What’s wrong with a pathway to citizenship - Political Forum

Hotduck · #1 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 01:14 AM

Now I have not hidden the fact that I am a Republication but one of things I break away form the Right about is the question of a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants all ready here in the USA now look am all for the wall going after people who hire illegal immigrants and I want the BP and the Guard to be increased on the border but when it comes too how to deal with the 12 million or more already here what’s wrong with a pathway to citizenship after the border is closed.

My plan is to say everyone who is an illegal immigrants has one year to enter a program or a pathway were they pay fines get a background check learn English and become a citizen. Now the illegal immigrants would have to have a clean record and after that year they could be deported if they don’t enter the pathway an also no entitlements even for those who become citizens.

But I ask people on the right what else are we going to do were not going to deport all those here. An most of the illegal immigrants here just want to work an will welcome a chance to become citizens.

emptypepsi · #2 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 06:08 AM

We have a path to citizenship. They chose not to follow that path and improvise their own.

Granted, our pth is difficult and neddlessly complicated, but it's there.

All we need is to reform our path from the ground up.

I'm tired of hearing people say "We need a pth to citizenship". People, more laws are not the answer when we have laws on the books. Just amend them or update them. Giving the government more power is not that answer.

nightfire · #3 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 01:22 PM

Slightly offtopic, but still related to the immigration in USA. I wonder, why USA is so hesitant about opening its borders to some European countries? Even without including Bulgaria and Romania (new EU members), there are millions of EU citizens, who are not even close to getting visa-free entrance to the USA (USA doesn't want to sign necessary agreements with their countries - for example, Poland or Baltic Countries, just to name a few).

The interesting thing is that a large part of emigrants from these countries are well-educated and enthusiastic about their work - nowadays, they flock to Western Europe (Germany, France, UK), where they are given an open-armed welcome. Why American political elite, instead of complaining about millions of illegal Mexican immigrants, who are usually just a cheap labor force, doesn't think a bit about attracting foreign professionals? Their friends in Europe have a lot of programs and institutions for this - while USA seems to underestimate the potential of developing Europe countries... Plus, at this time, building better relations (simplified entrance rules would contribute to this) with some Europe countries would be a good idea too.

Just some thoughts

Hotduck · #4 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emptypepsi

We have a path to citizenship. They chose not to follow that path and improvise their own.

Granted, our pth is difficult and neddlessly complicated, but it's there.

All we need is to reform our path from the ground up.

I'm tired of hearing people say "We need a pth to citizenship". People, more laws are not the answer when we have laws on the books. Just amend them or update them. Giving the government more power is not that answer.

I agree we need to reform the legal path but till then we need to do something with the 12million here

emptypepsi · #5 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 06:24 PM

What exactly should be done with them? We attempted to pass reform and it was met with nothing but complaints from out neighbors in Mexico and Canada. Should we disregard what they say? I already know how I feel, just seeing where you would like to go with it.

Hotduck · #6 (**permalink**) 06-29-2007, 05:12 PM

After the borders are closed give the people here who have a clean record a year to enter a path to citizenship. This way we can have some idea of who the people are who are here.

What would you do with them EP?

perdidochas · #7 (**permalink**) 07-02-2007, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hotduck

Now I have not hidden the fact that I am a Republication but one of things I break away form the Right about is the question of a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants all ready here in the USA now look am all for the wall going after people who hire illegal immigrants and I want the BP and the Guard to be increased on the border but when it comes too how to deal with the 12 million or more already here what’s wrong with a pathway to citizenship after the border is closed.

My plan is to say everyone who is an illegal immigrants has one year to enter a program or a pathway were they pay fines get a background check learn English and become a citizen. Now the illegal immigrants would have to have a clean record and after that year they could be deported if they don’t enter the pathway an also no entitlements even for those who become citizens.

But I ask people on the right what else are we going to do were not going to deport all those here. An most of the illegal immigrants here just want to work an will welcome a chance to become citizens.

The problem is that is fundamentally unfair to immigrants who 1) applied to enter legally; 2) went through all of the bureacratic mess than entails; 3) waited until they were allowed.

I do think that we should allow more Mexicans to come in legally. However, I disagree with allowing those that have ignored our laws to skip in line ahead of those that followed the law. There are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Mexicans waiting to come in legally. Why should the illegals be allowed to just waltz in illegally, and get ahead of those doing the right thing?

Personally, I think we 1) need to close the border; 2) enforce laws against hiring illegals; 3) deport any illegals caught commiting crimes (after serving their prison sentences) and 4) make it easier for legal immigrants to come in.

Amnesty for illegals is fundamentally unfair to the legal immigrants and especially unfair to those that are waiting their turn.

emptypepsi · #8 (**permalink**) 07-02-2007, 03:42 PM

Perdidochas and I, for once on this issue, seem to be in full agreement. Amnesty is unfair. I also like the ideas here for policy.

Do you believe that by allowing more in a year will give many the incentive to do things the right way, including those here already?

perdidochas · #9 (**permalink**) 07-02-2007, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emptypepsi

Perdidochas and I, for once on this issue, seem to be in full agreement. Amnesty is unfair. I also like the ideas here for policy.

Do you believe that by allowing more in a year will give many the incentive to do things the right way, including those here already?

I do. I think the problem is that right now the supply of visas for Mexicans is way under the number who want visas. It is very unlikely for a Mexican to be able to immigrate legally. For example, in 2005, almost 3 million Mexicans applied to come here legally. We allowed not quite 200,000 to come in legally that year. At that rate, if we didn't allow any more to come in legally, it would take 15 yrs for all in the line to immigrate. That isn't a good thing, and is the reason that they choose to risk their life and pay crooks to bring them here illegally.

However, whatever we do, we need to have control of who does come over. A tight border is the first step NO MATTER what the plan.

Hotduck · #10 (**permalink**) 07-06-2007, 04:03 PM

I agree the border needs to be shutdown before we do anything. However, weather a pathway to citizenship is unfair or not which I would admit it is not unfair but that’s not the question is how do with deal with the 12million people here and this idea of mess deportation or just going after people who hire them and hoping they all go home is not going to work.