Black Thought II
The trials and tribulations of a 23-year-old college student who in his head thinks he's already a star in the journalism world. Ok, ok, maybe not a star...
It's not often I actually blog about a serious topic.
But when 500,000 Mexicans take the streets of Downtown L.A., it needs to be addressed.
Congress is in the process of going over a few major immigration proposals which would greatly impact the over 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Why is Congress and President Bush addressing this now? Probably because Bush had it on his long list of things to do before he is out of office...but that's neither here or there.
The proposals are wide ranging but all have the same idea: To finally try to control who enters into the United States.
Senate Judiciary Committee's bill:
• Allows illegal immigrants who were in the United States before 2004 to continuing working legally for six years if they pay a $1,000 fine and clear a criminal background check. They would become eligible for permanent residence upon paying another $1,000 fine, any back taxes and having learned English.
• New immigrants would have to have temporary work visas. They also could earn legal permanent residence after six years.
• Adds up to 14,000 new Border Patrol agents by 2011 to the current force of 11,300 agents.
• Authorizes a "virtual wall" of unmanned vehicles, cameras and sensors to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Creates a special guest worker program for an estimated 1.5 million immigrant farm workers, who can also earn legal permanent residency.
• Allows illegal immigrant students with high school diplomas or GED, no criminal record and meet other criteria to enroll in college or university or enlist in the military. Permits state schools to charge such students in-state tuition.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's proposal:
• Requires all employers to verify the identity and immigration status of their employees through an electronic system.
• Assesses civil penalties of between $500 and $20,000 against employers for each illegal immigrant they hire and criminal penalties of up to $20,000 per illegal immigrant hired and up to six months in jail for engaging in a pattern of employing illegal workers.
• More than doubles the number of employment-based green cards, from 140,000 to 290,000, and makes more employment-based visas available to unskilled workers. It also would free up other visas by exempting immediate relatives of U.S. citizens from being counted in the annual pool of 480,000 visas, and increase country-by-country ceilings on family-sponsored and employment-based immigrants.
• Cancels visas of immigrants who have overstayed their visas and requires them to return to their home country to undergo additional screening at U.S. consulates.
• Makes it a misdemeanor crime for an immigrant to be in the country illegally.
• Increases the number of visas available for high-tech workers.
• Does not address President Bush's proposal for a guest-worker program.
House bill passed in December:
• Requires all employers to use within six years a database to verify Social Security numbers of employees or face civil or criminal penalties for hiring illegal workers.
• Requires mandatory detention for all non-Mexican illegal immigrants arrested at ports of entry or at land and sea borders.
• Establishes mandatory sentences for smuggling illegal immigrants and for re-entering the United States illegally after deportation.
• Makes illegal presence in the country a felony.
• Makes a drunken driving conviction a deportable offense.
• Requires building two-layer fences along 700 miles of the 2,000-mile border between Mexico and the United States.
• Does not address President Bush's proposed guest-worker program for illegal immigrants already in U.S.
I can't just get behind the illegal immigrants on this one though. Maybe I'm biased coming from Los Angeles and seeing how the city has changed so much just in 10 years in terms of the community I grew up in.
But something needs to be done.
We can't keep just having an open door policy on people who want to cross the border from Mexico or any other country.
Eventually, you are going to reach a breaking point not only in terms of where are all these people going to live, but then also in terms of the school systems as well.
The big argument seems to be is that illegal immigrants are doing the jobs nobody else wants. I can sort of see that to a certain extent because I'm not cutting grass, but who knows if there are people out there who are actually citizens who would be willing to do the work. But can't because all those type of secondary jobs are gone.
And yes, we are all immigrants in one form or fashion. Some against our better will. But the fact is, I'm a United States Citizen.
I'm forced to pay taxes.
All illegal immigrants aren't.
But here is where the United States brought some of this upon themelves.
In 1996, the IRS started passing out special tax ID numbers for people who are living and working illegally in the United States.
I guess the thinking was if they are making money, we will take their money even if they are illegal.
But until Congress decides on a bill, you can expect more people marching on the 405 Freeway and kids skipping school.
Glad I'm not in Los Angeles for once...
9 Responses to “Keep J-Lo, The Rest Have Got To Go”
Leave a Reply
About me
- I'm Vandy
- From Harlem, New York, United States
- That dude.
- My profile
Previous posts
Archives
Keep Rosario Dawson too.
Ya'll are such coons.
It seems as if the amount of labor required to enforce the bill would be more cumbersome and outweigh the potential benefits.
Putting people in jail, the extra man power for the border patrol, the additional strain on the naturalization staff; just saying. Might be more trouble than it's worth.
Some idiot legislator is drafting a bill that would basically force deadbeat dad's to serve as border patrol agents. I mean, it just gets more and more stupid. These lawmakers know how badly we depend on the labor of illegal immigrants and I find it hypocritical that they are trying to do this now.
But I will say that my time spent in Los Angeles was marred by a whole section of the city in which there were no English-speaking people hahaha, it was ridiculous. Que paso mojito.
Ahh! Mojitos...
Marcus, specify when you say taxes....here in the great state of Texas and I'm sure other places as well, no one is exempt from sales tax (unless you own a church and other Tax exempt businesses)...therefore illegal immigrants do pay taxes, maybe not property taxes, and we don't have an income tax here...but taxes are paid. They are paid and for those people they don't get that money back like "normal" citizens do. I'm not taking up a particular side on the immigration cause, but I feel badly for families who are obviously in the land of opportunity to make better of their situations and who are being persectuted with ridiculous suggestions of possible courses of action. As we may or may not know, obtaining official citizenship can take years (I know of a lady who it took 13 years)....people act like this a swift process....it's only swift when we want it to be (illegal iimmigrants who are deployed obtain citizenship immediately when they return to the states...that's IF they make it back alive). The wole landscape of the country would be changed noticeably if we listen to the suits that are trying to make this happen.
I'll notice it here in Texas
*insert bad joke here*
You'll notice it in LA
and everywhere else for that matter....
BTW, what social benefit has JLo had to America? She wasn't even the flyyest flyy girl.....
...take that, lol
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
that picture is CAH-RAAAAAZY!! wow... yeah... even tho i work in news, i'm on the other side of the country and was off that day so i don't know enough about that, even after reading all your stuff to comment. (what? i like to be over-informed) lol