Great Western Forum

a dear friend of mine and Los Angeles’ in general has been detained and is facing immediate deportation if anyone here can do anything to help spread the word it would mean a great deal to all of us who are worried and missing him deeply. Please Please whatever you can as quickly as you can. http://freekutmah.com/
xo j.

I’ll probably catch hell for this, but what part of illegal don’t people understand? He was told twice that he couldn’t stay, broke the law, and now we’re supposed to feel sorry for him because he’s a nice guy? I know some nice drug dealers who are in jail, one is a great rapper, should we petition to just let people do whatever they want to do regardless of the law, as long as they are our friends?

Sorry to hear about your friend Jah.

if this guy was actually trying everything he could do to become a legal citizen, then i agree with jah.

i don’t really feel sorry for the people who live here their whole lives, and never even try to become legal.

i’m all about human rights and whatnot, i just don’t see the problem with them becoming legal.

idk, i agree with okie dokie.

Hey fruits, we stole this country, we’re all here illegally.
Free Kutmah!

for short - May 10th 2010 @ 08:47 am

Hey fruits, we stole this country, we’re all here illegally.
Free Kutmah!

This is a flimsy argument. There are a ton of things that this country, and other countries, have done in the past that is completely forbidden/illegal/etc… now.

The question is whether or not illegal immigrants should be deported or not.

I would say that if an illegal immigrant is caught, they should give them the choice of mandatory legalization, or deportation.

I really don’t understand how that could be wrong.

Why is that a flimsy argument? The only people who really belong here are native americans. Why can’t we turn a blind eye to people who sneak into this country? You think we should make them legal? Why? Why can’t somebody come stay here without becoming a citizen? Why does it always have to be so black and white? This country is great because there are so many loopholes.
It sounds like you are down with some kind of authoritarian government that has control over every aspect of American life, which I would remind you, immigrants, illegal or legal are an important part of our life.

for short, this country is great for many reasons, and also not-so-great for many reasons. Why should I have to be fully registered with the government for anything and everything I do, and have to show proof of identity when I’m stopped for any little thing, but another person doesn’t have the same responsibilities? How is it fair to me that the way these people get special treatment is by breaking a law?

The government is already big enough, you won’t get me with the “you are down with some kind of authoritarian government” argument. The government is there to ensure safety and freedom and our nation. A nation is border, language, and culture, if you cut it down to the bone. I understand we’re a mixing pot nation, so the culture can vary from person to person, but borders and language protect the economy and freedom of us all, so we can communicate and hold up the rules which we’ve all agreed to live under in our society. Allowing people to trample the rules that the rest of live under is a threat to the freedom that those people came here to enjoy.

FREE KUTMAH!

There are many different view points to this situation:

1. Illegal immigrants do work that nobody else wants to do for less money, so our food/homes/construction/etc… is a lot cheaper than it would be if we had to pay someone the legal minimum and/or working wage that they deserve.

My problem with this is that we’re basically saying that since they’re illegal, they don’t deserve money. I mean, living off the current minimum wage is a joke. You would have to have 2 jobs at least, especially if you have a family. Then again, nobody wants to pay them more, as well as pay more for every day products.

2. If they live here, and use our nations resources, they should be contributing with taxes that legal citizens do.

Well, they already do normal sales tax on products, but not on other taxes obviously because they’re not registered. So yeah, it would help if they were legal and registered because it would bring in more money.

3. Just deport them all, they’re not legal, get them out of here.

Numbers 1 and 2 just show that this could be catastrophic to our economy, but again, it seems really demeaning to “force” them to work crappy jobs for crappy wages.

There are other viewpoints obviously, but these are the ones I hear the most.

I think the main thing we need to focus on is making it easier to become a legal citizen, instead of making them jump through hoops.

Fuck all the rhetoric and FREE KUTMAH!

Nice contribution to the thread.

This man seems to have lived in this country longer than a lot of us ‘native’ citizens.  I’m sure he’s been paying something in the way of taxes (I hope).  Yeah let’s fuck with this guy while we hand out citizenship to people who try to blow up Times Square.

So is homie still stateside? Anybody?

I heard, and please DON’T quote me on this it could be totally wrong, but I heard that the reason there’s all this trouble is that he hadn’t been paying taxes, because there’s all kinds of ways to stay here without being a citizen, I did it for like 15 years. (But I’m Canadian, we get special privileges :D) They wouldn’t imprison and deport you if you’re going through the becoming-a-citizen motions legitimately, right? There must be something else going on.

Either way, hope all turns out well, and buddy gets to continue to hang out with us. I’m not saying I’m for deporting him, quite the opposite, I want him freed just as much as anyone else. I hope all this legal bullshit gets worked out for the best.

People have moved freely about this earth for thousands of years.  All borders are porous.  Borders are the result of wars, in every case.  They are, in all ways, an expression of the worst parts of us.
Most of us here have never experienced what it is like to have a border imposed on us by outside forces.  To us, borders have always been as they are today.  But they are not natural occurrences. They are just a tool.  They allow commerce to be carried out in a certain way.  In almost all cases, are set up to allow the free flow of capital and resources, while restricting the flow of people.
To speak about deportation without speaking about forced scarcity is too easy, and it is ultimately useless.  The argument will go on forever, as it was designed to do, and it will only leave us angry and gullible.  Some of us are here without the government’s permission.  We make a mistake if we treat their presence as theft.  We have to be careful not to destroy this place in our attempts to keep it to ourselves.
I hope that Jahnathan’s friend was able to find a way to stay here.  If not, I hope he finds a way to come back.