Our politicians return to Washington today, hopefully to work. That, of course, remains to be seen. Actually, they will return to Washington to continue that which they do best. Point out the sins and errors of the other party and try to convince all of us that they are "worthy" of our support. Although immigration and energy are the number one domestic issues, realistically, one cannot expect that anything will get done. Our politicians are too busy trying to preserve themselves.
I support immigration. The fact that people from other countries want to come to our country and reap the benefits of a free society is, in my opinion, a tribute to our way of life and their ambition, character and self esteem. I do think that it is important for them to understand that we will respect their background, their culture and their belief but they should be prepared to live by and under our law.
That said, I believe that we must exercise care that those who come to our country come for the right reason, to reap the benefits of free enterprise and not to take advantage of our country and its humane charity or destroy it and all for which it stands. Our laws must protect those who want to work while preserving our freedoms and commitment to the rule of law. Every person who crosses the border should do so legally and and no person who has entered this country illegally should be given preferential treatment.
Those illegals who are here now should not be departed en mass. There should be a program implemented that would permit those who are here now to register and apply for a guest worker or appropriately identified program for short term legal status. A program should be implemented that would investigate each applicant and, if the applicant is found worthy, they would be issued a "guest worker" permit. A date certain should be established to accomplish this goal and anyone who is in this country illegally and has not complied with the process by that date, would be subject to deportation.
In my vision, once the illegals have complied with the guest worker registration they would be eligible to apply for citizenship under already established law and the guidelines that apply to all applicants for immigration and citizenship. No one would be given a free ride, no one would be exempt from our laws and no one would gain access to citizenship except by following our established laws. The guest worker permit could be extended by application for extension but it would not be renewed automatically. Anyone who failed to file for extension of their work status upon expiration of their guest worker status, would be subject to immediate deportation. No person, country of origin or race should be an exception.
In my opinion, no great new immigration law needs to be passed. Existing law needs to be clarified, amended to provide a "path" (but not a promise) for illegals to become legal and existing laws must be enforced.
No comments:
Post a Comment