Give Me Your Tired, Poor and Militant and We’ll Pay

There was a time, not so long ago, when immigrants to America had to demonstrate their ability to be self-sufficient.  Some required sponsors who pledged to take care of the immigrant they were sponsoring so they wouldn’t become a public charge, a burden on the taxpayer.

They used to get stopped and checked for communicable diseases on Ellis Island in New York and Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, but…

Well, that was in a galaxy far, far away, apparently....

....You can now naturalize and become an American citizen even if you can’t afford the minimal $685 fee.

And, the fee waiver is not limited to those who want to naturalize. 

U.S.C.I.S, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, now offers a fee waiver for those seeking Temporary Protected Status, TPS....

...So, Yemenis, or anybody who says they resided in Yemen, can now apply for TPS.  As we say in the immigration reform movement, “Nothing in the world is as permanent as the term ‘temporary’ when applied to immigration status.”

“…people without nationality who last habitually resided in Yemen…”  (emphasis added)

Now, some readers are probably searching their memory asking themselves, “Yemen?  Isn’t that were Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is located?” 

...So, we can now exercise appropriate sarcasm and modify the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your militants yearning to bring the jihad without paying a fee.”

Oh, yeah, if you can’t read English, then the helpful U.S. government has also provided the TPS fee waiver announcement in Arabic.