Obama Immigration Plan "Will be dead on arrival"

Yesterday , the draft for President Obama's immigration reform plan was "leaked" and obtained by the Miami Herald. According to the leaked draft, the plan calls for illegals to wait the shorter of eight years or until immigration backlogs are cleared before being granted a green card and then citizenship five years later. Other requirements to receive the green card are paying a fine, attending civics and English classes and passing a background check. On the surface the plan looks similar to the Marco Rubio plan but with a shorter path to citizenship. Why then, did Senator Rubio say that the Obama immigration plan "will be dead on arrival"? Because it lacks increased border security which has to be part of any reform in order to avoid a repeat of the 1986 immigration reform that did nothing to solve our illegal immigration problem. Senator Rubio's plan calls for tightened border security and he is on record saying that he will not endorse any plan that leaves out this crucial detail.


Although border security is the biggest problem with this plan, there are several other issues, many of which are also present in the Rubio plan. Starting the process is completely dependent  on the illegals coming forward willingly and applying. But how many of them will really come forward? A good portion of illegal immigrants have a low income and education and send most of their earnings back home. Do you think that someone who is already poor will come forward and willingly pay a fine so that they can start paying taxes? I know I wouldn't want to give up some of my hard earned money so that I could start paying a percentage of everything I make. Also, while I agree that felons should not be granted permanent residency and should be deported, there is no way a felon is going to come forward if he knows that he is going to be subject to a background check.


Although the Rubio plan does have its flaws and illegal immigrants do hurt our economy and society, we have to remember that we are dealing with people and not just statistics. It is important that we give those here illegally the chance to eventually become permanent residents (or have a guest worker program like Rubio suggested) while at the same time making it easier to come here legally and making it harder to come here illegally by increasing border security. Even though they may be a burden on society, we have to give illegal immigrants the same dignity that we all deserve.