Immigration Questions Need Immigration Answers
Maybe I'm missing something, but I’m not exactly sure where President Obama is heading when it comes to “immigration reform.”
I don’t disagree with the President that some kind of reform is needed when it comes to immigration in this country, illegal or otherwise. With much of the debate so focused on Arizona recently, from Governor Jan Brewer making campaign ads directly challenging the Obama Administration stance on the increasingly infamous S.B. 1070 to groups urging Major League Baseball to pull the 2011 All-Star Game from Chase Field in Phoenix, there is a segment of humanity that seems to be lost in this discussion, particularly now that the federal government has filed suit against the state of Arizona over S.B. 1070.
I’m talking about the foreign-born individuals in this country who are currently working their butts off, the legal way, towards citizenship, or foreigners who simply want to come to this country, the legal way, because they know that overall, the United States has infinitely more opportunities for them.
According to a recent FOXNews.com report, the President is apparently not a fan of the notion of amnesty for or deportation of all illegal immigrants. It goes on to state, however, that "he called for a ‘pathway to legal status’ that would have illegal immigrants get in line and pay a fine.” This is where the President and I start to diverge in our views on this matter.
I’m half-Filipino. My mom arrived in the United States in 1969 from Manila, worked hard, married my dad along the way, and became a U.S. citizen in 1977. This was the same year she and my dad first started the process of bringing an aunt and uncle to the U.S. from the Philippines. For 18 years, they were mired in red tape while trying to reach this goal through legal and proper channels, but thankfully, my aunt and uncle finally arrived here in 1995, and they’ve been pretty happy with the move ever since.
It took 18 years to do things the right way, and now the President apparently wants to grant millions of illegal immigrants a “pathway to legal status” simply by paying a fine. I might be taking this a little too personally, but you’re flat-out, explicitly wrong on this one, Mr. President.
Please explain to a majority of Americans who happen to favor Arizona Senate Bill 1070 how “get in line and pay a fine” is in any way remotely fair?
Enlighten me.
Follow Technorati