The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Republican Congressman Phil Gingrey. He gets the award for the following-

"Chain migration is a ticking time bomb. Under current law, one legal immigrant could potentially yield visas for up to 273 other legal immigrants in a 15 year period. You can imagine what would happen if Congress granted amnesty to the 12 million illegal immigrants currently in our nation - each one of them could start the chain migration process. I don't understand why we are giving the second-cousin of a legal immigrant visa priority over someone with good job skills and an education. My bill would limit family migration to the nuclear family: spouses, dependent children and parents. This would reduce the 'chain' to a maximum of about 30 visas.

Columnist Claudia Melendez writes-

With all due respect, Mr. Gingrey, what are you smoking?

I'd like to know what the Congressman is smoking too. A legal immigrant, can only petition their spouse and any children they have. Once they become a citizen, they can petition for parents and siblings also. Don't believe me? Check here. By the way the wait time for a petition for a brother or sister is 12 to 20 years. That further blows what Gingrey says out of the water.

Realistically a immigrant can apply for maybe 15 people in 15 years. Remember that doesn't come for free, there is a $355 fee for every petition. If someone could petition 273 family members, they would need almost $100,000. That's a little bit high if that immigrant is cleaning hotel rooms and picking fruit.

Congressman Phil Gingrey isn't just dangerously ignorant about US immigration laws he wants to change, but he is also today's Knucklehead of the Day.