Thread: Point Plan Won't Help Many in S. Fla

It's it amazing how many pay smugglers $5,000 to $6,000 but don't have $5,000 for a fine. Then these articles have to always add Cubans to it. Who cares about what they say. They have a different policy. It is like comparing apples to oranges.

http://www.miamiherald.com/458/story/126451.html
Immigration point plan won't help many in S. Florida
BY LAURA FIGUEROA
lfigueroa@MiamiHerald.com

HRIFA. TPS. NACARA. IRCA -- U.S. immigration laws already read like a jumbled alphabet.

Add to the mix a proposed point system to score immigrants -- part of a bipartisan Senate immigration bill that seeks to legalize most of the nation's 12 million undocumented immigrants -- and one inevitable question arises: ``How will this affect me?''

Miami immigration attorney Wilfredo ''Willy'' Allen says he hears it from his clients every day.

The proposed point system, which values employment skills, education and proficiency in English above family connections or time spent in this country, might not do much for thousands of South Florida immigrants' chances of becoming legal residents. A proposed application fee of $5,000 for undocumented immigrants to become legal would be particularly burdensome, immigrants say.

As one Nicaraguan immigrant put it during a stop at El Masayita restaurant in Sweetwater: ``This is about who has the cash to stay.''

That sentiment is widespread. Honduran immigrant Lesbia Ramos, relying on an unsteady job as a baby sitter, must stick to a tight budget.

Though she and her family have been working toward their residency through the Temporary Protective Status extended to Central Americans following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, she said she is not sure how many from that region could afford the fee.

''I'm not saying there shouldn't be a payment, but . . . most of the families living in this country without their papers is because they were leaving the poverty in their countries behind,'' Ramos said. ``Most can't even afford to pay an electricity bill; that's why they get roommates.''

BURDENS FOR HAITIANS

The immigration proposal doesn't sit well with Haitian-American leaders who say a provision requiring heads of household to return to their native country for an undetermined amount of time to apply for U.S. residency could be dangerous.

''There's a State Department warning telling Americans not to go there because of the conditions,'' said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami. ``Can you just imagine, you go back there just to adjust your status -- God forbid they kidnap you.''

Paying the $5,000 fee would eat up nearly one-eighth of the $41,276 average income of Haitian households, according to 2005 U.S. Census estimates.

By contrast, the average household income is $82,387 for Florida's 30,529 residents born in India; $65,259 for the almost 10,000 Chinese; and $65,381 for Florida's 24,000 Filipinos.

Bastien, who testified recently before a House panel, says several members of Congress have pledged to expand the 1998 Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act. HRIFA allows Haitians who arrived by boat by December 1995 to seek U.S. residency, but it excludes those who arrived by plane.

''The past administrations, both Clinton and Bush, have singled out Haitians,'' Bastien said. ``Race has a lot to do with it. . . . Over and over again the doors have been slammed in our face.''

The proposed point system is another worry for Haitians because it favors those who can fill high-skilled jobs and would make it more difficult for legal immigrants and U.S. citizens to sponsor family members for green cards.

''I'm afraid that this bill takes an anti-family approach,'' Bastien said.

Former Sen. Bob Graham said the point system worries him. ''We're going to be moving away from the tradition of family reunification and moving toward a point system,'' he said. ``This is going to work to the detriment of many of our families from Latin America and the Caribbean.''

Also in line waiting for relief are the growing numbers of Venezuelans who have settled into middle-class communities like Doral and Weston since President Hugo Chávez's move toward Cuba-style socialism.

Many Venezuelans are pinning their hopes on Congress pursuing a measure similar to the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cubans to become permanent residents after a year in the United States -- no matter how they got here.

''We need protection like the Cubans have,'' said Ernesto Ackerman, president of the Independent Venezuelan American Citizens, a local activist group.

Ackerman said it would be unlikely that a Venezuelan head of household would move back to Venezuela after six years to apply for citizenship as the bill proposes.

''The people who came here are the people who left Venezuela because they were defending democracy,'' Ackerman said. ``They cannot go back to the government that is there.''

Venezuela native Anabel Navarro said no price was too high for ``living in peace.''

''I don't think there is one Venezuelan who would hesitate to pay whatever amount of money to be able to live here in safety,'' Navarro said as she ate lunch at Cafe Canela in Weston.

The fee may not be so cumbersome for Venezuelan and Colombian immigrants, many of them professionals and business people. It would account for roughly a 12th of the average $60,700 household income for Venezuelans and less than a 10th of the $52,000 Colombians earn.

With an estimated one million undocumented immigrants living in Florida -- third behind California and Texas -- Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Sen. Mel Martinez realize immigration remains a divisive issue.

''Like most Americans, I believe our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed,'' Sen. Bill Nelson said in an e-mail to The Miami Herald. ``But I'm reserving judgment on a bipartisan deal developing in the Senate. . . . I'm going to insist the bill strengthens our borders and rejects blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants.''

Martinez, who brokered the Senate compromise bill, has said the measure would help meet the needs of the U.S. economy while helping most of the nation's 12 million undocumented immigrants stay legally.

CUBANS UNAFFECTED

South Florida's largest immigrant community, Cubans, would likely not be affected by any new reform.

But Lourdes Lopez, 24, a Cuban who arrived in Miami four months ago after sneaking across the Mexican border, said other immigrants should have better rights.

''I know what it's like to be separated from family,'' said Lopez, who met a half-brother here. ``I wish that all of the people who want to work and have opportunities would be able to come here.''

Let me see illegals send billions of dollars overseas every year and they are worried about paying america $5000 for citizenship. Many illegals don't pay taxes since they are often paid under the table!!! Sounds like illegals just want everything given to them.

Notice now, how everyone, including Bush, is bringing up the "race card"?

If this bill goes through, we are going to have more race riots than we have ever had....Haitains, Chinese, Muslim, Hispanics, from what I have read, they all have a problem with the other race.

This is going to be worse than the "tower of Babal".

The President needs to learn that Hispanic is not a race. Many Hispanics look at people from different countries as a race. I have seen them write on immigration blogs saying Canadians are a race. This is not a joke but for real. That is part of the reason why the government is looking at the point system. The biggest reason is education means increased income and more tax dollars.