Who's the immigrant and who's the American? Rep. Luis Gutierrez posed that question in a quiz for Congress on Wednesday, designed to point up the folly of Arizona's harsh immigration law. Then on The Ed Show, Ed Schultz put the same quiz to Gutierrez.
Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat, took to the House floor with a sequence of pictures showing pairs of celebrities. For instance, he showed Justin Bieber and his girlfriend, Selena Gomez. Which is the immigrant, and which was born in America, he asked. Gutierrez posed the same question for other pairs, including the basketball stars Tony Parker and Jeremy Lin, and the journalists Ted Koppel and Geraldo Rivera.
The answer, of course, is that the first of the two in each case—Bieber, Parker, and Koppel—are the ones who were born overseas, while the second of each pair was born here. Based on the names and appearances of the people in question, you might well have guessed the reverse, of course.
Gutierrez's point was to demonstrate the absurdity of Arizona's immigration law, which requires law enforcement to ask for proof of citizenship if they have reason to suspect someone is here illegally. Much of the law was struck down by the Supreme Court Monday.
"Justin, when you perform in Phoenix, remember to bring your papers," Gutierrez told Bieber.
And just to bring home the point, Ed Schultz posed the same quiz for Gutierrez on the air Wednesday night. Schultz showed pictures of the baseball players Alex Rodriguez and Jason Bay, as well as the actors Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling. Again, the second of each pair might seem more likely to have been born in the U.S., based on their name and looks. But in fact, A-Rod and Mendes are the natural born Americans, while Bay and Gosling were both born in Canada.
How did Gutierrez do? He got Mendes right, but whiffed on A-Rod.
But he nailed the larger point. "There's limited resources," Gutierrez said. "And I want the police going after drug dealers, murderers, rapists, gang-bangers, bad people. Not the Windex ... lady cleaning some window at midnight at some store."
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Thumbs up for Gutierrez
And we should care what other countries do because???
What was the point of the question? It appears he believes people will base their decisions on nothing more the a name and a picture? Who does that? The Arizona Law requires a crime to have been committed in order to justify the initial contact with the individual. Secondly it requires Law Enforcement Officials to develop Reasonable Suspicion to believe the individual is in the country illegally. No where in the law does it say a specific category of Sir Names and a specific type of completion equates to Reasonable Suspicion. If his question does anything it supports the Arizona Law in that it illustrates that immigrates are not all Hispanic or Latino. The law is intended to identify all illegal immigrants including those from Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, etc... He would have done better to ask, which was wealthy and which was poor.
--- Like a traffic stop for speeding or headlight burned out.
--- I would argue that perhaps the most dangerous illegal immigrant would be the one that is wealthy. So basically, there is no way, just by looking, that you can tell if someone is an immigrant (legal or illegal). So what criteria do the officials use -- ESP?
Excellent point 2EZ...I think the representative did an excellent job of proving the need for the Arizona law.
just saying..
Maphi, Honestly there will be a combination of facts and circumstances that will lead to a reasonable suspicion, typically not just one or two things. For example, 1) A driver without a license or perhaps a forged license, 2) The individual doesn't speak English, 3) the time and location of the contact (a path in the Desert frequently used by Illegal Immigrants, etc...). You must remember the reasonable suspicion is justification for the detention, pending verification of resident status, nothing more. Of course it may evolve into more if it is determined via the Federal Data Base that the individual is in the country unlawfully. Many would have you believe the Police will simply stop any one with a dark complexion, that is not the case.
The word ILLEGAL says it all, I know liberals want that word banished but throw these criminal's out...noboner is just stumping for votes..he is a total imposter that tells afgani's sorry for burning the koran after their army kills 6 of our service people..there is NO common in "common sense" for the country give away liberals..........
If we wanted your opinion we would go to free republic and ask rimjob what your opinion was.
Of course you do why you repeat everything they say and call that your opinion. We already knew you were a true follower, why all your post really say is Baa baa baa baa.
Conservatives are going down.
Look Obuma is losing the white, female, Europe, Jewish and Asian vote. This is nothing but a Hail Mary Pass for the Latino vote. He doesn't care about the Latino anymore than the black and white voters. He's playing for his job, plain and simple. The liberals vote for Obama because he's painted an imaginary world for them. Liberals and unions want nothing more than suck as much from the government without any replications. Look at Stockton California. And the Liberals wonder WHY the just got the crap kicked out of them in Wisconsin. Waaaa. Waaaa
Right except the only ones who believe that are the same people who believe they have a chance at cleaning out Mittens magic underpants.
Typical uneducated ass statement from a Liberal.
This from the guy who thinks he is educated but we all know he couldn't pass a 3rd grade civics class. Why irish believes Paul Revere warned the British that the Americans were coming.
