Sheridan: Con-Law

IMMIGRATION RESOURCES

Just in case you needed to know:

U.S. Citizen and Information Services Home Page:

U.S. Department of State	http://www.state.gov/
Visa Services	http://travel.state.gov/visa/index.html
Visa Bulletin	http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html
Visa Policy Cables	http://travel.state.gov/visa/laws_telegrams.html
Diversity Visa Program	http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants_types_diversity.html
Visa Fees	http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi_fees.html
Schedule of Consular Fees	http://travel.state.gov/visa/vofees.html
U.S. Embassy Information	http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/embassies/embassies_1214.html
Visa Wait Times	http://travel.state.gov/visa/tempvisitors_wait.php
U.S. Department of Labor	http://www.dol.gov/
Employment and Training	http://www.doleta.gov/
Certification Processing Dates	http://www.ows.doleta.gov/foreign/times.asp
Office of Workforce Security	http://ows.doleta.gov/
Prevailing Wage Information	http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/foreign/wages.asp
Employment Standards Admin	http://www.dol.gov/esa/
Regional and Local Office Info	http://www.doleta.gov/regions
Dictionary of Occupations	http://www.oalj.dol.gov/libdot.htm
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)	http://uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm
USCIS Forms and Fees	http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/index.htm
USCIS Case Status Online	https://egov.immigration.gov/cris/jsps/index.jsp
USCIS Field Offices	http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/fieldoffices/index.htm
USCIS Compilation of Laws	http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/lawsregs/index.htm
USCIS Public Affairs	http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/publicaffairs/index.htm

IMMIGRATION BILL: BITING OFF TOO MUCH TO CHEW

With 12 or 13 million illegals in the country we've got a headache, as we've also got millions of legals who waited in line to receive their visas, whether temporary or permanent.

The illegals are lawbreakers in the view of conservatives and ought to be sent home or at the very least be sent home to start the legal application process all over, and oh, yes, pay at least a $5,000 fine before being allowed in.

This is crazy of course.  Can you imagine sending millions of people home who don't want to go?  Disrupting families, jobs, employers, lives?  And who is going to administer this foolish program?  The INS (now called, since 9-11, ICE for Immigration and Customs Enforcement)?  The overstretched government cannot even process millions of visa applicants for Americans wishing to travel abroad for business or pleasure.

Conservatives go nuts over the fact that someone else has violated the law.  When conservatives violate the law, it's no big thing.  It must've been conservatives who invented the distinction between felony (serious criminality, originally resulting in outlawry and the death penalty) and misdemeanor (anything less).  Today we have infractions.

Border jumping doesn't amount to overtime parking.  The people coming up from the south are coming to work to live because we need them so we can live.  They pick our food, prepare it, serve it, clean our hotel and motel rooms and rebuild after Katrina, as well as all over the rest of the country.  If these folks didn't exist, we'd have to import them, from south of the border, no doubt.

I'd hate to have to go back because of lies my grandfather told getting through Ellis Island, wouldn't you?

If my parents had to jump a border to keep me and my sisters fed, I'd expect them to do so, wouldn't you?

We ought to give medals to those who successfully jump our border.  For Bravery.  For Courage.  For Willingness to Work Hard.  For Willing to Support Family, Sending Money Back.

Mexico is our Employment Bank.  Some cities have Kelly Girls to supply temporary workers to offices.  We have Mexico.  Need a few thousand workers?  Call Mexico.  You don't even have to waste the dime, Mexico will come to you, in fact they're crossing the border as we speak.

Congress has been trying to do something to solve this non-problem which benefits us.

Congress wants to put order in this system.

Well and good, put order in the system.  Eliminate the alleged problem of the illegals by legalizing the illegals without sending anyone home and impose no fines.  Let them go to the nearest post office and sign a paper that says "Here I am; it's me Juan; you can find me any time; meanwhile I'm off to work; here's my cellphone if you'd like to call. Adios.  Juan"  Boom.  Done.  No administrative headache.  Juan returns to hanging sheetrock, just as God intended.  American boss:  happy.  American homeowner: happy.  Family in Mexico: happy.  Win-win-win. 

Who loses?  Conservatives: unhappy.  Why?  Because we didn't send the Mexicans home and make them gyrate through all sorts of administrative hoops, which conservatives love to see others do.  This makes conservatives feel good, even though it hurts others.  The conservative instinct is to make others squirm and acknowledge their superiority.  Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, indeed the whole Iraq war was brought to you by whom?  Conservatives.

When Congress enacts a law addressing a small part of a large problem, it is sometimes argued that Congress discriminates unfairly by not addressing the concerns of other, similarly situated, groups, i.e. an equal protection violation.

But the Court has recognized that Congress is entitled to attack large problems piecemeal without such a challenge succeeding.

The current immigration reform process seems to be an example of Congress trying to do too much all at once.  All the forces seem to have converged to cobble a massive hodge-podge of a bill that covers everything.  This is making the effort unusually cumbersome.

Below is an example of the difficulty of maintaining the coalitions of interested groups from ethnic to labor, business, liberal, conservative, etc., necessary to craft a viable reform bill covering a large topic in an overall fashion.

The latest news today, below, following the Boxer article, is that the bill to require millions to return home is defeated, tabled in a process designed to prevent filibustering, thank the Lord and those who thought the anti-filibuster remedy up.

IMMIGRATION REFORM SOLUTION

Don't look now, but I've just figured out the solution to the immigration problem, you know, all these Mexicans and OTMs crossing the border?

Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado) was on the radio the other day insisting that since all these folks were lawbreakers, they were evildoers who needed to be penalized for jumping the line, swimming the river, crawling across the desert, so they could work for us, picking our food, building our houses, serving us in restaurants, and cleaning our hotel/motel rooms when we traveled for pleasure, unlike these folks without beds.

Tancredo favors a way of planned immigration so long as those who jump the line are penalized.

Perhaps we could react to this dire problem a little less formalistically, legally, while still satisfying Rep. Tancredo's fundamental urge to punish those who are so morally impure as to sneak into the circus to feed their kids with peanuts.

Why don't we pass a law that makes it legal to enter the U.S. in either one of two ways that penalize:

1.  You can wait in line, civilized fashion, while your family starves, until your papers are processed, or,

2.  You can crawl across or under the desert at the mercy of coyotes who may rob and rape you, and risk dying of thirst, and then, after you arrive, you may legally enter an immigration office to pick up a glass of water and your papers.

I call Option-2 "Earn your visa the hard way." 

This insures that we only accept the fittest Hispanics who survive, which should satisfy Rep. Tancredo's, belief, which I presume exists, in Social Darwinism.  American stock gets stronger while Mexican stock gets weaker as we get their strongest.  I can see the advantages already as the national genetic averages shift over the generations; a long-term project, to be sure, but one that will be well worth it.

Or we can summon up a latter day Paul Revere who will ride across the land shouting the cry of alarm, "The Mexicans are coming...to feed us!"

One if by land, two if by the river...