I worried about this in March, and so far, it seems to be true that the current immigration bill doesn't address the concerns of gay and lesbian citizens.
The bill is busy in eliminating family categories and so forth. Wouldn't it be a hoot if someone actually put in some language for 'gay relationships', just to put the GOP's President on the spot when he talks about civil rights for gays, while exhorting everyone to his sacred view of marriage. Why not risk a veto, just to get the GOP on record? It's not like the GOP don't want the immigration issue resolved. They do. Final passage is not at risk. It's not a 2008 winner for them at the polls, so far as I can tell (the Gallup polls that I read suggested that 'hard' views on the immigration reform are not broadly supported).
Meanwhile, the rest of the bill is a junk compromise, so far as I can tell. The so-called "touchback" provision, in which folks have to apply for entry via their home country seems ripe for Administrative abuse and manipulation. We know how corrupt officials can be ... and how "conservative" appointees, even in the DOJ, are naught but Rove-widgets, both sides of the border. It looks as though there might be a significant chance that someone might leave the country on a 'touchback' errand and never get back in, legally. (It's a long bill, and I stand to be corrected on that.)
Instead of employers evaluating and demanding the skills they need, we have some government agency giving out green cards based on government estimates of the same. That looks like a recipe for disaster, if you ask me. What's more, if you want to take care of your tia in your home and she doesn't have "skills", you get an arbitrary 50% or so consideration (I don't have the exact figure) versus "skilled workers" and asylum seekers.
The Republicans who forced these compromises ought to have just called it what it is, The Labor Importation and Taxation Act of 2007. (Taxation because you have to pay the US government a $5,000 "fine" to move from illegal to legal, if you are a non-resident alien, before whatever it is that you have to pay to travel home to pay your home-country government for their 'consideration' as well).
Monday, May 21, 2007
Gay Couples Left Out of 'Landmark' Immigration Reform
