Thread: Can someone explain this Arizona Immigration law thing to me...

Originally Posted by bandaidwoman

Students Withdraw From Arizona Universities In Reaction To Immigration Law

A handful of people is hardly a "huge dip", but if makes you feel better, you can believe so.

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

Ok, you and I are obviously going to disagree on this, I just find it hard to believe that a month ago AZ police were pulling illegals over who had no identification, no license, no insurance, no registration, and just letting them go on their way, and filling out the citation with whatever name they gave them (Probably Jose). Call me crazy, but I doubt that was the case.

That was exactly the case. The state couldn't do squat, but with this new law allows them to do something about it.

Where state do you live in?

New Jersey, but most of the Mexican folks around here are pretty nice. I attribute it to the colder weather and the desire to get further away from Mexico.

If that truly was the case and they couldn't do shit, that's fucked up. I honestly don't see how it could be, the car could be stolen and not reported yet, etc. But, the only border I have lived next to is the Canadian, and they just came down to load up on cheap cigarettes.

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

New Jersey, but most of the Mexican folks around here are pretty nice. I attribute it to the colder weather and the desire to get further away from Mexico.

If that truly was the case and they couldn't do shit, that's fucked up. I honestly don't see how it could be, the car could be stolen and not reported yet, etc. But, the only border I have lived next to is the Canadian, and they just came down to load up on cheap cigarettes.

It was fucked up, but not now that the law is passed. Before this, you could only get them for other offences, because...ya know...protecting your borders is racist.

Interesting illegal Mexican fact: 12 Americans are killed by illegals every day, plus 13 killed by drunk Mexican drivers.

Bonus fact: "eight American children are victims of sexual abuse by illegal aliens every day – a total of 2,920 annually."

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

If that truly was the case and they couldn't do shit, that's fucked up. I honestly don't see how it could be, the car could be stolen and not reported yet, etc.

I think that is the primary drive behind our disagreement. As fucked up as it was, the state could not arrest illegals as criminals, or process them into our legal system as such. Only the federal government had this power, and it was not using it, only deporting them, with them coming right back at the cost of AZ taxpayers money.

Now the AZ courts can use their authority to treat illegal immigration as a crime (hence the word illegal) and punish repeat offenders if they see fit.

That's seriously the gist of the new law. It is almost a mirror copy of the federal version of the law.

The only reason this turned into such a huge debate is because a number of uninformed protesters turned this into a racial conflict, which of course atuomatically causes everyone to go up in flames. In my experience there are 2 situations in which humans lose all sense of reason and intellect. When children are threatened and during racial tension.

This has nothing to do with race at all. The kinds of people that are going through the legal channels and immigrating here legally are exactly the kind of people we want here. They are pursuing a better life, and have sacrificed a lot to get here. It is the illegals and the criminal dross that this is designed to curb.

Originally Posted by NeilPearson

I wanted to go to medical school but I couldn't afford it. I had the second highest GPA of anyone in my graduating class of 350 people. I tried to get grants but being white, I couldn't get anything. Every grant I found was reserved for a minority

If you work in a rural,underserved community after medical school, they pay 100% of your medical tuition. I believe the military also. Many of my collegues ( both minority and whites ) went that route. Don't know if canada has the same program, it is funded by the government. I would think they would have something similar no?

They put us asians below whites in terms of admissions and grants in medical school, since we are disproportionatly over represented in medical school . Especially those of us who were recently foreign nationals. I had to apply to 38 medical schools, only one helped me financially even though I got into 25. Dartmouth had a neat program where we recieved a generous salary for tutoring the undergrads in subjects like calculus and organic chemistry, which really helped me financially. I only owed 100 grand , without it, would have owed 200 grand ( tuition and living combined was like 50,ooo). It was still cheaper than borrowing to go to a New York state school, tuition was only 18 grand in the late 80s and early 90s but with the high cost of living and high loan interest rate ( close to 10%) I would have owed more going to a state school. Dartmouth lent me the money with less than 3% interest rate. So I know where you are coming from. Women no longer are minority status since 1992, in fact we are now the majority, which is good.

It's never too late, one of the best er docs here went back at 41. Still paying off his loans in his sixties but is very happy.So you should not give up.

Originally Posted by bandaidwoman

When I get a tan, due to my half asian status people sometimes assume I am latino and start speaking to me in spanish. I used to go to arizona all the time to mountain bike, I may not just because I don't want to deal with the hassle of proving my citizenship ( that and I don't know where I put my passport) when I'm in my dark, exotic looking summer state.

Unfortunatly, the illegal Haitians, black africans, Chinese ( like my daughter's chinese teacher) and the numerous Canandians won't feel the impact of this law. ( as for my daughter's chinese teacher the dumbass private school human resources forgot to renew her H1B visa two months ago so technically she is a illegal.)

As an ethnic looking citizen, Arizona now becomes somewhat of a "police" state where you have to carry a passport around if you just go to the corner store.

