Tag Archives: us immigration

US Immigration Reform: Dream Act 2.0 – Is It Worth It?

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The DREAM Act is one of the many controversial and politically charged US Immigration debates that exist today and even moreso during 2012 being a Presidential Election year. Read the link to get more in depth information about the proposed legislation but in short it a bill designed to give children born in the US to illegal immigrant parents (some refer to these kids as anchor babies) to have a legal path to US citizenship. In short this will allow these kids;

– to go to College legally
– access student loans and in state tuition rates
– apply for a social security number
– work legally
– access social support benefits
– and of course after becoming a citizen, vote in state and federal elections

In general, Democrats have been supportive of the most well known and proposed legislation that has existed as pending legislation in various forms for over 10 years. From a political standpoint this has largely lined up with their base being more supportive of the Hispanic demographic, the poor, minorities, being more supportive of a social safety nets and otherwise more all encompassing immigration policies.

However with Hispanic voters being both the largest minority voting block and the fast growing by far of all ethnic groups in the US, Republican politically candidates across the US including the Presidential candidates like Mitt Romney are acutely aware of not alienating this large bloc. It has profound consequences for many both many states today in deciding the Presidency in 2012 but also for future elections. Aware how as a party after the Civil Rights movements in the 60s, when Republicans lost the majority of the African American vote to Democrats, never to return to date, they desperately do not want to lose the majority of another ethinic group predicted to be 40% of the entire US population in 2050.

Enter Dream Act 2.0 as it has been dubbed by many, authored by Republican Florida Senator and Cuban American, Marco Rubio. This takes the original intention of the Dream Act and scales it back without criminalizing these kids of illegal immigrant parents. Essentially instead of providing a direct path to US citizenship, it provides an indirect and uncertain path to US citizenship for all groups except for ones who join the military who will receive a green card after serving.

All others will essentially be eligible for non-immigrant status which is really a fancy (and many say demeaning) way of saying they are eligible for work visas like the H-1B and student visas like F-1 which are the same visas that foreigners can apply for to come to the US. Then from that point via either relevant employer based applications, marriage to a US citizen or legal resident family sponsorship they could get access to a green card albeit with no guarantees and waits of up to 10 years or more.

So is it a good thing if you are a child of illegal immigrant parents?

Well the reality is anything is better than the current situation where they can’t attend college, work legally, travel outside the US, get legal IDs, access to many forms of private healthcare or have any path to normal sort of life with a constant threat of deportation. However you only have to talk to current foreigners to realize how bad and unfair the current Immigration System, Green Card opportunities and Wait Times are.

For example Mexican nationals after going through the 12-18 month green card application process under a status like EB-3 (which is common for professionals with a Bachelors Degree and less than 5 years of experience) will have a waiting period of over 10 years by current wait times before being eligible for a Green Card. (to note; the H-1B length is 6 years for regular maximum).

Ultimately while Democrats have for years for political reasons pandered to the Hispanic voting bloc, the so-called Dream Act 2.0 is a poor imitation of the original designed to curry a little favor to Republicans from the same group. However make no mistake, non-immigration status in many ways is only a small notch above illegal status with constant uncertainty and no clear path to permanency. Additionally adding a whole new bloc of people to the already long waiting queues for Green Card status will only increase wait times for everybody.

Cj

US Deports 400,000 Foreigners In 2011

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We don’t often write about the major political issues around US Immigration as the primary purpose of this site is to help foreigners to live, work and study in the United States. However we have been outspoken on occasion with some issues and legislation surrounding things like the H1B visa legislation, Employer hiring practices of Foreign Immigrants, Green Card Waiting Lists and the Start-Up Visa as well as report on things like the Dream Act and the plight of Illegal Immigrants.

Today we thought we give an update as released by the US Government as the nature of Deportations of foreigners from the US in the fiscal Immigration year FY-2011. We don’t really have an opinion on this as we don’t know anything about any of the individual cases or much about deportation generally as a US Immigration issue. Certainly for convicted violent felons who happen to be foreigners it is hard to feel much sympathy when you think the many thousands of foreigners who are want to come to the US legally or those that are already here on waiting lists for more permanent status like a Green Card or US Citizenship.

However deportation is something that any Immigrant who is not a US citizen certainly faces as a reality of the status whether due to fault of their own or things beyond their control. So it is important to be aware of what is going on in the world of US Immigration as far as deportation is concerned. In the past we have written specifically about the cases of deportation of people who were already approved and received an H1B visa from the US consulate for dubious and yet fully unknown reasons at best.

So exactly 396,906 foreigners were deported in FY2011 of which about 55% had either a felony or misdemeanor conviction for some crime committed within the US. Unfortunately this crime rate was up about 89% from 2008 levels and possibly could be attributed to the more bleak economic picture and bad job situation meaning many of these immigrants who are living close to the poverty line were following a trend that is all too common with crime and bad prospects for prosperity. This also includes people who were found to have re-entered the US after being ordered to leave or violating an earlier order to leave the country.

Let’s hope that these negative statistics with both deportation and violent crimes committed by foreigners trends back down in next period and that positive legislative efforts and reforms are made to make the whole US Immigration system fairer for all.

Cj