If this guy had come here illegally, he would have have qualified for the 1986 amnesty, and probably been given everything the US offers to illegals, which is really everything.
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Posted on Wed, Jul. 30, 2008
Attorney launches pro-immigration site
By MAURA POSSLEY
mpossley@bradenton.com
Oliver Petereit left Berlin for his new country 28 years ago, yet he's still frustrated at the complexities of his U.S. visa.

He put the fate of living here and operating his small business - Island Pest Control on Holmes Beach - in the hands of an immigration attorney and hoped for the best.

It worked, but he says other immigrants don't have the same luck in what he described as a convoluted process.

"I still have trouble with my visa on occasion," said Petereit, who immigrated on what is called an E-2 investor visa that requires a certain profit and employment. "It's so complicated to really get proper information."

Petereit is one of about 120 people from Manatee and Sarasota counties who have signed onto a new pro-immigration group at www.immigrationsarasota.com.

"I'm very grateful that I can stay here," Petereit said. "It's great, don't get me wrong. But it would be helpful if it would be more transparent to foreign investors who would like to come here and invest, which would be good for the economy. It's extremely important to publicize this more - that there's a way to come into this country legally."

The Web site was launched by P. Christopher Jaensch, managing partner of the Sarasota-based Jaensch Immigration Law Firm, to give advocates a voice here, he said.

The group of immigrants, employers and supporters wants to bring local focus to the national immigration dilemma.

Its first step will be to create a line of communication to update the Web site with legislative and other developments and motivate them to speak out, Jaensch said.

"We want to be able to show when the times come that there are people out there that support changing the law," he said. "We want to try and mobilize people when it comes."

"It" being an overhaul to U.S. immigration policy, a controversial topic that took the national stage as Congress debated the issue.

But Petereit and Jaensch say they would be content, too, with smaller changes to streamline legal immigration.

Those changes include extended caps to worker visas that get twice as many applications as there are visas.

"I don't think we'll see comprehensive immigration reform before the next president takes office," Jaensch said. "But hopefully there can be some small changes, incremental changes, before the election. In the meantime, we'll at least have to lay the foundation for mobilizing supporters."

Maura Possley, Herald reporter , can be reached at 748-0411, Ext. 2640.