Rights of Immigrants in your Country, State or Province

How is this going?

Are you making a report analyzing each countries situation, or just combining their laws to print-out?

I have been a bit busy with some stuff lately and still compiling the list to make it look as good as possible.

1 Like

Your question is hard to answer as phrased because, as Taiwan_Luthiers said, most immigrants are ā€œdiscriminated againstā€ in some way, in every country, at least for a certain number of years, or until they gain citizenship. What matters in this case, presumably, is that you want counterarguments against specific types of discrimination as theyā€™re implemented in Taiwan? What are you complaining to your MP about?

1 Like

Me?

In California Illegal Immigrants can get a California Drivers license at the DMV no questions asked no problem.

Thats equivalent to an illegal Vietnamnese ex factory worker run away getting a hassle free Taiwan Drivers License at the Shilin DMV office LOL

How does that work?

I mean, the US Constitution applies to anyone on US soil. Allegedly. << funny jokes that arenā€™t funny.

If youā€™re legally able to work in the US and qualified, you canā€™t be discriminated against for not being a citizen. Fact Sheet: Immigrants' Employment Rights under Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

But thatā€™s grown to include sex, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, sexual orientation, religion, health condition, marital status, political affiliation, immigration status, mental health status, and probably more.

Obviously there are other ways to discriminate against people you donā€™t like. A friend of mine in the good old American South was fired in August for being ā€œchronically late and irresponsibleā€ (punched in 3-6 minutes late four times in six months). Of course her termination had NOTHING to do with the BLM protests she attended or the fact that she ā€œfreaked people outā€ by wearing a mask starting in February. Good luck fighting your employer on that one. Itā€™s mostly their words against yoursā€¦

Oh, and we also have the ā€œChristianā€ nutters who use ā€œreligious freedomā€ as an excuse for blanket discrimination against all but male WASPs, but, again, the laws on the books say you canā€™t. Weā€™ll see how long that lasts with the radical right wing super-minority-special-interest-group-created Supreme Court.

Yea, US Constitution is supposed to apply to anyone on US soilā€¦

Get caught with a gun if you are illegally in the country, or legally in the country but on a nonimmigrant visa, and you can do up to 10 years in the Federal prison.

They donā€™t even apply the US Constitution consistently to citizens, let alone non citizens.

2 Likes

Except at points of entry.

The US Constitution doesnā€™t apply whenever the Federal government says it doesnā€™t apply. Regardless of where you are at.

SCOTUS is just a formality.

Ya, i gotta sayā€¦bullshit on that one. Sorry @nz. Or if that was sarcasm, gotcha.

Huh?

18 U. S. C. Ā§ 922(g) forbids illegal immigrants from possessing firearms. The right to possess a firearm is not unlimited and absolute, and there is substantial case law on this subject. Even certain classes of citizens, such as felons, can be prohibited from having guns.

What exactly do you think is unconstitutional about a person who is in the US illegally going to prison for unlawfully possessing a firearm?

Second amendment says ā€œshall not be infringedā€.

It means the government is forbidden from infringing on that right. Those case laws basically says that certain people (aliens, felons, etc.) donā€™t have those rights.

But no amendment in the constitution expressly gave anyone any rights. It forbade governments from infringing on preexisting rights.

So in effect, if the government has enough consensus, they can decide rights donā€™t apply to certain people.

That means any gun control laws, from 1934 and on, are completely unconstitutional. But since the law has been in effect for so long, and has not met any substantial challenge for so long (after all, the laws only hurt those who are specifically disenfranchised or never had voting rights to begin with), it is therefore not only unconstitutional, but unjust.

Just like jailing someone for 20 years for marijuana possession is unjust.

But letā€™s not use America as an example for rights for immigrants, because certain enlightened EU countries seem to do much better in that regard. I think EU has guidelines on rights of refugees. So if you wanted examples of rights for immigrants, look to the EU.

If you really want to pick on things, even Britain and Czech Republic allows firearms license for felons (in the American definition of the word) as long as said felon has not been sentenced for more than 12 years for crimes. You have to commit pretty serious crimes to get 12 years over there. Whereas simple possession of pot makes you a felon in America and permanently barred from owning firearms. So public safety is not even a good excuse for the prohibition. The law it discriminatory in itself.

Here is this website for rights of refugees and immigrants in the EU

It should contain a lot of information for contacting MPā€™s regarding rights for immigrants.

This one is of interest:

Article 21 - Non-discrimination

  1. Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.
  2. Within the scope of application of the Treaties and without prejudice to any of their specific provisions, any discrimination on grounds of nationality shall be prohibited.

Thatā€™s not how it works. Even Scalia, the arch-originalist, said thatā€™s not how it works.

The longer version of that part:

The same principle, the limited (or if you prefer, not unlimited) nature of rights, is spelled out in the ROC Constitution, Art. 23.

2 Likes

SCOTUS, regardless of who or what is serving in it, is politicized. They will not buck longstanding laws, especially something so politically charged. If any major gun control laws (all of which is unconstitutional by nature, and were not passed as ā€œreasonable gun control legislationā€) were overturned the Democrats would have a civil war over this. Even in 1985 when attempts were made to overturn Gun Control Act of 1968 Democrats fought tooth and nail. Just like why even Trump couldnā€™t pass Hearing Protection Act. A Columbine/Las Vegas style shooting is always around the corner to remind Americans why unconstitutional restrictions are necessary.

The way America treats ā€œfelonsā€, foreigners, are already by nature unconstitutional. ā€œFelonsā€ are essentially untermenschen according to American society, where they face numerous discrimination in employment, housing, even government benefit. Worst part is, they are all legal. And if the felon made any attempt to avoid discrimination (by for example, not telling people about felonies committed 20 years ago), there are legal consequences for this. None of this is acceptable according to EU laws. They, even the UK, have clear laws regarding criminal records, such as after a period of time, relatively minor offenses (such as something most felons in America got probation for) is completely omitted from record, and it is illegal for anyone to discriminate the person on the basis of that record, or even compel disclosure. Only serious crimes like murder or aggravated assault/rape/sex crimes stay on the record forever. I believe the EU made a statement sometime in the past (I do not know off hand where), saying that they want to prevent summary exclusion or deportation based on minor offense committed years ago, or even the accusation of a crime committed years ago. I believe this statement was directed towards USA and Canada because both of those countries do in fact deport and bar people for offenses committed or accused of years ago, even very minor ones.

The fact that itā€™s so easy to become a felon in the USA is troubling at the very least. Especially with their massive prison industrial complex who would like to see everything criminalized, or long time residents deported at the slightest error. After all deportation takes time, and thatā€™s time the alien would spend in immigration prison.

Iā€™ll agree to disagree with you about the constitutional question here. :slight_smile: