Polish American Journal Editorial

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EDITORIAL / February 2012
www.polamjournal.com

What About Poland, Mr. Schumer?

On December 12, 2011, New York Senator Chuck Schumer introduced a bill which, if enacted, would give Ireland another visa windfall. S-1983 would create a new visa category for businessmen and certain other professionals to work in the United States. The bill is modeled on the current E-3 visa, a special visa category created in May 2005 that sets aside 10,500 visas each year for young Australian professionals. Most people concede that visa was a reward for Australia slogging alongside the United States in the war in Iraq. S-1983 would extend the program to include the Irish. Schumer has two heavyweight co-sponsors: Vermont Senator Pat Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the Democrat Senate whip.

Irish immigration activists sometimes claim that the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act resulted in fewer immigrants from Ireland while enhancing immigration opportunities from other parts of the world. One could reply that U.S. immigration law before 1965 was skewed in favor of Western and Northern Europeans (read Irish and English), to the disadvantage of others, including Poles. However, various key senators and congressmen have always made it their business to keep Ireland’s interests at heart. Remember the original visa lottery program? For years, it set aside 40% of available visas for Ireland. Did the Good Friday Agreement help solve the North-South conflict in Ireland? It did, but the U.S. also offered a generous helping of visas to “promote cross-community understanding.” Now Schumer-Leahy-Durbin would like to fast track the latest Irish relief scheme, with some indication that they might try to tack it on to an immigration bill that passed the House by a large, bipartisan vote

We wish our Irish colleagues well. At the same time, we return to the question: what about Poland?

Getting Poland into the Visa Waiver Program doesn’t seem on anybody’s fast track, even though two of the three senators sponsoring S-1983 have significant numbers of Polish Americans living in their States. E3 visas were a reward for Australia’s presence in Iraq; Poland was there, too. Warsaw expended considerable political capital to show its alliance with Washington. One might note that Ireland studiously kept out of World War II, is not a NATO member, and has scrupulously been wary of any common European security program that might in the least question Dublin’s vaunted neutrality. So while we respect our Irish colleagues, what’s in this proposal for America? Or, based on Poland’s example, if you stand by Washington we’ll ignore you, but if you keep your distance, we’ll gladly reward you?

Again, we wish our Irish colleagues well. They saw a political opportunity and are running with it. But if S-1983 is to be attached to must-pass legislation, then it’s time that Polish Visa Waiver also gets attached to must-pass legislation. Leaving Polish Visa Waiver to separate legislation is to consign it to oblivion: it’s no skin off any Senator’s nose to introduce a bill for which he gets kudos, takes pictures with adoring members of the affected group’s leaders, and then lets his proposal die in committee. It’s time to tell Senators Schumer, Durbin, and Leahy: what about us? Polish Visa Waiver might fare a lot better if the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the Senate majority whip, and New York’s senior senator made it their priority, too.

It’s also time to tell Polonia’s leaders, especially the Polish American Congress and its state divisions, that it’s time to build inter-ethnic alliances with groups like Irish Americans. We have common problems, but it seems they have the ethnic leadership. It’s time we got smart..

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