Who Benefits from This "Immigration Reform"?

by atdleft [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

"This bill needs to be simplified, it needs to be clarified, it needs to be rectified before I can support it," said [Senator Barbara] Boxer, D-Calif. "I don't think the bill is workable. I think it hurts American workers. The amendment process didn't make it any stronger for me.'

That was Senator Boxer quoted in today's Orange County Register story about how the Immigration Reform Bill has now been stalled in the US Senate. This piece of legislation was supposed to attract bipartisan support. But now, it's getting bipartisan criticism. And today, we saw a bipartisan rejection to moving this bill to a final vote. 

So why are some Democrats now opposing this bill? Why the sudden progressive opposition to this "comprehensive" bill? Maybe it's because this bill is really only a "comprehensive solution" to a select few that seek to exploit many. And maybe it's because immigrant families and communities would suffer as a result.

Follow me after the flip for more...
So what's wrong with this legislation? Take a look at
what the National Immigration Law Center has to say. They're not too impressed with this bill. And frankly, I'm not surprised.

While many of the Democrats behind this bill might have good intentions, this legislation itself has none of that. It would shift the entire immigration system from family based to "merit based".

So what's so bad about that, one might ask. Actually, there's plenty. I live in a community that's full of immigrant families here in Santa Ana. Under the proposed legislation, these families here in Central Orange County, and elsewhere, would be torn apart.

Current undocumented immigrants that receive the new "Z visas" can only stay for eight years, so long as they keep a job, and then they must return to their nation of origin to apply for reentry into the nation. What happens if these immigrants now have children here? What happens if they have become a part of the community? Should they be ripped away from their lives just to go through a reentry process? Not only does this sound inhumane, but it also sounds impractical.

But wait, it gets worse. This bill would also create a new underclass of immigrant workers. Under the new guest worker program, immigrant workers can only stay here temporarily, and then just return home. Meanwhile under this new "merit based" system of immigration, people would be admitted into this nation based on how "economically valuable" they would be. This really only serves the American corporations that want continued cheap labor. Under the new law, they can get their "disposable labor force" that can be discarded and replaced every few years.

  And yet, this bill would reduce the number of family members that can be admitted. This would create a permanent underclass in places like Santa Ana. They'd have no family, and no community. They'd have no ties to anyone.

That's why this is so troubling.