You showed up to the polls. You elected new officials. Now it’s time to act on it and speak out about immigration reform.
I’ll be honest–I try to avoid listening to politics because it makes me angry (Note: I did not say I avoid voting.) My husband used to ask why I hated his Talk Radio so much and I had to admit that I just got worked up about little things or terrified about big things. I learned in college that discussing politics does not make you sound smart, it makes you annoying. So I refrained.
But then I married an immigrant.
I found out first hand that it takes hours and hours of legal forms, almost $4000, your life/ relationship in paperwork, affidavits from friends, pictures of your life together, and the government still will only grant you a temporary green card. Why? Because they think you might be committing fraud by marrying someone to get them in the country. Granted, there are plenty of those people. So then after all of that temporary stuff, you have to do it all again 2 years later and spend another $1500 to apply for a 10 year green card. But just for fun, they will tell you it isn’t enough, so you have to submit anything you can think of that you didn’t submit before. Here’s a list of things to submit which included but is not limited to:
Tax filings, phone bills, mortgages, rent, emails, utility bills, internet bills, pictures, affidavits, insurance, car titles, plane tickets to see family/ travel itineraries, phone records, text messages, bank statements, mutual pets and their bills, medical bills, and purchases from since we were together. That’s paperwork spanning 7 years. Most immigration officers really really like it if you have kids together because somehow a kid represents the marriage is more legitimate. As if fraudsters won’t go to the level of involving children in their scam… (excuse my sarcasm.)
We have spent pretty much the last few years of our lives trying to do things the right way. We wanted to follow the rules to keep my husband here legally. And this blog post doesn’t depict half of the struggle that you have to go through to wrestle with immigration to do it the right way. And yet, because of so many factors that I don’t possibly have the time to list, we are finding that all of our work and money (that we really didn’t have) might be unnecessary.
Here is your chance to make a big difference, because my emails to my representatives and senators are only one voice–I’m asking you to take part in this reform. If we all contacted our representatives and senators, we’d find that perhaps the government might listen. Look up your government officials here.
Would you write them a short letter on their “Contact Us” page on their website letting them know that you would like them to work on a bill that would not grant amnesty to the lawbreakers thus punishing the lawKEEPERS, but would allow everyone to be treated equally within our immigration system? I write my reps every year and ask them to view all sides. To not just vote how the party expects, but how their constituents ask.
Yes, it’s okay to feel sorry for the families that are separated, but it’s not right to reward illegal actions. It’s not about me hating any country or race. I have a friend facing separation from her fiance now, but she’s going to leave the country and do it the right way, because that is how it should be done. It’s about doing things the LEGAL way and rewarding the lawkeepers. Will you do something about it? Will you ask your representatives to represent you in taking action on immigration. Even if you don’t agree with me, surely you’d rather see Congress put out a bill than to see the president grant amnesty with the stroke of a pen. It doesn’t take long. Please? Pretty please, will you write your representatives?
