Musings on Immigration

For many years now it has become routine to register to vote while applying for a driver’s license. However, to a non-U.S. citizen, this routine act can derail any future immigration benefits. Simply registering to vote can be considered a claim of U.S. citizenship. Current immigration law severely penalizes anyone who claims to be a U.S. citizen by making them permanently inadmissible without possibility of a waiver, meaning there is no way to have that claim forgiven. Because voting participation continues to drop in some parts of the country, states are getting creative in encouraging its residents to vote. As a result, in the last few days, California passed a law that seeks to encourage more participation in elections by automatically registering everyone who obtains or renews a driver’s license. At this point we do not fully understand what the California law will mean for non-U.S. citizens who apply for a California driver license. Supposedly there will be protectio...

This week’s national elections brought home a very simple fact. The American People have, for a third election cycle, once again rejected Anti-Immigration candidates. Hate simply does not sell in America, and the Anti-Immigrationists only peddle hate. Frank Sharry and the folks at America’s Voice, issued a press release today confirming what many of us already suspected, Latinos came out strongly for President-Elect Obama and the Democrats. The key demographic came out so strongly not because they inherently believe all that Democrats espouse, but rather because the Republican party, the party most Latinos would culturally and philosophically be more drawn to, rejected them, classified them as “illegal” and law breakers, and literally chased them away and lost them, perhaps for a generation or more. Anti-Immigrationists, who tragically have found a home in the Republican party, can say they are only talking about “illegal aliens” and that they love legal immigrants, but the realit...