MULTIPLE Republican candidates expressed distaste for immigrants. Is this the opinion of the general public?

During the Republican Debate, I -a legal immigrant- was hurt and discouraged to hear MULTIPLE Republican candidates express distaste for ALL imigrants and cultural diversity. Does America share this distaste? Do Americans really feel because we work, school and pay taxes here we should not maintain our languages and culture practices?

MULTIPLE Republican candidates expressed distaste for immigrants. Is this the opinion of the general public?
If you come to America legally we will welcome you with open arms. If you jump the fence and hog up all those needless social programs implemented by dems with my tax dollars then yes. We don't want you here. Get out!!!
Reply:we have nothing against legal immigrants, but that does not mean we we sacrifice our national identity for higher tax revenues. i like how teddy put it.....





Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.


Theodore Roosevelt
Reply:I'm a republican and my wife is a LEGAL immigrant. LEGAL immigrants are more than welcome in this country. ILLEGAL immigrants are not. as far as you language goes. speak what language you want, but dont expect me to learn your language and conduct business in that language. your culture? your an american now, you have to live in the american culture. if you cant handle that, then leave. dont get me wrong, if you want your native food, great, we'll all try it, but dont expect us to observe your native holidays and traditions. if were uncomfortable with your wearing some odd head covering or what not, deal with it and go on. remember, your in our country now, not your native country. welcome to america.
Reply:I believe there is distaste for ILLEGAL immigrants, not legal immigrants, as my ancestors, as well as , I'm sure, the candidates' ancestors came to this country from a foreign land. Cutural diversity is great, and, yes, you are free to speak whatever language you want. However, immigrants cannot expect for everyone else to understand them if they don't try to learn english.
Reply:The problem is with ILLEGAL immigration. No Republican candidate is against legal immigration.





Cultural diversity is an overused term used to describe why America is great, which is B.S. We are great because a diverse amount of people migrated here, assimilated, and contributed to making this country great.





Freedom is what made us a great country!
Reply:no, the Right does not hold distaste for immigrants...the Right is disgusted with lawbreakers.





lawbreakers who demand special privileges...welfare, food stamps, free housing, ESL courses in our schools...when it costs them NOTHING, including not having their kids innoculated against third-world diseases that they bring into the cramped atmosphere of the classroom, exposing my kids to TB, Rubella, Polio...all the diseases that we spent the last century wiping out, and illegals are bringing back in!





your mind is closed. and it's a pity that you see things thru such a tiny hole...otherwise you might actually learn something.





btw: I am the son of LEGAL immigrants, who fled Nazi Germany, and who worked very hard to become Americans...not German-Americans...just Americans...and they were darn proud of it.





listen: Borders, Language, Culture...the three pillars of any nation. we must maintain those three, despite what you liberals are trying to do to ruin it, so we can all be third-world miserable, just like you.
Reply:I was probably listening to the same sources you were but did not come away with the opinion that the Republican candidates disliked "ALL immigrants and cultural diversity". That simply is not the case. Their views are to the point that it is necessary for people to follow the laws to get here. Even if you believe that the way the laws are set up are wrong, those are still the laws. The way to make a better nation is to try and change the laws you dislike rather than ignoring them all together.


As far as your comment about them disliking cultural diversity, I think that is a very skewed and inaccurate point of view. I believe your reason for thinking that was because they believe that it is necessary for people living in the US to understand the native language. They never said anything along the lines of diversity being bad or even speaking multiple languages was bad. It is quite to the contrary. To contribute to a country, or to get what a country has to offer, you need to be able to communicate and understand the nation.


Republicans are against breaking the law to become part of the nation, they are in no way against immigrants in general... all of their ancestors were immigrants. Keep your cultural diversity; it contributes greatly to out society as a whole, just take the time to care about the country enough to learn the language.


Do you beleive there is something inherently wrong with that viewpoint?
Reply:I agree with one poster who said it is the illegal candidates.





However, I do believe that they are necessary. In the oil and gas industry, for instance, they are about the only ones who are willing to work on a dangerous rig during the middle of the hot summer sun to get problems taken care of. They are willing to do the jobs we are not willing to do.





