WORLD WIDE -- The road to the white house is reminiscent of a boxing match between two heavy weights. On the left, the self proclaimed better experienced Democratic Candidate, who says she's ready to be "commander-in-chief" Hillary Clinton. On the right the charismatic Illinois Senator, Barack Obama, who is known for his emotive, uplifting oratory and is now the highest endorsed candidate in the history of American preliminary presidential elections. Both these candidates are democrats and they are battling it out to make history. The first black president or the first female president, will lit happen?
Both candidates have been wooing Americans with their plans to create a better America and one of the top issues on each of their agendas is the US immigration issue. America's ongoing immigration debate has always cantered around illegal immigrants of which the majority come from neighbouring borders of Mexico. The US immigration service has overlooked the benefits of allowing skilled migrants within the country and recently challenged by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on allowing more technologically skilled migrants in the US.
Liam Clifford from the Internets leading authority on World wide Immigration issues www.globalvisas.com states that America needs to open itself to the rest of the world. "America used to be the place where dreams are made but now people have more choices. There are lots of countries with booming economies who are willing to invite foreign nationals in. What America needs is to become part of the rest of the world, they cannot sideline themselves anymore. They need to encourage labour mobility within and outside the country. This is one of the reasons the US immigration laws are in such bad shape, there's no room to move."
USA Immigration Plans at a Glance:
As of January 2006 it is estimated that there are about 8 million illegal immigrants in the US. Nearly 4.2 million had arrived in the country in 2000 or later. An estimated 6.6 million of the 11.6 million unauthorized residents were from Mexico. California remained the leading state of residence of the unauthorized resident population in 2006, with 2.8 million. The next leading state, Texas, had 1.6 million unauthorized residents, followed by Florida with nearly 1 million. These figures are according to the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of USA Immigration Statistics.
Obama's immigration plan
• Improving the USA immigration system: Barack wants to tighten up borders by adding additional personnel, infrastructure and technology
• Remove incentives to enter legally: targeting employers who hire undocumented immigrants and encouraging labour mobility for the US
• Bring people out of the shadows: he says there needs to be a system in place which permits undocumented US immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens. Obama has said many times that he doesn't believe that all illegal immigrants can be sent back on the country has to create a pathway to citizenship.
• Work with Mexico: the US needs to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal US immigration.
Barack Obama has consistently said he supports a guest worker program. The Guest worker program is a program that has been called for as a way to permit U.S. employers to sponsor non-U.S. citizens as laborers for approximately three years. After three years if the non-immigrant has not obtained a green to be deported afterwards if they have not yet obtained a green card. The New Republic (TNR) criticized the program by comparing it to second-rate citizens who never gain citizenship. According to the magazine this program would be completely different to the rights granted to immigrants throughout U.S. history.
Hillary Clinton immigration plan
Hillary Clinton agrees that the immigration system is in a crisis. Many will agree with her when she says "The laws we currently have on the books are inadequate and no longer serve our best interests".
• Clinton like Obama believes that the solution to illegal US immigration is to provide "a path to earned citizenship for those who are here, working hard, paying taxes, respecting the law, and willing to meet a high bar for becoming a citizen."
• Like Obama she voted for the Secure fence Act , which authorized a 700 miles fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
• In May-June 2007, Clinton cast votes (in terms of amendments and cloture) in support of the high-profile, compromise-based but controversial, comprehensive immigration reform bill known as the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007.
• On October 30, 2007, Clinton committed support of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. She later renounced her plan and the next day supported Spitzer who abandoned the plan, Hillary Clinton reversed her position on the issue once again, stating: "I support Governor Spitzer's decision today to withdraw his proposal."
In reality there is much to do to set the US immigration system right. According to www.globavisas.ca, the US government has to offer sufficient reasons for US businesses not to move their operations overseas which are direct results of their tight immigration laws. Canada has much to gain if technology companies decide to take their business there where immigration and visa rules for foreign nationals are not so rigid, particularly for skilled migrants.
Today, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting new H1-B visa petitions for the next fiscal year. This years H1-B petitions are surrounded by controversial changes to immigration bills and continuous debates on US immigration. Ajay Hasija of Global Visas India (www.globalvisas.co.in) says "The US immigration service is complex and our clients in India and around the world rely on us to help them understand these complexities. Every country is trying to find its feet in the global mobility trend and I think the next US president will have to work harder on that."
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