigrant of some sort. some of the statistics are slightly troubling to me... First off with a country that is so "worried about National safety" the ease of border violation is really a disgrace, The fact that depending on whose report you read anywhere from 20-35% of the united states prison population is an illegal. Illegals are afforded a lot of the same benefits that naturlized citizens are in welfare and medical aid. Now whilest I would never ever refuse someone a meal or aid continued carte blanche support for someone who has no respect for the laws of the land are an afront to all the people who come to this country legally every year and all of those that have come before. at least in my oppinion. Now to the slightly less conservitive side of things I think that "helping an illegal is a criminal act" is just B.S. That is a wide berth and way to general for me. And the wall thing is a joke. A meaningless token gesture that isnt even going to be that effective.

no offense taken.

I favor border security as many illegals face dangerous hazards and even death while crossing.

now If I were a terrorist I wouldn't risk the "polleros", desert and all other risks I would just either arrive from canada or fly in from a country where no visa is required.

As for welfare being the same maybe I'm mistaken but if they pay taxes as other citizens they should be entitled to some basic securities like medical aid.

On the point of illegals making the majority in prisions let's take texas

white 38%

Black 45%

latino 17% (not nessesarily illegal)

I would support if they were deported to their home countries to carry on their sentence (it should ease the financial burdens somehow) but I don't think others would agree.

of course all of this is just My humble opinion and perhaps I'm a litle biased on the topic

Idaho: Famous Potatoes.

Wow. I actually mostly agree with Zach about something political. This must be a first. :)

The argument generally runs that illegal immigrants take jobs away from Americans (and drain the ecomony through welfar, prisons, etc). the counter-argument runs that those are jobs that Americans would have refused to take, anyway, and contribute to welfare money available by paying taxes. I don't know which, if either, of those two things is true.

I just don't know enough about how welfare works in the US to comment on that. Medical aid is a slightly different ball game since the US doesn't have socialized health care. One of the only industrialized nations that doesn't, by the way. In other words, most everyone has to pay for their medical aid themselves (or get it as a benefit from their job).

I do know that there are a host of benefits to globalization, benefits to free trade. Benefits, in other words, of making immigration easier on people. They raise the quality of life around the world, increase competition (which in turn drives down prices) and make a wide array of goods available for purchase to people who would otherwise have no access to those goods whatsoever. In other words, they all make illegal immigration a less attractive option.

Obviously I'm fully in favor of legal immigration (and I'm similarly a fan of expatriation). Not that that's without its flaws. Gus is spot on about terrorism, for example - the hijackers who attacked the Twin Towers (it bothers me to refer to it as "September 11th" for some reason) came into the States through legal means. It's comparatively easy to commit an act of terrosism, and that won't change unless the US turns into a totally fascist state, goes totally isolationist and finds an inpenetrable force field to throw around its borders.

There are ways to change the system for the better, but change doesn't come easy.

Oh, and re: nicknames. I like "city of hope," Gus, even if the opposition party gets snarky with it. and I've heard that Idaho was debating a change in their state nickname, as the potato no longer accoutns for as large a percentarge of their GDP as it used to.

Actually, it's pretty unfair what is happening to illegal immigrants who are convicted of crimes in the US. Most of them are getting deported after their prison sentences. Just the other day I wrote up a post conviction relief motion for my judge involving a man who has lived in the United States since he was three years old. Granted, he committed roberry and is about to get of jail after three years. However, he's being shipped out of the country as a 20 year old kid. His entire family resides and works in the United States. They were crying hysterically. This basically amounts to a life sentence for this kid because he can never come back to see his family.

About the only thing going in his favor: He's being deported to England.

NJ Welfare and Aliens

§ 10:90-2.8 Individuals ineligible for WFNJ TANF/GA

(a) The following persons shall not be eligible for assistance and shall not be considered to be members of the WFNJ/TANF or WFNJ/GA assistance units:

...

3. Illegal aliens;

4. Other aliens who are not eligible aliens as defined in N.J.A.C. 10:90-2.10;

___

N.J.A.C. 10:90-2.10 (2006)

§ 10:90-2.10 WFNJ TANF/GA citizenship/eligibility requirements

(a) Only those persons who are United States citizens, or eligible aliens shall be eligible for WFNJ TANF/GA benefits. In addition, for WFNJ/GA eligibility purposes only, those persons permanently residing in the United States under color of law as of August 21, 1996 are considered eligible for WFNJ/GA benefits.

1. Eligible alien means an alien as defined in the provisions of section 431 of Title IV of Federal Public law 104-193 pursuant to section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) (42 U.S.C. §§ 601 and 602).

