Control immigration
By DANIEL RESTREPO - CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS ACTION FUND | 7/14/08 4:52 AM EST


Daniel Restrepo is director of the America’s Project at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

The next president must get our fundamentally broken immigration system under control. The public demands it. Our security requires it. Economic reality compels it.

To achieve that control, the president will have to work with Congress to leave behind the hate-filled demagoguery that defines the immigration debate. The new administration and Congress must instead focus on practical, effective solutions to our country’s immigration challenge.

Any such proposal must require illegal immigrants to become legal. It is unacceptable to have 12 million or more people living in the shadows of society. And it is impractical to try to drive them out of the country through deportation. The president must work with Congress to establish mechanisms that require the undocumented to pay back taxes, learn English, pass criminal background checks and get to the back of the line for citizenship as keys to legal status.

Getting the system under control also requires smart, tough, targeted efforts to control our borders and ports of entry — alongside effective action against employers who provide incentives for illegal immigration. Such efforts must go hand in hand with solving the challenge of the 12 million illegal immigrants now living and working among us and with us. To do otherwise is to tacitly embrace an untenable status quo.

At our borders, we should increase the number of Border Patrol agents, and ensure the Border Patrol is one of the most professional law enforcement agencies in the country. We must also make effective use of technology to ensure security at our borders and other ports of entry. Barriers should only be used where sensible.

In the workplace, we must forcefully sanction employers who violate labor, wage, and immigration laws that undermine all workers. They must no longer be able to discount the possible consequences of their illegal actions as a mere “price of doing business.â€