I'd love to import millions of hard working immigrants and offer them citzenship. But of course since US citizenship is a valuable thing, I would want to scrutinize who they are, where they come from, what skills they have, and confirm that they have a sponsor that will take care of them if necessary so they are not a drain on our public services. However, making wholesale citizens out of people whose first act was to violate the laws of another (our) country, and who demand benefits and the passage of laws meant to fix their self-imposed quandry, does not appeal to me. They should also certainly not go to the head of the line, period. For the life of me I cannot imagine the audacity it takes to demand things from another country and its citizens, especially one you broke into. When I travel abroad, I meticulously follow the laws of the countries I visit. I would never 'demand' anything from them, much less assert right for my particular "raza" while waving the flag of my homeland. Morever, under the current tax code which provides for the earned income tax credit, many many of these new "citizens" will immediately become tax takers, not tax payers. And this is before one considers the schooling costs for the children they are allowed to bring, the medical costs and SSI and SSDI payments for the parents they are allowed to bring (and who NEVER contributed anyting to the US economy and never will), and the costs to our society as it tries to assimilate tens of millions of people from the third world who speak a foreign language and are far from signed on to free maket capitalism. It is impossible to aregue that one or two adults making minimum wage are worth the associated costs for schooling, helthcare and the like for their family at large. If you think there is no downside to this Kennedy/Bush plan, take a look at the LA unified schoold district. It used to be a shining star for the entire country. Now, even with more per pupil spending than EVER, its more like a black hole than a shining star. Imagine another 5, or 10 or 20 million people flooding in wholesale, demanding rights, and unfettered access to the benefits of a social contract that they can't even read. THIS deal would make it better? No, our government has demonstrated twice, in 1965 and 1986, both time with Mr. Kennedy at the helm, that its plans cannot be trusted. It should enforce existing laws and when the flow by all accounts has been effectively stopped for a period of years, then we can reexamine the problem.
Don't get me wrong. I think this proposal is ridiculous. So ridiculous, there's really no point in worrying about it. It's a PR stunt by Congress that is pretty much DOA. What's more troubling to me is the anti-immigrant sentiment I see posted here.
I recognize that several folks drain our social system. But the real problem imho is that our social system is setup for people to be able to take advantage of it, both illegal and legal folks. Congress should fix that, and people's anger at these social giveaways should be focused getting Congress to change that.
For example, let's talk about welfare and SS benefits. In theory, i can apply for my in-laws PR here in the U.S. And finally when they get their U.S. citizenship here, I believe they would be entitled to receiving welfare, SS benefits etc, provided they have no assets here in the U.S, despite the fact that they have never worked here, never paid taxes here, and really shouldn't be eligible for any benefits. They would be a drain on the system because the system is allowing folks who never contributed to it to take a cut. Solution: deny social programs and benefits who never contributed to the system. It would be fair, and apply to everyone (illegal and non-illegal). And I would be a proponent of this change to your social system…..Of course, these wouldn't be acceptable to lots of people, because people don't want to deal with this harsh situation. Some would feel it to be "immorale", for example, to deny health care to people who really need it but can't afford it and haven't paid a dime in taxes.
