Articles
Guest Commentary: Foreign business owners need a path to citizenship too
Nina Mold
As the economy plummets and unemployment figures soar, the United States needs entrepreneurs more than ever before. It’s a fact that almost half the American work force is employed by small business owners, and a lesser known fact that a large proportion of those small business owners are foreign nationals. The irony is that regardless of time spent in the United States, success of the business or number of people employed, those foreign nationals (E2 investors) have no path to permanent residence.
Due to the failure of consecutive administrations to address this enigma, would-be investors are now turning to Australia, Canada and other countries where their contributions to the economy are recognized, appreciated and rewarded.
At my small enterprise in Naples, I employ five full-time and four part-time U.S. citizens. I can offer them decent pay, good working conditions and my appreciation for their skills and loyalty. What I cannot offer them is the thing they need most in the current economic climate — job security.
Each time I have to leave the country to renew my visa, it’s very stressful for all of us. Should my renewal be denied for any reason, my family and I will lose everything we have, and my employees will join the ranks of the unemployed.
This scenario is played out every day across America, as the thousands of E2 investors, their families and their employees walk a tightrope of uncertainty. If these investors had a path to permanent residence, there’s little doubt they would invest further and create more jobs.
Some investors come here and find the lifestyle is not for them. Others discover they were not cut out to run a business. But the vast majority of us, who jumped through all the hoops to come here legally, have worked hard to succeed and feel we have earned our chance at the American dream.
To their shame, U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, U.S. Reps. Connie Mack IV and Mario Diaz-Balart, as well as Gov. Charlie Crist and a myriad of other Florida politicians who claim to be interested in reform and have been approached for help, have declined.
The fact that Florida is the destination of choice for large numbers of E2 investors is, seemingly, of little interest to them, even though so many of their constituents are directly affected.
Only U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Lakeland, has shown any willingness to support our cause, and our appreciation of that support knows no bounds.
As a new administration takes the helm and attempts to steer the country into calmer waters, I hope the opportunity to pursue citizenship is offered, not just to those who entered illegally, but also to those who abided by the laws of the land and paid dearly for the right to be here.
You can add your support by signing the online petition at E2Reform.org.
Thank you.
______________________________________________________________________________________
7:01 p.m., Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Letter of the Day: For some strange reason
Editor, Daily News:
Letter-writer Ron Kick is correct in saying “It is the entrepreneur who has made this country great.”
I am one of many thousands of foreign nationals who came to the United States on E2 (entrepreneur) visas.
E2 investors purchase small businesses and employ American citizens. Our contribution to the economy is considerable and over 50,000 Americans are employed by E2 visa holders in Florida alone.
Both presidential candidates have promised (threatened?) to create a path to citizenship for the millions of illegal aliens and their children. Both have stated repeatedly that America welcomes legal immigrants, but seem blissfully ignorant of the facts surrounding their statements.
Foreign nationals are welcome to invest their life savings here and welcome to create employment for citizens. However, we are not welcome to become citizens ourselves. For some strange reason that no one can explain, we are barred from becoming permanent residents.
When the new administration begins the amnesty, I hope it will make provisions for those of us who followed the rules, abided by the law and came here legally.
Otherwise, those of us who paid dearly for the privilege of living and working in our beloved America will be forced to allow our visas to elapse and become illegal, just so we can stay!
Nina Mold, Naples
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/aug/20/letters-editor-august-21-2008/
______________________________________________________________________________________
Putnam Speaks to Area Council
The lawmaker says he will return for the new post office ribbon-cutting.
By MICHAEL W. FREEMAN
THE REPORTER EDITOR
Published: Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 11:42 p.m.
POINCIANA | When U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, made a stop in Poinciana last week, he used the opportunity to remind local residents in this sprawling community that he expects soon to help them celebrate the opening of a brand new post office to help relieve the long lines at the current, smaller one.
U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, right, chats with community resident Fernado Valverde before Putnam’s town hall meeting at Solivita on Aug. 13.
The grand opening is expected to happen either very late this year or early in 2009, and “I look forward to being back here to cut the ribbon on your new post office,” Putnam said as he addressed members of the Poinciana Area Council during its monthly meeting at Solivita.
In some ways, the post office helps symbolize the situation facing the entire state of Florida. As Putnam noted, times are difficult right now, but help is on the way.
Putnam said he knows that Poinciana residents have waited years for relief from the federal government, hoping the U.S. Postal Service would build a new, larger post office to replace the current one that the congressman said is “not adequate for a community this size.” The project got stalled in 2005, when the funds set aside for it got diverted to the relief efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina, but the Polk County congressman was able to get the funding back on track last year.
Likewise, Putnam said he knows Floridians are feeling besieged by high insurance costs that have resulted from the busy storm seasons in 2004 and 2005, and from the prolonged slump in the state’s housing market. But he added that relief may be on the way on both those fronts, too.
Putnam, who serves on Congress’ Finance Committee, said he’s working to help create a National Catastrophic fund, which would pool financial resources to enable states to better cope with natural disasters.
Ever since the hurricanes that struck Florida in 2004 and 2005, residents of the Sunshine State have seen their insurance costs skyrocket, and even though no storms struck Florida in the past two years, those costs keep rising, particularly along coastal areas.
