Change is good
As the year comes to an end, I am hoping for change. I cannot imagine what some of my clients have gone through, changing their country, language, culture and some of them doing this change through very difficult circumstances. I am usually writing this column about the need for Immigration Change - reform - and I am going to, once again, put my wish list out there for positive changes in our system.
If you have time to leave a message on your Congressman's answering machine, please call and tell them that you want the U.S. to protect people who are seeking refuge. Bring the Christmas story into it and tell them that there IS room at the Inn. Our Country's legal obligations under international treaties require us to provide the opportunity, the application, the process to seek asylum. Make a call and tell your Congressman that our U.S. businesses need legal workers and that the immigration process to get worker visas is slow, costly, and unmanageable. Keep it simple and direct - it needs fixed. Finally, tell your Representatives that we need that "kinder" and "gentler" nation envisioned by former President George H.W. Bush, and that the Department of Homeland Security/Immigration Customs Enforcement/Border Patrol could put that into practice. Put away the tear gas. Please.
