Musings on Immigration

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 ...

One of the striking things about reading hundreds of newspaper articles about "immigration reform" with thousands of quotes from politicians is the amazing misuse of words and phrases that form an essential part of the debate.  To aid you in your understanding of the immigration reform debate, here are definitions of the key words and phrases, as used by the different side,s on this very important issue. Word/Phrase                                    Immigration Reform The Senate Immigration Bill DACA/Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals DREAMers Amnesty Border Security “Back of the Line” E-Verify ...

There has been much made of the Immigration Reform Proposal put forward by the "Gang of 8," a bi-partisan group of Senators seeking to "solve" the immigration problem in which we find ourselves. President Obama says he support most of these principles.   But the solution proposed by these well-meaning Senators will not really fix our Immigration System, and this solution may very well make our immigration problems worse. The "Gang of 8" is made up of  Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) (Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).  Potentially there is some really good immigration reform proposal that could come from these specific Senators.  What most folks don't realize is that the "Gang of 8" has NOT introduced any actual legislation!  All we have so far is an "outline" of what they believe an immigration bill...