At this point Immigration Reform is still at least a Congressional
summer vacation away from being passed. Most people "in the
know" will tell you that the Senate Bill (BSEOIMA, S.744) will never have a vote in the
House of Representatives. That may or may not be true. What is clear is
that the House of Representatives is feeling a great deal of pressure to do
something on Immigration Reform, but is hesitating on allowing people who came
without papers or who overstayed their visas to ultimately obtain permanent
resident status or U.S. Citizenship without going through the
"normal" immigration process.
Everyone is focused on the
"undocumented" part of the immigration reform process, but the
reality is that the really significant parts of the Senate bill have nothing to
do with "amnesty" or "legalization." The key parts of
the bill deal with the FUTURE of immigration to the United States. If a
version of the Senate Immigration does pass, these new and modified future immigration processes will greatly benefit tens of millions of legal immigrants in the coming decades. The changes will include
increased visas for employment-based cases, a significant reduction in wait
times for green cards for Mexican, Indian and Chinese nationals, a new "point"
system for immigration to the United States, a new immigrant visa for those who
complete Masters degrees and Ph.Ds. in Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Math fields in the United States, and most importantly, an elimination of
certain family categories and the Diversity Lottery, to account for all the new
employment based immigrants.
The Senate bill also will provide a
temporary visa to those already in the immigration "line" awaiting
the decade’s long family backlog, with the right to work and travel.
There are also massive changes to the grounds of removal, the process for
removal, and even the defenses to removal that today are so limited, but will
be expanded should the Senate bill see the light of day. The question
remains though is What Immigration Reform Will Happen?
The answer is simple. No Immigration Reform will happen, unless
WE make it happen. Recently pundits have said that even though a majority of Americans support Immigration Reform, they are not "angry" about
it. And, we all know that only "angry" people call their
congressman. So who is calling their congressman? The calls come only from people who oppose
Immigration Reform. Consequently, your congressman thinks YOU
don't support Immigration Reform, so he can just ignore the polls and vote
against the bills.
So, what Immigration Reform will happen? None, unless YOU
call your congressman today. Do you want the benefit for you, your
business, and your family of the positive changes to immigration law described
here? How bad do you want these changes?
Do you want it enough to pick up the phone right now and call
202-224-3121 and ask for your Congressman? Are you angry enough to tell
him or her that you are calling to ask for them to "Support Immigration Reform Now"?
Immigration Reform, and particularly the
positive changes mentioned here, are absolutely essential for the future growth
and prosperity of the United States. We must also deal compassionately and
wisely with the issues of the undocumented people who so strongly and silently support
our way of life. And, we must deal with border security and unlawful employment
for future generations. But we will deal with none of these vitally
important issues if we remain silent. I, for one, refuse to remain
silent. I call each day, several times a day to my Congressman. I am sure
he is listening. I am also sure that he will vote against reform, but it
will not be because he has not heard my voice. Let your congressman here
your voice, today, tomorrow and into the future until we secure an
immigration system that works for all today's and tomorrow's Americans.
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