Investigation bill’s bizarre

America was built by immigrants and has always been the home of the “American Dream.” The dream whereby anyone who comes here and works hard can raise their families and live better lives.
Instead of welcoming immigrants and encouraging them to become citizens as we did for decades, we are now planning to build barriers, walls along our borders, and impose ridiculous and prohibitive rules to block today’s immigrants from joining our nation and our society.
We find it sad that the current gaggle of politicians in Washington, D.C. seem to miss this basic fact in their attempt to revise and re-codify our immigration laws.
The current bill before the Senate would give immediate work authorization to immigrants who entered the country before January 1, 2007. Some critics look at this as a kind of “amnesty” to those who snuck into this country illegally.
Let us face facts - we will never be able to root out the estimated 12 million undocumented and illegal immigrants who are already here. So why not grant those who are already here the right to work so that they are not as great a burden on our resources?
One bizarre and virtually unenforceable provision of the bill would require every head of household to return to their homeland within eight years of the passing of the legislation.
We wonder how our government plans to enforce this plan and why they want to put the immigrants through this expense and disruption in their lives in America.
To add to the immigrants’ financial woes, application fees to become a temporary worker through the visa program will vary and carry a fee and penalties of up to $5,000 per person.
Welcome to the American way - Pay, Pay and Pay.
Once our borders are made secure - at least 18 months and buckets of money from the inception of the current bill - 400,000 work visas will be granted each year for two-year stays. After two-years, workers will be forced to return to their home country for one full year, then allowed to return for another two-year stint, up to three times.
How bizarre is that? Imagine what your boss would tell you if you had to leave your job for a whole year every two years.
The critics have lined up on both sides of this law pushing their agendas and issuing warnings of the creation of a new, lower social class of immigrants.
Other immigration groups have blasted the bill because it would put in place a merit-based point system that would give more points to job skills and less to family.
We need immigration laws of course, but they should be about helping immigrants become citizens, and reuniting families not separating them.
We must keep our American Dream alive for all who want it.