Do you understand how our legal immigration system works? We take in 1.2 million LEGAL IMMIGRANTS A YEAR, WHICH IS MORE THAN THE REST OF THE WORLD COMBINED. We have limitations on various categories of immigrants, mainly based on familial relationships. Legal immigrants can sponsor wives/husbands, children, parents, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc. There are various caps on these kinds of immigrants. We cannot admit everyone who wants to come immediately.
There are approximately 3 million intending immigrants waiting their turn overseas. They have completed all of the paperwork. So exactly what does the "SPEEDY PROCESSING OF THEIR APPLICATIONS" mean in terms of the above framework of admissions. Are they saying we should remove the caps? What about background, medical, and security checks? Admission into the US is a privilege, not a right.
This needs to be repeated. Your whole post is a great one and I wish it was required reading by every American citizen because most people have no idea how the process works or what is involved. I do not think it should be easy for citizens of other countries to become citizens for various reasons- one being if it is easy where does the appreciation come from of being a citizen? Also the fact that we DO NOT want anyone and everyone to be able to be citizens since that would include criminals and terrorists. The only way to exclude anyone is to have a process meaning it won't be fast to get through any legitimate process. I would like to say concerning people coming here from Mexico specifically since there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about that. There is and has been for ages a process for Mexican citizens to come here LEGALLY to visit, work, and even obtain citizenship and in fact citizens of Mexico are given additional consideration above all other countries- mainly because we allow them to LEGALLY come here in far larger numbers than we allow from other countries.
I get extremely angry when some stupid politician or reporter says "we need a legal process for illegals to come here" as if there is no way for them to do it legally. Many believe this because they don't bother to inform themselves how it all works so it is easy for the media and politicians to sway many people toward supporting ILLEGAL immigration until we have "immigration reform." The only immigration reform we need is to strictly enforce immigration laws and deport all illegals.
RE: So exactly what does the “SPEEDY PROCESSING OF THEIR APPLICATIONS” mean in terms of the above framework of admissions. Are they saying we should remove the caps? What about background, medical, and security checks? Admission into the US is a privilege, not a right.
By speedy processing, I believe they mean a serious effort to reform the INS and Homeland Security in such a way so that LEGAL immigrants do not have to wait 10 years or more ( I know of many who tell me that ).
As for the rest of your fears (e.g. removing caps, background checks, etc.), well they NEVER said they wanted that. In fact, the tone of their document tell that they would want to RETAIN them.
In fact the document states for instance :
“Any person found to have committed crimes against property or person while here, or with a felony criminal record in his or her home country, should be denied legal status of any kind and deported.”
How is background checks incompatible with the above ?