News Flash: Waaa Waaa Governor Jerry Brown Raising Sales taxes up 7.5% and State income taxes with income over $250,000. Waa Waa. More Government Worker Liberal money for the Liberal Fat Cat Pension and Illegal Medical and Education Funds. Waaa Waaa. Sorry Jerry you'll still go broke. Your losing your State. Businesses and and white collar workers are moving from the insanity of your State. Waaa Waaa This is the Liberal Way. Waaa Waaa LOL LOL
got news for ya, Arizona raised sales tax for education and it was overwhelmingly approoooooooved!
guess what....they are talking about it again. seems old Jan can't stop education in Arizona................they rate 3rd world level education and the people know they have to do something other than listen to teapub BS..........
Look at who is doing all the whining He's, they whine about illegals they whine about taxes they whine about everything yet have no solutions but gosh darn it they got to protect those wealthy Koch brothers types from the government then whine when the government comes crashing down on their backs because that is what the wealthy want, focus on small time bull@!$%# so while they are focused on a few dollars the wealthy steal billions.
Those who are opposed to President Obama's new policy allowing the Dream kids to stay are xenophobic, hypocritical, and many are racially prejudiced bigots. The Dream act was nearly made into law, having majority votes in both chambers, but the GOP decided to filibuster the law in December, 2010. So it was a failure of our politics that stood in the way of what most Americans felt was right: leaving the Dream kids here. The American people enjoy cheaper food, cheaper goods and services produced by these undocumented mostly Hispanic workers. Big banks run pay day lenders who rip off the undocumented workers when they send money by wire. These pay day lenders also give these undocumented workers loans at steep loan shark rates. We need to end the exploitation of these workers and give them a legal path to citizenship along with work visas that protect them from discrimination. I am strongly opposed to a bottom caste of people we keep here as our serfs.
So the conservatives who are opposed to President Obama's are hypocrites. It makes zero sense to educate young people then to decide to send them back to a country they do not know let alone speak the language. The Dream kids are America's kids. What we must do now in President Obama's second term which is going to happen, are to give all those 11 to 12 million undocumented workers a legal path to citizenship and work visas that protect them from discrimination. If these undocumented workers are good enough to stand in the fields working in the hot sun picking vegetables, working in packing plants, send their kids to public school, and have many of those kids go to college or to the military these undocumented workers are good enough people to become American citizens. Then let us make sure these Hispanic workers get the job training and education so they can work even harder building up America.
We can only
pray and hope America's
integrity is strong enough to stand the test and we again see attempts to make
amnesty available to any Illegal Alien fails.
They came here
illegally and have to accept the fact they became criminals the moment they came
here and they compound that crime every day they remain here. It is not our
place to make right the injustice done these illegal kids by their parents.
Every day hundreds if not thousands of American kids suffer from the things
their parents have done. Parents go to jail, loose their jobs, have accidents,
and any number of things resulting in significant hardships on their family. We
do little and most often nothing for these families and kids. Why should we be
trying in some of our worst economical problems to do for those who have
elected to refuse to comply with our laws when we are doing nothing for our
own?
Immigration
has never helped America;
when Ragan gave Amnesty it only encouraged others to slip into our country in
hopes of gaining amnesty. Since then millions and millions of illegal’s have
come here seeking amnesty.
What happened to the other
illegals reported in the United
States just a few years ago? We were told
then there were between 14 to 18 million illegal aliens in the United States.
A few weeks ago we were being
told many of the illegals have left the United States returning to their
own country because our economy was not providing the jobs they wanted. If that
is true they will be coming back when our economy start improving.
We have been told many of the
illegals in the United
States are here because of the terrible
conditions in their own country. Does their leaving here now mean the condition
in their own country is better than conditions in the United States?
Regardless of why they came they are here
illegal. If we give them amnesty it will just send a LOUD and CLEAR message to
the rest of the world that others can come here and get amnesty and America
lacks the national will power to stand behind our laws! . That is what happened
when Regan gave amnesty and it resulted in millions and millions of illegals flooding
into our country. “ If we always do what
we always did we will always get what we always got! “ Do we have to continue
making the same dumb mistakes over and over? By all measures this Amnesty is adding up to a
Political bid with the winner being the one who can give the most to the
illegals in exchange for their votes. We have a "Legal Pathway to
Citizenship" in our immigration laws - we should be enforcing and supporting
that law rather than writing another law that backs the illegal efforts of
those who have chosen to ignore and disobey our laws; and, will most likely continue
ignoring our laws doing as they desire!
That has been the result every time we have allowed any kind of amnesty
and there is no reason to believe doing it now will do anything to fix the
problems these illegal’s bring with them; not the problems of the past, our
current problem with them, or any amnesty will correct!!