U.S. Demands Extensive Immigration Reform
Aus Salespoint
The immigration debate is as soon as once again dominating the news as members of Congress concentrate on the long-neglected difficulty of fixing our country's failed immigration laws.
American lawmakers are now at a crucial point. Enforcement-only legislation won't function and hasn't worked. Prior efforts to solve this difficulty by focusing exclusively on border security have failed miserably.
In reality, throughout the past decade, the U.S. tripled the number of agents on the border, quintupled the spending budget, toughened our enforcement techniques and heavily fortified urban entry points.
But in the course of the very same time period, America saw record levels of illegal immigration, porous borders, a cottage industry created for smugglers and document forgers and tragic deaths in our deserts.
We have to discover from our mistakes, not repeat them. What we need is complete, bipartisan immigration reform that deals smartly with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the U.S.
Most are relatives of U.S. citizens and lawful residents or workers holding jobs that Americans do not want. Individuals currently right here who are not a threat to our security, but who work difficult, pay taxes and are studying English, must be allowed to earn permanent residence.
The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, introduced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and other people, contains the necessary elements of reform and provides the basis for fixing our technique. It combines toughness with fairness, developing a new temporary visa plan that supplies a legal flow of workers.
This "break-the-mold" worker program would significantly diminish illegal immigration by creating a legal avenue for men and women to enter the U.S., a thing that barely exists today. Existing immigration laws provide just 5,000 annual permanent visas and 66,000 temporary visas for vital lesser-skilled workers, in no way meeting the annual demand for 500,000 such workers.
In addition, reducing the decade-lengthy backlog in family-based immigration would reunite households more rapidly and make it unlikely that people would cross the border illegally in order reliquary to be with their loved ones.
Congress and the administration need to act wisely as they weigh their selections. We've had enough blessed sacrament "speedy fixes" that have created an currently unworkable program worse. We can not control our borders - or improve our national security - till orthodox cross we enact extensive immigration reform.
Deborah Notkin is president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. - NU
