People who argue in favor of Open Borders are always at pains to deny it, and it becomes tiresome. What's so scary about two words, if you support free entry into the United States for everyone who wants to live there? Please tell me the neutral term that you prefer to use, and I'll use it, as long as it represents what you're really arguing for.
People who argue in favor of Open Borders are always at pains to deny it, and it becomes tiresome. What's so scary about two words, if you support free entry into the United States for everyone who wants to live there? Please tell me the neutral term that you prefer to use, and I'll use it, as long as it represents what you're really arguing for.
It isnтАЩt so much a neutral term. It is a concept that doesnтАЩt apply to anyone I know or have read. WHO exactly advocates opening the country to anyone who wants to live here? Without actually seeing such advocacy it is hard to evaluate or refute the talking points.
1. Lifting restrictions, or alternatively expanding visas, for skilled workers, from industrial to tech, who have the skills to contribute to the growth of the economy and fill needs that our own citizensтАЩ skills lack. That may or may not lead to green card availability.
For the others
A. Current asylum laws as to refugees, as a statement of what American ideals are. We have absorbed gazillions of refugeesтАФin my area, a huge number from SE Asia after Vietnam, with a vibrant addition to our culture. An amazing number are now established small sized entrepreneurs.
B. Allowance of others in line with the current quotas established for other immigrants from other nations, depending on the nature of the grounds for asylum determined most needful by the AG/Secretary for Homeland Security.
C. Amnesty or better a path to a green card for the тАЬoverstayed visaтАЭ sort of undocumented persons тАФthose who have demonstrated actual contributions to our society, particularly those who have established successful businessesтАФI know a bunch of those folks, who pay taxes (if only sales taxes, over 10% where I live) but get no benefits.
D. Those in special circumstances already in place and allowed to stay after consideration by the immigration courts. Those donтАЩt have a green option. One example is a guy I know who can stay here till his minor children are grown.
In all of these, the ideal to aim for is contribution to our society economically and culturally.
That's an outine of a good plan. Certainly not Open Borders. We could debate the limits of (A.) and (C.), and probably come to an acceptable compromise. I would only add a limited Family Unification program like Brazil has, that admits spouses and direct descendants down to grandchildren and antecedents up to grandparents in a matter of weeks, not months or years, but does not include adult siblings or more remote relatives.
yes on the unification. I have a friend who met and married a woman from Colombia who was here on a visa. This was LONG before immigration was such a debated issue. They cheerfully thought that the marriage meant she could stay, and for years just lived like a normal couple (no kids; they were older and on second marriages). Then she went back to Colombia because her mother was dying. And couldn't get back: it took several years and untold attorney fees to let her back into the country. She is back now: I don't know the arguments that succeeded. But it was a rude shock for both of them. She wasn't particularly interested in becoming a citizen herself and so never looked into how to get that status. The overstayed visa almost destroyed their marriage from the outside.
I know, it's outrageous. The US now has a temporary visa that let's the foreign spouse join the American spouse in the US - if it's approved - for all the months until the permanent visa is also approved. That's just dumb.
By way of comparison, I married my Brazilian husband in July of 2017. The next week, we took our Illinois Marriage Certificate to the Brazilian Consulate General in Chicago, registered our marriage, and applied for my spousal visa. A week after that, I went back to the Consulate to pick the visa up. My husband went home to rent us an apartment, and I joined him in November. I went to the Federal Police on the next business day to request my resident ID Card, and had it in less than a month.
Other countries have figured a lot of this stuff out years ago; not all of their solutions are scalable, but many are. We don't HAVE to reinvent it all ourselves!
People who argue in favor of Open Borders are always at pains to deny it, and it becomes tiresome. What's so scary about two words, if you support free entry into the United States for everyone who wants to live there? Please tell me the neutral term that you prefer to use, and I'll use it, as long as it represents what you're really arguing for.
It isnтАЩt so much a neutral term. It is a concept that doesnтАЩt apply to anyone I know or have read. WHO exactly advocates opening the country to anyone who wants to live here? Without actually seeing such advocacy it is hard to evaluate or refute the talking points.
What are the limitations that YOU think are appropriate for immigration into the United States?
Two varieties:
1. Lifting restrictions, or alternatively expanding visas, for skilled workers, from industrial to tech, who have the skills to contribute to the growth of the economy and fill needs that our own citizensтАЩ skills lack. That may or may not lead to green card availability.
For the others
A. Current asylum laws as to refugees, as a statement of what American ideals are. We have absorbed gazillions of refugeesтАФin my area, a huge number from SE Asia after Vietnam, with a vibrant addition to our culture. An amazing number are now established small sized entrepreneurs.
B. Allowance of others in line with the current quotas established for other immigrants from other nations, depending on the nature of the grounds for asylum determined most needful by the AG/Secretary for Homeland Security.
C. Amnesty or better a path to a green card for the тАЬoverstayed visaтАЭ sort of undocumented persons тАФthose who have demonstrated actual contributions to our society, particularly those who have established successful businessesтАФI know a bunch of those folks, who pay taxes (if only sales taxes, over 10% where I live) but get no benefits.
D. Those in special circumstances already in place and allowed to stay after consideration by the immigration courts. Those donтАЩt have a green option. One example is a guy I know who can stay here till his minor children are grown.
In all of these, the ideal to aim for is contribution to our society economically and culturally.
That's an outine of a good plan. Certainly not Open Borders. We could debate the limits of (A.) and (C.), and probably come to an acceptable compromise. I would only add a limited Family Unification program like Brazil has, that admits spouses and direct descendants down to grandchildren and antecedents up to grandparents in a matter of weeks, not months or years, but does not include adult siblings or more remote relatives.
yes on the unification. I have a friend who met and married a woman from Colombia who was here on a visa. This was LONG before immigration was such a debated issue. They cheerfully thought that the marriage meant she could stay, and for years just lived like a normal couple (no kids; they were older and on second marriages). Then she went back to Colombia because her mother was dying. And couldn't get back: it took several years and untold attorney fees to let her back into the country. She is back now: I don't know the arguments that succeeded. But it was a rude shock for both of them. She wasn't particularly interested in becoming a citizen herself and so never looked into how to get that status. The overstayed visa almost destroyed their marriage from the outside.
I know, it's outrageous. The US now has a temporary visa that let's the foreign spouse join the American spouse in the US - if it's approved - for all the months until the permanent visa is also approved. That's just dumb.
By way of comparison, I married my Brazilian husband in July of 2017. The next week, we took our Illinois Marriage Certificate to the Brazilian Consulate General in Chicago, registered our marriage, and applied for my spousal visa. A week after that, I went back to the Consulate to pick the visa up. My husband went home to rent us an apartment, and I joined him in November. I went to the Federal Police on the next business day to request my resident ID Card, and had it in less than a month.
Other countries have figured a lot of this stuff out years ago; not all of their solutions are scalable, but many are. We don't HAVE to reinvent it all ourselves!