When storms strike, Putnam said, “It’s obvious as a nation we will send money to areas of the country hit by natural disaster.” But he said the federal government needs to follow the example of the business community, which pools funding to help individual companies handle unexpected disaster costs.
“We need to build a risk model for it and share that risk,” Putnam said. “In doing that, it helps to level the playing field.”
Putnam said he also expects Florida’s beleaguered housing market to benefit from the housing bill that President Bush signed July 30, designed in part to assist homeowners facing foreclosure in the next few years.
The bill provides $300 billion in new loan authority for the federal government to help prop up mortgages for troubled homeowners, plus $3.9 billion for communities to fix up foreclosed properties. Another $15 billion is provided in the form of tax cuts, which include an expanded low-income housing tax credit.
Putnam said the housing crisis is unique in that Florida is disproportionately affected.
“Certainly for all of my life, when the nation has had an economic downturn, Florida has weathered it,” Putnam said. But this time, he added, “The average of foreclosures is far higher in Florida than in the rest of the nation.”
The need to pass the bill became more urgent, he noted, when U.S. mortgage industry giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae began facing serious financial worries because of the nation’s credit crunch and rising foreclosure rate.
“What put us over the top in getting a housing bill passed - and it was far from being a perfect bill - was the near-collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Putnam said. “They write 60 percent of all home mortgages in the country. If Fannie and Freddie collapse, you will see a ripple effect of other banks failing.”
But this bill isn’t just designed to help big institutions, Putnam said, because it includes provisions allowing some eligible homeowners to cancel their old mortgage loans and to replace them with 30-year fixed-rate loans for up to 90 percent of their house’s current value.
“This is not about helping condo flippers or Wall Street, but saving the very foundation of our nation’s economy,” he said.
During the PAC meeting, Putnam also got a reminder that Central Florida is increasingly home to a large number of British visitors, homeowners and business owners. Despite their investments in the local economy, they often face challenges from U.S. immigration officials, despite coming here legally.
Allan R. Collins came to the Poinciana area from the United Kingdom, and he now runs a business - Accent Golf Cars in Kissimmee - and is active with PAC. He said that despite the legal status of the Britons who come here, they often have to pay huge fees and to jump hoops in order to remain here.
“You touched on immigration reform, which is close to my heart,” Collins said. “Is there any light at the end of the tunnel for honest citizens like me to become acceptable?”
Putnam said the answer is maybe, and hopefully.
“Unfortunately, the legal immigration aspects of this debate have been swept into the illegal-immigrant aspects,” he said.
Fierce political differences over how to handle the millions of illegal immigrants now living in the U.S. brought a halt to the entire discussion, he said, making it virtually impossible to discuss fairness for legal immigrants who are benefitting the U.S. economy.
“The only way to solve the illegal-immigration issue is to have a serious legal-immigrant program,” Putnam said. “You have been swept up into this overall immigration fight, and I’m hopeful we can deal with that next year, when things settle down a bit.”
http://www.theledger.com/article/20080821/REPORTER/808210314/1001/news36
______________________________________________________________________________________
The Naples News published 2 other articles featuring Nina Mold
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/dec/30/immigrants-families-get-tripped-e-2-visas/
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/nov/10/guest_commentary_we_wonder_why_we_are_not_welcome/
Zoe wrote a letter to the Emigrate America Newspaper, which was published in the May 2008 edition. At the moment, we are not able to add a link so here is the letter in full.
Us E2 Visa Holders are so excited when we get our pathway to a new life in the US. After waiting and waiting for our visas to come through, finally that exciting life is within our grasp. We arrive in our new homes and straight away have to jump 
right in to so many things – schools for the kids, Social Security numbers, cars, employees, customers – the list is endless!! Eventually we settle down and the US becomes our home. But as we all know, the US can never really be our home – we can’t retire here, as we have to be running a successful business in order to get that dreaded renewal, and our children are no longer covered by the visa when they reach 21. We have to look at other, increasingly uncertain, ways of them being able to stay here with us. We all knew that when we came, but the reality of it doesn’t hit you till you’ve been living here for a while and you realize how much you want to stay forever.
The E2 Visa is a Non Immigrant Visa, which at the moment means we can’t apply for Green Cards, but what if that was to change? After all in 2002, the law changed to allow spouses to be able to get Work Authorization and find jobs. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that a much more far reaching change could be in sight? Certainly not, thought Congresswoman Heather Wilson, a Republican from New Mexico, when she met a family who had lived in her district for over 16 years on an E2 and faced exactly these problems. So she did something about it and put forward a Bill that would start to bring about a change. After reaching certain criteria, there would be 3000 Green Cards made available to E2 visa holders each year – OK not as many as we would have hoped for, but a start!! Unfortunately the Bill didn’t make it very far and has only had two other Co-Sponsors among the hundreds of Members of Congress here in the US. A lot more interest is needed to have any hope of the Bill becoming law.
So a small group of us have got together, published a website and started an Online Petition. The website is www.E2Reform.org and the petition can be reached either via the website or directly at www.petitiononline.com/E2Reform/petition.html . The petition is going really well and in time we will be sending it to Congress to see if it will make them take us more seriously.
So please take a look at the website, which will give you a lot more information than I can here and we would love it if you feel you could sign our petition.
Zoe Adams - Lakeland Florida USA
Recent comments