I bought some tamales from an old lady at the bus station today. Was it advisable? Probably not. God knows how it was made and from what ingredients. The tamales were stuffed inside a small carry-on cooler, with another cooler for champurrado (Mexican hot chocolate), all crammed into a portable mini shopping cart. Not very promising. But I like her. And I like her tamales.
A friend passionately told me how the US is a country build on immigrants. She is right. Whenever the word immigrants came up, I remember the tamales lady. I remember Juanita, the Mexican restaurant owner next door, who would chat with me warmly. I remember the Chinese girl that works in her family's Chinese take-out restaurant, who is always uber-cool despite the greasy offerings around her.
I remember my friends who are wealthy enough to keep me stocked with various sweets and snacks. I remember another one who has to take 12-hour shifts almost on daily basis to make her living condition better. I remember others who have to rely on their sponsors (i.e. spouses) and having a difficult time to be on their own even if the sponsors treated them like shit.
This is what immigrants look like. They look pretty much like any 'normal Americans', if there is such a thing. Some pictured them as the huddled mass on the border, scared and hurt and needing help. Some pictured them as this aggressive group who thinks they can do whatever they want and will take advantage of the US people. Depends on which area you live in and who you interact with, both might be correct.
This is why the debate goes on. One called the other heartless, they, in turn, replied by calling the other stupid. On and on it goes without anyone willing to step back and try to see what the other's point of view and concerns are. People who support stricter immigration law might not turn their back when they see an actual person getting hurt. Vice versa, people who embrace easy immigration might not be happy when they got hit with the tax increase to help with the cost.
In the end, regardless of how you see/think about immigrants, it all comes down to the numbers game. There's a quota on how many people can be admitted to and live in the US. This is to ensure a fair chance of the admitted immigrants to integrate and self-fulfilled in the US, i.e. to ensure there is enough housing, job, healthcare etc for everyone including the already-resided residence.
The more people apply for a specific visa or from a certain country, the more backed up it would be. From USCIS website: "No more than 7 percent of the visas may be issued to natives of any one independent country in a fiscal year". Even though exemption could be made, this explains why visas for people from high-subscribing countries like Latin America or Asia (China and India) got horribly backed up.
This is to avoid monopolization. People in Indonesia, who lived much further from the US than people in Mexico, should have the same chance of getting into the US. DV Lottery (green card lottery) prioritized countries with the fewest number of immigrants, which is why currently Africa and Eastern Europe are darlings to win and not the more populous countries. Again, fairness to all.
This is why the process takes so long. It doesn't help that background checks in other countries can take forever. Getting a full data from someone in Germany will most likely getting full data from someone in Indonesia, especially if the said person comes from a remote village in Indonesia that can be reached only by 3 days of a grueling land trip, or from a war-torn country where all government buildings have been destroyed.
But we do need background checks, including financial readiness. If it is so hard to understand, think of it as the routine background checks and proof of income you have to submit to rent an apartment. You want to make sure the new tenant can afford to pay their rents, not destroying your apartment complex, and play nice/not disturb the other tenants.
As for financial readiness, it is necessary to understand the social safety net is not limitless. For some type of benefits, you need to put in the money first, taken from your salary. Social security is a good example, where most people need 40 credits (10 years of work) to qualify for benefits. Some like SNAP (EBT) or Medicaid can be accessed anytime, and this is why legal jobs that pay taxes are crucial in order to keep these programs going.
It is horribly complicated. I am actually thankful that the US has a president so passionately hated that everything he did strike up debate and discussion, such as immigration. In a growingly restless world, it is more important than ever to understand what immigration is. What is required and why it's required. It is important to understand all these things so we can embrace our fellow immigrants instead of hating them, or just see them as the new "starving kids of Africa".
The key word is discussion and educating ourselves. A mere reading of headlines is not enough. A mere reading of news articles these days is not enough. We need to be curious and objective. We need to figure out the facts from the opinions. We need to figure out what to do with this mess and how we can better the condition for the fellow immigrants.
Because in the end, that man will be gone. Maybe not dead, but even with re-election he'll be out of the office by 2024. Considering immigration has been a complicated subject for many years predating him, and will be even more a headache with the booming world population, it won't just miraculously fix itself when the man is gone. What are we going to do then?
