Why does the USA have so many people in jail?

There are a significant number of illegal aliens (i.e. undocumented criminals) that are in the prisons.They don't all come here to work honestly.We need to stop the invasion. The Senate is about to sell this country down the river for a short term benefit.

I never claimed it to be a conclusion.
You are the one who put the "therefore" in the middle.Influx of criminals is just one reason to stop the inflow of illegal aliens.Low cost labor from illegal aliens, while nice for the employers who can skip minimum wage laws, is overall a bad idea, especially in the long term.I urge folks to write & call your Senators to stop the amnesty program (spun as "guest worker" and "path to citizenship" by both parties).

In 2004: Steven Camorata, Director of Research for the Center for Immigration Studies said "Roughly 17 percent of the prison population at the federal level are illegal aliens. That's a huge number since illegal aliens only account for about 3 percent of the total population."

Yes, I am very close to the issue, since I am in Houston, where the majority is Hispanic (and that is just the legal quantity!). As with the majority of Americans who want a legal method of immigration, I have no problem with the many legal Hispanics that I deal with every day.My biggest problem with the Senate is that they are not taking the first step which is to stop the flood into this country by securing the border. It's like they are proposing to bail water in a sinking ship before patching the hole.Myth #1: Americans won't do the work

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Most of the 12 million illegals are actually here because they are willing to do work that NO American would do.

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You have swallowed that myth hook, line and sinker. Americans used to do the work. Then minimum wage went up and businesses could not afford to pay as many hours to have the work done. Then, illegal aliens were hired at below-minimum wage.Myth #2: Costs would go up
Guess what? Americans are paying higher costs in other ways, such as free health care, welfare, schools, etc. The worst outlook is in the future, when they become citizens and then would collect more benefits because many will be out of work (minimum wage issue, or additional illegal aliens taking their jobs).Myth #3: It's not amnesty
Don't you realize these are politicians talking to you?

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The process will take them 9 years. (!!)

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Those that step forward will say they have been here many years.
It will not take 9 years. Remember they are undocumented.

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They have to pay restitution of about $2,000.

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That cost will be defrayed by your taxes from government programs.
And, how about those who still choose to remain illegal?
Further, is $2000 the price of USA citizenship? Seems pretty cheap.

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They have to maintain continuous employment for that period.

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Let's see... they can get fake drivers licenses, etc.
I wonder if they will be able to fake employment records.

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They will have to have a spotless record of behavior.

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Have you heard of the catch-and-release programs in many major cities, where police officers cannot retain illegal aliens?
And what do you do with the 29% of non-citizens in the Federal Prisons? (stat is according to the Justice Department)Myth #3:

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Nothing is being given to these people for free.

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Free health care (that causes taxes to rise and service to legal citizens to decrease), free education for children (our taxes pay), welfare for millions of them, free prison cell for the criminals (our taxes pay).

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It is merely a good faith effort to get them to 'come in from the cold' and become full participants in society.

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By this, I infer that you are proposing to do away with any process to screen and limit immigrants.

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So I suppose you support putting more people in jail by creating a whole new class of felons, including any good samaritan who would help an illegal alien?

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No, I would not imprison them. I would deport them as they are discovered. There are a lot of trucks coming full up the Nafta highway that go back empty. Load 'em up!
What's with the "new" class of felons? It's already an existing law they are breaking!
The good samaritan can offer to take the illegal back to his country, and buy him/her/kids meals along the way.We don't need a fence to secure the border. That's the beauty of modern technology. You would have to replace sensors, of course, since the drug trafficers would destroy some of them when they are coming over here to do the work that Ameican drug trafficers won't do.Myth #4: Most are coming here for honest work
Vicente Fox's plan is to send their jobless and criminal class to America so that his country's costs and crime are lowered.
Gangs and drug runners have set-up shop here and bring more of their criminal element into this country because their market is much bigger here than south of the border.

