The Democratic proposal includes increased money for border patrol and drug war agents, equipment, helicopters and unmanned drones.
And, it will take 8 years for an undocumented person to get citizenship. And fund the war on drugs and more ICE agents.
The plan would provide a way for the estimated 11 million people illegally in the U.S. to become citizens. They could first get “lawful immigrant status,” allowing them to work in the U.S. and come and go from this country. After current visa backlogs are cleared, which would take about eight years, they could petition to become permanent U.S. citizens.
This bill needs to be tossed fast. Hopefully the Republicans, with their typical ignorance, will fail to see it as the gift to them that it is and block it from coming to a vote.
More provisions: (full summary here.)
1. More Border Patrol officers
2. More Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, worksite inspectors, document fraud investigators and drug-war agents
3. The "installation of high-tech ground sensors throughout the southern border and for equipping all border patrol officers with the technological capability to respond to activation of the ground sensors in the area they are patrolling."
4. More prosecution of drug smuggling, human trafficking and unauthorized border crossing
5. "[I]ncreases in the number of sport utility vehicles, helicopters, power boats, river boats, portable computers to track illegal immigrants and drug smugglers while inside of a border patrol vehicle, night vision equipment, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Remote Video Surveillance Systems (RVSS), scope trucks, and Mobile Surveillance Systems (MSS)."
6. All prisoners will be checked for immigration status and deported if found to lack documentation.
7. DHS will "identify, investigate, and initiate removal proceedings" against folks who came here legally but didn't leave.
8. The bill would create "a broad-based registration program that requires all illegal immigrants living in the U.S. to come forward to register, be screened, and, if eligible, complete other requirements to earn legal status, including paying taxes."
Pretty soon there will more drug agents in this country than there are drug offenders. It seems like every bill Congress has passed in the past year has more money for the war on drugs, here and abroad.
And here's a curious inclusion in the immigration bill.
It will also create a Commission on Wartime Treatment of European Americas to review the United States Government's wartime treatment of European Americans and European Latin Americans during World War II, and a Commission on Wartime Treatment of Jewish Refugees to review the United States Government's refusal to allow Jewish and other refugees fleeing persecution or genocide in Europe entry to the United States during World War II.
How much is it going to cost for a commission to study something that happened 60 years ago?
And do we need faith-based provisions that give visa preferences to immigrants who are ministers?
The R-1 religious worker visa program will be made permanent, and religious organizations will be able to bring minister more easily.
And why are we favoring Ireland?
This proposal creates an E-3 visa for nationals of the Republic of Ireland similar to the visa already provided for nationals of Australia. It allows for foreign nurses and physical therapists to enter the United States to alleviate shortages in these areas. The EB-5 program will be made permanent and adapted to increase foreign investment into the United States.
8 years is no path to citizenship. The biometric cards will be used for all Americans after they gain traction with use for immigrants. We need to stop over-funding law enforcement and concentrate of funding domestic programs that will help everyone.
This bill is a sham. I'm not supporting it.
