It is unbelievable that any government worker or private employee who is privy to sensitive information regarding national security and defense who has the kind of background and prior associates as President Obama does, could then become the foci around which all information is collected and delivered. I know for a fact that if citizen Barack Obama were to apply for any government agency or private contractor he would be denied any special access. He would fail qualifications needed to posses a Top Secret clearance. He would not get past the questionnaire, let alone a background check, and certainly he would fail a polygraph test.

• Foreign intelligence services;
• Organizations or people who wish to overthrow or undermine the United States government through unconstitutional means, violent acts, or other terrorist group activities;
• Individuals who:
  • May be susceptible to pressure or improper influence.
  • Have been dishonest or demonstrated a lack of integrity that has caused others to doubt their reliability.

Granted, Presidents are automatically granted full approval by virtue of their position and, of course, from the election process where it is believed he has been fully vetted by the American people.

Obviously that was not the case as is evident from the latest skeleton in our President’s closet. While media hired guns were dispatched to Alaska to dig through Gov. Palin’s trash, then surely a dozen could have been sent just to interview Obama’s known relatives living in the US.

Boston Globe: Obama’s uncle is called a fugitive

FRAMINGHAM – The uncle of President Obama arrested here last week on drunken driving and other charges has been a fugitive from deportation since 1992, according to two federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case.

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Governor Pat Quinn quietly announced Illinois’ formal withdrawal from Secure Communities in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security.  This program, administered through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is fully successful only when state prison systems cooperate with the ICE and the Department of Home land Security.  States can choose to participate by  enabling discovery of the residency status of convicts held in state prisons and alerting ICE of upcoming convict release dates.  According to ICE, this program targets the “worst of the worst”, ensuring that these offenders no longer remain in the United States following their release from prison.

According to the FBI, Illinois ranks near the top in violent crime—number 14 out of the fifty states.  Now instead of ensuring deportation of violent criminals, the governor is choosing to release them into Illinois communities.  Such a policy may also serve to attract more criminals to this state as the risk of deportation following a conviction in Illinois is now significantly reduced.

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So here we are. We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. The rhetoric surrounding the debate is deafening and it seems most of the volume comes from one of two points of view. In the blue corner you have “amnesty” and in the red corner you have “round’em up and throw them out”. Well what if neither of these options provides any realistic or long term solution to the issue faced by having so many people here illegally?

“Amnesty” might be one of the most divisive terms out there right now, but what’s wrong with it? For starters we tried it already, in 1986, when we had about 3 million illegal immigrants. Now we have 11 million illegals. It didn’t work. At best all amnesty does is kick the can down the road until the illegal population builds back up to intolerable levels. We were at the breaking point in the mid eighties and we’re back at the breaking point again. Only now with a lot higher numbers. This policy also creates an atmosphere of disregard for the rule of law, continues to promote entering America through the “backdoor”, and does nothing to deal with the border security issue. And of course it never addresses the economic, social or political impacts of transitioning so many unassimilated people from the shadows to the citizenry.

The “round em up” crowd is just generally mad at an array of things. They think those who came here illegally cut in line, steal their jobs and destroy American culture. They see an incompetent Federal Government that rubs salt in the wound with baskets of welfare goodies passed out indiscriminately.

The main problem with the “round em uppers” is the total implausibility of extracting and deporting 11 million people.

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Recently I sent the paragraphs that follow here to a Texas journal. The editor, no liberal, responded that it’s the best approach to the issue of illegal immigration that he’s seen for a long while.

My challenge to Big Government readers is this: what solution would you propose that is better–that is, that actually works? It does no good to rail that illegal immigrants should not be rewarded for illegal entry. I agree, but what realistically would you do about it, with a proposal that works? Here are my paragraphs:

Two huge aspects bother Texans most about illegal immigration: one, they knowingly break our law in entering the country and get away with it. Two, they generally or often sponge on free health care–especially in emergency rooms and in birthing–and on free education. But there is no way, none, nada that government officials are going to locate, process, try in court, and then deport and follow-up on most of the 1.7 million illegal immigrants in the state [or 11 million in the country].

So what to do realistically? Establish a screening process that enables pathways to citizenship for many. True, they would be rewarded for illegal entry. But by granting citizenship, requiring the payment of fines, and putting them on taxrolls, we get back some of what they took and they pay their fair share of taxes in the future. Otherwise, they simply remain in the shadows, paying little or nothing and taking much. Our getting half a loaf is better than no loaf.

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It’s common knowledge that our immigration system is broken. What follows is an example of how broken it is.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about the case of 41-year-old Anatolie Vartosu. Born and raised in Moldova, Vartosu was required to serve for two years in the former Soviet army. He went on to graduate from Romania’s Sport University with a Master in Sport and went on to teach physical education, ballet and track.

Anatolie Vartosu

A former Olympic marathon qualifier, Vartosu was invited to the US in 2003 to compete in a marathon in Clearwater, Florida and arrived on a six-month tourist visa. Later that same year he ended up in Stamford, Connecticut, where he received immigration sponsorship and a job working for Jack Rabbits Gym in nearby Greenwich. Fellow Romanian immigrant Nicolae Piperea and his business partner, John Schwartz, the owners of Jack Rabbits, were looking to build their gymnastics program to an elite level, making the addition of Vartosu to the staff a natural fit. He received a three-year H1B working visa and his wife, Maria (also from Romania) opened in 2007 what has become a very successful day care program with a business partner.

In March 2006, when he and his employers went to renew his visa, Vartosu was told that he had to wait until October, when he would have to file additional documentation to justify the renewal, which he did. At that point, the 60 days he was told he’d have to wait turned into six months. After placing a call to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in April 2007, he was instructed to further file the I-29 (an internal status query) and told to wait another 60 days, which turned into yet another filing of the I-29 and a further 60 day wait.

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