I don't blame them but they lost a well paying ethnic looking mountain biker ( I used to go to their resorts ). By the way, since english is my 6th language, I speak with a foreign accent except most can't make it out ( two dialects of chinese, malaysian and two dialects of hindi were my first 5).

I'm sort of laughing hwo much fun you must have w/ the accents in Atlanta... (altho many will laugh at my accent .. think "Fargo"....)

Originally Posted by sassy69

I'm sort of laughing hwo much fun you must have w/ the accents in Atlanta... (altho many will laugh at my accent .. think "Fargo"....)

I have more fun when I bring my husband to new york where my parents still live. The gals love his heavy,relaxed southern drawl, or maybe its his body, who knows. Yeah, the minnesota , north dakota accent always threw me, but the worst was the boston accent, I almost couldn't understand them.

Most of the comments I get in atlanta is "I know your something, I just don't know what it is..." I've been persian, asian, latino, half ethopian black ( apparently they somewhat different facial characteristics) depending on their taste or distaste....
I should not have kept my maiden name, my first name is Christy and my married would have been Johnson, Christy Johnson, how white bread would that make me...

Originally Posted by bandaidwoman

If you work in a rural,underserved community after medical school, they pay 100% of your medical tuition. I believe the military also. Many of my collegues ( both minority and whites ) went that route. Don't know if canada has the same program, it is funded by the government. I would think they would have something similar no?

They put us asians below whites in terms of admissions and grants in medical school, since we are disproportionatly over represented in medical school . Especially those of us who were recently foreign nationals. I had to apply to 38 medical schools, only one helped me financially even though I got into 25. Dartmouth had a neat program where we recieved a generous salary for tutoring the undergrads in subjects like calculus and organic chemistry, which really helped me financially. I only owed 100 grand , without it, would have owed 200 grand ( tuition and living combined was like 50,ooo). It was still cheaper than borrowing to go to a New York state school, tuition was only 18 grand in the late 80s and early 90s but with the high cost of living and high loan interest rate ( close to 10%) I would have owed more going to a state school. Dartmouth lent me the money with less than 3% interest rate. So I know where you are coming from. Women no longer are minority status since 1992, in fact we are now the majority, which is good.

It's never too late, one of the best er docs here went back at 41. Still paying off his loans in his sixties but is very happy.So you should not give up.

I didn't find a way to do it back in Canada when I got out of high school. I might have just not had the resources to do it.

It is too late for me though. I am making my six figure income doing computer programming consulting. To switch gears now would mean going back to school, student loans, giving up my 2600 sq foot house, actually having to work hard which I try not to do now. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. My lifestyle couldn't take the hit :P

Originally Posted by sassy69

I'm sort of laughing hwo much fun you must have w/ the accents in Atlanta... (altho many will laugh at my accent .. think "Fargo"....)

Even Canadians laugh at Fargo

Originally Posted by NeilPearson

I didn't find a way to do it back in Canada when I got out of high school. I might have just not had the resources to do it.

It is too late for me though. I am making my six figure income doing computer programming consulting. To switch gears now would mean going back to school, student loans, giving up my 2600 sq foot house, actually having to work hard which I try not to do now. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. My lifestyle couldn't take the hit :P

I forgot, you guys go straight out of high school. At that age I only knew I wanted to be a lab jockey chemist. Lots of fun on the research end but boooring in the private sector. The pharmaceutical company paid me a lot of money as a chemist but I don't like answering to corporate idiots. Luckily I accidently did all my premed requirements and being a perfectionist made sure I graduated with a near perfect GPA so I was able to transition easily to applying to med school. I felt sorry for the liberal arts or engineering or business majors that changed their mind and had to redo all the premed crap.

Originally Posted by bandaidwoman

I forgot, you guys go straight out of high school. At that age I only knew I wanted to be a lab jockey chemist. Lots of fun on the research end but boooring in the private sector. The pharmaceutical company paid me a lot of money as a chemist but I don't like answering to corporate idiots. Luckily I accidently did all my premed requirements and being a perfectionist made sure I graduated with a near perfect GPA so I was able to transition easily to applying to med school. I felt sorry for the liberal arts or engineering or business majors that changed their mind and had to redo all the premed crap.

I think that was the problem... straight out of high school. I didn't yet have the skills needed to guide my life and find the opportunities that were available. I probably just expected everything to fall into my lap since it had all my life. Everything was easy in high school. I never had to seek out opportunities, they always sought me out. I was the smart kid. Teachers would come to me and suggest 'gifted' programs and give me awards and stuff. I never had to apply or ask for anything. That trend stopped when I graduated from high school.

My parents wanted me to do what I wanted to do without influencing me and I didn't really have direction. They weren't offering to help so I just kind of went with the flow. It worked out fine... good enough that I'm not going to change it now but if I had the chance to go back and make different desicions, I might. I am way too comfortable in my life now to put myself through that kind of change now though.