Thoughts on the Current Immigration Mess
By: Charles Lamm
1. 12 million illegal immigrants did not appear overnight. Actions by Congress - or the lack of action - created the environment for illegal immigration to exist.
2. The main drive behind legal immigration is family reunification, a holdover from WWII. Is it time to give preference to nurses and computer engineers over brothers and sisters of U.S. Citizens? What we need is not what we get.
3. Actions by Congress always have unintended consequences. Congress put annual limits on the number of H-1 visas that could be given to temporary professional workers. Registered nurses were split off into H-1A and others were put into an H-1B category. The H-1A program ended in 1996, and now we have a nurse shortage just as the Baby Boomers need more health care.
4. At the time of the last amnesty, employer sanctions were imposed as a compromise. Let the last group of illegals get green cards in 5 years, but make it tough for the next group. As we have seen, sanctions don’t work. Fake documents are cheap, and many small employers don’t keep the paperwork anyway. But the fundamental question was never addressed: “Why should employers be forced to spend their time and money doing the U.S. Government’s job of controlling immigration?”
5. A recent trend is a test of a system where employers can call a number to see if an applicant is eligible to work in the U.S. Do we really expect massive mistakes not to be made here? Who protects the legal immigrant when immigration authorities give the wrong answer?
6. All of this is leading to a place that politicians and bureaucrats have wanted to go for years but which has been resisted by the people - a national ID card. Internal passports. “Give me your papers.” Security after 9/11. Citizens should not have to prove their identities unless involved in crime. Bet that this will be our next loss of privacy and personal liberty.
7. If the government cannot stop illegal immigration at the border, why are we forced to put up with all the hassles of airport security? Are they just trying to fool us in to believing they can do something? The 9/11 hijackers all came in with legal visas.
Congress is so divided on the subject of what to do about 12 million illegal aliens living in the U.S., working, attending school, and creating new U.S. citizen children.
Congress is as much a part of the problem as the solution.
More to come.
Charles Lamm is a retired immigration attorney and unrepentant gamer. To fight illegal aliens, demo Prey at: http://www.playtriton.com/prey/