IMMIGRATION
Immigration High on Obama's Priority List

This blog is a very helpful guide to potential strategy re: immigration reform. Let's see if the hard-core Left, somewhat anxious about Obama's pragmatism, will be willing to give him necessary support in this area where reform is so necessary. I hope so. I continue to be very heartened by Obama and the decisions he is making.

You're kidding yourself if you think the opposition will be any weaker. Most Americans oppose amnesty for law breakers and there's enough of us to kill it. Obama would be wise not to try.

The McCain-Kennedy bill is the best way to go. We cannot deport 11 million undocumented aliens. Let's deport the criminals, but give a deserving chance to the hard-working immigrants.

Obama would be smart to push for immigration reform not only for the reasons stated in this article, but also because doing so would create thousands of government and public sector jobs.

Immigration reform that includes a pathway to legal status for the estimated 15million people unlawfully present also would come at no cost to the taxpayer because USCIS is the only self-funding agency; its funds come from filing fees paid by the individuals seeking immigration benefits.

Assume that 80% of 15million are admissible to the country except for the fact they overstayed a visa or entered illegally. Assess them a $5,000 penalty and that generates $60billion. It will not cost $60billion to process those applications, so the money leftover can be used to improve immigration law enforcement (to prevent a recurrence of our current situation) and to provide funding to states to cope with the healthcare and education needs of immigrants.

How about employing already-unemployed Americans who already have the right to be in this country and have properly paid their taxes/dues? I think they should get priority.

I'm an employed minority who immigrated into the States via my parents through proper legal documentation processes.

I still think that we need to focus on saving the people who already have the right to be here than saving the ones who broke the laws getting in, costing us more tax dollars, and take the jobs we need. Yeah, maybe they kept our costs low because of cheap labor, but what does that matter now when Americans are on high-unemployment these days? Heck, I would take anything today, too, just to make ends meet. It's frustrating to see that American adults/teenagers can't even get a job at fast food restaurants because it goes to illegals who conned their way into a SSN#.

And who knows what diseases are getting re-introduced into this country because they bypass the proper medical checks upon entry. I understand that illegal immigrants can be hard workers, but wait until you or your loved one gets stricken with a disease or needs that job at McDonalds to avoid losing a roof over their head.

Moza said "We cannot deport 11 million undocumented aliens. Let's deport the criminals"

I thought an illegal alien was a criminal....