You seem sensible, and as with most Americans not close to the issue, not informed from many sources, just the ABC/NBC/CBS sound bite news.- - - - - Fraud will be rampant (what government program doesn't?)Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), blasted the compromise as an open invitation for fraud. In a statement released on Thursday, Tancredo addresses the fraud issue by saying:“The Senate deal asks people who have broken the law for years ” often using fraudulent documents ” to provide proof that they’ve lived here. I can guarantee that many of those fraudulent documents ” which law enforcement hasn’t been able to detect yet ” will be used to obtain legal status.”Millions of illegal aliens currently pay into the Social Security system because they are using fraudulent Social Security cards.In 2002 alone, the Social Security Administration reported it had collected $7 billion in payroll taxes and $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes from workers who could not be matched with valid Social Security numbers.

First, I take my statement back about you seeming to be reasonable!

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Do you really think more border security is going to solve this ?
Do you think longer, higher fences are a solution?

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You obviously are not reading my posts, and instead are taking a typical liberal response: emmotional. I told you a fence is not the solution. I told you that securing the border is a first step, not the total solution.

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Where there is a labor demand, it will be met.

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And water seeks its own level, and that's why it's a good idea to stop a leak in the boat.
There is 14% unemployment of Americans in the entry job market, and 4.7% overall. There are people available in America, but the labor rates can be undercut by going with illegal aliens. Teenagers used to cut the grass and work at fast food restaurants. Now they don't have many entry level jobs.

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If you paid American laborers $10 an hour to pick citrus you still wouldn’t have anyone show up. Nobody. You don’t an appreciation of the situation at all.

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Let the market dictate what people are willing to pay for labor and for the fruit. That model worked fine until Kennedy, Clinton and Bushes let the floodgates stay open.
I suggest that you get out the midwest and move to the border states to get an "appreciation of the situation".
P.S. If we eliminate all the farm subsidies, maybe the demand for farm laborers would decrease. Do you support the elimination of this corporate welfare, too?

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You think that your punative, skinflint welfare system is a reason people want to emigrate to this country? Or your over-rated, price-gouging medical system ?

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It is one reason, yes. That is part of the "opportunity". Any why is the medical system price-gouging as you say? Maybe it's because of so many free services they obligated to pay. These free health services, which you are so denying and igorant of, are a FACT. The illegals do not need insurance, because they just show up at the emergency hospitals and clinics where by law they must be helped.
Someone has to pay (i.e. the taxpayers and the paying customers).

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The potential for fraud is not justification for abandoning a policy in principle.
It only points the way for fraud recognition and prevention.

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It's not just "potential", it is reality. Fraud is already occurring with fake records of all sorts. And if that is not enough, there is an entry-level method to getting started in America.
Do you know what a "Matricula" card is?
It is a Mexican invention of an ID card for illegals in America to circumvent the IDs cards (like drivers license) of America. The Hispanic lobbyists have done a good job of getting local governments to increasingly accept these cards for services.

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Aren’t you just the insightful Machiavelli of modern Eastern Hemisphere political strategy ?

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That is so pathetically nave.
Don't you see it would be mutually beneficial for Mexico and the US to defuse the problem? The strength of Mexico’s future lies in retaining laborers within its borders. They need to avoid the ”brain drain’ Canada has faced for the past 2 decades.

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(ignoring the unfounded personal attack... Admin should have given you the yellow card)
"Brain drain"?!? The invaders are not the well-educated, but are the unemployed and criminals.

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If Americans were willing to do this work, illegals would not be a problem.

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Again, you live under the myth that corporate America and politicians have been selling to keep their situations looking better in the short term.Consider the long term effects. If you grant this amnesty program, the invasion will not stop and actually even more will come. This will create an overabundance of a poverty class with a different language and culture that will inevitably lead to more problems in the future.
Based on the polls I've seen, most Americans understand the problem, and want the invasion stopped, incentives curtailed, and criminal element deported. The nation seems split on deportation, mainly because of the costs.

