Editorial:
We want to be optimistic about a fair immigration reform policy, but as we continue to read and from what we have heard it is becoming increasing difficult to get excited about any meaningful policy coming out of Washington.
It has been reported that the Gang of 8 Senators has reached a tentative agreement to create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, yet the plan has been described as intolerable for American citizens.
The senators hope to finish the bill and present it to the Senate Judiciary Committee by early April.
Behind closed-door negotiations, the bill would require immigrants to register with Homeland Security Department authorities, file federal income taxes for their time in America and pay a fine. They also must have a clean law enforcement record.
Once granted probationary legal status, immigrants would be allowed to work but would be barred from receiving federal public benefits, including food stamps, family cash assistance, Medicaid and unemployment insurance.
So it looks like the Senators are trying to put a price tag on citizenship, they haven’t determined yet what that price, or fine as they put it, will be but you can count on it being pretty hefty. And consider the financial ramifications if it is a large fine and a family hopes to become citizens all at once.
On top of the fine, they will have to pay back taxes. So if you have been in the US for 20 years and owe taxes, can you imagine that bill? On top of that, you would not be allowed to access federal benefits.
To make sure they know who and where you are they require that you register with Homeland Security authorities, just in case you change your mind about becoming a citizen and paying all that money.
Still undecided is how long immigrants would need to wait before they could apply for permanent resident status and eventually become citizens. The delay for a green card probably would be 10 years or longer, it has been reported. That is just for a green card, citizenship who knows!
Another stumbling block to citizenship includes the fact that before anyone can become a citizen they need to secure the border first. The only problem is that they don’t define what a secure border looks like!
It is estimated that the reform policy will be over a 100 pages, and as they say the devil will be in the details, so there will be more to come.
So you can see why it keeps getting harder and harder to be optimistic about a fair and true path to citizenship. So let’s get real here! All immigration reform is about is finding a way to provide a cheap work force for corporate America, agro-business, and for the home, all wrapped beneath the façade of a path to citizenship, at a cost to the poorest of the poor who will become our modern day slave who will be indentured until they pay off their debt!!!