4/07/2006

Question about Illegal Alien Bill in Senate

Apparently one of the provisions in the new bill would make it so that illegals could prove that they have been in the country for at least five years and thus be eligible for citizenship. To prove this residency, illegals can provide electric utility bills or other similar documentation. I am not sure who keeps their utility bills for five years plus, but there is another problem. Whatever one thinks about illegals becoming citizens, there is a side issue of possible forgery regarding these documents. An incredibly straightforward solution is that any such documentation would have to be checked by the screening agency with the company that issued the original document and that there would be a criminal penalty if the company altered documents. If there are additional concerns, possibly three types of documentation could be required. Pretty simple, and it would solve many concerns. For some reason though I don't think that the bill will contain this provision.

2 Comments:

Blogger Jay.Mac said...

Given the numbers involved it seems doubtful that documentation like this will receive more than a cursory glance.

Especially if millions of illegal immigrants decide to take up the program immediately.

I take it there's no cut off date for the amnesty applications to be sent in?

4/08/2006 4:56 AM  
Blogger John Lott said...

Thanks for the points. I guess that there are two responses. Just setting it up so that there is some type of check may prevent some fraud. In addition, there may be millions, but they will be spread out over the entire country and they will be spread out over many different types of documents. 5 million over 10 states and say 5 types of documentation reduces the number of checks to 100,000. What is the percentage of customers that these companies will have in these areas? That is still a lot and the process will be slowed and the government should reimburse them for the cost of double checking the documents, but it seems doable.

4/08/2006 1:47 PM  

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