The Public Process Act Redux

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

WHEREAS the immigration process should be open to all, without regard for the religious or political views of the Minister of Immigration, and

Whereas this should be true whether we have a politically conservative Minister, who must not be allowed to block progressives, or a politically progressive Minister, who must not be allowed to block conservatives, etc etc, and

Whereas there are some concerns people have about things which can be easily addressed in this second version,

THEREFORE the fifth section of Title E of el Lexhatx, which currently reads

5. If, at any point during the process, either before or after creation of the Wittenberg account, the Immigration Minister determines that the prospective immigrant shall not be considered further, the prospective immigrant shall be informed of this decision, and shall be made aware that a Grant of Citizenship may yet be obtained by the disappointed applicant if an act of the Ziu be passed directing that such a grant be issued. Any account created for the applicant on Wittenberg shall then be terminated

5.1 Any person, whose citizenship is denied, may in the first case appeal this decision by application to the Secretary of State, and be given the Chancery's contact details to enable them to do so. The Secretary of State may, if they believe the Ministry of Immigration has misused their discretion under Talossan law, report to the Ziu with their reasons for so deciding and recommend that the applicant or prospective citizen be given citizenship by act of the Ziu. Alternatively, the applicant or prospective may reapply by undergoing the entire procedure (minus any successfully completed portions) following the next general election.

shall be amended to read

5. If the Immigration Minister determines that the prospective immigrant shall not be considered further, the prospective immigrant shall be informed of this decision, and shall be made aware that a Grant of Citizenship may yet be obtained by the disappointed applicant if an act of the Ziu be passed directing that such a grant be issued. Any account created for the applicant on Wittenberg shall then be terminated.

5.1. This decision may only be made after the application has been processed and posted, and the public must be informed of the minister's decision and the justification for the decision.  The public need not be informed if an application is merely returned as insufficient or nonsensical under the terms of Lexh.E.2.4.

5.2. Any person, whose citizenship is denied, may in the first case appeal this decision by application to the Secretary of State, and be given the Chancery's contact details to enable them to do so. The Secretary of State may, if they believe the Ministry of Immigration has misused their discretion under Talossan law, report to the Ziu with their reasons for so deciding and recommend that the applicant or prospective citizen be given citizenship by act of the Ziu.

5.3. Alternatively, the applicant or prospective may reapply by undergoing the entire procedure (minus any successfully completed portions) following the next general election.

FURTHERMORE, this bill shall not be construed as an ex post facto attempt to criminalize any associated behavior within ministerial duties of the past, and shall not be grounds for prosecution.

FURTHERMORE, there will be a new Lexh.E.2.6, which shall read:

2.6.  Immigration applications shall all be automatically forwarded to an email address that is under the control of His Majesty the king and that is not accessible to any member of His Majesty's Government, and His Majesty will give access to this email address to the Leader of the Opposition.

Uréu q'estadra så
Alexandreu Davinescu (MC-PROG)

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

This version includes language making it clear that none of this behavior can be grounds for prosecution.  That was already very impossible, but that also means that there's no harm emphasizing it.

It also includes language making it clear that disclosure isn't necessary if Lexh.E.2.4 is the invoked provision.

Happy to make any changes!

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Someone's suggested that it's not enough just to make secretly deleting immigration applications against the law -- we should also have some way of verifying that.  The idea I had was mirroring applications to an email address that only the Cort justice(s) could access.  I'm also open to other suggestions, though.

My main goals here, to be clear:

• Eliminate the current legal power of the government to secretly control immigration by requiring public disclosure.
• Not add on additional work for no reason.
• Protect the privacy of potential and future immigrants when they send us personal information.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Okay, the conversation continued:

As Mic'haglh pointed out earlier, it's a bit pointless to criminalise something that is impossible to detect afterwards, so making it detectable in the first place is worth much more than 10% to me, especially if the proported purpose is furthering Government transparency. But admittedly, this is firmly in hair splitting territory.

I suspect we're close to finding an even better version of this, and we'll keep up the pressure and get it passed in the first Clark!

So it looks like we're going to mirror the emails to another account, give access to the official Opposition Leader (already recognized under the law), and then someone else will also need access so we don't lose control of the account.  Your Majesty @King Txec , how would you feel about that?  You wouldn't need to do anything but give the password to people once a term.

[King Txec]

Sure, no problem.

-Txec R

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Thank you, Your Majesty!

Okay, I'll write the language for the legislation when I have a chance, maybe this weekend.

I was about to say, "I'd be very surprised if anyone voted against this," but I was surprised last time, too! Nonetheless, I think we will be ready to take a big step towards transparency at the start of the next term!

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Okay, the new version of the bill is finished.

• As before, the bill eliminates the ability of the government to secretly block people from applying to immigrate, requiring public disclosure if they do so, and
• As before, the bill does not require this disclosure if the application is returned as incomplete or nonsensical, but now this is also explicitly stated in the bill, and
• As before, it would be completely impossible to prosecute anyone for breaking this law in the past, since it's not currently the law, and ex post facto laws are illegal, but now this is also explicitly stated in the bill, and
• There's a new requirement that immigration applications be automatically forwarded on to an email address controlled by the king, inaccessible to the government, and accessible to the Leader of the Opposition (as already defined by law).

Let's get this passed and end the power of the government to secretly control immigration!

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

I can't and won't speak for the entire Green Party caucus but I will be voting for this bill in the next Cosa and will be encouraging my colleagues to do so too.

[Françal I. Lux]

This will definitely be priority legislation next term and I'm hoping it passes without anymore delays!