Mastodawn

Marcus Ampe's Space May 9, 2013

Giving others the chance our ancestors had

Lots of American citizens seem to have forgotten where they originally came from. They consider themselves true Americans, but are they so true ‘virgin’ Americans?

Engraving of Spaniards enslaving Native Americans by Theodor de Bry (1528–1598), published in America. part 6. Frankfurt, 1596. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today the United States like many West-European countries is facing an immigration problem. They have to do a lot with economical refugees. But they may not forget that there are also several people who want to come and live in the ‘New World‘ for the same reason as the ancestors of those contemporary ‘Americans’.

In the United States of America as well as in the European Union a wide range of issues are currently under critical discussion: the extent to which our high-tech industries will be able to recruit high-skill workers, the ways in which agricultural labour flows will be stabilized and those workers protected, the degree to which family reunification remains a guiding principle for decisions about who to let into the country and how. Also how people should be able to go work and live form one state into the other and under which conditions.

With the many people thinking the grass is greener over here than in their country and because of the big problematic human trafficking the issues most important for our states is insuring a clear and rapid road map to citizenship for the unauthorized or “undocumented” migrant population.

The American president wants to start a national debate. Across the country, the ‘Americans’ have a serious discussion about how they can build a fair and effective immigration system that lives up to their heritage as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

And they need the help of many voices from al over, to make sure that genuine, personal perspectives are part of the conversation. The truth is, that if those ‘Americans’ go back far enough, nearly every American story begins somewhere else — so often with ancestors setting out in search of a different life, carving out a future for their children in that place that all of them now call home.

America’s immigration system is broken. Too many employers game the system by hiring undocumented workers and there are 11 million people living in the shadows. Neither is good for the economy or the country.

The President’s plan is to create an Immigration System for the 21st century, building a smart, effective immigration system that continues efforts to secure their borders and cracks down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.
It’s a plan that requires anyone who’s undocumented to get right with the law by paying their taxes and a penalty, learning English, and undergoing background checks before they can be eligible to earn citizenship. It requires every business and every worker to play by the same set of rules.And that is also what they should do in Europe to stop unwanted scum and profiteers who do not want to contribute to the glory of the country but just want to fill their pocket by being the spongers of society. We should avoid any leeches.

We may not take away the right of people to dream to make a better live for themselves. We never can deny the freedom and the glorious experiment some our ancestors got to build the live we can enjoy today. Together we should and can build a fair, effective and common sense immigration system that lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.

Cecilia Muñoz, Director of White House Intergovernmental Affairs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cecilia Muñoz, Director, Domestic Policy Council of The White Housewrites to the American people:

We want to make sure that idea isn’t far from the minds of policymakers here in Washington as we work to reach an agreement to reform immigration.

To kick things off, one of the President’s senior advisors sat down to share his story with you.

Watch David Simas tell his American story, then tell us yours.

When Americans from all over the country — each with different backgrounds, each from different circumstances — all speak out with the same voice, it’s powerful in a way that’s hard to ignore. We’ve seen it again and again, in debate after debate.

And this is the kind of issue where putting a face on the push for reform takes an abstract concept and makes it real. So share your American stories with us, and we’ll put them to use.

We’ll publish them on the White House website. We’ll share them on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll do everything we can to make sure they’re part of the debate around immigration reform.

Get started here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/stories

Legal immigration should be simple and efficient but not excluded from some important rules making that the person wanting to come into the country shows genuine reasons to come and live in a society he respects and is willing to consider as one of his own thoughts.

Undocumented immigrants should be provided with a legal way to earn citizenship so they can come out of the shadows. It should hold them accountable by requiring they pass background checks, pay taxes and a penalty, go to the back of the line, and learn the language of the region they want to live in (For the U.S.A. I would consider English and Spanish. For Belgium I would say they should learn Dutch and French or be fluent enough in German). It requires everyone to play by the same rules.

The government should be stronger in checking the companies if they are using the right workforce at the right price and should penalise any firm which has workers who have to work under the normal prize. It is high time that the governments in the industrialised countries stop businesses from exploiting the system by knowingly hiring undocumented workers or providing grounds to have slaves and human traffickers finding grounds for existence. It should hold these companies accountable, and give employers who want to play by the rules a reliable way to verify that their employees are here in our economical world legally.

Communities should be made safer from crime, enhancing the infrastructure and technology, and strengthening the ability to remove criminals, sending them back to where they came from, and apprehend and prosecute threats to our national security.

On January 29, 2013 president Obama said:

“If we’re truly committed to strengthening our middle class and providing more ladders of opportunity to those who are willing to work hard to make it into the middle class, we’ve got to fix the system. We have to make sure that every business and every worker in America is playing by the same set of rules. We have to bring this shadow economy into the light so that everybody is held accountable — businesses for who they hire, and immigrants for getting on the right side of the law. That’s common sense. And that’s why we need comprehensive immigration reform.”

This counts for every self-respecting country and we should go by those lines and give other people who have less than us the opportunity to grow like we would like to grow in prosperity.

+++

Related articles

Undocumented workers seeking driving rights victorious in key House vote (vtdigger.org)
Undocumented immigrants in Vermont won the right to drive on Tuesday, after a charged House vote ended a vigorous political push by migrant farmers and their advocates which lasted two years.
The House voted 105-39 to create a new and visibly different “driving privilege” card, which will allow about 1,500 undocumented dairy farmers, mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, to drive in the state legally.
The Senate approved the same legislation earlier this month, in a 27-2 vote. The bill heads for the desk of Gov. Peter Shumlin, who came out to support the bill back in November.
+
“It deserves to be said that these are people who are working hard in our state, that these are Vermonters too, just like us,” continued Ram. “We Vermonters don’t say this person belongs or that person doesn’t belong, [that] this person’s legal and this person’s illegal, and therefore they have different rights or protections.”
Viewpoints: Why immigration overhaul matters to state (sacbee.com)
With the U.S. Senate finally poised to discuss immigration reform, it is important that those of us in California stay focused on what this might mean in the state and what is needed in a bill – and after – to help the state prosper.
+
Many settled in California long ago; almost half – 49 percent – of the state’s undocumented immigrants have lived here for more than 10 years. They are not just Latinos. Asians constitute 12 percent of the unauthorized population. And whatever the national origin, they are deeply connected to the state’s citizenry. Of the 6 percent of households headed by undocumented immigrants, nearly three-fourths have at least one citizen living there as well.The potential legalization and eventual naturalization of these immigrants would most likely economically benefit the state. Focusing specifically on the undocumented population, the Center for American Progress recently suggested that a road map to citizenship could generate a 25 percent boost in immigrant income, whereas a more conservative estimate for the state generated last year by USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration suggests a more modest gain of more than 14 percent. Either means a boost in state GDP, multiplied over several years and many sectors.
+
California has had a long and convoluted relationship with its undocumented population (just think of Proposition 187), but the state now seems to be moving past punitive policies toward embracing its entire immigrant population.
Immigration Hearts Could Be Shattered By Washington Breaking Their Dreams – Analysis (albanytribune.com)
On April 10, thousands of immigration reform supporters gathered together in front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. to rally for the inclusion of a reliable path to citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented residents presently living in the United States. The multicultural crowd present that day included immigrant workers from a wide backgrounds of occupations, leaders of civic organizations and their members voicing the opposition against current immigration laws. Overall, President Barack Obama was called upon to fulfill his campaign promise to reform the government’s outdated and hostile immigration policy.
+
There is a national consensus that the current immigration system is broken and that some decisions have to be made regarding the status of the undocumented population. The root of the problem goes back to the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), enacted in 1986. U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services describe IRCA as “a bill that was passed in order to control and deter illegal immigration to the United States. Its basic purpose was to stipulate legalization of undocumented aliens who had been continuously unlawfully present since 1982, legalization of certain agricultural workers, and sanctions for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers, and increased enforcement at U.S. borders.”
