I don't want to hijack the board, but I want to ask this.
How do we repay all of the people that paid all that money to immigrate legally when everyone who DIDN'T pay all that money to immigrate legally are granted amnesty?
Hardly seems fair.
I've moved past 'fair'. It wasn't all that difficult for my family members to immigrate, even though there were various backlogs etc at the time. It wasn't all that expensive (a couple grand).
12 million people is an immovable number. People need to get over the idea that you can expel these folks.
This editorial from the weekend put it well IMO
There is room for reframing and repackaging the immigration debate so that it does not become a replay of the Bush administration's failed attempts of 2006 and 2007. But to be successful in reshaping the country's dysfunctional system, any legislation needs to recognize economic realities: that millions of immigrant workers are here to stay, that many or most do jobs that native-born Americans don't want, and that Mexico's comparative poverty will continue to drive immigrants north to a better life.
Recession or no recession, a comprehensive reform bill must provide a way out of this mess born of neglect by offering a path to legality for undocumented immigrants already here and a mechanism for future workers, skilled and unskilled, to enter the country in adequate numbers to meet the job market's demands.
I'm not blind to the problem, and I've worked through the 'unfair'. This is a generational issue that goes back to the development of the Western US, not a bunch of 'law breakers' who are just doing whatever they want. They are operating under the rules, spoken and not, that have run the border all these years.
'Amnesty' is a charged word now, and I choose not to use it for CIR. People will pay, just like they do now (USCIS is fee-funded) and all communities will benefit when everyone can participate fully.
DM, just see your comments now.. I was the reverse migrant. Fell in love with my European hippie liberal while I was 'visiting' and I just stayed too. Fortunately with the EEU family permit, the movement of people is a usual thing and as long as you've got the money, you can stay most places..
The problem in the US is that people don't mind letting in the pretty Euros, it's those brown people next door we mind. They aren't going away, so we may as well create a practical way to deal with it so they can come and go.