This is a good start, but I would like to see President Obama take action instead of just rhetoric.
Obama: U.S. Can't "Demagogue" Immigration
President Obama described officials who "demagogue" immigration or take sudden "anti-immigrant" stances as people who want to make a name for themselves and not help solve what he called "a national problem."
Mr. Obama spoke with CBS "Early Show" Anchor Harry Smith in an interview scheduled to be broadcast in parts on Sunday and Monday.
The interview comes after the Obama administration scored a major victory in its fight to strike down an Arizona law that, among other things, makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. Last week, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the most controversial parts of the law from going into effect.
As National Guard troops start heading to the U.S.-Mexico border this month under direction from the administration, Mr. Obama told Smith he wants to work with Arizona.
"I understand the frustration of people in Arizona," Mr. Obama said. "But what we can't do is demagogue the issue, and what we can't do is allow a patchwork of 50 different states, or cities or localities, where anybody who wants to make a name for themselves suddenly says, 'I'm going to be anti-immigrant, and I'm going try to see if I can solve the problem ourself.' This is a national problem."
First, President Obama has the power to issue an Executive Order mandating DHS to follow certain rules when it comes to handling undocumented immigrants:
1- He could use this power to actually keep immigrant families with children together by mandating DHS not to deport the parents of children whose parents maybe undocumented in cases were at least one or more children are US citizens.
2- He could mandate that children who want to continue with their higher education here in the US but are unable to do so because they are undocumented can do so by allowing them to register with DHS and get assigned a temporary status for them to finish their higher education.
3- Also he could mandate that people who are out of status, maybe because they overstayed their visa or any other issue, are given a way to achieve temporary legal status by allowing them to register with DHS every few years and those who have a willing sponsor and a job get to stay and those who do not currently have a sponsor and a job they can go back to their countries without penalty and apply from there.
This are very sensible reforms that IMHO will help President Obama solve anywhere from 50% to 75% of the whole immigration problem, and it would only take President Obama 5 minutes of his precious time (quicker than it took him to fill his 2010 Census form), some of this same ideas come from the McCain Kennedy bill and the Dream Act, which contrary to popular belief was not amnesty, which would be a blanket pardon by the government.
Here is a summary of the McCain Kennedy Immigration Bill:
Title I: Border Security
- Requires the development of various plans and reports evaluating information-sharing, international and federal-state-local coordination, technology, anti-smuggling, and other border security initiatives
- Establishes a Border Security Advisory Committee made up of various stakeholders in the border region to provide recommendations to the Department of Homeland Security regarding border enforcement
- Encourages the development of multilateral partnerships to establish a North American security perimeter and improve border security south of Mexico
Title II: State Criminal Alien Assistance
- Reauthorizes the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program that provides reimbursement to state and local governments for incarcerating undocumented aliens convicted of crimes
- Allows for funding to pay for additional criminal justice costs associated with undocumented immigrants charged or convicted of crimes
Title III: Essential Worker Visa Program
- Creates a new temporary visa to allow foreign workers to enter and fill available jobs that require few or no skills (the H-5A visa)
- Applicants must show that they have a job waiting in the U.S., pay a fee of $500 in addition to application fees, and clear all security, medical, and other checks
- Requires updating of America's Job Bank to make sure job opportunities are seen first by American workers
- Initial cap on H-5A visas is set at 400,000, but the annual limit will be gradually adjusted up or down based on demand in subsequent years
- Visa is valid for three years, and can be renewed one time for a total of 6 years; at the end of the visa period the worker either has to return home or be in the pipeline for a green card
- Visa is portable, but if the worker loses his job he has to find another one within 60 days or return home
- Ensures that employers hiring temporary workers abide by Federal, state and local labor, employment and tax laws
- Prohibits the hiring of temporary workers as independent contractors
- Protects temporary workers from abuse by foreign labor contractors or employers.
- Gives temporary workers and U.S. workers remedies for violations of their rights
- An employer can sponsor the H-5A visa holder for a green card, or after accumulating four years of work in H-5A status, the worker can apply to adjust status on his/her own
- Sets up a task force to evaluate the H-5A program and recommend improvements
Title IV: Enforcement
- Creates a new electronic work authorization system that will ultimately replace the paper-based, fraud-prone I-9 system, to be phased in gradually
- When operational, the system will be applied universally and cannot be used to discriminate against job applicants
- Individuals will have the right to review and correct their own records; data privacy protections are in place
- Immigration-related documents and US-VISIT will be upgraded to require biometric verification of travelers
- The Department of Labor will have new authority to conduct random audits of employers and ensure compliance with labor laws; also includes new worker protections and enhanced fines for illegal employment practices
TITLE V: Promoting Circular Migration Patterns
- Requires foreign countries to enter into migration agreements with the U.S. that help control the flow of their citizens to jobs in the U.S., with emphasis on encouraging the re-integration of citizens returning home
- Encourages the U.S. government to partner with Mexico to promote economic opportunity back home and reduce the pressure to immigrate to the U.S.
