Immigration Reform

Since the intelligence-reform bill passed and will be signed into law by President Bush, immigration policy must become a priority for the new congress. Policies on immigration require first the enforcement of existing immigration law. The current and previous administrations have been lax in this regard.The new intelligence-reform bill does not include measures pushed by Rep. James Sensenbrenner banning states from issuing drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants,. It does not include provisions to make it easier to deport illegal immigrants without judicial review. We need to hold the Congressional leaders to their promise to deal with these issues later. Letters to our Senators and Representatives indicating our support for needed immigration law reform can help makde sure the promise is, in fact, kept.

Rep. Sensenbrenner said, "We're doing this to stop the next terrorists and to take necessary steps to protect the American people. The bill will address the three most critical elements, including real driver's license reform, tightening our asylum laws to stop exploitation by terrorists, and finishing the fence on California's border with Mexico. ... We will ensure that terrorists like Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, no longer receive a free pass to move around America's communities when they show up at our gates claiming asylum... We will end judge-imposed presumptions that benefit suspected terrorists so that we stop providing a safe haven to some of the worst people on earth."

I am hopeful that Congree will seriously consider this matter and incorporate the concerns expressed by Sensenbrenner and the concept of permits for workers who have employers willing to hire them. Illegals should be deported and sign up for work permits and wait their turn. This would therefore not reward illegal entry into the US. US citizenship should be conferred on children born here only when at least one parent is already a US citizen. Coming across the border to deliver a child on US soil should not be a convoluted path to gain citizenship because the mother is now the parent of an American citizen.