DACA Scam

AJC 2/1/18 Immigration Page A1 Hardliners in Georgia fear betrayal on immigration. Atlanta Tea Party Leader Debbie Dooley opposes all DACA deals and so do I. Debbie and I were also very early Trump backers in 2016. Tea Party Leaders are happily autonomous and can take positions without approval from above.

 

The fact that traffic at the border surged right after Trump mentioned his latest DACA comment confirms our objections. The first DACA number was 800,000 and now it’s 1.8 million with a “path to citizenship” to get $25 billion for the Wall.

 

Trump’s original position was that all illegals would go to the “back of the line” to apply for citizenship. I support passing the Merit-Based Immigration Law and reforming all of its processes before anything is done with those illegals who are not criminals.

 

Trump later identified the Diversity Lottery and Chain Migration for the chopping block and we agree. I would add eliminating Anchor Babies as well. All of this needs to be included in a new Immigration Bill and signed into law first.

 

I don’t view the DACA group any differently than all other illegals. The fact that they were brought into the US as children should not give them special status.  Obama invented the DACA scam as part of his sabotage strategy. Democrats like to make “side deals” like unions liked to do. I would never do side deals with unions; I just followed the contract until I threw them out.

 

After the new Immigration Law is in place and functioning, illegals would be free to apply for all forms of legal status left available in the new law they can actually qualify for. Those who qualified for a much tighter H1b visa would be considered based on being the most qualified applicant for hard to fill engineering jobs. Most illegals would not be eligible for a path to citizenship because their skills are not unique. 

 

The only Mexican I ever got approved for an H2b visa was a young man who had been trained by a Master to trim and maintain grinding stones used in corn tortilla production.

 

Peaceful illegals of all ages will have a choice.  They can get prepared to return to their home countries now, or they can continue to get whatever jobs they can get until E-Verify is mandatory and then return to their home countries. The fact that they had the advantage to live and work in the US and develop English language skills will allow them to take jobs in their home countries that involve a US interface. They might also leverage on their bi-lingual skills by immigrating to other countries where these skills are required.

 

The new US Immigration law should include a temporary guest worker visa program in the unlikely event that we find ourselves with a legitimate labor shortage in some skills.  I expect we will have the occasional nurse shortage, but we could also overcome these shortages with better coordination between training and employment for US citizens. I expect there will be a very tight H2b visa program for jobs that actually require special skills. Those visa holders would have a path to citizenship.

 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader