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Editors note: There were so many letters to the editor in the September 15, 2021 edition of the paper that we ran out of room to publish them all. This letter from Larry Benson, originally scheduled to run in print on the 15th, will instead show up in print in the September 22nd edition.

I didnt expect to be writing this letter about Dan Shannons column after reading his initial column a few weeks ago, where he explained how he would only be concerned with the facts of any given situation that he might be referring to. Wow, was I wrong.

Facts, boy I dont know, he puts out lots of numbers associated with his opinions of various situations, but there are zero source references to support any of his claims. Heres one fact that he failed to mention when he referred to 9/11. While it was a terrible tragedy, perpetrated by a small group of terrorists, we went to war with two countries, one of which wasnt even involved in that tragedy, and killed approximately 71,000 Afghan civilians, and even worse, between 187,000 and 207,000 Iraqi civilians. How many more terrorists do you suppose these tragedies may have created?

Five dollar a gallon gas? Where is that in evidence? As it turns out there are many reasons for gas prices to rise and fall, none of which any president may or may not be responsible for, which include: The dot com bust putting a chill on the economy, falling U.S. production giving OPEC more pricing power, rising oil prices helping spur the 2008-2009 recession, which crashed oil prices, economic recovery sending oil prices back to $100/bbl, U.S. fracking boom breaking OPECs hold on oil prices, again crashing prices, and prices declining because of COVID-19. All of these things happened over the course of the terms of 3 different presidents: Bush, Obama and Trump.

Illegal immigration and its effects: His claim that illegals are responsible for so much crime in our country while several empirical studies generally find that immigrants do not increase local crime rates, and are less likely to cause crime than their native-born peers, and are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans. Our thriving economy depends on illegals to keep prices and wages low. If politicians wanted to stop illegal immigration all they would have to do is prosecute businesses that hire them. Its that simple, but neither party will admit to that or do anything about it. He also makes no mention of the fact that the rights God, Ronald Reagan, gave amnesty to 3 million illegals when he was president.

Billions of dollars of military equipment left behind? All that was left behind was destroyed except for equipment in the hands of the Afghan armies.

Finally, respect: Referring to our current president as Old Joe and a past president, probably one of the greatest humanitarians in our history, as Mr. Peanut is beyond disparaging. Dan Shannon, The Smartest Man in the Room? From the actual facts quoted in his column, he must be the only one in the room, just sayin.

Larry Benson

Enumclaw

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Columnist must be the only one in the room - Enumclaw Courier-Herald

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A few weeks ago, my life irrevocably changed forever when I received my green card and became a legal permanent resident of the United States. The transition from a non-resident alien to an official resident was fraught with challenges, and involved an incredible amount of hard work. The stressful load of our uncertain legal status fell apart the minute my family received our green cards, and we could not help but feel a weird mixture of disbelief and happiness.

As immigrants from one of the most populous countries in the world, I knew that our path to citizenship would take a long time. Despite being the second largest immigrant group in the United States, Indian immigrants are less likely to have naturalized citizenship than other immigrants.This can be attributed to the quota system adopted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that prevents more than 7 percent of visas in a particular category from being granted to people from any onecountry. Unfortunately, this creates a uniquely unjust system that equalizes quotas from countries as small as Monaco to countries that are basically continents, such as China or India.

Furthermore, immigration laws have abysmal implementation rates, as evidenced by the nearly five million people waiting in the green card application backlog.It is estimated to take decades to process all their papers, and there are 675,000 applicants who will die before receiving a stable legal status in the United States. Additionally, USCIS classifies immigrants based on their employment preference categories, in other words, their skill and education levels. As my mother is classified as a highly educated and highly skilled worker, my family managed to file our green card application in the EB1 category (priority workers), thus allowing us to receive legal resident status in two years.This is not the norm for the average Indian immigrant who is expected to wait nearly fifty years before they achieve stability and safety in this country.

To add insult to injury, an average green card application costs nearly $2,000 per person, which can round out to $10,000 for a family of four.Spending that much money on an application that has between a 6 to 50% chance of getting rejected is a financially challenging prospect, especially for low and middle income earners. While a green card is in processing, immigrants are also discouraged from traveling abroad, on the off-chance that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection decides to deport them upon their return to a U.S. airport. This meant that while my friends were getting excited for their fall semester, I was getting stressed out about my impending trip to Scotland for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and the overwhelming fear that I would get deported to India upon my arrival in JFK. With the help of my local Congresswoman Jahana Hayes, I was preparing an official petition to the federal government when my family received a notification that our green cards were ready.

The immigration system is more than just a simple dichotomy between maintaining law and order versus welcoming immigrants from all backgrounds. Other variables play a role, especially the legal system which is convoluted and vague, while also exhibiting cruel and arbitrary enforcement. An advisor from the International Student & Scholar Services recounted the experience of one international student at UConn on an F1 visa, who was arrested because his roommate covered up the smoke detector in their room. While this might seem like a simple misdemeanor, a black mark on the students records can mar his immigration prospects for life. Legal immigrants in college are also prohibited from partaking in internships, paid or unpaid, and are often limited from working for more than twenty hours a week and can be deported if they do so.

Predictably, while legalimmigratonbrings its own plethora of problems to the table, illegal immigrants suffer far more at the hands of our legal code.An infamous story that details the cruelty of the immigration system is the tale of ten-year old Rosa Maria Hernandez who crossed the national border to go to a hospital in Texas for emergency gallbladder surgery when she was arrested by ICE agents two days after her recovery. Stories like this advance the widespread publicity of the troubles of illegal immigrants, and can help build empathy for their struggles.

