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S. 744: The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill
We'll start with the big immigration bill in the senate right now. The bill itself is 1304 pages, so it looks like I will have to rely on other people's summaries as to what is in it. Actually, now that I think about it, the Senators must have to do the same thing, I can't imagine they are reading these bills either. This seems like a terrible way to do business. There's actually quite a lot written in the opposing and endorsing lists as well. I guess I'll alternate and do as many of them as I can stand.
Endorsing: National Education Association (NEA)
a pathway to citizenship for more than 11 million aspiring Americans, ensuring and promoting family unity, and inclusion of the DREAM Act.I certainly like the idea of a pathway to citizenship, I really do think that children who were brought over here illegally should have a way to become legal citizens. It can't be too easy though, mass amnesty is garbage. They should have to work for it, but there should be a way.
The “Little Dreamer” amendment to be offered by Senator Blumenthal ensures that children under the age of 13 are eligible for a 5 year expedited pathway to citizenship, and are not relegated to the 13 year pathway to citizenship simply because of their age. A 5 year pathway to citizenship for Little Dreamers would put them on par with their older brothers and sisters, who may be eligible for the 5 year expedited pathway under the Dream Act, and ensures equity within families.5 year path to citizenship for children and 13 year path for adults. That certainly sounds pretty reasonable on the surface.
Opposing: NumbersUSA
Like the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, S. 744 is mass amnesty now, with only promises of weak enforcement later.Well, that's very frustrating, because one of these two groups is lying. If it's mass amnesty now I'm against it, if it's 5 year for children and 13 year for adults I'm probably for it. Which is true?
Endorsing: National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
Nothing of value said here
Opposing: Heritage Action
The Gang of Eight’s immigration bill, drafted behind closed doors, is an amnesty first plan.
within six months, the Gang of Eight’s bill will grant amnesty almost everyone who entered the country illegally prior to 2012.Again, if this is true the bill sucks.
Endorsing: Scanning the rest
There's a lot of "this bill is not perfect but it's a good step". No real information as far as I could tell
Opposing: Scanning the rest
Lots of talk about quick amnesty and waste of taxpayer money.
I'm sure this is completely obvious, but I don't know what the hell I'm doing here. Does anyone know where I can get real information about this stuff? Ideally I would go read the bill now, but it's so damn long that's just not going to happen. One side or the other is flat out lying, and quite frankly, it is exactly over the part of this that is the most important. If it is blanket amnesty for anyone who has come in before 2012 then it is complete garbage and should be voted down. If it is a long hard process for people who contribute and are willing to work for their citizenship then it is most likely something I would support. So how do I find out which it is?
[The next day]
So I wrote everything above here yesterday, and last night on the daily show they were talking about it a bunch. Apparently this bill has been all over the place and I just wasn't paying attention to the right places. One thing that really jumped out at me (because I had been looking for this earlier that day) was that they mentioned that the path to citizenship takes 13 years.
So I decided I would look a little bit harder today and see if I can find some better information. A quick search led me here, which describes the law a bit, you have to fulfill certain requirements and it looks like it takes quite a while. And I found an article here, which pretty much agrees that amnesty is a bad idea, but this bill isn't amnesty. I think I've done enough here, the people who are claiming this is just amnesty are just liars spreading misinformation. Fuck those guys!
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H.R. 2355: To require the purchase of domestically made flags of the United States of America for use by the Federal Government.
This one just kinda cracked me up. There's no information except the title, perhaps that's all we need here. On one hand it seems like unnecessary bloat legislation, on the other hand, we certainly should be making our flags here right? Our military flying an american flag that is made in China just seems stupid. Perhaps this is the kind of stimulus we should be focusing on. Don't give out free money, but instead pay an extra few cents per flag and buy it locally.
Perhaps this is one of those things where the guy proposing it knows its garbage but just wants to be able to go home and say "look at this patriotic bill I tried to pass!"
I don't like the idea of total and unconditional amnesty, which is probably not what this is, all conservative claims to the contrary, but I still think US immigration law is too strict, and too heavy with bureaucracy. I think we should actually let more immigrants in, and from a wider variety of countries.
ReplyDeleteIf we streamline the process for entering, and secure the border, then we won't have the problems with illegal immigration that we do now.
I don't know that much about this bill either but I have had some experience with illegals, there are a lot of them in Texas. The thing that has frustrated us for ages is that the reason they keep pouring over the border is that they can get all kinds of benefits here including education, medical in emergency rooms, food stamps, and SS when they reach a certain age though they have never contributed. Small wonder they keep swimming the Rio Grande in the dark of night to have their children here who are immediately considered American citizens.
ReplyDeleteSheldon: Totally agree. Unconditional amnesty is nonsense, but as you said that doesn't seem to be what this bill is.
ReplyDeleteAnna: That's very true. But they also do a lot of crappy work and get paid under the table. It seems like the best thing to do would be to take those people and either deport them, or have them go through some sort of citizenship process and get them put into the system. That way they would be contributing to all of those things.
True...Our sweet maid we have had for over ten years, who has a legitimate green card and the right to work here, we pay $80 in cash for four hours work, not chump change, but since she doesn't read or write English, or speak it very well, getting her citizenship may never happen though she is working on it...but she will still draw SS some day, though I doubt she pays income tax. It seems the laws are all screwed up to accommodate and encourage this sort of "immigration" for domestic workers because there are not enough Americans willing to do that kind of work for $20 an hour.
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