Resident Barack Obama,
Cecilia Munoz gave the New York Times an outline of your immigration plan and it sounded a lot like President Bush’s and John McCain’s plan to hold enforcement hostage to amnesty. That is a terrible way to treat American workers and taxpayers during a recession.
Americans are experiencing record unemployment. Everyone is suffering, but none more than Black Americans, Hispanic-Americans, teenagers, ex-convicts, and disabled Americans. Many people in these groups are competing directly with the illegal workers who would get amnesty under the plan Cecilia Munoz described to the New York Times. It seems terribly unfair and wrong-headed to put illegal workers ahead of these other groups.
Several items in the New York Times article disturb me, such as this: Administration officials said that Mr. Obama’s plan would not add new workers to the American workforce, but it would recognize millions of illegal immigrants who have already been working here.
Either you plan on eliminating chain migration or you have very little knowledge of how our immigration system works. If it is the former, I will be very interested to hear the details of your plan. If it is the latter, I beg you to speak with organizations from both sides of the issue who can help you understand the systems that you are dealing with.
Chain migration would ensure that amnestied illegals would be able to petition for their relatives to join them in the U.S. Those relatives could then petition for theirs, and so on. Each of these relatives would be eligible to work in the United States. Therefore, the official who made the claim that your plan would not add workers to the American work force is either leaving out critical details, ill-informed, or purposely misleading the press and the public. I expect more from your administration.
The lives of millions of vulnerable workers will be severely impacted by your immigration plan. You owe it to them and to the country to be honest about what giving millions of illegal workers amnesty really means.
Phone me if you would like to talk about this,
P.S. Never forgive, never forget — No amnesty!
