Illegal immigrants question Senate deal By PETER PRENGAMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 54 minutes ago
David Guerra wants to be legal, but he says the path to citizenship offered by the Senate on Thursday would be too risky and too expensive, and could end up driving him deeper into the shadows.
Guerra’s wife and children in El Salvador depend on the $300 he sends home each month from his job as a day laborer. Key provisions of the legislation would require him to return home to apply for residency, pay a $5,000 fine and spend thousands more in application fees.
That would be disastrous for his family, he said, and, worse, he’s not sure he can trust U.S. immigration authorities who have been rounding up and deporting his fellow immigrants for months.
“If I go home, who is going to guarantee that I’ll be let back in?” said the 44-year-old who lays bricks, clears weeds and does landscaping.
Across the nation, illegal immigrants, many of whom toil in dirty, low-paying jobs, sharply criticized the Senate’s immigration overhaul package as overly burdensome and impractical.
“Where would I find $5,000? In two years, I don’t get $5,000,” said Daniel Carrillo Maldonado, an illegal immigrant who was looking for construction work outside a Home Depot in Phoenix.
The agreement between the Senate and White House would allow illegal immigrants to obtain a special visa. After paying fees and the fine, they could get on a path to permanent residency that could take eight to 13 years. Heads of household would have to return to their home countries first.
Some illegal immigrants said returning home presented another major hurdle: Applying for residency at U.S. embassies in their home countries.
Amy Ndour, a 23-year-old illegal immigrant from Senegal who lives in New York, said she would be willing to pay the $5,000 fine, but not return home because her family there depends on what she earns as a hair braider.
“I’m helping myself” here, she said. “I’m helping people there too.”
Karina Corona, 32, an illegal immigrant from San Diego, works seven days a week at two jobs — one at a delicatessen and another as a seamstress. She said $5,000 is a small price to pay.
“Compared with the better jobs you can get, it’s nothing. It’s well worth it,” she said.
Carlos Velazquez, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant in Los Angeles, said he applied twice for visas in Honduras, and both times had to pay several bribes to local embassy staff.
“Only with money will the monkey dance,” said Velazquez, using an idiomatic expression to refer to bribes.
-——REST OF BS SNIPPED———
We don’t enforce the laws we have now, who is going to collect the $5,000? Our Senate at work, again. They are incapable of coming up with anything intelligent.
And when he is 50 and his back breaks down, I guess we'll just put him on "disability".
No wonder they love it here..grrrr.
sw
well there we have it the U.S. is for sale to the illegal alien willing to pay several thousand dollars in fines to stay here legally, or hide more so illegally either way again, it is a win win for them and lose lose for taxpayers.