PAYING
ATTENTION! with Tom Duggan
It's time to stand up and help those who
are here legally
Tom Duggan
While the politicians and the American
people debate about what to do with
illegal immigrants and whether or not to
give them a pathway to citizenship,
nobody seems to be doing anything to help
the people who followed the law, did the
right thing and are having a difficult
time navigating the maze of government red tape and
confusing legal requirements to become a
citizen legally ... that is until now.
Sal Lupoli from Sals Riverwalk and
Lawrence Mayor Michael Sullivan have come
up with a plan to assist legal immigrants
by streamlining the process and making it
easier for them to become citizens of the
United States.
We are not talking about a
program to take illegal immigrants and
bring them through the process,
Lupoli said at a press conference last
month. We are talking about legal
immigrants who are working and want to
stay and lead productive lives in the
city of Lawrence and in the United States
of America.
Lupoli said that the pilot program will
help ten employees who are in the country
legally, by providing one-on-one help
with cumbersome and confusing legal
documents, translation services, English
as a Second Language classes, enrolling
them in other educational classes
required for citizenship, and easing the
burden associated with becoming a citizen
of the United States.
A reward, if you will, for doing the
right thing.
Without realizing it, Sal Lupoli and
Mayor Sullivan have touched on something
that, if successful, will have national
implications far beyond helping legal
workers become U.S. citizens.
By paying attention to the needs of legal
immigrants and streamlining the process
for them in a private-public partnership
at the local level, theyve cleared
a hurdle that creates a new incentive for
people to follow the law and come here
legally.
And, if this pilot program is successful,
the Lupoli/Sullivan team will be
contributing something else: clarity on
the national stage where it is
desperately needed.
As the rhetoric about illegals has
intensified over the last several years,
those who favor border enforcement and
deporting illegals have been cleverly
labeled anti-immigrant.
Its a label that has been very
effective in distorting the issue and
clouding the debate. And it has resonated
among immigrants who are being told that
the American people do not want them
here.
By its very existence, this new immigrant
assistance program will show new
immigrants that, as long as they are
willing to go through the process, we are
willing to help them through it.
It will show those who have fallen for
the propaganda that they are not wanted,
that America is a nation that loves
immigrants no matter were they come from
as long as they come here legally.
We are even willing to help them make the
process easier. Well, at least Sal Lupoli
and Mayor Sullivan will, for now.
As someone who has always been staunchly
pro-immigrant, I applaud Mayor Sullivan
and Sal Lupoli as well as Ralph Carerro,
and the rest of the team assembled to
work on this problem.
Their program shows that determination
and effort can solve any problem as long
as there are those who are serious about
clearly defining what the problem is, and
then doing what it takes to get it
resolved.
Tom Duggan is the president of Valley
Patriot, Inc., a former Lawrence School
Committeeman. You can email your comments
to Tdugjr@aol.com .
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