Immigration strawman arguments about: civil rights abuses, 287g, family separation, "stateless" children, alternative detention, eVerify

Rep. Lamar Smith offers "Amnesty Pushers Concoct Six Straw Men" (link), a collection of logical fallacies that illegal immigration supporters use. The points raised aren't of much use unless those supporters - such as nationally-known politicians - are confronted with them, and if you can do that on video that could have a serious impact on those supporters' careers.

It includes a section about family separation, specifically referencing Luis Gutierrez' "Family Unity Tour" and including this:

But he [the strawman] forgets that children can travel to their parents’ home countries with them. And the federal government may even cover the cost if the family cannot afford it... In most cases, the children will be welcomed abroad as citizens of their parents' home countries -- so they won't be "stateless" as Family Separation Straw Man suggests. In fact, the 10 countries that are estimated to have sent the most illegal immigrants to the U.S. are Brazil, China, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, the Philippines and South Korea. In all of these countries except China, the country’s law is clear that children born in the U.S. who have at least one parent who was a citizen of their country (and born in the country) are either automatically citizens of the country or can easily seek citizenship. In China, the law is unclear, but the practice of the Chinese embassy is to allow children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant Chinese parents to return to China as Chinese nationals.

Sat, 05/09/2009 - 09:54 · · Importance: 4