Im sorry in an earlier post i mis quoted some data: of the 267,00 incarcerated non citizen in either state prisons or federal prisons 30%of them are incarcerated in border states. of those states California has 51 % of that load. it may sound a little less scary but in truth it is concidering the added costs to just our overburdened legal system. bright side we are number one in something, the most incarcerated in the world. second to no one.
to get a little more back on original track I think it was an appropriate statement that Howard made to the situation he and the Australian people have had going on with the problems that AUS is having with its immigration system. some Americans may not agree with him(most would need a good lesson in Australian history and govt. to be able to understand) but like it our not its the Australians problem and it their way within the confines of their traditions and laws. I hope they can resolve their issues easily without totally affecting their diverse population(one in four Australians is an immigrant) . I would actually commend Howard on what he said knowing the situation and the nation.
I admire the conviction of Howard and his statement. It would be refreshing to hear any member of our govt speak as frankly and with as much conviction. TBH the last 4 presidents and their respective staffs and houses have pretty much failed when it comes to enforcement our immigration policies and borders and hence the issues we have now. It is not the fact that the system is broken, its simply not being enforced. while we can protect the borders of Korea, Vietnam and other 'hot spots' around the world(most of which we have made or at least have had part in making) we cant seem to even think about protecting our own borders. we loose our own rights though homeland security acts of our own govt. while they help 7-10-12-20 million people get rights they have not earned or tried to earn. as matter of fact our own govt has taken the lack of borders to new levels with multi country agreements, the American peoples thoughts or well being was never even considered.
As to 'The Bill' I'm glad it didn't pass, a bad bill is not better than no bill. all 300-400 pages of this bill SUXED. it wasn't just the amnesty parts,the 'z' visas, the 'touchback' immigration. it was the whole bill(and yes i sat down and read every rotten stinking page). it was ill concieved bandaid to a huge problem that has been out of control for 2-3 decades(some might say clear back to the Kennedy administration). The govt has not been doing its job, serving the wellbeing of its nation,or its people. unfortunately its only one of 4 or five major issues that this country has ignored for an almost equally long time and they are all catching up with us fast. while watching the events in the senate while the bill was active literally sickened me. at one point they were trying to vote upon amendments that were not even posted, were rushing though amendments that deserved more attention, and tried to pass in some cases amendments that were constitutionally garbage to the rights of both legal immigrants and Americans. I'm not a law major but it is obvious to at least me that many of our law makers are not either. as to the effects that all this piss poor govt handling has cost,or will cost in the future really is determined by how long our spineless politition's take in deciding to enforce laws that are already the most liberal laws of their nature in the world. more liberal than the laws from our biggest violators. ill say in conclusion that America won with the failing of this bill it was not ready and it was not even close to proper legislation.
honestly from my exposure of the immigration system(I have been though it) it is not broken, its overworked, its stressed beyond belief,its underfunded and its been ignored by a large percentage of people now living illegally in this country.
people say that it takes 10 years to become a citizen. 'News flash' it pretty much has been since the early 60's. once you sign papers there is a grace period where the candidate is screened by personal interviews, criminal background checks involving the country of origin. these checks also include a full medical exam and shots for several different diseases to ensure that the applicant is not infectious to the general population. during this time the applicant is usually is given the right to work and live here, they do not receive any s.s benefits or or acquire any time towards retirement benefits.they are taxed.they should generally have a sponsor that makes a min 25-28k a year or a guarantee of steady work(there are 6 different guest worker programs currently). they must also attend classes to speak the language of English if they are already not at least semi fluent. this period is currently 1/2 to 3 1/2 years depending on circumstances and paperwork filed. the paperwork to file for a green card costs an average of 1200-3000 dollars (about equal to what a smugglers charges to ride into the us and illegal papers)
after a person receives a 'Alien resident' card, citizenship is still not guaranteed. for a period of 7 years (iirc) the subject must keep their nose clean (this means no drug or alcohol offenses, no domestic violence,no baby raping, and no major infractions to any state or federal law) they may then go and apply for citizenship. that cost is roughly another 3000 dollars and after filing you go back though pretty much every check that one would go though to get a green card as well as a swearing to their loyalty to America.
while i was going though the immigration process with my wife, we went to the immigration services 6 times for interviews and paperwork filings. during this time i saw that many never had to show up as they had lawyers to handle most of their visits for them. While going to the third busiest immigration dept in the country and spending many hours in line (usually talking to others that had to walk the same walk), i noticed very few immigrants from South America or Mexico. I did meet many fine folks from Canada, England. Northern Europe, and South Vietnam. maybe it was just the days i went or the weather but only about 3-7% of the lines i sat in were of the nationality of the main violators of our countries immigration laws.