I think many Americans have the misconception that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from the American people. I do not believe that is true. Most employers would rather hire someone who can legally work in the US, but it is sometimes hard to find ones who will.





Furthermore, there are many immigrants who do not pay tazes like you do. Therefore, we, as the American working class, have to pay for their hospital visits, their insurance, and their children's schooling. I do not believe this is fair.





However, I don't want you to believe that we do not like immigrants in general. Actually, I have found that most of the American people are intrigued, if not fascinated by, other cultures and their practices. I don't think we have any problem with ethnic practices. We have celebrations for religious holidays of all different religions, we celebrate black history month and many other ethnically diverse activities. In general, I think we encourage diversity, even if some ultra-conservative republican candidates voice otherwise.
Reply:I am not against imigrants, just illegal immigrants. What bothers me the most, is illegal immigrants are expecting all the freedoms and liberties that legal immigrants and people who where born here get. If you come into our country illegally, you are a criminal and should be treated like one. Every last one of them should be sent back to where they came from, without any questions being asked.





If you want to live in the Unites States you should learn the English language, if you want to hold on to your language, you should never have come here, you can speak all the Spanish you want in Mexico. If I moved to another country I would learn the language before I went and would not expect everyone to learn my language. LIVE IN THE U.S. - SPEAK ENGLISH!!! Wha
Reply:I have no problem with you maintaining your culture and language, just don't try to make everyone else conform to it. If an american moves to Spain, they would need to learn spanish, I think all immigrants need to learn to converse in americanized english. If you go to France you need to learn french. Same thing here, I don't mind if you practice your own language or culture at home and with friends, thats your choice. When you tell me I have to speak your language in the country I was born in, then we have a problem.
Reply:I share a "distaste" for illegal immigrants, and I have for over 10 years, now.





As for legal immigrants, I do believe that our nation is made stronger by its mix of cultures.
Reply:Don't try and switch the subject. We welcome legal immigration in our country. We do not and will not accept any illegal entry to our country or any company that hires them.
Reply:i wasn't aware of a republican bashing legal immigrants , please leave a source so I know not to vote for him , will check back tomorrow . Of course support for english as the official language is not a distaste , it is simply a way for everyone to understand each other
Reply:I felt the same way, I am an American born citizen and I saw that many of the Republicans do not have a support for immigrants however I do see that only a few of them will STRONGLY oppose ANY immigrant chance to changing their status. Jim Gilmore, Tom Tancredo, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Duncan Hunter were the ones I saw with a STRONG opposition to allowing at least some illegal immigrants a chance.
Reply:You must have worked on misunderstanding the point because you have distorted the h*ll out of it. Cultural diversity is wrecking this country. That's not to say that one shouldn't practice the culture they bring to this country, but to do so without any attempt to blend in is harmful to the unity of society.
Reply:They were speaking of illegal aliens, not legal immigrants like yourself or my French-born daughter-in-law.


It is fine to use your native language at home or with friends, but not publicly, such as in the workplace or public offices.


Honoring your native culture is ok as long as no American law is violated. It should not be used to protest the US however.


My daughter-in-law refuses to speak French here, she thinks it is rude. My son speaks French when they visit her mother in France.


I am strongly for legal immigration and protecting the rights of legal immigrants and I commend them for their actions.





I am equally strongly opposed to illegal aliens who forfeited rights by entering our nation without permission, flaunt our laws, use their native culture to denigrate our society, and demand their native language be accommodated.
Reply:I can't speak for other places, but where I live(which is Democrat controlled and heavily pro Democrat) most people are against illegal immigration and it is mainly because illegals have really messed up our community
Reply:Ask yourself this question? What would happen in that "legal" immigrants country? In his country where he comes from are there 20 million people who are speaking 15 different languages. If he is from Mexico are there 2,000,000 million russians speaking only russian? Are there also 3 million Chinese people only wanting to speak Chinese and not learn spanish which is the "official" language of Mexico? Are there 1, 000,000 million Arabs from Egypt Libya and Syria only speaking Arabic and not wanting to learn Spanish?





