Florida newspaper says state would benefit from US immigration reform
March 08 2010 by Liam Clifford
A recent report in a Florida newspaper argues that the state would benefit from a modernised approach to US immigration.
The Sun
Sentinal believes that “Florida, with a record high unemployment rate and
dormant economy, stands to gain much from [immigration reform].”
Since
the two failed attempts to reform the US visa system in 2004 and 2006, there has
been “a severe economic recession” and a country-wide crackdown on illegal
immigrants. Despite this, America’s total number of illegal immigrants has only
decreased from 12 million in 2007 to nearly 11 million now.
The Sun
Sentinal’s Editorial Board believes that a different approach to immigration is
needed: “What this Editorial Board and many others consistently said throughout
the last decade remains true: The arguments in favour of deporting or creating
conditions harsh enough to substantially whittle the number of undocumented
immigrants were unfounded and unrealistic".
“Instead, America has much to
gain from a sensible, practical and fair resolution of the immigration
quandary.”
Among the proposals put forward by the newspaper are:
modernising the US visa system for foreign tourists and investors; introducing a
specialist retirement visa to enable affluent citizens of other countries to
live in the US after retirement; and legalising the status of many of the
country’s illegal immigrants in order to allow them to legally work in the US,
increasing tax revenues.
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