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what are they thinking?
Nov. 13th, 2007 11:28 amTalking about immigration and US policy rarely brings out the best in my neighbors.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/11/11/immigration_office_moving_to_burlington_raising_fears/
I know the immigration bureaucracy is overloaded. I don't know if the proposal to move the office to Burlington includes making it a bigger office, or doing anything to make it more efficient. One would hope so, but this is the federal government. The last time I heard about major action involving immigration law enforcement, they were taking people from New Bedford as fast as they could to detain them in Texas.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/09/dss_to_check_on_detainees_sent_to_texas/
The article in this Sunday's Globe was very uncomfortable. The plan is to put the office in Burlington, presumably because there is more room there than in Boston, and because there is parking as well as bus transport. For administrative work, especially for administrative work related to H1B visas, it seems very convenient to put an office building near 128. People will be fingerprinted and have biographical information recorded, and if they need to be detained, they will be sent to county jails. But neighbors "worry about the safety of transporting detainees through their town." (Now, of course, they are not detained, but are going through your town and shopping for groceries. That's not scary, because the feds aren't involved.)
Someone is actually quoted in the article as saying she doesn't want a jail in her town, and she doesn't want vehicles transporting criminals. She is talking about "criminals" who have committed the horrifying crime of overstaying their visas...I don't know what that does to property values, but it does not make them a threat to children walking by across the street. Not that children walk by across the street in that area *anyhow*. It's not really a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.
A few weeks ago, I was shopping in a small store where the owner was listening to talk radio about how horrible it would be to let illegal immigrants have drivers licenses. How the idea of making a distinction between "undocumented immigrant who can drive safely" and "undocumented immigrant who cannot drive safely" is so outrageous, so far from acceptable, that anyone who even talks to a person who suggests it cannot be taken seriously. The storekeeper asked how I was doing, if I needed help. I said there were some nice things I was considering, but the radio advocacy was making me uncomfortable. She hadn't been listening to it consciously enough to notice it was nasty. She offered to change the station, and changed it to another talk radio program...one that was just as stupidly nasty, about how insane it is to let illegal immigrants use primary care medical clinics, or to send their kids to public schools. (Because when people can't see doctors until they're catastrophically sick in the emergency room, that's supposed to be sensible and efficient? And the children of immigrants who are working their butts off are just magically supposed to grow into responsible taxpayers with good jobs, without anybody teaching them English or anything else?) I expect she changed the radio back to the original station as soon as I left the store.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/11/11/immigration_office_moving_to_burlington_raising_fears/
I know the immigration bureaucracy is overloaded. I don't know if the proposal to move the office to Burlington includes making it a bigger office, or doing anything to make it more efficient. One would hope so, but this is the federal government. The last time I heard about major action involving immigration law enforcement, they were taking people from New Bedford as fast as they could to detain them in Texas.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/09/dss_to_check_on_detainees_sent_to_texas/
The article in this Sunday's Globe was very uncomfortable. The plan is to put the office in Burlington, presumably because there is more room there than in Boston, and because there is parking as well as bus transport. For administrative work, especially for administrative work related to H1B visas, it seems very convenient to put an office building near 128. People will be fingerprinted and have biographical information recorded, and if they need to be detained, they will be sent to county jails. But neighbors "worry about the safety of transporting detainees through their town." (Now, of course, they are not detained, but are going through your town and shopping for groceries. That's not scary, because the feds aren't involved.)
Someone is actually quoted in the article as saying she doesn't want a jail in her town, and she doesn't want vehicles transporting criminals. She is talking about "criminals" who have committed the horrifying crime of overstaying their visas...I don't know what that does to property values, but it does not make them a threat to children walking by across the street. Not that children walk by across the street in that area *anyhow*. It's not really a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.
A few weeks ago, I was shopping in a small store where the owner was listening to talk radio about how horrible it would be to let illegal immigrants have drivers licenses. How the idea of making a distinction between "undocumented immigrant who can drive safely" and "undocumented immigrant who cannot drive safely" is so outrageous, so far from acceptable, that anyone who even talks to a person who suggests it cannot be taken seriously. The storekeeper asked how I was doing, if I needed help. I said there were some nice things I was considering, but the radio advocacy was making me uncomfortable. She hadn't been listening to it consciously enough to notice it was nasty. She offered to change the station, and changed it to another talk radio program...one that was just as stupidly nasty, about how insane it is to let illegal immigrants use primary care medical clinics, or to send their kids to public schools. (Because when people can't see doctors until they're catastrophically sick in the emergency room, that's supposed to be sensible and efficient? And the children of immigrants who are working their butts off are just magically supposed to grow into responsible taxpayers with good jobs, without anybody teaching them English or anything else?) I expect she changed the radio back to the original station as soon as I left the store.
