NY Immig. Prof. Wants DREAM Act, AG-Jobs,'Visa Recapture'

[Texas2step]

Opinion Piece
Barack Obama should take three strong steps toward true immigration reform
BY ALLAN WERNICK
Wednesday, December 3rd 2008, 4:00 AM

Many of us in the immigration field have long called for a broad amnesty - yes, let's call it what it is - for undocumented immigrant workers. We need more of these hardy individuals working on the books, paying taxes and demanding fairer wages from their employers.

But let's be honest. With unemployment rising and the economy in deep recession, this is a politically dangerous, if not impossible, time to overhaul decades of failed policy. Still, three targeted measures can and should be passed in the first year of an Obama administration: the DREAM Act, granting legal status to undocumented students; the AgJobs bill, benefiting farmworkers, and the Immigrant Visa Recapture bill, which would require the government to issue immigrant visas allocated, but unused because of bureaucratic delays, during the past 15 years.

It's becoming clear that it will take a second-term Obama presidency to tackle comprehensively the thorny issue of immigration reform. Don't take my word for it: Rep. Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama's incoming chief of staff, has been on record for two years saying that comprehensive reform would have to wait for the second term of a Democratic presidency.

On top of that, consider the selection of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security. Napolitano was the first governor to call for using National Guard troops to stop undocumented immigration from Mexico. Increasingly, Obama's approach to immigration reform seems to be to get control over the border in the first term andpass a broad legalization program - let's hope - in the second.

But the three proposals to assist select groups of undocumented immigrants need not wait. In the first year of an Obama administration, Congress should provide relief for students and the agricultural community, and recapture the lost visas.

This would be a smart, incremental approach to immigration reform that suits the emerging Obama pragmatism. The total number of individuals likely to get permanent status under these bills combined is about 3 million (DREAM Act, 1 million; AgJobs, 1.5 million; Visa Recapture bill, 500,000 - some coming from abroad).

As a professor, the DREAM Act is the dearest to my heart. Under this law, individuals who came here before the age of 16 and who have lived here at least five years would qualify for conditional legal status. They also would need to have graduated from high school or obtained a general equivalency diploma. Then, if they attended college or served in the military for two out of the next six years, they'd qualify for permanent legal status.

At the City University of New York, where I teach, about 3,000 students would benefit immediately. Over five years, a total of about 60,000 New Yorkers ultimately would get DREAM Act permanent residence. That may seem like a small number, but for undocumented young scholars, the DREAM Act is their only hope. Under current law, most undocumented students have only one realistic path to legal status: marry a citizen. No papers means no opportunity for professional employment. So, it's either sell flowers, work washing dishes or marry. That's a hell of a choice for a top college graduate.

Starting the legalization process by targeting a select 25% of our total undocumented population makes both practical and political sense. It will give the government experience in processing large numbers of legalization applications. That will avoid a repeat of the 1986 amnesty, which the government botched so badly that more than 20 years later it is still adjudicating applications. Moreover, an incremental approach to legalization will help doubting U.S. citizens overcome fears that these new immigrants will burden our society.

So President-elect Obama, let's get going. Take three sensible steps toward change that millions of people desperately need.

Wernick is an immigration lawyer and professor at Baruch College of the City University of New York.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/200 ... ng_st.html

[agrneydgrl]

Who says he will serve a second term?

[gofer]

Obama talks about creating or saving 2-2.5 million jobs, BUT there will be the same number of immigrants entering the country during that period. So what's the point and where does any of it benefit Americans??

[miguelina]

At the City University of New York, where I teach, about 3,000 students would benefit immediately. Over five years, a total of about 60,000 New Yorkers ultimately would get DREAM Act permanent residence. That may seem like a small number, but for undocumented young scholars, the DREAM Act is their only hope.

I beg to differ, that is a HUGE number and should never come to pass.

The Dream Act is about free money for illegals - nothing else. Financial aid to colleges must NOT go to illegal aliens ever. Financial aid given to 3000 illegal aliens is taking that money from 3000 AMERICAN students.

NO WAY, NO HOW!

[vortex]

No papers means no opportunity for professional employment. So, it's either sell flowers, work washing dishes or marry. That's a hell of a choice for a top college graduate.

As far as I am concerned those top graduates can go back to the old country and make it better. In this economy, American citizens should not have to compete either for college slots or jobs with those who should be here in the first place, even though they might have been brought here when they were kids.

[Captainron]

As a professor, the DREAM Act is the dearest to my heart. Under this law, individuals who came here before the age of 16 and who have lived here at least five years would qualify for conditional legal status. They also would need to have graduated from high school or obtained a general equivalency diploma. Then, if they attended college or served in the military for two out of the next six years, they'd qualify for permanent legal status.

