Selling Citizenship Slaps my Brother in Law in the Face

Republican Senators are still trying to find a compromise that will allow them to ignore the wishes of their core constituents and instead placate their core contributors by allowing at least most of the estimated 12 million illegal aliens currently in the States to remain. The latest version would allow those who have been here for five years or more (estimated 7-8 million) to pay a fine and then get started toward legalization. Of course they loudly still insist in the face of all logic that this isn't "amnesty."

This selling of citizenship is a slap in the face to millions of people like my brother in law. He is a Mexican national, and he played by the rules. He stood in the lines. He put up with the duplicated (and even triplicated) requests for information. He filled out the paperwork. He did everything he was supposed to do. Even when it looked like he would not be allowed into the country for his own wedding, he refused to follow the advice he received to sneak in and straighten it out later. Thankfully, the red tape got cut just in time, and he made the wedding!

It is an insult to that good and honorable man for those who did not obey the law and follow the proper procedure (as pointless and frustrating as it sometimes is) to be allowed to "buy" their way onto the path toward American citizenship by paying a fine of $2000. Any immigration "reform" that allows illegals to cut to the front of the line is both morally and logically wrong. Further, it is political suicide for the Republicans to continue down this path.

Obviously I am not opposed to immigration--legal immigration. In fact, although many on "my side" of this issue do not agree, I support both an increase in the number of legal immigrants, and a streamlining of the process for citizenship. But none of that justifies what is happening in Washington right now. I hope and pray that Frist, Allen, Kyl, Cornyn and the rest of the Senators who take American sovereignty and security seriously prevail.