Should we put illegal immigrants into prison?

Question

The great Stephen Colbert!
If anyone watched the Colbert report last night you would've heard him talking about that factory getting busted with tons of illegal immigrants, then they replaced those illegals with homeless people and prisoners. So if we were to send the illegal immigrants to prison for being illegal we can then just turn around and hire them legally for the same price... Right?

I mean if we send them back to Mexico, the Mexican government is just going to let them out to come back to America, and where is the AMERICAN JUSTICE in that?

SittinPretty... This whole question was brought up because we are replacing illegals with homeless and prisoners. So either way we are going to get a criminal working for us.

Answer 1

Why not just enforce our borders and immigration laws? That would prevent them from returning.

Answer 2

Illegal immigration is a sticky subject because many people get really emotional about it. We tend to forget that the vast majority are coming to our great country seeking a better life. Some argue that they are a burden to our society because they take up public resources and crowd our emergency rooms...blah, blah, blah. But most of us, including the others who have answered your question, forget or don't even realize the powerful positive impact they have on our economy! These people are willing to do jobs that most of us don't want, for far less money then any of us would except. The best example is the fact that they are the backbone of our agricultural economy. So go ahead and deport them all or throw them all in jail....but don't ***** and complain when your lettuce is suddenly $5 a head...or when your fast food is $10 for a happy meal. Ever heard the phrase..."Don't bite the hand that feeds you"???

Answer 3

Jailing the illegals is too expensive.

Start putting the employers in jail and the jobs will dry up. When they can't get work they will stop coming back.

Unfortunately a significant potion of our government wants them here. The only people actually trying to stop them from entering the country is the Minute Men.

Answer 4

Not unless they commit a crime other than sneaking in. We need to deport them not punish as punishment is already a big expense in our country and with violent crime and pedophiles everywhere we need to keep them in prison and don't need to make room for illegals who only want to better themselves through work. Our prisons should be for crimes that actually have a victim.
Also homeless people are not all criminals as you said in your 2nd comment. Most are have mental problems and working will only help them feel better about themselves and is a good thing.
But no we shouldn't spend that much on them just a bus trip home.

Answer 5

I don't think they should go to prison for being illegal, but I do think they should be detained somewhere until they can be deported. If employment laws are enforced they would have no reason to come back. Imprison the employers of illegals and make them do the work!

Answer 6

Is not wether anyone "should" put illegal immigrants in jails is that no one can. First, there are too many and sooner or later they would rebel if they were put in jail. Second, as far as I know America is a fair country and doesn't put innocent people in jail just for trying to have a better life.

Answer 7

Put millions of illegals in prison at 30000 dollars per head per year. That's brilliant. The immigration system wasn't designed to handle this kind of immigration issues. I would have hoped more countries would have improved their societies so more people won't be that interested in coming here. As our ancestors came for oppurtunity so do they.

Answer 8

If we put them in prison, everybody is just going to complain that our tax dollars are still going towards housing and feeding them and I dont know about you, but I dont think I want prisoners out in society working, do you?! If an illegal immigrant is caught and arrested, just deport him for gosh sakes, how complicated is that?!

Answer 9

If each and every unlawful immigrant were removed from the detention center equipment, we would nonetheless have the 2d maximum incarceration price in the international. do not blame the immigrants for this one: the reason we've this kind of large style of human beings in reformatory is because we've given up attempting to strive against poverty and absence of recognize-how.

Answer 10

Well, they signed the border fence bill, now it remains to get the thing built....do that, make it damn difficult to get in the country to begin with, and that'll stop a lot of the illegal immigration.