Ask yourself this? In Japan there are no immigrants living there. You will not find 2 million Africans living there and speaking African languages. could you imagine tokyo having a population of three million latin Americans that only will speak spanish and then go rioting in the streets protesting to give them bilingual teachers to teach their kids in Spanish. NO! A country like Japan does not celebrate "multi'culturalims and diversity. That is why there is no trouble in Japan. There is no one taking japanes jobs from the Japanese. Also the japanese do all kinds of jobs. they pick crops they are fisherman. they work in construction and and they also wash dishes and clean tables in restaurants. The Japanese economy is not falling apart just because there are no immigrants living in Japan. That is they way it used to be here in the Us many years ago. In the 1930's 1940's 1950's and the 1960's people raised families while being dishwashers in restaurants and waiting tables and doing construction and putting shingles on the roof of people's houses. Also there were American nurses who changed beds in hospitals and cleaned and bathed sick patients etc. There were also maids who took care of peoples houses and minded the rich people's kids while they were out making money.





It is also not so much that immigrants work and go to school but no immigrant nowadays wants to learn "American" customs and "Aamerican" culture. It is just as if each immigrant group stakes out a neighborhood or area and then converts that area into a piece of the old country. Whether it be a piece of Russia like in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn or a little piece of Guyana in Ozone Park in queens NY. Or a picce of China and Korea in Flushing queens or a a piece of Mali in the southwest part of the Bronx near Yankee stadium. In each of those places you will no longer find people who speak english to you nor will you find any american businesses or stores. So there fore the American citizens feel pushed out a stranget in their own neighborhoods. Also let's not even talk about the crime and gang fighting and drugs and violnce liek was happening in Hazelton Pennsylvania.





That is why many people have distaste for people who don't want to learn to be americans or last year in many cities like Chicago and Los Angeles and Dallas where there were millions of Mexican waving "Mexican flags in the streets protesting and saying that they want to take over america. The Americans were so up in arms that the next time they had prrotests and demonstrations and stay at home from work days they had to have american flags for the television news becasue the first time the americans realized that most immigrants are only here to get what they can whether it be jobs or social services or to come for a free education and free hospitals etc.





Yes there have always been immigrants who came to thew USA but never in the huge amounts that have been comming in the last 30 years. Also in years past the immigrants had to learn english or their children had to help them and then the children grew up and spoke in english when performing daily routines of work and shopping ands they can speak their own language at home or at parties or barbecues etc.





That is why some politicians and many voting american citizens express distaste.





also in the 1990's it was discovered that there were some children of Japanese immigrants who were living in large numbers in nsouth America. FOR example in the early 1990's the president of Peru was a japanese immigrant who came to Peru as a little boy with his family. Also in Brazil and Chile and Peru there were many thousands of descendants of Japanes immigrants living in soutn america who spoke only Sapnish. In the mid 1990's there were a few thousand who "discovered their "Japanese" roots and went to try and live in Japan. I saw the documentary on television where Japanese people in Japan did not take too kindly to the new immigrants comming from South America because even though the new immigrants looked Japanese because their ancestors were Japanese but they did not speak Japanese and they did not have the Japanese customs and mannerisms that the Japanese people who live in japan had and there fore many Japanes people resented these new commers and many left but a few of them in order to be "acecpted" in Japan these newcomers had to learn how to speak Japanese.





So I hope this will give you a different perspective and viewpoint towards your question.
Reply:Cultural diversity = ethnic cleansing.





Surely you can understand how people might dislike seeing their own national cultural take a back seat to outsiders. How would you feel if you were being alienated in your own country?
Reply:Are you surprized? I'm not. But to answer your question, I and my friends and family are for immigrants any way you put it. And, I don't have a problem with people coming here "illegally" - I would to if I was in their situation, esp. if American businesses are willing to hire me. That doesn't mean I don't think the whole system should be fixed. I feel that immigrants of today, just like immigrants of yesteryear, should maintain their practices and language - but also should learn English as well. It serves the country and the individual. The Repubs and neo-cons are just louder than the rest of the country - doesn't mean that people really think that way or are against you.
Reply:I think it's the illegals that the candidates as well as the people have a distaste for.
Reply:Well, recent polls have shown that over 70% of the American population is against illegal immigration. I haven't been following the Republican debates, but I'm willing to believe they implied an illegal before they said immigration - since the majority of Americans are against illegal immigration.