- Encourages the U.S. government to partner with Mexico on health care access so that the U.S. is not unfairly impacted with the costs of administering health care to Mexican nationals
Title VI: Family Unity and Backlog Reduction
- Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens are not counted against the 480,000 annual cap on family-sponsored green cards, thereby providing additional visas to the family preference categories
- The current per-country limit on green cards is raised slightly to clear up backlogs
- Income requirements for sponsoring a family member for a green card are changed from 125% of the federal poverty guidelines to 100%, and other obstacles are removed to ensure fairness
- The employment-based categories are revised to provide additional visas for employers who need to hire permanent workers, and the annual cap is raised from 140,000 to 290,000
Immigrant visas lost due to processing delays are recaptured for future allotments
Title VII: Adjustment of Status for H-5B Non-Immigrants
- Undocumented immigrants in the U.S. on date of introduction can register for a temporary visa (H-5B), valid for six years
- Applicants have to show work history, clean criminal record, and that they are not a security problem to be eligible for a temporary visa
- They will receive work and travel authorization
- Their spouses and children are also eligible
- In order to qualify for permanent status, workers will have to meet a future work requirement, clear additional security/background checks, pay substantial fines and application fees ($2000 or more per adult) as well as back taxes, and meet English/civics requirements
Title VIII: Protection Against Immigration Fraud
- Attempts to eliminate the exploitation of immigrants by notarios or other unlicensed immigration law practitioners by imposing new legal requirements on such individuals
- Allows immigrants defrauded by unauthorized legal representatives to file actions against their perpetrators
Title IX: Civics Integration
- Creates a public-private foundation under the USCIS Office of Citizenship to support programs that promote citizenship and to fund civics and English language instruction for immigrants
- Provides for new money to fund civic and English language instruction for immigrants
Title X: Promoting Access to Health Care
- * Extends the authorization of federal reimbursements for hospitals that provide emergency care to undocumented immigrants; includes H-5A and H-5B workers in the program
Title XI: Miscellaneous
- Distributes the fees and fines paid by H-5A and H-5B workers among the DHS and DOS for processing, DHS for border security efforts, DOL for enforcement of labor laws, SSA for development of the employment eligibility confirmation system, hospitals to pay for uncompensated health care, and the USCIS Office of Citizenship for civic integration and English classes
- Requires the dissemination of information related to the provisions of this legislation
- Includes anti-discrimination protections that cover all workers, including H-5A and H-5B visa holders
And here is a Summary of the American Dream Act:
- Amends the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to repeal the denial of an unlawful alien's eligibility for higher education benefits based on state residence unless a U.S. national is similarly eligible without regard to such state residence. Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to cancel the removal of, and adjust to conditional permanent resident status, an alien who:
1 - entered the United States before his or her 16th birthday and has been present in the United States for at least five years immediately preceding enactment of this Act
2 - is a person of good moral character
3 - is not inadmissible or deportable under specified grounds of the Immigration and Nationality Act; and
4 - at the time of application, has been admitted to an institution of higher education or has earned a high school or equivalent diploma. Sets forth the conditions for conditional permanent resident status. Authorizes an alien who has satisfied the appropriate requirements prior to enactment of this Act to petition the Secretary for conditional permanent resident status. Sets forth requirements respecting:
1 - exclusive jurisdiction
2 - confidentiality
3 - fee prohibitions
4 - higher education assistance and
5 - a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report respecting the number of aliens adjusted under this Act.
In fact President Obama, under Article II Section 3 of the US Constitution has the following ability:
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The president may convene either house, or both houses, of Congress.
That means that even when Congress is in recess President Obama can call them to work if there is an important issue that he considers need to be addressed and cannot go unsolved. Well the prime candidate for this kind of urgency is Immigration (also Climate so I will be writing a diary about that too).
The Arizona law is dividing the country along racial and ethnic lines, there are states that are continuing to push similar laws, guaranteeing eventually that a patchwork of 50 states with different immigration laws will be here to stay.
This would completely UNDERMINE if not completely DESTROY the concept of FEDERALISM (the distribution of power in an organization - as a government - between a central authority and the constituent units) which is the cornerstone on which the US Constitution was founded upon.
If not addressed QUICKLY this issue will become completely unmanageable, not only for democrats and President Obama but by anyone, this could be the dark ages all over again, with people choosing sides based on the color of their skin and seeing any chance of an Economic Recovery evaporate as the country descends into more mistrust and chaos.
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If all else fails, President Obama can also grant FULL AMNESTY and when his critics say anything he can just say:
"I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally," Ronald Reagan said in 1984.
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