i heard the immigration folks ( in the airport ) are keeping an eye on Filipinos and Chinese. This is gross discrimination and is so uncool!!

Stop the raids! We need immigration reform now that respects and honors immigrant families, communities and workers! I'm very apprehensive about what will enfold during the Republican Party convention...

As usual, Newt Gingrich is trying to get people interested in the same Flat Earther approaches to government policy that the republicans have been trying to foist on the country for years. These ideas have failed to solve anything and is is a sign of how little imagination they have that they are bringing these flat tires out on the road again.

1. The republicans have been promising to "secure the border" since Ronald Regan was in office. What they really mean is keep out all the Latinos. It will never happen because our economy depends on them. No matter where the immigrants come from, they have always taken the hard labor jobs that everybody hates but are absolutely needed. Deporting immigrants will not improve the unemployment problem. If Gingrich was real historian, he would know this.

2. Define English as language. What is spoken in the US is different from the UK. Who is to decide what is considered acceptable? Is he in favor of a "language police"? The French tried it and failed miserably.

3. There are clear procedures for deporting undesirable aliens already in place. The only way to make it easier is to dispense with civil liberties, an approach that is fraught with the potential for abuse.

Am in TOTAL agreement with Gingrich and I sure hope he gets the chance to implement what he's promising. American citizens in America should be able to make the laws of the land - just like other countries make the laws for their countries.

1. I would ask him what's the point of English as the official language? Let's say that today English was the official language, what legislation would happen as a result? This seems like grandstanding to appeal to some sort of deep seeded prejudices that are still floating about more than something that he'd intend to use the legislative branch to support.

2. What does "criminal" mean? If I hire an amazing programmer on a H1B and that person runs a red light, do they get thrown out? Again, more detail is needed. In terms of talented foreign workers, yes I'd like more please.

If I was emperor I'd reform tax laws and minimum wage legislation to make working illegal aliens into taxpaying US citizens without wrecking the existing economy. I'd also look at changing tax laws for service workers in general, especially those who work on 1-1 transactions which to me seem to have nothing to do with commerce or government. The first party has already been taxed once on their income.

Ah to heck with it, I'd look at all the existing tax laws.

Newt Gingrich is a bigot & a hypocrite whose piosity is only exceeded by his self-delusional bombast. Newt Gingrich in The White House insults the sensibilities & intelligence of the American people. Newt Gingrich's wife is a floozy who had an ongoing sexual affair with a married man (Newt) for many years (some Catholic). I'm Newt Gingrich & I approve this message ! P.S. Forgive me father,for I have sinned ?

Immigration reform is a joke. We have the necessary to laws to stem illegal immigration. Our politicians just don't have the will to carry it out. The people of Arizona had the guts to take on illegal immigration and the Obama whitehouse stopped them from protecting their country. I only hope the next president respects the border and the laws that we have to protect our borders - unlike Obama.

Not to mention his disregard for the sanctity of marriage, as well as his ethics violations.

I vote Spanish or Italian as the official language. So much more romantic and easier to spell. Que pasa?

Ciao bellos!

Miguelito

If anyone can get this country back on track it is Newt Gingrich. I am supporting and voting for Newt.

The founding fathers didn't put English as the official language for a reason. It would have been really simple to do but they chose to allow all languages. Yes it makes things more difficult but it also allows for an influx of new ideas and words. People that say stuff like "If you don't speak English you can get out!" make me sick. The native American's didn't speak English. Nor did the Dutch, German, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, Africans, or any number of immigrants. You know who did? The English looking for freedoms their native country didn't provide.

Michael, you are hilarious

I think we should revive (because it is no longer a spoken language) Ge'ez:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ge%27ez_language

and make it the official language for Newt's proposed moon colony.

a classmate's step-aunt makes $88/hour on the computer. She has been without a job for 6 months but last month her pay was $16506 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read more on this site MakeCash9.[com]

Newt Translator (for the rest of us 99%)
Immigration Reform = translation: more skilled WHITE people and less brown people no matter how skilled or unskilled they are.

The only good thing about Newt is that he's so divisive and unelectable. I hope he wins the Republican nomination!

English already is the language the US government uses to do business. Establishing it as the "official language" will have no useful purpose at all. In fact, it will do much damage if it prevents non-English speakers from being able to obtain vital services from out government. Which, of course, is exactly what the Republicans want.

Again and again, in so many different ways, the Republicans prove themselves to be the party of hatred and exclusion.

