Dealing with illegal migrants

Posted on November 21, 2006 - Filed Under Punch Forum |

Eduardo Pontaoe
21 Nov 2006

Mr. Edwin Farias:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, wrote Emma Lazarus on her sonnet The New Colossus, a defiant and merciful call to immigration rights. That was then at the turn of the 20th century, this is the 21st. Another millennia where illegal immigration is bursting at the seams and splitting people apart, dividing Americans like that 700 mile border fence separating Mejicanos from us Yankees signed into law by Bush.

Inasmuch you mentioned the flight of Filipinos wanting to breathe free in this land of “milk and honey”, let’s go for it. Is it your self-vested interest in allowing yourself to be carried away in a problem so sensitive that even Congress doesn’t have the faintest idea how to deal with it?

Your short minded reasoning in the inequality of distribution of visas to “legal” immigration loving Filipinos which you advised deprived them of fairness against those who are here already being prioritized, is beyond me. Why in all fairness allocate visas to Filipinos still in the Philippines when you got thousands in this country falling in line like McDonald’s?

There are 10 million undocumented aliens according to DCIS and out of this; thousands of Filipinos are included in this mob of lawbreakers. Giving amnesty wouldn’t work. Amnesty under Clinton did not work. It just exacerbated the situation.

Fact of the matter is, after that grant of pardon thousands crossed the border in defiance of the laws gambling that another amnesty can be granted again. Amnesty is not the solution. It’s either giving working passes for those already here as being tested in Congress or outright deportation to those who crossed and them who abused their tourist visa privileges.

Jess Delfin is right. Illegal immigration is a cancer in our social structure. The allocation of available funds to support this growing menace is becoming scarce, overwhelming schools and the health facilities, which by law must be supported. How long Mr. Farias, can you sustain such onslaught on the American system? I will assume not forever.

Bear with me to tell you an immigration cause célèbre. Elvira Arellano, is a Mexican national caught crossing the border illegally 10 years ago. Deported and came back and went scot-free to Seattle, settled there and have a son. Came to Chicago and worked at O’Hare airport and got caught again with a fake Social Security card. She was ordered to go back to Mexico with her son but jumped the gun and went to hiding like a rat; she is, in a religious sanctuary. Now, the faultiness of reasoning those bleeding hearts put forward to defend her. They claimed that her son, an American born citizen couldn’t go to Mexico with her mother because that would be infringement of his constitutional right, which a federal judge dismissed. Recently, Elvira Arellano and her co-conspirators unleashed her son on a crusade to the front of the White House all the way to the Mexican legislature to plead the US government to give her amnesty. Wishful thinking.

To grant her amnesty will open the floodgates to those thousands of illegals like her waiting in the wings. It is not the right thing to do. She should go back to Mexico and wait until her son turns 18 years old and petition her legally. And for US citizenship, there are tough changes looming in the horizon. An immigrant applying citizenship must know what America is all about.

Trivial? No more. New procedures are rolling out the DCIS this winter. Application fee for citizenship pegged at $400 dollars is going up substantially. By January 8, 2007, going in and out from Canada or the Caribbean with just a driver's ID is not enough, you need a passport. Emma Lazarus will be crying, kicking and turning furiously in her grave.

Comments

Leave a Reply