Part Three 829 words
The Recipe for Perfect Immigration Policy
Congress scattered the ingredients across several bills
We can register every illegal, secure our borders, reduce USCIS caseloads, and even fix Social Security, all without driving down wages, taking citizens' jobs, straining welfare, rolling up the welcome mat at the Statue of Liberty, or erasing "love thy neighbor as thyself" from the American character 

By Dave Leach (Dave Leach is listed in “Who’s Who in Media and Communications”. Contact: HispanicHope@Saltshaker.US.
Translation into Spanish by Gabriela G. Buenrostro, former newspaper and magazine journalist and writer, and former host Zero Radio Show in Mexico City. (Write to her at Gabriela@Saltshaker.US)
Part 3: The Details of the Dream Immigration Bill.
Are you ready to write your Congressmen? Are you ready to write the President? Are you ready to write to this newspaper, and to discuss with friends, how the United States can solve its borders chaos? Our goal is a bill that will give immigrants a chance and yet satisfy immigrants' worst critics.
The Dream Bill.A perfect immigration law can be constructed out of details already written in bills from the 2003-2004 Congress, but assembled in this order: (This is actually a brief overview of the most important details; a more thorough discussion of details of bills from the 2003-2004 session is found at www.Saltshaker.US/HispanicHope/Recipe.htm.)
Point System. From S1387: a "point system" for LPR applications. (LPR stands for Legal Permanent Residency, popularly called "the green card", which permits an immigrant to legally work.) The Point System would put applicants at the head of the LPR line who:
* earn a solid work history, as measured by promotions and pay raises
* master English
* stay out of jail
* stay off welfare (this was not a requirement of S1387, but it was of S1645)
* become educated
The "obey the law" requirement should be clarified to include compliance with USCIS law, weighted so that for as long as violations of the new law continue, LPR will not be available, and points will continue being subtracted; while violations of the old law will cost only enough points to neutralize the advantage in points, which current illegals will have over applicants from abroad, because of the time they have had here to master English.
The education requirement is the key to turning our large population of disenfranchised human beings into an economic asset for our nation, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report "The High Cost of Cheap Labor", released August 25,2004. The study finds that undocumented immigrants receive about half as much welfare as citizens -- contrary to popular perceptions; that what they use is almost all for their children who are citizens; and that about 55% of them pay taxes. But the taxes they pay is less than the welfare they receive for their citizen children, because their low education (65% do not have high school diplomas) keeps them in low paying jobs. Merely making them legal will increase their tax payments by 77%, but that will not be enough, because they will qualify for much more welfare than that, again because their low education keeps them in need. (More details in Part Three.)
However, if the Point System makes education a condition of LPR, they will get educated! But our education goals need to go beyond making them rich. As they move towards political enfranchisement, we need them to understand what makes our country work.
The education requirement should be clarified to incorporate President Bush's vision of making understanding, of the principles of American freedom and prosperity, a condition of citizenship: "We must ensure that new citizens know not only the facts of our history, but the ideals that have shaped our history. Every citizen of America has an obligation to learn the values that make us one nation: liberty and civic responsibility, equality under God, and tolerance for others.".
What does keep us free and prosperous? "Equality under God", Bush says. Our form of government, in three words. Equality of opportunity for all, because the New Testament commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and even the Old Testament tells us to apply the same law to the "stranger" (foreigner) as to citizens, remembering that "ye were strangers in the land of Egypt"; or, we might say today, "you would be the children of illegal aliens yourselves, had your fathers, when they came to America, been forced to climb over the quotas you impose on your Southern neighbors today." Minnesota Congressman Mark Kennedy's website has an article that says it this way: "Like it or not, Americans will have to live with the fact that while these newcomers are here illegally, they're not going to be deported. They are not fearsome aliens, just the latest iteration in an ongoing immigration drama in which, not too long ago, our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were the protagonists."
Next week: What DOES keep us free and prosperous?