The newly unveiled Immigration Reform proposed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is filled with welcoming mats to new immigrants entering through the legal door but has nothing to offer to alleviate the situation of about 11 million undocumented who currently call the United States of America their home.
The proposal plays only to voters and it’s designed to be somewhat deceiving and openly elitist.
A couple of interesting offers that called my attention may turn out to be a heaping spoonful of ‘not for you’ promises.
Permanent residency for those with advanced degrees in STEM areas
The proposal reads: “Every foreign student who obtains an advanced degree in math, science, or engineering at a U.S. university should be granted permanent residency.”
Be aware that it says “foreign student”, which implicitly does not include undocumented youth already here. It also explicitly states “advanced degrees”, in which case a simple B.S. is not sufficient. And what about undocumented youth that already graduated with advanced degrees? Will they be taken into consideration under this proposal? Do they need to go back to school and pay foreign student tuition? Should they be doing that now?
Permanent residency for undocumented youth serving in the military
The proposal reads: “Mitt Romney believes that young illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children should have the chance to become permanent residents, and eventually citizens, by serving honorably in the United States military.”
On this particular one, there are a couple of hidden issues that are bothersome. First of all, it sounds like a horrific idea to force people to go into the military; especially when many of them may come from traumatic experiences with the armed forces in their country of origin. In second place, even if they wanted to join, undocumented are not allowed to do so… So, how could this even work out?
Timeline for implementation
During his speech at the NALEO conference, Mitt Romney never mentioned when would his proposal be implemented or how would he deal with 11 million undocumented, except for squeezing them out of the job market until they self-deport.
Is Mitt Romney working to please some Latino and Asian voters and right-wingers while fixing only half of the immigration problem? You betcha. Will it work out to his benefit? Unless President Obama fixes the whole enchilada in the next few months, instead of giving us little farts to appease anger here and there, you betcha again.
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[...] Schumer and Graham agreed that an immigration reform has to include a path to citizenship for all the undocumented, a great step away from presidential candidate Mitt Romney who in talking about immigration would address only the process for legal immigration an…. [...]