Monday, June 18, 2018

"Thank you for your order. You should expect delivery in about 2 years."



I remember a number of years ago talking to a guy who worked at a local hardware store.  He was Hispanic, worked all day, and then went to evening classes at the local community college.  I was pretty impressed with him.  I asked him if he was here legally, and he said, yes, he was, and so were his parents, but his uncle was not.  I asked him why his uncle wasn't, and he said after waiting two years on his paperwork to be processed, he finally just gave up and waded the river to get here for a job.  

I've heard since that a 2+ year wait is not unusual.  My understanding is that both the Democrats and Republicans say they would welcome legal immigrants, but they had to go through the proper channels and jump through the proper hoops first.  Fair enough.  

So here's my question:  I googled "Samsung TV's" and it found 1,410,000,000 responses in .53 seconds. I can buy a gun and it takes the FBI about 15 minutes to do a background check on me to see if I qualify.  I can go through a fairly exhaustive Texas Dept of Public Safety background check in order to legally carry a firearm in about two months.  In this age of the internet, massively powerful computers, and nano-fast search engines, why should it take TWO YEARS to get a background check on some guy from Mexico?  And I checked....yes, they have computerized record keeping in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and elsewhere in Central America, too.

I also want strong borders.  I want to know who we're letting in.  I want to know they aren't felons, aren't currently wanted for a crime, etc.  But if we drag our feet for a ridiculous TWO YEARS and still can't complete a background check, why should we be shocked if they just sneak in?   It seems to me we could control our borders much better if we had the cooperation of a proud, secure, legal immigrant population.  

Or is there some other more sinister ulterior motive that explains why we throw up all these roadblocks?

S


4 comments:

  1. When we lived in Mexico, we could visit the U.S. consulate with minimal waiting time, usually no more than half an hour. But there were always long lines of Mexicans waiting and I was told it could take TEN years to get the paperwork approved to come legally to the United States. Is there any doubt why they come here, TO WORK, by sneaking over the border?

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  2. I can think of a few businesses who "like" illegal workers...because they can pay them $8/hr in cash and the workers won't complain.

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  3. It's worse than that with what Trump called "Chain migration."

    If I am sponsoring a relative for citizenship and that relative is from Mexico, India, the Philippines, or... Pakistan, I think, the waiting period is close to 25 years. I took immigration law in 1999, and even at that time, the sign-up date for Mexican family members getting their papers was 1973.

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