So the Immigration Bill died on the floor of the Senate today. What a great outcome. I feel very strongly about the need for a complete reform of our immigration code and I was furious with many of the provisions in this piece forward by the bipartisan group of Senators. The path to citizenship was not clear at all and provisions such as requiring Z-visa aliens to "touch home base" (i.e. return to their country of origin) or the $500 fee for the visa (processing not included), plus a $2,000 fine, plus 3 years back taxes were self-defeating. What illegal immigrant can afford $2,500+?
I wish the problems with immigration in this country were solved, but I am willing to take a good solution over an immediate one. That is probably even more likely now.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
13 years ago
1 comment:
I don't know how they do it, but my impression is that a lot of not-at-all-wealthy immigrants end up paying a lot more than $2500 in lawyers fees in their way to getting the documents they want. My grandmother's house-cleaners, for example, paid something like $7000 in getting their greencards. (they are married to each other, hence the plural. I am also not sure precisely what documents they were getting, but it doesn't really change things...) I know this because they did not, in fact, have that kind of money available for an up-front payment and ended up borrowing from her, interest free... I suspect less favorable fee-repayments structures are available through lawyers themselves or even professional lenders.
but yes, to your main point, immigration is a mess, and a sad one at that...
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