Heritage vs. Heritage: Major Immigration Report Released Today Directly Contradicts Its 2006 Study (humboldtdems.wordpress.com)
On Monday, the Heritage Foundation published a widely panned study arguing that comprehensive immigration reform that allows undocumented immigrants to earn citizenship would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion, as the population will take advantage of an array of government programs, including, Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits, Medicaid, public education, and population-based services like police and parks. But the study, which comes out under the leadership of conservative former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), is a sharp departure from a “Backgrounder” the Foundation published in 2006. Then, Heritage noted that “worker migration is a net plus economically” and warned lawmakers against succumbing to “a lopsided, ideological approach that focuses exclusively on border security while ignore migrant workers (or vice versa) is bound to fail.”
Survey: More Americans Back Citizenship For Undocumented Workers (boiseweekly.com)
A new survey published this morning by the Brookings Institution and the Pubic Religion Research Institute reveals that more than 6 in 10 Americans think undocumented immigrants should be granted a path to citizenship. The survey found that 63 percent of respondents back citizenship for those without documentation, while 21 percent favor deportation
The economic case for immigration reform (globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com)
The latest numbers show slow growth in the United States. That’s bad for jobs, income – it’s even bad for those worried about the deficit because it means lower tax revenues. And it has prompted a revival of the partisan debate about what to do about it.
Well, there’s one idea out there that could have support from both parties. A study out last week suggests there is one very simple way to increase tax revenue, expand GDP, and create jobs – all at the same time. What’s more, Congress is already weighing it: it’s called immigration reform.
How and why? Well, a new paper from the left-leaning Center for American Progress actually calculates the economic impact of immigration reform.
+
The study’s authors make the case that legalizing undocumented workers brings them into the formal economy. Now they have to pay income taxes, social security, and health care taxes and all those other things you see on your wage stubs. It also gives them access to many more jobs, and at higher wages. These gains then go on to have ripple effects across the economy, boosting GDP growth.
Critics often point out that if illegal immigrants become citizens, they become a burden on the system, impacting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But these arguments ignore basic economics. Immigrants with legal papers are transformed into contributing members of society. And access to society’s services also makes them safer, healthier, and more productive.
The Boston Marathon Attack and Immigration Reform (turnergpa.wordpress.com)
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev came to the United States in 2002 and were granted asylum. While Tamerlan was a legal resident, Dzhokhar became a U.S. citizen in 2012.
Some of those involved in the ongoing immigration debate on Capitol Hill are yanking the reins insisting that the bombing casts a new light on the issue that must be considered.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), for example, urged lawmakers not to rush ahead without giving due consideration to the issues raised by the Boston bombings. He made the remarks during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Later, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), one of the so-called gang-of-eight who have unveiled a sweeping immigration reform proposal, said he believes the bombing should make immigration reform even more critical.
“What happened in Boston…I think should urge us to act quickly, not slower, when it comes to getting the 11 million [illegal immigrants living in the U.S.] identified,” Graham said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y), another backer of reform, agreed: “We are not going to let them use what happened in Boston as an excuse, because our law toughens things up,” Schumer said on the same show.
New Reports debate the positive impacts immigration reform will have for the American economy (immigrantintegrationnow.wordpress.com)
The Heritage Foundation released a new report arguing that immigration reform would cost the American taxpayer $6.3 trillion. The report and subsequent Heritage Foundation press conference garnered immediate reactions: Senator Flake (R-AZ) on Twitter, Doug Holtz-Eakin in the National Review Online, and the CATO Institute and ThinkProgress, were among the many to find flaws in the Heritage Foundation report.

Rate this:

#BackgroundCheck #BarackObama #CeciliaMuñoz #IllegalImmigration #Immigration #IrregularImmigration #Law #NewWorld #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesDomesticPolicyCouncil

French interior minister orders police crack down on irregular migration

Ethiopia 'dismayed' at tougher EU visa regime

‘Small boats week’ ignores wider context of irregular immigration in UK

File:Native American slaves.jpg - Wikipedia