Push is on to legalize 12 million, let more in
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.25.2008
PHOENIX — Local and national business groups are paying for a media campaign — launched Wednesday in Arizona — to convince voters this country has done enough to secure the border.
Instead, backers say the U.S. now needs to legalize the 12 million or more undocumented immigrants already here and consider allowing more foreigners into the country.
The group, Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together, plans to spend "several hundred thousand dollars" on TV ads in four states. Jim Pignatelli, president and chief executive officer of UniSource Energy Corp., the parent of Tucson Electric Power, said it's time to move the debate along and find ways to help businesses get the workers they need.
Pignatelli said the best place to start is with those already here. "You can't ignore 10 to 12 million people who are trying to make a living, who are undocumented," he said.
Pignatelli said if they could somehow be deported "it would take years for another 10 to 12 million to come in" to fill the jobs they are doing now.
"These people are providing valued services to the economy," he said.
The commercial says there have been "incredible strides" made in border security, the number of deportations is up and there are stronger penalties against employers who hire undocumented workers. Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said those accomplishments are fine, as far as they go.
"We need to finish the job on immigration reform at the federal level," he said. That means not just legalizing those already here but ensuring employers can bring in more foreign workers, he said.
"It is an extraordinary benefit, not a burden, that people from all over the world who are bright and hardworking want to come to the United States, want to come to Arizona, improve their lives and improve the prosperity for all Americans," he said.
But the effort to reshape the debate comes as many incumbent federal lawmakers and those hoping to unseat them in November are appealing to voters by promising to do more to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into Arizona.
Even Sen. John McCain, who sponsored a comprehensive immigration-reform bill last year that included a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, has backed away from his own plan since announcing his bid for president, acknowledging the public wants more done to secure the borders before any talk of immigration reform.
But former Congressman Henry Bonilla, a Texas Republican who is spokesman for the business group, said that ignores what has happened in the last few years, including more Border Patrol officers and more arrests.
"Major progress has been made," said Bonilla who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 14 years. "So I think those who have been concerned about that can say, 'OK, we've made progress.' Now can we bring this back to the table and try to move forward?"
Pignatelli said he's not trying to shift the focus away from securing the border but simply recognizing the economic need.
"We need nurses, we need trained people, which we're not able to produce out of our own work force," he said.
If nothing else, Pignatelli said providing legal status to undocumented immigrants makes sense.
"I'd like to see them all on paper so we know who they are, what they're doing and everything is proper, tax-wise," he said. Pignatelli said that also addresses concerns illegal immigrants and their children are a financial burden on schools, hospitals and government.
"Once you've provided the appropriate papers to people and put them into where they're in a taxpaying situation and their employer has to provide for the same levels of taxation that you would for any other employee, then you start to cover some of those costs," he said.
Hamer said the claim of great progress in punishing employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers is not undermined by his organization's effort to kill Arizona's employer-sanctions law. The chamber is a plaintiff in a lawsuit to overturn that law.
"We do support penalties against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers," Hamer said. He said the chamber's position is this should be handled only at the federal level.
But the chamber specifically objects to the fact state penalties — which include suspension or revocation of the right to do business — are far stiffer than the civil fines meted out for federal violations.
Sheridan Bailey, owner of an iron-fabricating company in Phoenix, said the desire for more foreign workers is not simply a question of companies wanting people willing to work cheap, contending there aren't enough workers within the borders of the United States to solve the problem.
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