With the dawning of the New Year comes a new Congress and a new push on some kind of immigration reform that already has sector of the GOPer Punditocracy up in arms and wringing their hands and generally clutching at pearls at the prospect of a dreaded amnesty for 11 million or so illegal immigrants already in the country. Right leaning pundits from Ann Coulter to Tammy Bruce and Mickey Kaus (and plenty of others) are doing their best Admiral Ackbar impressions and trying to get the point across that this is a very, very, very bad idea.
Look, I'm not immune to some of the arguments. To be totally honest, having seen my family go through the process legally- which, if you've ever had the painful, painful privilege of dealing with the INS, you'll know that weekly visits to the proctologist would be a welcome alternative- it irks me when people suggest that people who just walked into the country and didn't take the time to do it by the book should go to the front of the line for citizenship. GOPers and Dems can talk about 'a path to citizenship' all they want- the fact remains, they broke the rules and they're getting rewarded for it. That irks me some.
But, you can't ignore the facts already on the ground. There are 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country. They live in the shadows, they get exploited by their employers and do jobs that I'm sorry, white Americans just won't do. I don't buy into the 'they're taking our jobs' argument at all. I mean, are there people lining up to work on the kill floor of your local meat-packing plant? Or doing janitorial work at Wal-Mart? Or picking avocados or soybeans? These aren't jobs that people are beating down doors to get at.
These people are here, already and they deserve to live here legally and have recourse if their employers are screwing them out of benefits and/or wages.
Mainly, this is about politics. Hispanic voters are an increasingly important voting block in every electoral cycle and nobody is going to piss them off- unfortunately, because both parties are eager to curry favor with the Hispanic community, aspects of this debate that actually matter- such as the STEM brain drain, gets left out in the cold. (GOPers would probably argue that border security is also an important aspect, but I'm pretty sanguine that, like the TSA supposedly making our airports more secure, actual border security is an illusion and an expensive one at that.) So, in a perfect world, this is what I'd get behind:
1. A eight year path to citizenship: illegal immigrants can apply for and get residency no questions asked and if, after eight years (and after the next midterm and Presidential elections have passed) they have a clean criminal record and have dotted every I and crossed every T, then they can apply for citizenship. (This also has the luxury of keeping either party from taking too much political advantage of it. Immigration reform should work like Congressional pay raises and not go into effect until after the next election. Or, in this case, the next two elections.)
2. Rescind VISA restriction imposed after 9-11 that are negatively impacting our ability to retain high-tech graduates in important STEM fields that come here for school.
3. During the eight year waiting period- all legal citizenship applications will be processed free of charge and the legal immigration system will be stream lined so it more closely resembles the Selective Service. I think if you've been a legal resident for ten years, the government should just send you a postcard every year, asking if you want to apply for citizenship and if you check the YES box and send it back, then it should cost you processing fees for the paperwork and nothing more. It should not upward of $2,000 to become a citizen. If you want to get to the root of how to make legal immigration easier and illegal immigration harder, cost and convenience have to be first on your list of problems to tackle.
Will anything like what I've just described actually happen? Probably not- in fact, I think getting consensus and moving forward with immigration reform is going to be a long shot- I mean if President Bush the Younger couldn't get it done, what makes President Obama any more likely to get it over the goal line?
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