Immigration reform There’s been quite a lot in the news lately about the US immigration reform. 11 million or so illegals currently in the US will be given amnesty, and will become citizens of the country in which they entered illegally.

As a legal immigrant in the US, I gotta say this annoys the heck out of me. I’ve seen protestors saying “these people are not criminal, let them stay!” hmph…if breaking the law is not what makes one a criminal, then what the hell is? By entering the country illegally, they broke the law, ergo, they are criminals!

It took me and my husband about 2 years to clear the hurdles and hoops that is US immigration. And I’m married to an American! We did it the legal way because we don’t want to live the rest of our life looking over our shoulder for The Men in Black to come deport me. I can’t recall now the number of people who said “surely you’ve done something wrong with the paper work, it can’t really take this long! I thought if you marry an American, you automatically get citizenship!” You watch too many stupid movies. :-p Immigrating takes time, and a box load of paperwork that nobody understands, not even the people who wrote the dang things!

Also in immigration news is the cleansing of Portuguese illegals in Canada. Yep, you read that right. Portuguese illegals. They’re there working in construction, farming, and other manual labour jobs, and now Prime Minister Harper is turfing them out of the country, here’s your hat, hurry up please! No amnesty for Harper, no siree! And the illegals are boo-hooing, saying they’re not criminals why are they being kicked out!? Uum…excuse me…you broke the law, you’re a criminal! Seriously, how can they figure that nobody would ever come looking for them? The certainly must have known that someday it would catch up with them? The mind boggles.

Now I know that people are only here to try to make a better life for themselves, I totally understand that, and can empathise. And, as mentioned, I totally understand the mess and frustration that is immigration, on both sides of the border! And however much I hate to admit it, and no matter how much I dislike Harper, can we really fault him for enforcing the law of the land? (we can question his motives tho!) Is Bush being too lenient with the illegals here by giving them amnesty? And will the amnesty be right across the board, to any illegal in the country, or just to Latinos?

To any Americans reading this, you may want to have a look at the immigration policy of these 2 nations. To any Americans who have blamed Canada for having lax immigration policy and letting in too many terrorists, consider these statistics. By the end of this year, Canada will have deported 11,000 illegals. The US plans to allow 11,000,000 illegals to stay and become citizens!. Now, whose immigration policy is lax? Hmmmmmmm? :-p

How is the US going to go about this amnesty? Will they be allowing just anyone to stay, or just certain people? Will they be doing background checks on all those 11 million people? Because that’s what we legals have to go thru! Complete background check with the federal police of our home country, as well as with the FBI here in the US. They have my picture, and my fingerprints, and they know where I live. If I move at any time, I have to send them an address change notice within 10 days. Every time I move, until I decide to either become a citizen, or am credited with 40 work quarters (approx. 10 years), or leave the country and hand in my green card. My husband does too, because he’s my sponsor.

I am not eligible for “means tested benefits” like medicare or food stamps and whatnot. Sponsored immigrants are not permitted these benefits, no matter how dire the circumstances. And yes, I pay taxes, and yes, I contribute to Social Security, and Medicare, and yadda yadda yadda. I pay into them, but I am not eligible to benefit from them, until/unless I become a citizen. You’re welcome.

Current Canadian Immigration Minister, “Solberg bluntly rejected the U.S. proposal as a solution for Canada, saying that letting illegal workers remain in this country would send the signal that it's okay to slip in the back door.

"The ideal, of course, is for people to play by the rules and to get in line like everyone else is forced to do," he said after a cabinet meeting.

Granted the Canadian Immigration system needs a complete overhaul. The points system they currently use for immigration is degrading and lopsided toward white collar (and lab coat) business owners, not blue collar manual labourers. If a potential immigrant does not have sufficient “points” their application is denied. Have a look and see how well you would do on the Canadian points system.

Now, add the processing times to the points system, if you’re a skilled worker coming from say the Middle East or Africa, the average processing time listed on the CIC website is 38 to 62 months. If you’re European, the shortest average wait time is 28 months. If you’re American it can take as long (or longer) as 19 months. Spousal and Partner applications are listed as anywhere from 3 months to 13 months. However, my own experience was somewhere around the year and a half mark, and we still got absolutely nowhere so we gave up. They kept losing things. I should mention here that any background police check more than a year old is by CIC standards “expired”, and is usually sent back to the applicant to re-do, and as you can see by the processing times, this happens to a lot of people! So yeah, I can understand the frustration of trying to do things the legal way, but don’t cry and say the PM is mean when he deports you for doing things the illegal way. Bush should maybe see how its done. :-p

Also in the news was a US border test of security. US officials went to border crossings in Washington state, and Texas to see how easy or difficult it would be to smuggle in nuclear materials. Both times they were allowed in, with forged documents to explain their "right" to carry these materials. Now, I can just hear it start all over again. Somehow this test will be deemed to be a fault in Canada or Mexico, rather than America. Why? Because the test subjects were entering from those 2 countries. People seem to forget somehow that the border officials are American, and work for Homeland Security (formerly Department of Justice). They are NOT Canadians or Mexicans allowing terrorists or criminals across the borders. They are Americans allowing this. Terrorists come from all over the world, but does it really matter where they come from, if its American officials allowing them into the US? Just a thought…

Well, I’m off to go annoy H&R Block some more.  ¶ 11:08 AM