However, the radio silence on the issues of legal immigrants prevents the average Joe from truly understanding the difficulty of incentivizing illegal aliens to come into this country legally, when the legal side of the immigration coin is equally messy and unjust.The visual roadmap in this article details just how convoluted legal immigration can be and imagine adding to this the incredible stress of waiting for confirmation from a centralized federal government that seems like a disconnected, slow-moving and inhumane system.That is the reality of the immigration process a cruel, never ending waiting game for the illusory stability of permanent residence.

More here:
Green Cards and Legal Immigration: A cruel waiting game - UConn Daily Campus

VAN

The European Union intends to strengthen cooperation with Turkey on the issues of irregular migration and border security, the head of the EU Delegation to Turkey, has said.

Speaking at a news conference in the eastern Turkish province of Van, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut told how in recent years the EU provided support worth over 350 million, adding that the bloc is ready to maintain cooperation and support on the issue.

He said the EU is closely following developments in Afghanistan, especially immigration and security, after the Taliban formed an interim government last week.

After hearing about the difficulties that Turkey faces on the Iranian border where Afghan migrants are likely to try to cross, Meyer-Landrut said such difficulties are shared by Turkey, the region, and Europe, as well as the rest of the world.

The European Council will quadruple its humanitarian aid for the Afghan public to 200 million by the end of 2020, as discussed at a U.N. conference in Geneva on Monday aiming to raise more money for growing humanitarian needs in Afghanistan.

Meyer-Landrut said the EU joins Turkey in its aim to support the countries neighboring Afghanistan to provide asylum for Afghan refugees and ensure their safety.

While Turkey and the EU agree on ways to manage immigration and borders, the issue gained further importance on the countrys eastern border with recent developments, he added.

Underlining that the EU intends to prevent illegal immigration, Meyer-Landrut said the bloc also wants to increase and strengthen the capacity for immigration management and prevent human trafficking plus the smuggling of drugs and arms as well.

Concerns have risen over a possible spike in migrants from Afghanistan due to the United States pullout from the country after two decades.

Turkey hosts nearly 5 million refugees, more than any country in the world.

After the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, Turkey adopted an open-door policy for people fleeing the conflict, granting them temporary protection status.

Afghans are believed to be the second-largest refugee community in Turkey after Syrians while authorities say there are 182,000 registered Afghan migrants in the country and up to an estimated 120,000 unregistered ones.

Many of the migrants arriving via Iran are heading for Istanbul to find work or passage to another coastal city from which to embark for Europe.

The authorities recently said that Turkey will not bear the burden of migration crises experienced as a result of the decisions of third countries.

Diplomacy,

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EU to cooperate further with Ankara on migration - Hurriyet Daily News

Cyprus` Interior Minister Nicos Nouris told MPs on Thursday that progress has been achieved in preventing illegal immigrants from arriving to Cyprus.

Nouris, who was briefing the parliamentary committee of interior, said that Cyprus ranks first in the EU in migrant inflows but that it has managed to stop illegal immigrants from coming to Cyprus under the guise of studying and from performing fraudulent marriages. Through these schemes 2,000 to 2,500 immigrants would arrive on the island every year, he added.

He also said that the inflow of illegal immigrants arriving by sea has also been curbed following a return agreement signed with Lebanon.

Nouris added that the inflow of illegal immigrants continues through the Green Line, separating the government controlled areas of Cyprus and the Turkish occupied areas, noting however that an effort is ongoing to check the points from were illegal entries take place.

He also said that in the first half o 2021 Cyprus rejected 7,000 asylum application, but that another 5,5000 applicants have arrived on the island and that their return to the country of provenance is difficult since there are no return agreements with particular third countries. He expressed the hope that Cyprus will be able to use the help of Frontex.

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Progress in preventing illegal immigration - Stockwatch

For centuries immigration has been synonymous with the United States, but what does the Constitution actually say about who can and cant enter the country? Law professors Christina Rodriguez and Ilya Somin talk about the ways in which the founding document could hinder or empower immigration policyreform.

The Constitution itself says very little about immigration [But]the power of Congress to regulate [immigration]is relatively uncontroversial today. Cristina Rodriguez, Yale University LawSchool

Cristina Rodriguez is a professor at Yale University Law School and author of The President and Immigration Law. She says to the founders and other early American lawmakers, immigration was not thought of in the same way as today.Immigration from the very beginning was used as a political tool to keep people thought not to be loyal to the United States from coming into the country, Rodriguezsays.

Rodriguez says with little constitutional intervention, immigration policy is mostly in the hands of the executive and legislative branches. The Constitution itself says very little about immigration [But]the power of Congress to regulate [immigration]is relatively uncontroversial today. Because immigration policy hasnt changed much in 40 years, Rodriguez says the U.S. isoperating out of a system that does not have the capacity to adapt to the changing world. There are very prescribed ways in which people can enter the United States Expanding the paths by which people might enter could improvefairness.

If we make it easier for people for people who want to live and work here to enter that would eliminate the illegal immigration problem. Ilya Somin,Antonin Scalia Law School atGeorge MasonUniversity

Ilya Somin is a professor at the George Mason Universitys Antonin Scalia Law School and author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom. He says most of the earliest immigration policies in the U.S. were exclusionary rules adopted by state governments. Its notable that nowhere in the Constitution is there listed any power of the federal government to restrict immigration It was only in 1889 in the Chinese exclusion cases that the Supreme Court ruled that there was such apower.

Somin believes the executive branch needs to be limited in its power over immigration policy, because restrictions depend largely on who the president is at the time. I think the ultimate goal, which I dont think is going to be achieved any time soon, is to shift the system so that people should be allowed free entry. Illegal immigration to the United States is prevalent because its extremely difficult to enter any other way, which is why Somin says the system should be liberalized. If we make it easier for people for people who want to live and work here to enter that would eliminate the illegal immigrationproblem.

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What the U.S. Constitution Says About Immigration - WDET