Failed immigration reform
I was very disappointed to read that it’s likely that immigration reform will be shelved until after the 2008 elections after today’s Congressional sessions. 
One quote from the NY Times says:
“The price of failure will be hundreds of more people dying in the desert,” said Eliseo Medina, an executive vice president of the service employees union. “The price of failure will be more workplace raids and families separated as breadwinners are arrested and deported. The price of failure will be more public anger at the broken immigration system. More states and cities will pass punitive laws that target immigrants.”
I think that the price of failure will be that more states and local communities will pass discriminatory over-reaching local laws and ordinances which will harm Hispanics and other immigrants, both legal and undocumented, in ways we can’t even imagine. I am feeling the same sense of dread I felt the day they announced that Bush had been chosen by the Supreme Court to run this country.
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:01 am
I’m sorry but I agree that this law should not be passed until our government takes care of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to this country LEGALLY and are still waiting for their FBI background check. They are so backlogged as it is, I cannot imagine what would happen if this bill were passed. My husband and I filed four years ago and we are STILL waiting. Meanwhile we have are expecting a child together and i have yet to travel to Greece to meet his family, and when will our child meet them? I’m sorry but I don’t agree with you.
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:08 am
Rose, I can certainly understand where you are coming from. As I’ve mentioned before on my site, my husband is one of those who is impacted by the huge backlog. He had his citizenship interview/test in January, passed, and still hasn’t received an oath date six months later. It is very frustrating for us. We also spent three years waiting for his original green card, during which time he could not travel. So I do see where you are coming from. I agree that unless the legislation includes a major sum of money to pay for additional staff and resources, processing the undocumented people would really tax an already broken system. That said, the system *is* broken and needs to be fixed.