(b) The following individuals are considered to be eligible aliens:

1. An alien present in the United States prior to August 22, 1996, and who is:

i. A lawful permanent resident;

ii. A refugee, pursuant to section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act;

iii. An asylee pursuant to section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act;

iv. An alien who has had deportation withheld pursuant to section 243(h) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. §§ 101 et seq.);

v. An alien who has been granted parole for at least one year by the Immigration and Naturalization Service pursuant to section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act;

vi. An alien granted conditional entry pursuant to section 203(a)(7) of the immigration laws in effect before April 1, 1980;

vii. An alien who is honorably discharged or on active duty in the United States armed forces and his or her spouse and the unmarried dependent children of the alien or spouse;

viii. An alien who is a Cuban or Haitian entrant as defined in Section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980;

ix. An alien admitted to the United States as an Amerasian immigrant as described in Section 402(a)(2)(A)(i)(V) of the Refuge Education Assistance Act of 1980; or

x. An alien who obtained one of the statuses in (b)1i through ix above after August 22, 1996 if the alien was continuously present in the United States from the latest date of entry prior to August 22, 1996, until he or she obtained qualified alien status. In general, any single absence from the United States of more than 30 days, or a total of aggregated absences of more than 90 days shall be considered to interrupt continuous presence; and

2. An alien entering the United States on or after August 22, 1996 and who is an alien described in (b)1ii, iii, iv, vii, viii or ix above.

i. An alien described in (b)1i, v or vi above is not eligible until five years after entry into the United States.

3. Certain eligible aliens, regardless of their date of entry into the United States, as provided in Section 431 of Title IV of Federal P.L. 104-193 pursuant to Section 101 of the INA who resided in the United States and are victims of domestic violence, subject to certain conditions as described below:

i. The alien has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty in the United States by a spouse or a parent or by a member of the spouse or parent's family residing in the same household as the alien and the spouse or parent acquiesced to such battery or cruelty; or

ii. The alien's child has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty in the United States by the spouse or parent of the alien (without the active participation of the alien in the battery or cruelty), or by a member of the spouse or parent's family residing in the same household as the alien when the spouse or parent acquiesced to and the alien did not actively participate in such battery or cruelty; and

iii. In addition to the provisions described in (b)4i or ii above, if the individual responsible for the battery or cruelty continues to reside in the same household or family assistance unit as the individual who was subjected to such battery or cruelty, then the alien shall be ineligible for benefits.

iv. Federal law stipulates that the Attorney General of the United States shall issue guidance in the Attorney General's sole and unreviewable discretion concerning:

(1) The meaning of the terms "battery" and "extreme cruelty"; and

(2) The standards and methods to be used for determining whether a substantial connection exists between battery or cruelty suffered and an individual's need for benefits under a specific Federal, State or local program.

v. Until such time as specific guidance is issued by the Attorney General in accordance with (b)4iv above, the alien's statement, taken in the form of an affidavit, shall be accepted as documentation that the alien or the alien's child is subject to battery or extreme cruelty and the alien and the child(ren) shall be eligible for assistance.

Correction, My first post said it is unfair what happend to illegal aliens convicted of crimes....I was actually referring to all non-citizens, legal or not. The guy in my example was here legally.

It's fun to know a lawyer! As I understand it, then, illegal aliens in NJ are not elligible for welfare. Which isn't a huge surprise, but I went a-googling for some knowledge and it seems that a lot of news reports are claiming that illegal aliens are gaining fake social security numbers, pretending to be here legally and claiming welfare benefits that way. I don't know the truth of that, of course, but it does muddy the waters a little bit.

As regards your post on deportation, I dunno. I mean on the one hand, yeah it's awful that the dude's being deported to a country he's never called his own and can't visit his family here, but you'd think that if he were that concerned he could've applied for citizenship sometime in the past 17 years, no? I'm not saying that someone should have to be a citizen to live here, just that it's complex.

What does get me is the combination of prison and deportation. If prisons are for punishment, I think banishment is punishment enough (and cheaper for the taxpayers); if prisons are for rehabilitation, then when he gets out the job is (supposedly) done and there's no need to deport him.

Thanks Jason. It's good to know people who will work in the state department too.

The thing to bear in mind is that welfare is hardly enough money for anyone to scam in the first place. While there used to be abuses in welfare, by most accounts, there is much more of a problem with people who deserve it are getting denied than people scamming the system. You can thank the Republicans for that with their revolution in the 1990's.

Welfare amounts per month for families in NJ, which is the most expensive state to live in in the U.S..

1 person $ 162

2 people 322

3 people 424

4 people 488

5 people 552

6 people 616

7 people 677

8 people 728

Add $ 50 for

each additional than each additional

person 8 person

If I remember correctly, payment amounts do not go up at all if you have additional children while on welfare. Moreover, there is a 5 year lifetime max on receiving welfare benefits.

Re abuses...

for instance, a few summers ago I worked at a local legal services office in NJ. There was a woman who had a sudden psychotic episode. She got fired from her job. She was a very well paid manager at some great company like Prudential. She exhausted her savings and had to go on welfare. She was denied Social security disability benefits. She got on welfare for that wopping $150 or so a month plus some food stamps. She told her welfare worker that she had a retirement account in teh amount $2100 which she couldn't touch, but that would get sent to her after a certain number of months since her termination. Her welfare worker told her it was okay and that she could keep the money.

She got the money and spent it, you know buying food, paying for gas, car insurance, etc. A month later she gets a notice from welfare saying she should have forked over the cash. Therefore, they were going to cut off her welfare and food stamps for the next five months to make up for it.

I personally appealed it and lost.

The only good news: our office appealed her social security benefits denial and won. THerefore she didn't starve.

Thanks for the info, Doug. I hope I can keep it all in my head when I'm not sitting at my blog. Stupid thing's become my memory, really.

Anyway, that's pretty tight stuff. But the US, for better or for worse, is quite intentionally not a welfare state.