You libs are hilarious. No wonder this state is upside down and ass-backwards. This state gets what it deserves with an elecorate as stupid as you dems. Illegal immigration is the major reason this state is deeply indept yet you folks continue to give the dems control of this state. Ask yourselves...are we better off now than we were 40 years ago? Before liberal "compassion" led to the huge government nanny state it now is. This state is in ruins thanks to your "compassion".

It's hilarious that Gary calls the electorate stupid and then says illegal immigration is the major reason this state is deeply in debt. Uh, Gary - read a newspaper. It's the economy, stupid.

Bren, prove Gary is wrong. Let's see your stat's.

Hilarious,
English as a national language saves money in printing and translation costs for Ballots. Tax reform is also relevent, but why did Pres. Obama give a break to corporations last week, so much for the middle class? Then he wants more takes on those making 250K or more which is really 90% small business owners with Warren Buffett? Geez Barack where is the "Change" in that? Who cares about Newt anyway...is this the best the Patch can do?

Celeste, Kali never made a point, much less a valid one. What she fails to understand is that it was Gary who made the utterly absurd claim, so the burden of proof is on him.

If Gary had said, "There's a unicorn in my back yard," and I had asked him for proof, would it then be reasonable for Kali to come along and challenge me to prove there isn't a unicorn in his back yard?

Of course not. Kali fails at basic critical thinking, just as she fails as grammar.

Given that this debate is partly about whether English should be our official language, I think any participant whose English grammar is so flawed has no room to talk.

OK Celeste, fine. Let's forgive Kali for her poor grammar, and instead talk about her logical fallacy.

I've noticed Gary still hasn't cited any facts or sources to back up his claim. Perhaps you'd like to help him out with that?

"What Do You Think of Newt's Stance on Immigration?"

Just as long as it isn't a "wide stance". Wouldn't want another Congressman Craig...

Here ya go, buddy.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/immigrationnaturalizatio/a/caillegals.htm

That does seem like a valid source, Gary, though I would want to see other content posted by that About.com guide before pronouncing him to be unbiased. I still reject the notion that illegal immigration is the reason we're in debt. That ten billion figure is nothing to sneeze at, but when you consider the fact that our state is currently in the hole to the tune of 265 billion...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/18/EDED1HA111.DTL

...it's hard to imagine that even deporting every single illegal alien and locking down our borders good and hard would ameliorate the problem. I also worry about the law of unintended consequences. Alabama's agribusiness has been greatly disrupted by their hardcore anti-immigrant legislation, for example.

"Oh Dogbert, you do know he had "restless leg syndrome"!"

Phyllis, that's exactly the excuse I use when my owners catch me humping their houseguest's leg!

The idea that the immigration system needs to be reformed so that it's easier to deport people is ridiculous considering that under S-COMM, Obama has deported over a MILLION people since taking office three years ago. This far outpaces the rate at which people were deported under previous, "right-wing" administrations, which is the reason why many Latino groups are upset with the President and why generally socially conservative members of the faith community like Archbishop Niederauer of San Francisco have taken official stands against S-COMM and this President's implementation of the policy.

For Gingrich to be claiming we need to make it easier to deport criminals is rubbish: that's what we're already doing, except under S-COMM we're also deporting hard-working members of the community who have no criminal records but are picked up by law enforcement for minor, non-violent citations, including broken taillights and selling food without a permit.

We need immigration reform, alright, but not in the way Gingrich would have you think.

I'm much more excited about Newt's stance on colonizing the moon. I seriously doubt we have the national will he would need to make good on his promise of having a permanent moon base established by the end of his second term, but we should definitely have such a goal.

America's leadership in space has always been one of our crowning achievements, and a sing of our greatness. We need to get that back.

Newt's goal of having a colony on the moon makes as much sense as painting the entire city of Omaha purple.

Conrad, sooner or later, it is inevitable that our planet will be hit by a meteor/comet like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. There are also numerous other factors which could cause an extinction event a lot sooner than that planet-killing asteroid's arrival.

Therefore, it behooves us to leave a backup copy of human life on some remote storage medium. That's Mars, and if we want to colonize Mars, most experts agree that a permanent moon base will be an important stepping stone towards that goal.

Like I said ...

Celeste, thank you for the posts above.
Bren, do you even understand the word "Illegal"? Illegal, or unlawful, is used to describe something that is prohibited or not authorized by law.
So basically you are saying our country should not be governed by laws.
So how many illegal aliens ( they are not immigrants ) do you have working for you, Bren?