HoodaThunk?

The Salvadoran Consulate is worried these days. That’s because of the 225,000 Salvadorans living in the US that are elligible for temporary protected status (TPS) about half are dangerously close to the deadline for filing for an extension. Without that extension those folks will become illegal residents by this Friday and would be required to leave the United States. Or, more likely, be apprehended by ICE and deported.

The TPS is valid for a year and in past years the Consulate had received half of the applications within the first 2 months of the renewal period. This year, it’s down to the last week and they’ve only now crossed the halfway mark. Any idea why?

Immigrant advocates attributed the low turnout to a raft of reasons: summertime languor, a culture of putting off tasks, even soccer. Many Salvadorans, they said, believe a path to permanent residency will soon clear Congress, which remains deadlocked on immigration legislation.

Earth to you Salvadorans: the “immigrant advocates” in this country who trotted you guys out in California and Chicago and fed you stories about how Congress would never get serious about immigration enforcement have seriously misled you. Congress will no sooner put a permanent citizenship path in place by Friday than they will unanimously vote to revoke their own paychecks.

This situation has, however, offered a wonderful opportunity for the rest of us to see what’s coming with that temporary worker program the President has been touting. Faced with a hard deadline to simply file for an extension of their status, this rather large group of “temporary protected status” individuals have decided to simply not bother. Someone else will do the work necessary for them to just stay, they’re sure. No need to get off their own duffs at all. Any day now, yessir, it’ll be any day now.

And if such action in Congress doesn’t come to pass? Is anyone even briefly going to suggest that these 112,000 or so Salvadorans will voluntarily leave? I think not. They’ll stay, in violation of the law, and those same “immigrant advocates” will demand that the deadline be turned into a “suggested-line” and that those same people who were just too darned busy to comply with the law be allowed to make their applications late. This is the shape of things to come, ladies & gentlemen, should we start doing this en masse. “Temporary” workers will come in, miss their extensions, and just stay under the cover of advocates who demand special treatment for people who have no intention of following the law. Until someone shows me they’re serious about enforcing these laws – and this would be a dandy opportunity to do so – I’ve got no reason to think such a program as the temporary worker program will be anything but an unmitigated disaster.