H.R. 42, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Latin Americans of Japanese Descent Act, has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office. It’s cost is pretty close to zero. (One penny for a family of seven.)

As the name suggests, the bill would set up a commission to study the treatment of Latino and Japanese people during World War II.

When I went to put the cost information in the database, I noticed an unusually high vote against the bill, but no comments indicating why.

I’m eager to learn! Voting against? Why? Or maybe there should just be more votes in favor.

All that is up to you. Here is the current vote on H.R. 42. (At the time of this writing, it was 8% for, 92% against.) Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article about the bill.

On Sunday, 60 Minutes replayed a story about immigrants who have married American citizens, but whose spouses have died before the interview to prove their marriage to the Department of Homeland Security.

In some cases, mothers of citizen children are at risk of deportation – and either taking their children to a strange country or leaving the child behind to be raised by other relatives.

A couple of bills would address these situations.

H.R. 182 would provide discretionary authority to immigration judges to decide that the alien parent of a United States citizen child does not have to deported.

S. 815 would allow surviving spouses to petition for treatment as immediate family members under the immigration laws, which would generally allow them to stay in the United States.

What say you? Should surviving spouses get to stay in their adopted land and the land of their loved one? Or should they go?

Here are the current votes on H.R. 182 and S. 815. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki articles about the bills.

One of the dumbest bills I’ve seen in a while was introduced in Congress this week. H.R. 6975 would require aliens to attest that they will not advocate installing a Sharia law system in the United States as a condition of their admission to our country.

First, there’s the simple bureaucratic nonsense of administering this thing: We’re going to ask every Christian, Catholic, Zen Buddhist, and Hindu not to advocate traditional Islamic law? What an utterly stupid waste of time. I don’t want a penny of my money going to pay for this.

But more importantly, a law like this communicates precisely the wrong thing to new immigrants and the world at large. It tells the world that we’re a weak, fearful country, and that we believe Sharia law is possible in the United States. It tells the world that we’ve come off our traditional moorings and that we no longer believe in free speech and tolerance of all opinions, no matter how wrong.

Let’s talk substance, just in case one or two of you out there are weak and fearful: There is no possibility – none – that Sharia law will be established in the United States. Not by any government body at any level. This country can stand to have Sharia advocated by whatever tiny minority might want to – without any risk. In fact, allowing such discussion will help dispel whatever small demand there could be for Sharia, because it would be so obviously incompatible with our way of life.

Whoever introduced this bill doesn’t understand our country’s strength or what this great country is all about.

Here’s the current vote on H.R. 6975. Click to vote, comment (expressions of fear, and advocacy of Sharia law welcome!), learn more, or edit the wiki article about the bill.

Debate is running fast and furious on H.R. 5924, The Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act. The bill would increase the number of nurses and physical therapists that are allowed to immigrate into the country.

The bill apparently responds to a shortage of nurses in the country, but there are many commenters who don’t trust foreign nurses, assuming their poor language skills or training, or perhaps wishing to keep them out because they could lower the wages of U.S. nurses. From what little I know, we could use more nurses in the country, and concerns with language or training are for the hospitals and health systems that might hire them to worry about – not for the immigration laws to take care of.

One of the people who seems not to like the idea of immigrant nurses is a commenter identified as “Sam.” Sam’s jab at foreign nurses is a pretty good joke. But maybe it’s inappropriate. Depends on the spirit in which it’s intended, I suppose. Here it is:

The Immigration Officer said, “Sindhu, you have passed all the tests so far, there is only one test left. Unless you pass it you cannot stay in the United States of America. Make a sentence using the words, Yellow, Pink and Green.”

Sindhu said, “The telephone goes green, green, green, and I pink it up, and say, ‘Yellow, this is Sindhu.”’

Make your own judgement about the joke. And make your own judgement about whether we should have more nurses in the country. Here’s the current vote on H.R. 5924, The Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article about the bill:

I’ve been thinking for months about starting this blog, but one of the things that really got me moving was a recent comment on a bill that increased the number of Iraqi and Afghani translators and interpreters allowed into the United States. Our service members call them “‘terps” for short.

Whether you’re good, bad, or indifferent on our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, there’s no question that local people working with our military are doing quite a service. Sure, the money may be good compared to their options, but my guess is that they’re motivated at least in part by the ideals that our country stands for. They do it at risk to their own lives, of course, and the lives of their families.

In January 2006, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 created a special immigrant visa (”SIV”) for Iraqi and Afghan translators working with the U.S. military. But only 50 per year. Just 50. Last year, Public Law 110-36 expanded that number to 500 per year for two years. That lasts until October of this year, when the number will go back to 50.

There are a couple of bills in Congress to increase the numerical limits on translators again. And there are others to give support to Iraqi refugees.

I don’t know what the exact number should be, or all the answers on refugees. Here’s what caught my eye, though, from the comments on Public Law 110-36:

I am a United States Army NCO and I whole heartedly support the SIV Program. I have already sponsored 5 from Afghanistan, 2 already here and 3 more waiting for quota slots to open. I’ve gotten both here on the ground their green cards, SSAN [ed. SSN?], and jobs… they have since moved out of my house to make room for my next 3 and they are doing great. Most of the “TERPS” have friends who will sponsor them at their own expense (like myself) and the government need not spend anything. It’s just the right thing to do for those who have helped us…

We know what servicemember pay is like. We know that members of our military are already discharging their patriotic duty. But here’s an NCO who goes even further and gives space in his home to people in need, people who have already served the U.S., and who want to live a little bit of the American dream.

Why does he help them? “It’s just the right thing to do . . .”

Americans like this make me proud to be an American.