A move by U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop, D-Southampton, to offer to help young illegal immigrants qualify for President Obama's and avoid being deported was slammed this week by Randy Altschuler, R-Smithtown, Bishop's opponent in the next election. Locals, however, are mixed on whether they believe the congressman's offer of aid is a bad idea.
"Randy Altschuler is taking his campaign strategy from the Tea Party," said Mike Anthony, a member of the Hamptons Bays-based Neighbors in Support of Immigrants and former chair of the Southampton Town Democratic Party. "It's surprising that an international businesssman ... can't recognize the economic benefits of offering young immigrants legal status until Congress acts in a positive way."
Anthony cited a report from the North American Integration and Development Center at UCLA that indicates the policy will generate billions in economic growth.
Meanwhile, Amagansett resident Lynda Edwards said she believes the issue should be settled in Congress before any action is taken. "I'm not happy that Bishop's involved at all. I don't think it's an appropriate thing for him to be doing," she said.
President Obama last week surprised the country when he announced a plan to stop deporting young illegal immigrants that would allow some of the more than 800,000 immigrants who came to the country as children to obtain work visas. The policy decision was not met with celebration by Republicans.
"Congressman Bishop’s announcement today is a slap in the face to the more than 30,000 Long Islanders who have lost their jobs since he took office nearly 10 years ago,” Altschuler said. "While his constituents are in the midst of a deep and sustained economic crisis, Tim Bishop is using taxpayer-funded employees in his office to implement President Obama’s unilateral, backdoor amnesty program for illegal immigrants.
Bishop annnounced that a full-time caseworker employed by his office is standing by to assist young poeople seeking temporary legal status announced Friday by Obama that would stop deportation of some illegals.
"I voted to pass the DREAM Act in the House, and I support the President taking executive action to give young people who came to America as children a chance to legally contribute to our society," Bishop said. "This is a positive development for fairness in our immigration policy."
In order to be eligible, young people must have arrived in the United States under the age of 16, have resided in the United States continually for at least five years, be currently in school or have graduated from high school, obtained a GED, or be honorably discharged veterans of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces, have not been convicted of a felony or significant or multiple misdemeanors, must not pose a threat to national security or public safety, and cannot be over the age of 30.
The policy is currently in effect and implication of the application process is expected to commence within 60 days.
Elaine Kahl, founder of the Suffolk County Coalition for Legal Immigration/No Amnesty and Citizens Forum, said she was unsettled by Bishop's actions. "While some congressmen have wisely condemned the President's illegal amnesty, it is disturbing that Tim Bishop has doubled down on Obama's cheap political trick to reward illegal aliens," she said.
Southampton resident John Bouvier said although Altschuler spoke out against Bishop's support of the DREAM Act, the legislation was "an idea, by the way, that Randy’s own supporters in the GOP defended during the recent Republican debates."
Sylvia Baruch, founder of NISI, said the economic impacts of Obama's policy are positive. "Putting talented and educated young people into the economic system and having them pay taxes is a good way to improve the economic climate and productivity of Long Island and the country. Besides, as President Obama said, this is the right thing to do--morality counts as much as economics."
Where do you stand on the issue and how it relates to the upcoming 1st Congressional District Race?
