Immigration reform should be a Republican political imperative

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA)
March 25, 2010
By Martha Montelongo

In the midst of pitched political battles over health care reform, terrorist trials, economic recovery, and a rising national debt, immigration reform has been all but forgotten.

But addressing and fixing once and for all the latter issue is both a humanitarian and political imperative for the Republican Party.

Although the crash of 2008 reduced the flow of illegal immigrants, millions of undocumented workers remain in America.

Concerns over job loss and public expense lead some people to advocate a severe crackdown.

Yet immigrants provide economic benefits to all of us, and the tearing of individuals and families out of communities across the nation runs counter to deeply held American values.

In 2010, the politics of the issue remains extremely complicated. Although native-born Americans remain concerned about large-scale illegal immigration, Hispanics will become an ever-larger portion of the electorate because of demographic trends.

Minorities currently account for roughly 30 percent of the population in 205 congressional districts. Nearly half of all U.S. children under 5 are minorities.

And, as George Will notes, "Hispanics are the largest and fastest-growing minority."

Any party seen as anti-immigration faces a dismal political future.

Our challenge is to develop a responsible immigration policy which simultaneously respects the rule of law, keeps faith with immigrants who played by the rules, and provides a path for inclusion of people who have become part of U.S. society. Republicans should take the lead.

Doing nothing is not an option.

More people will come to America illegally. The U.S. government will be forced to build higher walls, construct additional detention centers, more burdens on our courts and initiate more arbitrary deportations in response.

U.S. taxpayers will spend more on social services while undocumented workers will be more vulnerable to abuse. What to do?

There are lots of bad ideas based on the hammer principle: pound immigrants, economic, social, and political consequences be damned.

This would target immigrants without respecting the humane impulse of most Americans, which has made the U.S. a sanctuary for the oppressed and dispossessed. At the federal level, for instance, some congressmen believe that building a reverse "Berlin Wall" between the U.S. and Mexico is the answer.

Assemblyman Bill Emmerson, R-Rancho Cucamonga, has proposed legislation that would ban "sanctuary cities" from sending criminal suspects suspected of being illegal aliens to jail in other counties. Enforcement is an important part of any reform package, but legislation must be comprehensive.

Washington needs to improve the status of all American workers, better enforce the law, and legalize the status of people who have become part of the American community.

First, it is critical that American policymakers do better for all U.S. workers. Washington's current emphasis on jobs is well warranted, but requires a focus on improving the economic climate for private investment and entrepreneurship. More government spending, deficits and debt will not create productive private employment.

Second, Washington must come up with a smart, efficient and targeted enforcement strategy. The government should target the worst immigration and labor law offenders and improve on its current E-verify program.

Third, better border security is an imperative, with priority given to violent criminal activity. Washington must do better to discourage illegal crossings while recognizing that it is impossible to seal America's borders - at least in any cost-effective manner.

Fourth, the administration and Congress should cooperate to improve and streamline the process of legal immigration. Families should be preserved; entrepreneurs and skilled workers should be admitted. Policymakers should expand beneficial legal immigration while reducing costly illegal immigration.

Finally, Washington needs to regularize the status of those who are now in America illegally but who have become embedded in American society.

Exactly what kind of requirements to impose - length of residence, background checks, process for acquiring citizenship - obviously require a vigorous debate. But while we should not condone the fact that people entered the United States illegally, it would be even worse to ignore their ongoing contribution to communities across America.

We should have learned long ago that it is easier to deal with complex and emotional issues before a crisis is at hand. Now is the time to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

Martha Montelongo is a radio talk show host with CRN Digital Talk Radio and a columnist.

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