Alamogordo News
Posted: 11/04/2013 07:39:28 PM MST

Chances for comprehensive immigration reform in the current Congress grow bleaker with each passing day. So it's important to celebrate even tiny steps.

Reps. Beto O'Rourke, a Texas Democrat, and Steve Pearce, a New Mexico Republican, are to be commended for a common-sense bill they introduced last week.

Pearce and O'Rourke have markedly different views on what comprehensive immigration reform should look like. But both agree the current system is nonsensical at times, and they've introduced a bill that grants discretion to review specific cases for a small number of U.S. citizens who are separated from their families due to minor technical violations.

Among the bill's intended beneficiaries are Edgar Falcon and Maricruz Valtierra. They were married in August on the Paso del Norte Bridge -- he on the El Paso side, she on the Juarez side -- because U.S. immigration law bars Valtierra from entering the country.

She was penalized by U.S. immigration officials after an older sister declared at the border seven years ago that Valtierra and another relative were U.S. citizens. Anyone who makes a false declaration of immigration status at the border is prohibited under a law passed in the 1990s from re-entering the United States, and that applies to Valtierra.

A law barring entry into the country by those who have made false declarations generally is a good thing. But an inflexible law that allows no exceptions is not. O'Rourke -- who attended the bridge wedding -- and Pearce believe effective immigration law can allow for common-sense exceptions.

"I have long said that we should never split up families, and today's proposed law allows the careful and sensible evaluation of cases where American families have been wrongly separated, but still makes sure that our immigration laws are upheld," Pearce said.

O'Rourke said: "I have heard countless heartbreaking stories of families in my district forced to live apart because of arbitrary laws with punishments that do not fit the actions and serve no public interest. This targeted legislation would provide necessary discretion to judges and the Department of Homeland Security to provide relief to families who could live legally in the U.S. except that they committed a minor immigration violation in the past."

Falcon finds signs of hope in the bipartisan legislation: "For American families like mine, with my beloved wife Maricruz in exile, this is encouraging. Congress is not all partisan bickering. They can solve America's problems, and this is how to solve one of them."

We wish we could share Falcon's optimism about Congress' ability to solve problems.

But Pearce says the legislation can point the way to further bipartisan efforts on immigration reform.

"I am hopeful that the small step we take today will be the start of further cooperation between our two parties in Washington, and that we can tackle greater challenges of immigration reform together in the near future," Pearce said as the legislation was introduced Thursday.

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