Huffington Post (Op-Ed)
By Ryan Campbell
December 21, 2015
There's
no question the presidential race has become pretty ugly: with Trump
turning it into a reality show, the policies being discussed would hurt
the immigrant community,
our standing in the global community and our national security.
All
of this showmanship has also allowed legislation to slip beneath the
radar. To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, most of the political show we
see is just to distract
us from what is really going on.
While
the country has been focused on Hillary's emails, Ben Carson's brand of
crazy and pretty much everything that Donald Trump says or does,
Congress has been able to
do whatever it wants with little to no notice. The result has been
pretty harsh, and not good for either the immigrant community or
national security.
For
starters, in a turn away from empathy, HR 4197 would allow governors to
refuse refugee resettlement. These are the same guys who have been
trying to turn away refugees
for years, whether from Syria or from the border children crisis of a
few summers ago. HR 4218 goes further to halt refugee resettlement until
certain conditions are met, such as an estimate from the Congressional
Budget Office of costs which the President
would then be required to offset.
This
is despite the fact that these refugees are some of the most vetted
immigration candidates on the planet in a process that takes years and
requires background checks
by several different US agencies. In addition, the terrorism that we're
so afraid of isn't refugees, it comes from radicalized citizens of the
countries that they attack. Often, they're radicalized by the narrative
of Islam vs. the West that this ban on the
refugees trying to escape ISIS so strongly feeds into.
In
a surprising turn against a fairly loyal Cuban base, a Florida
Republican sponsored legislation that would make Cuban immigrants
ineligible for certain refugee benefits.
This happens at a time when Cubans are panicking that the generous
status the US affords people like Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio's
(R-FL) families will be withdrawn with the normalization of relations
between the two nations.
Ted
Cruz, essentially a human political branding campaign (and quite genius
at it), introduced S 2394 that would add extra requirements for the
H-1B visa program. More
relevantly, this bill would also eliminate the diversity visa lottery
program. Another Republican bill, HR 4274, would end the fiancé, or K-1,
visa program until Congress votes to resume it. This would make it much
more difficult for immigrants to bring over
a fiancé that they want to marry in the country.
John
McCain (R-AZ) introduced S 2395, reauthorizing the State Criminal Alien
Assistance Program until 2020. This would provide funding to states
that incarcerate undocumented
immigrants. These immigrants are incarcerated in private detention
centers that make the regular prisons that most Americans consider a
national shame look like country clubs. This would also encourage
programs that utilize local police in enforcing federal
immigration law, which undermines community safety and is especially
difficult for victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault in
mixed-status families.
Finally,
in the omnibus spending bill HR 2029 that is currently awaiting Obama's
signature, there are a host of anti-immigrant measures. This includes
restricting the
visa waiver program to anyone who has even traveled to Syria, Iraq or
certain other countries, losing tax credits depending on your
immigration status (including those with DACA and status relating to
being a domestic violence survivor) and restrictions on
ITNs (individual tax numbers) that make it more difficult to pay taxes.
Most
of these policies are the kind that make primary voters feel a little
better but do nothing to address the very real problems we face, kinda
like 90% of what Trump
has said so far.
Quite
frankly, these bills are furthering my conviction that the GOP is a
party that is completely controlled by primary-related marketing and
polls, and cares nothing
for the addressing of serious problems with serious legislation; their
solution to having more than one mass shooting a day is continuing to
allow everyone who is so inclined to arm themselves, and then praying
for the victims whenever one of the millions
of military-grade weapons is predictably used on people just trying to
watch a movie. Their approach to immigration is not much different, and
we all live with the consequences of this lack of seriousness from our
legislators: there's no longer an adult in
the room for the GOP, and we desperately need one.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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