Recently the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (2000) has finally been implemented. I don’t think this is a good thing. According to the Act, illegal aliens can apply for special visas if they have been the victim of a violent crime in the United States. The visa last four years, and if the person lives in the U.S. continuously for 3 years, they can then apply for a green card. According to the law 10,000 “U” visas can be given every year.
The purpose of the act is to “encourage illegal immigrants to report crimes against them in return for the right to remain in the United States and eventually apply for permanent residency.”
Wow! So if I want U.S. citizenship, all I have to do is be a crime victim and testify against the perpetrator. The delay in implementing this Act has been in large part because of the concerns of the Department of Justice and government bureaucracy. I can certainly see why they would have concerns.
The advocates of this Act say it helps our government gather “information and cooperation” in order to “solve the crimes and prevent future crimes”. They claim it gives “peace of mind and an opportunity for a new life” to the crime victim.
Anyone who cannot see potential abuses of this Act must be blind. Besides that, why in the world should we give an illegal alien, someone committing a crime, the “jackpot of a green card” just because they testify in court? It sounds like another backhanded way to give amnesty to illegal aliens to me.
Roxana Hegeman, an Associated Press Writer quotes Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in her article about the subject. He says he would think the victims should be offered a temporary visa, not “the jackpot of a green card.” This approach makes a lot more sense, but it is still too much for some.
Hegeman quotes Ed Hays (Kansas director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps) as opposing the program in total. What about the multitude of American citizens who have been victims of “crimes committed by illegal immigrants” which greatly outnumber the illegal immigrant victims? He said, “If they are here illegally, they broke the law. If they become a victim, I am sorry for them. They should testify and then go home.”
While I agree its unlikely illegal aliens are going to risk testifying or even reporting violent crime against them, offering citizenship in exchange for their cooperation makes no sense. Exchanging one type of abuse (illegal immigration) for another (false testimony or false accusations) shouldn’t be an option. Unfortunately, 8,301 illegal aliens along with their families have already received an interim form of the “U” visa wile they apply for the other visas.
Eleutero Rodriguez Ruiz is one of those petitioning. In his story, he and 6 other people were “held at gunpoint at an Arizona rest stop by an Army reservist as they were crossing illegally into the United States.” Huh? What? I can’t even wrap my mind around this! He breaks into the country illegally and because someone tried to stop him, he may be granted a green card? The reservist wasn’t even prosecuted because he’s allowed to make a citizen arrest when someone commits a felony.
Of course there are some people pushing for the rights of these poor victims’ who were assaulted’ for breaking and entering, but that’s just par for the course in the U.S. lately. I’m sorry they’re poor. I don’t wish them harm. But what makes them so special they don’t have to follow the law just like everyone else? This is just one more in a long line of attempts to offer amnesty to illegal aliens.
Grassroots attempts to block amnesty type programs has stemmed the tide somewhat in the Federal arena, but thanks to Acts like this, they will probably wind up citizens through more underhanded means. Let me know when our world turns right side up again.