Agreement reached on immigration reform

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Pro-illegals are the myopics.

Framing it into 'pro' and 'anti' illegals is partly why these arguments become circular and fruitless.

[Portlander 0]

I suppose they don't realize that if they were legalized, they'd start b!tching about their rights, join unions, protest, etc. So they'd pay more ANYWAY.

No-go on that one. Their visa status is almost entirely in the hands of their employer. Singlular. They can't switch jobs. AND, the visa process takes years - it amounts to indentured servitude.

If they started complaining, they'd get sent home.

The WHOLE bill is a POS. Who loses?

*Citizens with legitimate family concerns

*The rule of Law.

*the "Guest Workers" themselves

*American workers, who will have to compete openly with indentured servants. - especially small farmers, but soon auto workers, restaurant workers, textiles, furniture manufacturers...

Who wins? Big Argiculture.

Who loses? The rest of us.

And Teddy Kennedy is supporting it, but BUSH wrote it and pushed it through. Elections are coming up, though...

[LaL 418]

The WHOLE bill is a POS. Who loses?

*Citizens with legitimate family concerns

*The rule of Law.

*the "Guest Workers" themselves

*American workers, who will have to compete openly with indentured servants. - especially small farmers, but soon auto workers, restaurant workers, textiles, furniture manufacturers...

Who wins? Big Argiculture.

Who loses? The rest of us.

sorry for the crop but this is so important. This bill is focused on taking immigration out of the hands of the people (ie : families and businesses) and giving it to the government to support unskilled laborers. What that means is as part of the bill reduced backlog and wait times (sounds good right?, but wait...) by ELIMINATING whole categories of family-reunification visas.

the proposed bill does not classify spouses and children of permanent residents as immediate relatives (huh? ####### are they then??) and phases out like categories after 8 years.

Waiver reform? ha! no such luck. those who are currently traversing the waiver system are lucky. IF this ####### bill gets passed 3 or 10 year bars get turned into PERMANENT BARS. Yup - that means that our dear member Girona's son will be permanently barred from the country.

How about those of us that are stuck for years in security clearances? This is our 2nd round going through this (can we say redundancy??) and not surprisingly- not an important issue! hmmm last I knew having someone in the country for YEARS while a background is checked dosen't sound like national security at its best to me! (especially for my boogey-man arab husband! oooo scary)

If this garbage proposal passes, the best hope any of us going through the legal system can hope for would be to beg for amendments. These are band-aids that got the system all mucked up and disjointed in the first place. Bottom line is this bill is an absolute disaster and goes as far as punishing for those going through the legal way. I am disgusted that a bill that is being brought to the floor on Monday, trying to get rushed through prior to their off session departure from DC so they can all have champagne and pat each other's backs and say we saved the day!

I am not buying an ounce of it. Immigration should be a family and employer benefit. Period. Eliminating family members from immigrating goees against everything this country is founded on. Limiting the number of skilled workers is detrimental for our country as well. It should not be ok for unskilled laborers to have a higher priority than familes. ever.

I would implore those who are currently going through legally to bring your families here to call and email your senators this weekend so they can see first thing on Monday what utter rubbish they are going to be presented with, and how it will negatively affect us all going through legally. We need comprehensive immigration reform deparately, but not at the expense of families.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

It should not be ok for unskilled laborers to have a higher priority than familes. ever.

Exactly! I agree with your entire post. The quoted is one of the very central points - if not THE central point - that gets lost in this debate. The only families they are talking about these days are those families that have illegals in it. Families of Americans and legal immigrants now have to take a backset in favor of those that snuck into the country and break a long list of laws day after day and their families. Americans do time for crimes that those illegals will never be held accountable for (tax cheats, ID theft, etc.). That is the real travesty.