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If you really want to stem the onslaught of immigration from Mexico, the best approach is to help Mexico advance economically so they have a stronger local economy to employ their own people.

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And your solution is to have their people work here, absorb our tax dollars, and export some of their earnings tax-free to Mexico? That builds THEIR country?? Throw money at the problem?
If that is not your solution, then offer one.

No, not the "L" letter, the "C" letter .... for COMMUNISTS !!!! Hmmmm.... I just thought of a good compromise.
We could trade liberals to Mexico in return for laborers.I would love to respond to the five pages of text from the two of you, but instead I must leave it at that due to time constraints. I am surprised the Admin didn't move us to another thread.Back to OP topic a bit closer...Would you at least consider exporting the up-to-29% of prisoners in jail who are illegal aliens? (I still haven't seen a more accurate figure for illegal aliens than the Justice Dept's stat that 29% of prison population is non-citizen)

I guess I needed to put a smilie legend so that your humor detector would at least recognize it. Sorry.

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if their crimes aresomething other than being illegal, why are they in our jails in the first place?

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The Federation for American Immigration Reform also turned to the Justice Department to get statistics on criminal aliens. They report:"In March 2000, Congress made public Department of Justice statistics showing that, over the previous five years, the INS had released over 35,000 criminal aliens instead of deporting them. Over 11,000 of those released went on to commit serious crimes, over 1,800 of which were violent ones [including 98 homicides, 142 sexual assaults, and 44 kidnappings].Citing an Urban Institute study, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies Steven Camorata noted in 2004: "Roughly 17 percent of the prison population at the federal level are illegal aliens. That's a huge number since illegal aliens only account for about 3 percent of the total population."

I just said "illegal aliens". That could mean any race.
You are the one bringing race into the picture, when that is not the issue at all.
I suspect most black prisoners are citizens of USA and therefore have those rights that illegals have not earned.Based on your avatar, you seem to want to bend over backwards to help illegal aliens from south of the border. So, if 450,000 cross the Mexican border into USA illegally, then should we allow the same number from each of India, China, Africa, Cuba, etc.?

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conservatives just want to shove developing countries into a box, shut the lid, and ignore it

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you are jumping to false conclusions... typical

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call me a communist because i take the time to care about another person who can't give me money

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Your angry-filled ranting and raving seems to indicate (although not stated explicitly by you) that you resent Americans having so much money, and that is not fair, and it should be taken from us and given to the billions of poor folks around the world.
So, until you actually state something like that, I am not really calling you a communist (my statement was a jest in response to the "L" word response of someone else).

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To help Mexico would take a massive movement of people young and energetic enough to work hard to do something to improve conditions overall.

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Go for it!The Catholic Church has some programs, but not much participation, from what I understand.

It takes two to tango.
We need Mexico to cooperate with us on a plan. Of course they'll take money, but does anyone doubt that corruption will take most of it?By first sealing the border, and then having many illegals return to Mexico, Vicente Fox will have a problem that he does not have now. Now he has no incentive to hold back the flood. In fact his regime encourages it (example: the matricula card they now issue for ID in the USA).Idea#1 to improve Mexico
(I think I need to put this in the other thread...)

Do you buy the following speculation?:
1. Bush and Fox made a deal: USA will tolerate illegal aliens if Mexico makes some oil deals and seals their southern border to reduce influx of South Americans into USA
2. Bush wanted a boost in economy, and cheap labor (illegals) helps.
3. Fox needs to improve his economy and crime stats if his party is to stay in power, otherwise the radical-left party is likely to take control; therefore, let the Mexican illegal aliens into USA to help Mexico economy.I believe the Mexican election is this July. There may be some bad Fox News here.

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In any case, I want to know what business the government has telling me what plants I can grow in my yard for my own personal use?

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You want to know?
I'll tell you.
You might qualify for a farm subsidy.