New grist for their next whine and cheese party.....

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/13961529.htm

Chris Satullo, Editor of the Editorial Page, 215-854-5943
csatullo@phillynews.com

Posted on Sun, Feb. 26, 2006
Editorial | Crossing the Borders Immigration dilemma: Finding middle ground
Immigration isn't hard for everyone.
Take Tanith Belbin, the Canadian who teamed with Ben Agosto last week to become the first "U.S." ice dancers to win an Olympic medal in 30 years. That happened just seven weeks after President Bush signed a new rule shortening the citizenship process for "applicants of extraordinary ability" such as her.
Most immigrants to America aren't as "extraordinary" as Belbin. They're just people, mainly from Mexico, who come here seeking better-paying jobs. They find work at farms, factories or households. Their employers often will ignore a worker's lack of a green card rather than see him deported.
Hundreds of undocumented workers staged a Valentine's Day protest at Independence Mall, hoping to demonstrate how their absence would impact Philadelphia's restaurant industry. Many of their employers agreed with them that immigration law must change.
This is a hard one. Immigration laws that are at once rigorous, fair and pragmatic have proved elusive. Offering second chances or amnesties to people who entered the United State illegally is unfair to the legal aliens who played by the rules.
But cracking down hard on illegals isn't really practical, no matter how stirring the sound bite seems to some. The nation has too many illegal residents - more than 10 million - to "send them all back home." The nation's economy is far too dependent on their labor.
The nation needs a middle way that faces economic realities and doesn't routinely make lawbreakers out of immigrants and employers who otherwise live upstanding lives.
The Migration Policy Institute says up to 700,000 people enter the United States illegally every year. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates up to 150,000 illegals live in Pennsylvania and at least 350,000 in New Jersey.
President Bush, who was governor of Texas, knows quite a bit about immigration from Mexico. His instincts are pragmatic. In his first term, he promised reforms aimed at curbing the annual influx of illegals while acknowledging how much U.S. employers need immigrant labor. Well into his second term, though, Bush remains too timid to push through any reforms that would antagonize his conservative base. That base has always been home to anti-immigrant fervor, which has been stoked by national security concerns post-9/11.
Most in Congress agree that more should be done to patrol our porous southern border. But proposed legislation runs the gamut from the practical to the ridiculous. In the latter category include a bill introduced by Rep. John Culbertson (R., Texas) that would authorize governors to raise militias to patrol the border.
On Dec. 16, the House passed a draconian bill sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.). It would make being in this country illegally a criminal, not civil, offense and increases penalties for hiring illegals. It contemplates fencing both the Mexican and the Canadian borders.
Get packing! That's what Sensenbrenner's bill says to the millions of illegals already living in this country. But that attitude ignores several realities. First, mass deportation would be an immensely costly endeavor. Second, many of these people have become productive, law-abiding residents of American communities that rely on their labor. Many have children who were born here, making them U.S. citizens.
Yet, clearly, it's not fair to legal immigrants who followed the rules to grant illegals easy, blanket amnesty.
Legislation now in the Senate sketches a sensible middle ground.
Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) is working on a plan that would address legitimate post-9/11 border concerns while incorporating key elements of a solid bill cosponsored by Sens. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.).
The McCain-Kennedy bill creates a new immigration status that would allow illegals holding low-skill jobs in this country to apply for temporary residency. They must submit fingerprints for a Homeland Security background check, pay an application fee, plus a $1,000 fine. After six years, they can apply for permanent residency but must pay another fee and another $1,000 fine. (Bush's plan would send such workers home after the six years, which is illogical; who would apply for entry into the program, knowing that?)
Mirroring the Bush proposal, the bill would also create a new, three-year residency status for low-skill workers who can prove they have a job waiting for them in the United States. The number admitted under this status would begin at 400,000, then fluctuate annually based on economic conditions.
The reasoning: If labor demand here is going to lure these workers anyway, better that they arrive above ground, with formal status, rather than sneaking across borders in smugglers' sweltering trucks.
Workers in this program would have to pass the Homeland Security background check and pay a $500 application fee. At the end of three years, these immigrants can apply for a new three-year visa and at the end of that three years they, too, can apply for permanent residency.
Just as important, the McCain-Kennedy bill gives the Department of Labor more investigative power to audit businesses and make sure they are complying with labor laws. Labor unions have rightly complained that some unscrupulous employers exploit undocumented workers by paying them slave wages to work in unsafe conditions with no health care. This weakens the market for legal labor.
Specter says his markup bill will likely mimic McCain-Kennedy's guest-worker rules. But turning them into law will be a fight.
President Bush, with his congressional allies facing scary midterm elections, is reluctant to upset the conservative base. And a lot of people who have nothing against immigration per se have trouble with the notion of letting thousands of illegal workers off the hook for flouting the rules.
But the Senate bills at least make that process rigorous for illegals.
These bills come closest to what ought to be the goal: rules that make our borders more secure while encouraging members of a growing, needed labor pool to become law-abiding, taxpaying residents.