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Yr knowledge of the history of immigration in the U.S. is woeful. There never were the good ole days when yr family arrived to these shores. 1/3 of the Irish immigrants who arrived in U.S. ports seeking relief from the English oppression that caused the Great Hunger, were turned away by customs if a person on the ship was ill or had died, which was not at all uncommon. That is why the Irish called them "coffin ships." The captains simply went up to Canada where the Irish disembarked. They then made their way into the U.S. Those that died in the voyage from NY or Boston & other ports on their voyage up to the St. Lawrence, were buried in paupers graves. It is why the largest graveyard outside of Ireland is located at Grosse Ile in Quebec, the first stop in Canada. The overwhelming majority of survivors disembarked & simply snuck into the U.S. It was also true for Italians & Eastern European emigrees, among others. You are also utterly wrong about giving any test to immigrants proving they speak &/or write English or were literate. Congress, under the anti-immigrant antics of the Know Nothings, did pass laws several times from the 19th C to the 20th C requiring literacy & English proficiency of immigrants. Each time they were vetoed by both Dem & Repub Presidents, who understood the origins of these laws were Know Nothing hatred of foreigners seeking entry. (part 2 to continue)
You are exactly right that youth leaving LI is a very large problem & is unsustainable. This trend has been going on for 35 yrs & shows little chance of turning around. You might read the Rauch Foundation's comprehensive report called "LI Index, 2005." http://www.longislandindex.org/liis_res.html#data-search Their research/surveys/analysis shows rather conclusively the reason educated young folk have been leaving LI is lack of affordable housing, which is nearly unattainable, esp for young graduates in substantial debt (that the Repubs just might might make much greater, with their servile solicitude for bank profits with their guaranteed subsidy by government for their education loans, called corporate welfare.) Youth leaving LI It has little to nothing to do about immigration to LI. In fact, LI would have had a net loss of population for the last 12 yrs, except for immigration. Immigration has staved off economic disaster for LI that has been countering the flight of educated young people & made its population grow slightly, instead of a dislocating shrinking without them. It is the same entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants historically that built the economic colossus which is the U.S. Immigrants on LI have reinvigorated our economy here too. Where, when did Tim Bishop drain billions of dollars from Medicare & Social Security? Was it the same hateful FDR Socialist Security Repubs have been trying to kill for years by privatizing it for salivating Wall St profit?
You are misinformed, (as if that would make any difference for a true believer.) It takes 60 votes to overcome a filibuster in the Senate, which is now the default to get anything passed with a Repub Party in lockstep. Democrats didn’t reach that 60-seat threshold in the Senate until Sen. Al Franken was sworn in. They lost that majority upon the swearing-in of Sen. Scott Brown just under six months later. The actual amount of time the Democrats held a filibuster-proof majority, when you factor in the late Sen. Ted Kennedy‘s illness and the winter recess, amounts to 14 weeks. What non-Democrats often fail to realize is that a Democratic majority isn’t like other majorities. Republicans can be relied on to lock arms from a hard right Jim DeMint to a moderate Olympia Snow and stay put no matter what disaster their recalcitrance might bring down upon the nation, there are always about 10% of Democrats willing to make political hay in their Repub state. To the extent that Barack Obama ever had a filibuster-proof majority, he still had to water everything down just to get past his own party. They are the reason the President ended up with a much too-small stimulus package that was 40% tax cuts. President did manage to get a few things done, like saving the auto industry, reversing 750,000-per-month job losses, passing health care reform, rescuing the economy from a new Great Depression. it’s just not accurate to say he frittered away a very tiny window.
Actually, housing on LI is more affordable than it has been in years. Prices have dropped through the floor, but property taxes have not, in any way, reflected the loss of equity. Young people buy a house down south with the same price tag as one on LI, but save thousands of dollars in property taxes. The "Affordable Heath Care Act" took $500 billion from Medicare. They needed the money to cover the huge expansion in Medicaid mandated in the new law. According to a 2011 report from the Medicare Board of Trustees, "Under high cost assumptions....asset depletion would occur in 2016.". Congressman Bisop voted to reduce FICA payments by 2%. Those dollars are the funding mechanism for the "Social Security Trust Fund". The money is being removed, without "being paid for". So it would appear the party of FDR is complicit in the demise of both his signature issues. They just don't want those poor old seniors to find out about it until after November 2012.
So they couldn't get immigration reform done when they had a filibuster proof Senate but they could get a 2,000+ health care bill (that had to be passed before we could understand what was in it) within that 14 week window? I expect President Obama was making that very case to Latino Leaders this very day. Ooooops. No he didn't, because he didn't want to get laughed out of the room. Swing and a miss.
As it is they head out of town.
illegal alien noun 1. a foreigner who has entered or resides in a country unlawfully or without the country's authorization. 2. a foreigner who enters the U.S. without an entry or immigrant visa, especially a person who crosses the border by avoiding inspection or who overstays the period of time allowed as a visitor, tourist, or businessperson. Compare resident alien.