As for maintaining your language and cultural practices...that's fine. I live in what is referred to as "Little Italy" for Pittsburgh, so I hear a lot of Italian. I know myself, and probably a lot of other Americans, have no issue with people speaking their native tongue or the tongue of their ancestors.





But we do have an issue with people (IE - illegals) who refuse to learn our language and then demand that the government conduct business is our language AND their language, or demand that schools teach class in our language AND their language.





Legal immigration, I support. Diversity is a great thing, and needs to be encouraged.





Cultural Diversity, I support. At the very least, it ensures a wide variety of ethnic food and I'm a fat man who loves his Chinese and Italian cuisine.





Illegal immigration, however, I am strongly against. Come here legally or don't come here at all.
Reply:I am not sure about all candidates, but I know that Ron Paul is not against immigrants, but rather he is against ILLEGAL immigration. It is his belief that various government programs are to blame for illegal immigration. For example, he wants to get rid of NAFTA, which actually creates poor working conditions in countries like Mexico and encourages people to try to get into the U.S.
Reply:I don't think so. Our distaste comes from the fact that our laws are not being enforced and that illegal immigrants are using their children (born on U.S. Soil) as pawns in their invasion plots and their plots to keep legal U.S. Citizens and law-abiding immigrants and their truly legal children from keeping jobs and continuing to build the U.S.A. Personally, I don't recognize children of illegal immigrants as U.S. Citizens despite their having been born here because they are here as a result of a premeditated act of subversion. These children collect aide to dependent children and SSI for their parents and since there are so many of them, they can live quite comfortably while their parents send the money back to their country of origin. This is abuse of the law-abiding citizens and must stop. We have not now, nor have we ever shunned cultural diversity. Illegal immigrants and their supporters are talking cultural diversity but are practicing exclusion, discrimination, subversive activities, fraud, and numerous other crimes. Their children learn what they live just like the children of law-abiding citizens learn what they live. When children learn the art of subverting the laws of the land and living off the fat of the land while committing fraud and disobeying numerous other laws, they are not maintaining their culture, they are forcing their culture onto us and We DON't LIKE it and we are increasingly more intolerant of particularly the Hispanic/Latino abuses. Why should the USA have to cowtow to the Spanish language and the Spanish Culture when we have so much diversity -- Russian, Polish, Czechoslavakian, German, Irish, African, Arabian, Asian and numerous other foreign nationals living in the USA who are complying with the laws and are not demanding that their culture and language overtake our own? The Hispanics have gotten so out of control and so in-your-face lawless that we U.S. Citizens are developing a total intolerance for everything Latino, Mexican, Hispanic, etc. Learn English, speak English, and stop trying to make the U.S. into a corrupt Mirror of Mexico.





As to the U.S. Citizens who are so intolerant. Don't the stewardesses on airplanes tell us that we should put our own oxygen masks on first so we can breathe and help others? If we don't have our own masks on, we could all suffocate. Therefore, it's time to put the U.S.A. and its law-abiding citizens first. We want the laws enforced immediately and without quivocation. We want all illegal aliens deported and we believe they can be. Their children should have all aide cut off and given the option of returning to their parents' country of origin voluntarily in lieu of being prosecuted for fraud, aiding and abetting illegal acts, harboring fugitives from justice, obstructing justice, etc. Any illegals who go back to their country of origin voluntarily after registering with the immigration department can get a free ticket home and they can get a preferential place in line after all those people who have applied to come to the USA legally and are hampered by the backlogs get processed. Their U.S. born children can return to the USA after they are 18 and after having served in the US Military for 4 years. That would be fair. Otherwise, prosecute and deport without waiver or warrant. No preferential treatment.
Reply:Heck no. I love immigrants. They work for less money than typical greedy, benefit-mongering Americans. The more the merrier I say. Laissez-faire capitalism is the only way to go. The government should get off the backs of the corporations and let us hire who we want, pay them what we want. Vote conservative! Vote for American business! Vote for deregulation!