The immigration bill being considered by Congress isn”™t producing a whole lot of enthusiasm from one Danbury businessman ”“ an illegal immigrant who became an American citizen and sees the issue from both sides.
“The fact they are willing to finally do something is good for the country,” said Wilson Hernandez, owner of La Mitad del Mundo restaurant in downtown Danbury and vice president of the Ecuadorian Civic Center. “Unfortunately, everybody is just calculating how this bill will affect their political careers,” he said. “It troubles me that this is not going to be the best bill our Congress can offer to the country.”
The bill may not be that bad, however, said Michael Boyle, an immigration lawyer with offices in Danbury and New Haven. “It”™s mixed, although I think the amnesty part, the legalization part, is quite good. But it”™s very slow and expensive. But wages are higher here in Connecticut,” so immigrants should be able to afford the fines and fees, he said.
“I would like to see some of the bill changed or fixed and see less emphasis on enforcement, which I think is incredible overkill,” he said. “But if they do the legalization part right, the whole bill makes sense.”
“One of the problems with the bill is that many people will die waiting for the chance to become legal residents,” Hernandez said. Danbury has an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 illegal immigrants, most of whom, he said, dream of becoming American citizens. But “it”™s too high a dream to become citizens. They know that”™s impossible because they know how others are having problems in this country.”
”˜Broken”™
“We know the system is broken,” he said. “Our president, no matter what you think of him, has been saying for years that we need to reform this law because the system is broken. He”™s been consistent in that.”
Hernandez came to the United States illegally in 1985 and “decided to stay in this country in 1988 and took advantage of what was possible at that moment, amnesty.” He became a legal resident in 1988 and a citizen 12 years later in 2000. “It doesn”™t happen immediately,” he said. “The process takes years.”
It took Hernandez seven years to bring his wife and youngest son into the country legally, and that happened only after “my congressman from my district in Long Island where I was living helped me because it was taking so long,” he said. “It”™s not easy to bring your family here. I”™m not saying we should have immediate entry for our relatives or family. We need to have a process. I do understand that. But we should expedite the process somehow.”
The bill before Congress, he said, doesn”™t do that: “One of the problems with the bill is that it takes years to become a legal resident. That”™s absurd.”
It does take time, Boyle said. “The process is slow, very slow. It will probably be eight to 10 years before most people can get green cards,” and that timetable only begins after the enforcement pieces are put in place. “Nothing kicks in until all the enforcement things are done.”
But “it does appear this bill is really going some place. On one level, its an historic opportunity to do something sensible and responsible about the 10 million to 15 million people here illegally,” he said. “Doing it in a lame-duck period works well because it insulates everybody” from any political fallout, he said.
