Illegals Ponder Leaving USA

Of course, this sob story doesn't call them illegal aliens, but it's not too difficult to figure out that's exactly what they are.

Who knows, maybe the pandering Democrats can set up a debate for illegals only. They've pretty much covered every other special interest group, why not the people they're desperate to give voting privileges to?

Migrants agree: It's harder to get jobs

He has a mother in Honduras who needs money for her medication, rent on a house in Homestead that he struggles to pay, and he has a daughter in South Florida whom he wants to support.

And each day, it seems, it's harder to get a job.

''The money I make means the survival of my family, and the work seems to have disappeared so quickly,'' said González, 42, who spends his days in a parking lot near the Cutler Ridge Home Depot with other day laborers. ``Things have gotten really terrible for immigrants.''

Well, excuse me for being so callous, but how about going back to Honduras to take care of your mother? Are we expected to foot the tab for someone not in this country who meeds medicine?

A new study indicates that González's view is shared by a growing number of migrants from Mexico and Central America. They are finding it harder to get jobs and are living under a dramatically increased sense of siege, according to the report by the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank and the Bendixen polling firm in Miami.

The study for the first time demonstrates with hard numbers the impact that the immigration debate in Washington is having on America's streets.

More than one-third of Central Americans and 30 percent of Mexicans said their biggest problem in the United States was discrimination, against single-digit responses for similar questions in 2004. And 83 percent of Mexicans and 79 percent of Central Americans said discrimination was on the rise.

Well, cry me a river. Perhaps this perceived "discrimination" is a result of you entering the country illegally.

''What I have found is both ugly and sad,'' pollster Sergio Bendixen said. ``There are millions of Latin American immigrants, especially those living in the deep South and the upper Midwest, whose lives have been made miserable by the anti-immigrant sentiment that is now so prevalent in so many geographic areas.''

Boo-hoo.

How about those whose lives have been made miserable by illegal alien criminals?

Researchers interviewed 900 migrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Just over half of those polled said they were undocumented. More than half of those polled were in the United States for more than 10 years and two of every 10 made less than $20,000 a year. The poll's margin of error is three percentage points.

The poll was conducted in June, at the height of the debate in the U.S. Senate to overhaul immigration laws. A proposal to provide an avenue for many migrants to legalize their status failed amid a backlash from mostly conservatives demanding a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Actually, we were demaning that our laws be enforced and the borders secured. But why confuse us with the facts when we have a puff piece to sell?

Those Mexicans who moved to nontraditional areas in recent years are now feeling the highest heat from anti-immigrant sentiments. Before, 80 percent of those Mexicans used to send money back home, against only 49 percent now.

''They feel unprotected,'' Bendixen said. ``They have nowhere to go for help.''

Um, how about back to where you came from?

Just under half of this ''new states'' group say they will leave the United States in five years, compared with two-thirds of those in the traditional states. Bendixen said previous polls showed only about 15 percent of Latinos planned to return to their home countries.

Both González and Raimundo said they are sick of the constant fear and the crushing days of waiting for work and are among those who are considering heading home.

''If the situation stays this way, not just me but maybe everyone will be leaving,'' Raimundo said.

González is already planning his departure.

''The only thing I'm waiting for is to make some money, because I don't want to go home empty-handed,'' he said. ``With all that's happening, I don't want to be here anymore.''

Can we get that in writing?

In English, of course.