http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_5035481

Giving law breakers priority is a bad idea
Conor Friedersdorf, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 01/18/2007 12:00:00 AM PST

Farmers say they need illegal immigrant labor, or else their crops will rot and the American farm will cease to exist.

Some politicians agree.

"The reality is Americans have come to rely on an undocumented migrant work force to harvest our crops," Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a recent news conference.

She supports a bill to give 1.5 million illegal immigrant farmworkers temporary legal status.

"Under the bill, illegal immigrants who can show they have labored in agriculture for at least 150 work days for the past two years would become eligible for a `blue card' bestowing temporary legal status," The Associated Press reports. "Their spouses and minor children also could get a blue card if they already live in the U.S."

Isn't that bizarre?

In every poor country, there are impoverished people who labor over forms, endure interminable waiting lists and hope every day, more than anything else, that they'll be granted a visa to work in the United States.

But members of Congress see a few job openings for immigrants, and their first impulse is to award the jobs to relatively less needy immigrants who've snuck into the United States illegally.

I don't understand it.

My heart goes out to the people picking crops illegally. They're mostly honest, hardworking people, and they have a hard life, usually through no fault of their own.

But the impoverished masses languishing on waiting lists are mostly honest, hardworking people, too.

Given a job to fill, I see no moral reason to prefer the illegal immigrant already here to the would-be legal immigrant anxiously awaiting a visa.

And I see a compelling practical reason to prefer the legal immigrant.

If we give illegal immigrant farmworkers legal status, we're sending a message to people the world over that sneaking into the United States is the best way to win the lottery that is a work visa.

On the other hand, if we award these jobs to people waiting to enter the United States legally, we're sending the message that sometimes illegal immigration doesn't pay and respecting American immigration law does.

A spirited debate exists about whether we need immigrant labor for our farms to function, and whether a healthy agricultural industry is worth the other costs that immigration imposes.

I think reasonable people can disagree about those matters.

But it's unreasonable to establish immigration rules, punish those who spend years following them diligently, and reward others who get ahead by breaking them.

I defy anyone to convincingly argue that illegal immigrants are more deserving of work than people on the waiting list for work visas.

Absent that, the important factor is: Awarding jobs to people who come here illegally produces more illegal immigrants. If those same jobs are made the reward of waiting to come here legally, illegal entry is that much less appealing.

Congress, vote down this bill, for the sake of those who want the best immigration policy for this country, and for those who desperately want to immigrate here, but have so far been crowded out.