Immigration

Illegal aliens are bad citizens often trying to be very good. It is wrong to enter the United States of America illegally. If that were not true, then there would not be a law against it. Good citizens do not break the law. We are flattered that you admire our country so much that you want to live here too. That's why we have a process in place to help you do that legally.

That being said, our naturalization process is a joke. It can take anywhere from five months to four years to complete the process. This is an area that definitely needs more government paper pushers. Yes, people should meet the requirements we set as our standards of an American citizen. Yes, we should do a better job of turning people away at the door. It's not right to keep people waiting that long when they could be seeking citizenship in their second choice country.

Just because some days it seems like we're everyone's number one stop on the immigration highway does not mean we are the only choice available. It might help the situation if we mentioned that to them. Has anybody ever thought about advertising? There are televisions in foreign countries.

And then there's the little matter of the $595 test fee. It would be difficult at this point in time for home grown citizens to come up with that amount of money for a test. It's not right to expect poorer people from countries in a lot worse economic conditions than ours to do it. If we approach the test as a sort of admission tax and based the test fee on a sliding scale according to income, it would be much more in line with the goals we are trying to accomplish than our current methods of operation.

For those who argue on behalf of migrant farm workers, there are two sides to that argument. On the one hand, if cheap labor wasn't available minimum wage might help convince legal American citizens to do the work, teenagers perhaps. On the other hand, 90 day work visas could be issued on a seasonal basis to those who want to come here, do the work and then go back to their families, legally.

It is the philosophy of this blog that illegal immigration should not be rewarded, however, we do not have to act like bullies on a playground refusing to let other kids play on our turf.


Copyright © 2009 Annette Fortunato

This content may not be copied or reproduced in any way without the express written permission of the author. You are welcome to link to or bookmark this page, but please contact the author via e- Mail if you wish to reproduce this article in whole or in part.