Immigration reform at last!

On June 5, 2008 the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor, 20 to 3, and the bill has been committed to the Committee of the Whole House.

In its “background and need for the legislation” the Committee acknowledged the extremely limited supply of H1-B non-resident visas available to foreign professionals.  That the exceeding demand for visas “bumping up against the numerical cap” was actually discouraging qualified workers from applying.

The Committee boldly asserted that “The current visa structure hurts American commercial interests; undermines our Nation’s leadership role…” in some industries.

It also made clear that unattended demands for more visas would force affected industries to relocate outside the United States, and that ‘the American economy suffers” with the consequent loss of taxes, with Americans displaced by local talent in offshore locations, an that other Americans who support those industries “would lose employment opportunities.”

Finally the Committee “strongly urges the Department of State” to facilitate visa reciprocity and the elimination of any hurdles in executing this reform.

What a sensible piece of legislation. Both parties in Congress finally seem to rally in favor of a much needed immigration reform after the 2006 debacle and the inhuman and costly, only second to the war in Iraq, federal clamp on immigration.

There is a caveat though that has no relation with the already convoluted definition of an immigrant being of “good moral character” akin say to being a model citizen, or a model student.

Bill H.R. 4080 is meant, “to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to establish a separate nonimmigrant classification for FASHION MODELS.”(sic)
Mind you, not just any fashion models of course, the bill specifically calls for applicants with “distinguished merit and ability”, and only for productions and organizations having “a distinguished reputation.”

We guess Jewish-American poet Emma Lazarus, author of the famous poem engraved on a plaque in the Statute of Liberty didn’t anticipate such a turn of events when she wrote “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Emma pleaded for Jewish-Russian immigrants but overlooked the tired and poor but good-looking fashion models.

As a world power we seem to have acquired an unfortunate penchant for saying empty grandiose things such as promising freedom and justice hither and thither.

We call the war in Iraq “operation Enduring Freedom”, and we deeply care for Immigrant… Fashion Models.