Please get off your SELFISH SCHTICK, Professor. We don't need a whole new group of privilege seekers---that just creates a need for a bigger underclass. If you can't handle your career in a responsible way---find something else to do, like working at MacD's.

[crazybird]

As an American citizen, we have "degrees" or "certificates" that don't let you go from one state to the next....let alone one country to the next. If you don't believe me.....check Chiropractors, Home Health Aids, Nurses, Hair Dressers, on down the line. You can pass National exams and fail a State exam and not work. You can be surperb and have a degree in one state and require NOTHING in another to do the same job. There is no consistancy within our own country, forget foreign countries.

Anyone notice how we have so many....ooopppssss....cut off the wrong leg here, than we ever had before? The "face lift" DR"S that had their practice in their basement....the Dentist who practiced out of his GARAGE, using regular car tools?

I'm a BIG one on being qualified to do your job. Problem is....in one state I pay big bucks to get a degree.....but can go next door and they don't even require a HS education to do it. CHEAP PAY is the bottom line.....not knowledge. I am an adult with an education and an illegal immigrant stands a better chance taking care of your Grandma here than I do. They don't have to speak English, graduate HS or know anything about medicine. Yet in the next state, they must speak English, graduate HS AND have an additional 2 years of education specializing in elder care to even get a look. Who do you want?

[crazybird]

that just creates a need for a bigger underclass.

Or an educated under-class that doesn't stand a chance. Take the carpenter, that knows more than just hammering a nail.....the plumber that knows more than how to dig a ditch......but they don't get paid, because we have a tone of ditch diggers.

When does a gift, natural talent, become something that requires a formal education? When does a cook turn into a chef? A nail banger into a carpenter or architect?

When is a teacher a teacher?

I honestly don't know where I stand on this. One of my ex-father-n-laws helped invent stirofoam. Back then a chemist was an under-study...apprentice......it didn't require a degree. This man was brilliant.....just didn't have the papers to prove it. Then suddenly they required a degree and he lost his job.......I love medicine.....practically memorized the PDR and the Merck Manual......but unless I have a paper saying so.....I don't get credit....yet when I got credit.....they changed the rules to where you don't even have to know how to read now.

I have been a Pharmacy Tech....even though I have never played one on TV or have a degree. I have a degree and found 2 different cancers that were confirmed in major medical units.....but never got a dime for doing it. Not joking.....seriously.....found cancers that many never saw....just read about. I mean where do you draw the line? I was in a group called Quanta, when I was in college. It was yet another special group. Our mission was to prove that you can't seperate things and expect to have a whole. Just education doesn't fly and just being gifted doesn't either.

Today I even question while applying for a job......what is a Tech, vs an assistant.....what is an Aid vs something else? There isn't anything that indicates limits or expectitations....requirements or skills.

[millere]

Obama talks about creating or saving 2-2.5 million jobs, BUT there will be the same number of immigrants entering the country during that period. So what's the point and where does any of it benefit Americans??

The jobs that Obama talks about creating are going to be for new immigrants and illegal aliens given amnesty. He has fooled a large portion of American voters into thinking he will generate jobs for native-born American citizens so that he can get their votes. He will do nothing to help native-born Americans.

Notice that he wants illegal aliens to have driver's licenses? That is so illegal aliens can drive to work to their new jobs when they get amnesty and establish new, legal identities that can't be taken away (and illegals will be allowed to forge new names and birth information in order to get away from crimes they may have committed. Obama is forging his own citizenship, why can't illegal aliens?)

Hillary Clinton is being made Secretary of State so that she can smooth over the diplomatic channels needed to allow millions of new third world citizens who can travel to the US to become temp workers and *poof* become new US citizens who are the "best and brightest" that are needed for new jobs because our own politicians hate American citizens and don't want them to get ahead in life.

[Captainron]

What I was getting at was that organized societies arrive at an appropriate balance of the various vocations needed. It may not be the perfectly ideal balance but it is workable. So what happens when a special interest group gets too much political power and starts upsetting the balance---by turning out more aspirants, who believe they are qualified, than the society needs? This is what has happened with our higher educational system. They have prescribed baccaluareate and graduate education as a panacea for everyone, it seems. And the only way that such graduates can find suitable employment, then, is through an everincreasing population.

Soon this will spiral out of control---if we have an open immigration system.

PeterSchiff is a well respected business leader---he has written for the WSJ, he has been on CNBC, he is President of a large currency-trading company on Wall Street--Euro-Pacific Capital. He strongly believes we have tilted the balance too far, and calls it the "bloated service sector."
http://www.europac.net/
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/schif ... 10507.html