Why people don't sign up
Why people don't sign up
By Randy Ellis
Comments 
33
Published: November 1, 2007
Why don't all the people who came to this country illegally just sign up to become U.S. workers and citizens?
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It's a simple question.
The answer is complex.
Let's say an
Oklahoma City restaurant owner has a great cook working for him who slipped into this country illegally from
Mexico five years ago.
The owner would like to keep the cook, so he decides to sponsor him for a work permit, also known as a green card, under employment-based immigration law.
The first obstacle may be cost.
Immigration filing fees tripled on July 30, said
T. Douglas Stump, an immigration attorney with more than 24 years experience who practices in Oklahoma City and
Tulsa.
The filing fee for an employer-sponsored green card is now $1,485, Stump said.
Attorney fees and other costs may add $5,000 or so to that cost, said
Vance Winningham, another Oklahoma City immigration attorney with about 35 years of experience.
That can be an obstacle, but it's not the biggest one, Stump said.
The U.S. only grants 140,000 employment-based permits a year, and that includes spouses and children, he said. Preference categories favor highly skilled doctors, researchers, people with master's degrees and the like. And only 7.1 percent of the permits can be granted to persons from any specific country, Stump said.
There is a huge backlog of applicants.
So, even if the employer can show there is a shortage of U.S. workers available to fill a cook's job, there is still a 6
year wait just to get a green card for Hispanics from Mexico, Stump said.
But it gets worse.
"Under U.S. immigration laws, if you entered the country illegally, you can't get a green card here,” Stump said. "You have to go back to your home country.”
And, under a 1996 law, if a person leaves the country after having been in the U.S. illegally for more than a year, they can't come back for 10 years, he said.
"It's a terrible situation,” Stump said.
Family members who are U.S. citizens can sponsor relatives to come across the border to work, but there are long waiting lists there, too, Stump said.
It costs $1,365 to apply for a family-sponsored permit, he said. Attorney fees and other costs typically might add about $2,500, Winningham added.
Winningham said he has received a number of calls from
Oklahoma U.S. citizens who are married to Hispanics who came here illegally. Many have lived together for several years and have children.
"Because they came here illegally, they cannot get a green card in the U.S.,” he said. "They would have to leave the U.S. and they are supposed to stay out 10 years before they can return unless they can obtain an extreme hardship waiver.”
How it gets tougher
Winningham said Mexico has been fairly good about granting extreme hardship waivers when children are involved, but it still takes months to process the requests, which can be awful for separated families living paycheck to paycheck.
Families have struggled with the situation for years, but now it gets even harder.
Today, one of the most stringent immigration enforcement bills in the nation takes effect in Oklahoma. It makes it illegal to hire, house, transport or conceal illegal immigrants.
"People are panicking,” Stump said. "We're being flooded with calls from panicked Oklahoma employers, scared landlords and worried health care professionals.”
Stump said he believes much of the fear is unfounded, but huge numbers of Hispanics are responding by making arrangements to leave the state.
"It's going to be in the tens of thousands,” he said, adding they are fleeing to
Arkansas,
Texas and other states they view as more friendly.
"It's going to have a terrible impact on the housing market and shopping in communities,” he said. "It will have a domino impact.”
Winningham agreed a lot of people are scared, but thought Stump's estimate of the number who would leave the state was high.
"I don't think it's going to be in the tens of thousands, but it could be 1,500 to 5,000,” he said.
So far, there is no evidence of any mass exodus from Oklahoma City schools, said
Donald Claxton, spokesman for the district.
"We're down 76 kids across the district,” Claxton said, referring to all students, not just Hispanics. "We have 81 schools, so that's less than one per school, and some of those kids were suspended.
"We keep hearing that and we're watching, but we haven't seen any evidence of it yet.”
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It is not just Hispanics, it is ALL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS that ar doing this.
How many Oklahomans have been hit in an auto accident by an illegal citizen who doesnt have insurnace. Myself 2 times in 2 years. They just moved away before any bill could be collected.
We as legal, tax paying, law abiling citizens have been footing the bill for ILLEGALS for too long. I have nothing against someone wanting a better life for their family. I do, you do, we all do, but do it in a legal way, contribute to the system the USA has set up. I have no problem with hard working people, but I do have a problem with folks who come here and LEECH our system that the tax payers provide without making one single contribution to it.
I am very much in favor of LEGAL IMMIGRATION. It's what helped build OUR country. If I am expected to obey the laws of the land, why do people here ILLEGALLY think they should be treated more favorably?