by Renee Dawson

Created on: August 10, 2007

"Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, ...send these the homeless the tempest tossed to me..."

These words are inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. At one time in our country's history they may have been true. Today the immigration process is totally the opposite. A person cannot immigrate to the United States to make a better life for their families. There are just a few ways a person can actually get a green card.

1. Be very talented or have an exceptional ability to do a job that no American can or perhaps will do. For example: Celine Dion and Sammy Sosa can immigrate because they have exceptional talent. Albert Einstein could immigrate...he was brilliant.

2. Be very rich and start a business or invest in a business to bring in a significant amount of money to the United States.

3. Marry an American. (Don't forget to be heterosexual, because the USA does not recognize same sex relationships.) The relationship has to be a valid relationship and they will monitor you and your spouse for years to make sure that it is.

4. Win the Green Card lottery.

5. Be Cuban and lucky enough to survive the trip over to Florida and step on dry ground.

6. Be persecuted by your own government for something that the USA thinks is important enough so you can claim asylum. For instance, to escape Communism. (If you are a woman and being sexually mutilated, this is not a reason)

7. Have a close relative who is an American or Legal Citizen sponsor the person wanting to immigrate. This is not always granted.

With these limited options to immigrate to the USA, what is a regular person from (let's just say) Iceland supposed to do if they want to come to the United States to work and be a good citizen?

What if an American woman falls in love with a regular German woman and they want to live together in the United States? Under current laws, this is not possible and bi-national couples must remain apart.

We need kinder and gentler laws regarding immigration. We need to allow people who wish to contribute to society positively, who wish to breathe free, we need to allow those who are in love, we need to allow the good people of the world who wish to be here in the United States, a better way to be here. I am not saying that we should open our borders to every single person. There needs to be checks and balances on these laws, of course. Those who commit crimes need to be put on the first plane back to their homelands. Those who are good people should be allowed to stay.

We all can trace our roots back to somewhere else. We are Americans and we should thank God that we have been born in the greatest nation in the world. We should be able to share this with those who would like to be here in this great land.

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