This is amnesty?
Rob Price

Congressman Randy Kuhl was in town last week, meeting constituents in the Liberty Street municipal building in Bath. I expected the conversation to revolve around the immigration bill - a massive piece of legislation that is currently getting picked apart in the U.S. Senate.

And Congressman Kuhl did bring up the issue, estimatiing about 90 percent of voters in his own district opposed the bill's mechanism for allowing illegal immigrants to obtain citizenship. But the issue didn't really appear to be of much interest to the six or seven people who attended the Bath meeting. One or two people suggested we just close the borders and go into a general lock-down mode. And one other person suggested that might be difficult. But aside from that, I didn't detect much interest in the general subject of immigration.

I suppose that shouldn't be surprising. The legislation is more than 400 pages long and immensely complex. I certainly haven't had the time to read the bill. But I did google "immigration bill" the other day and read a synopsis of the legislation. The controversial part of the bill, the part referred to in the general media as the "amnesty" section, boils down to about seven main points, which in the interest of promoting an informed electorate I'm going to summarize for you. Yes, you.

The key point is a particular visa illegal immigrants would be able to obtain under several conditions. Keep in mind there are about 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in this country. If you can think of an easy way of removing them - and if you think you can justify that act on moral grounds - do please drop us a note. Meanwhile, here is the gist of the socalled "amnesty" provision:

+ Illegal immigrants - "undocumented aliens" - may apply for a visa only if they are employed and can prove they've been continuously employed.

+ They must be prepared to pay up to $5,000 in fines once they begin the application process.

+ They must return to their country of origin in order to apply.

+ Their application will be judged on the basis of a merit point system, and they must undergo a background check. Any felony convictions, and they're out.

Does this sound like "amnesty" to you? Wait! there is more.

Visas for illegal immigrants will only become available once a series of benchmarks relating to border security are met. These include:

+ The hiring of 18,000 new border patrol officers.

+ The construction of 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 350 miles of fencing.

+ The construction of 70 radar and camera towers on the southern border.

+ The deployment of four unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to patrol the border.

+ The development of secure identification tools, possibly using retinal scans for ID cards.

In other words, the the admission of currently illegal immigrants would only proceed in tandem with the securing of the borders. If you are particularly concerned with the porous nature of our current border system, you might take some comfort in this bill's authorization of more stringent border controls.

And if you think the bill is a sort of blank check for anyone living illegally in this country, guess again. The pundits who are warning the bill will simply hand the country over to central America's poor and hungry are just trying to scare you.

That's not to say the bill isn't a mishmash. It's possible the legislation contains so many compromises between improving border security and resolving the status of illegal immigrants that it just won't work.

But answering that question requires a more thorough reading of the legislation than I have time for. At this point in the national conversation, I've satisfied myself only that the bill is not a blanket "amnesty" for illegal immigrants.

Instead, the bill attempts to install a series of careful checkpoints through which currently illegal immigrants must pass if they want to improve their legal status.

In short it makes legal immigration just as difficult as it was in the old days, when my own great-grandparents immigrated from Wales and Italy, looking for a better way of life. As a journalist, I kept my mouth shut during Congressman Kuhl's visit last week; if, however, I had spoken, that's what I would have told the congressman.