SECOND OPINION : INDIA-WEST : Skip the Green Card, Go Straight to Citizen

Without any doubt, immigrants, who are now mostly people of color, are being made scapegoats for society’s ills. Politicians such as Gov. Pete Wilson came from behind to win election by supporting anti-immigrant initiatives. Immigrants, both legal and illegal, have now become not just second-class but third-class residents of this country. And yet only a few voices are being raised to protect the rights of these people. Democrats who have in the past championed the cause of people of color and immigrants seem to have been stifled and numbed by their loss in the 1994 elections.

There does not seem to be any particular benefit to people who are granted permanent resident status when they surely will be treated as foreigners, no matter how long they have lived here. Their loyalties are often perceived as divided between this country and the land of their birth. It appears that the permanent resident visa has outlived its usefulness. It should be abolished.

People who aspire to migrate to this country, qualify to come here and can produce papers that permit them a legal entry to the United States of America--provided this country is in need of their talent and skills--should initially be granted a five-year visa. The visa could be renewed at the end of this period for showing cause and meeting certain established criteria. (But) under normal circumstances all these people should convert their immigrant status to citizenship and become full participants in the society.

From a commentary by Rajen S. Anand in India-West, a weekly published Fridays in Emeryville.