Technology, healthcare, real business, education in US has reached far off places, but when it comes to immigration there seems to be a snail pace reform. The recent debate in the House of Republican leaders unveiled that the immigration system needs to have a “Standards” Principles, which wants to find a special path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants.
The preamble of these standards reads that the nation’s immigration systems are broken and laws are not enforced. This is not only resulting in economy downfall but caters to national security risk. There needs to be a bipartisan manner to solve the serious immigration system which cannot be tackled singly; and the solution for this is through step-by-step, with a common sense approach that will secure country borders, enforcing laws and by implementing a robust enforcement measures.
The outline does not provide a specific timeline for when undocumented residents could attain legal status but the plan would not explicitly bar eventual citizenship for those qualifying under existing employment and family- based categories.
Being a fundamental duty of any government to secure its borders, there seems to be very little done in this case. The policy seems to have some loose ends that makes pathway for people to cross the borders illegally or overstay their visas. The administration needs to put stringent policies so that it not only affects cross border deaths especially countries like Mexico, who try to enter illegally for a decent livelihood, but also helps those who are staying legally to attain green card in a more legal way.
They also need to work on the implementation of entry-exit visa tracking system by using right technology to verify visitor’s identity who fails to abide the law also verify immigrant employees work eligibility by implementing workable electronic employment verification system that result from any fraud.
The country has given opportunity for many foreign nationals and students to pursue their dream of entering world class colleges and universities here particularly in high skilled fields. These legal immigrants want to stay back as they have limited opening back in their home country, but due to insufficient visa and green card allocations it is becoming hard for them to stay back, and has resulted in exporting the talented labor and ingenuity to other countries. The government needs to look at this in a broader perspective since the exceptional individuals help grow the US economy.
Another area where the government needs to work is by addressing the temporary worker program – particularly the agricultural industry, which adds value to the economy and strengthens the national security by allowing realistic, enforceable and usable legal paths to enter the United States. The temporary workers are able to meet the economy of the country as they do not displace or take undue advantage of the American workers.
In the midst of this, the new reform principles from Boehner provide a path to citizenship for children. America has valued the children; by providing ample opportunities to make sure that the children of immigrants are not affected for the mistakes of their parents. They are working for a concrete legal resident and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children for no fault of their own, who have considered this place alone as their home and importantly by meeting certain eligible standards and serve honorably in the military or attain college degree, justice will be done to this children.
According to Nancy Pelosi, looking at the other angles, the Republican principles raise more questions, like what about the DREAMers of becoming a US Citizen? What are the requirements for immigrants to live legally and how will it result in getting complete citizenship? Will the Republicans’ enforcement trigger more barriers instead of removing obstacles to comprehensive reform?
The document points out that the illegal immigrants could live legally and without fear provided they are willing to admit their culpability, pass rigorous background checks, pay significant fines and back taxes, develop proficiency in English and American civic and are capable of supporting themselves and their families by not accessing public benefits.
However the GOP outlines, which were discussed, insist that none of the principles can happen before specific enforcement triggers have been implemented.
The issue of how to deal with undocumented workers has been in the corner for the last 15 years, now being in the central component of immigration reform for over seven months after 68 Senators overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan immigration bill, the House Republicans responded with a flimsy document that only serves to underscore the callous attitude of the Republicans have toward their own nations’ immigrants.
Hope the draft of Standards for Immigration Reform that was being debated by the House Republicans mark an important
progress by bringing together Democrats and Republicans in ensuring to pass immigration reform this year.
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