{"id":1771,"date":"2007-05-24T07:18:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-24T13:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/why-earned-citizenship-%e2%80%93-which-isnt-amnesty-%e2%80%93-is-fair\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:11:09","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:11:09","slug":"why-earned-citizenship-%e2%80%93-which-isnt-amnesty-%e2%80%93-is-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/why-earned-citizenship-%e2%80%93-which-isnt-amnesty-%e2%80%93-is-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"Why earned citizenship \u2013 which isn’t amnesty \u2013 is fair"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m unhappy any time we ignore our laws. Well, maybe not speeding laws. But the Senate\u2019s new immigration proposal rewards illegal behavior, and that\u2019s generally bad. Immigration is complicated, and I\u2019ve come to believe in some kind of earned citizenship. (\u201cAmnesty\u201d would be a lot quicker, easier and surer. This isn\u2019t \u201camnesty.\u201d)<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

We citizens invited these nice undocumented folks over. Yup. We did it. Big ol\u2019 welcome mat. Our agribusiness and service industries actively recruited and knowingly hired them. We gladly enjoyed restaurant buffets and hotel rooms priced like each of us was William Shatner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

And don\u2019t act like you didn\u2019t know. If you buy tickets to watch Barry<\/a> juice \u2018em out of the park, you don\u2019t get a refund when you find out Balco\u2019s<\/a> been adding 50 feet a shot.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So relying on those explicit and implicit promises, and our happy acceptance of the deal, millions came merely seeking a better life for themselves and their children. To quote Simon and Garfunkel<\/a>, they\u2019ve all come to look for America<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>. Cool. To deport them now would be hypocritical and more than a little mean, not to mention impossible, barring a massive police-state operation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Why undocumented immigration is bad<\/span><\/p>\n

Having said all that, an underground economy is terrible. It drives down pay and benefits for the rest of the labor force. It\u2019s bad for both immigrant and citizen workers\u2019 rights at the workplace. It requires victims of domestic violence to stay quiet. It encourages driving without insurance. And from a principled point of view, it means we\u2019re not interested in being a nation of laws.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Why someone in Congress should read this article<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So how do you balance fairness to those already here with a future rule of law? It\u2019s not as tricky as you might think. I offer this for free (thanks, Heath). I don\u2019t even need credit. Maybe a footnote would be nice.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Automatic rule: No undocumented immigrant becomes a citizen until all cases are processed for those pursuing legal immigration. If it takes 10 years, so be it. It\u2019s a huge break, and undocumenteds should take that waiting period in exchange for legal status in a New York minute.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Give a six-month window for undocumenteds to come forward to apply. Two years of residency, no Robert Horry<\/a> incidents here or in the motherland, and you get an ID, work permit, and are entered into a federal employer\/landlord database. Those who have been here less than two years (I\u2019d be flexible in negotiating that number) have less invested in the United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> and can more easily return to their home countries, where they can apply for legal immigration immediately. Still pretty sweet.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 The employer and landlord enforcement begins after the window closes. In the future, you cannot be an undocumented worker in this country. Period. We put business owners and landlords in jail starting with the first offense. How much would you love to see Martha Stewart<\/a> back in the pokey (in the unlikely event that she was to ever do something unscrupulous)?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As an aside, we should also use our trade agreements to do something other than buy Lee Scott<\/a> a new vacation home every week. Improve conditions for our trading partners so their citizens can have a better chance at improving their lives in their home countries, while also helping us stay competitive.<\/p>\n

\u2022 What about a wall? Truth is, a wall won\u2019t do much as long as we have tourists and student exchange programs. A wall in heavily trafficked\/populated areas makes sense, but a 2,100 mile wall is silly. Anyway, if you cut out jobs and housing for undocumenteds, no one\u2019s going to come.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying we should make it easy to cross, but if you do the other stuff and have good security in heavily populated areas, you can take your billions of wall-building dollars and apply them to visa enforcement, which is much more important for national security. Oh yeah, and a massive wall would suck for hunters and the environment.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 If we need more workers in the future, or want to re-unite families, we can set up generous legal immigration plans. If you work here long enough, you can apply legally for citizenship. Seems fair to me. To protect immigrants from the abuse that naturally arises from giving the power of residency or citizenship to an employer, don\u2019t tie the permit to one employer.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Why some will still complain<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Two extreme groups will oppose this plan, but it\u2019s good for immigrants, for our economy, for workers, for safety and for national security.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

One, small group will say it\u2019s unfair to enforce our laws even after earned citizenship. But not enforcing the laws at that point would be setting up another future underground world of crime, poverty, desperation and fear. Enforcement opponents are advocating for de facto open borders, which is an interesting argument, but we\u2019re a long way away from that today.<\/p>\n

Their polar opposites will say it\u2019s unfair to reward illegal behavior. Sure, but we\u2019re all accomplices in it, and what\u2019s really unfair is uprooting millions of families you invited in well after the fact. How mad would you be if someone did that to you? Heck, think how mad you\u2019d be if you got something as trivial as a speeding ticket retroactively. Oh, wait \u2013 I live in Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:state> and a recovering lawyer who left the bright lights of New York<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> for the 2000 Gore campaign. He lives in the midst of terrible West-Side Albuquerque sprawl with his dog Lacey. The opinions in his column are personal and in no way reflect any official AFSCME position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy I\u2019m unhappy any time we ignore our laws. Well, maybe not speeding laws. But the Senate\u2019s new immigration proposal rewards illegal behavior, and that\u2019s generally bad. Immigration is complicated, and I\u2019ve come to believe in some kind of earned citizenship. (\u201cAmnesty\u201d would be a lot quicker, easier and surer. This isn\u2019t \u201camnesty.\u201d) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}