Despite propaganda suggesting that all illegals skulk across the border in open defiance of the law, statistics show that more than 40% of them – and perhaps more than 50% -- first enter the country legally and then overstay their visas. Wilma Tenobro falls into this category, emigrating from the Philippines with a special visa for a job on a cruise ship. When she met Lt. Tenobro (a naturalized U.S. citizen also born in the Philippines) she fell in love and overstayed her visa. After their marriage, the new couple tried to get it renewed, without success. The immigration system in this country is so irrational, bureaucratic and frustratingly slow, that many immigrants who try to follow the law find themselves in Kafkaesque situations. In some cases, visa renewal require a return to their home countries but according to 1996 legislation, a lapsed visa holder who leaves the country for any reason can expect to wait 10 years before getting legal permission to return.
No one could suggest that all the millions of people with visa problems make positive contributions to the country – any more than claiming that all illegals in general are unanimously good-hearted, industrious and reliable. Every group of illegal immigrants, like every category of legal immigrants, includes some combination of the good, the bad and ugly.
A wise immigration policy must therefore make serious efforts to sort through these populations to separate the worthy from the unworthy as potential additions to this country. In pursuing that purpose, it makes obvious sense to grant legal residency for the likes of Wilma Tenobro at the same time that we make it easier to block legal residency (or even strip it) from anti-American conspirators like Faisal Shahzad. As society makes meaningful distinctions between the immigrants we want and those we don’t, it’s more important to consider how they’ve conducted themselves since arriving in this country than to focus exclusively on how they got here in the first place.
Michael Medved
Michael Medved's daily syndicated radio talk show reaches one of the largest national audiences every weekday between 3 and 6 PM, Eastern Time. Michael Medved is the author of eleven books, including the bestsellers
What Really Happened to the Class of '65?, Hollywood vs. America, Right Turns,
The Ten Big Lies About America and
5 Big Lies About American Business
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