Thread: FIRST Job FOR Congress: Immigration Reform

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centreda ... 033520.htm

I suggest we set the author straight...

Posted on Sat, Nov. 18, 2006

First job for new Congress: Real immigration reform


Dear newly elected member of Congress,

Congratulations. Hope you enjoyed the victory party. Now let's talk priorities.

If you are a Democrat, please do not wallow in your newfound status. Congress is still divided, and passing sound legislation will take compromise. The temptation for some will be to use their new post as a bully pulpit upon the president. Don't do it. He still has veto power.

Democrats are no more value-centered than Republicans. Good people come from both political parties. Your job is to work together for the greater good of the nation. Toward the top of the list should be immigration reform.

More than a few of you newly elected legislators stooped to scapegoating rhetoric during your campaigns.

You used loaded terms such as "open borders" and "amnesty" without discussing what each entails. You made references that tied all illegal immigrants to terrorism and national security, often in pounding diatribe about honoring the "rule of law."

Well, you make the laws now.

At least 12 million people, possibly more, are outside of our laws by being in the country illegally. This is a huge problem.

A good number of them, at least 40 percent, initially came legally. They just never left.

Sane minds will look at why that is the case. They will address the disconnect between arguments that Americans would do the jobs these people do and that many illegal people are living in parts of the country with low unemployment rates.

The American public is more educated on this issue than ever before. Save for a few loudmouths with cable news shows, most folks know the problems of immigration are complicated, not easily solved. So let's drop the nonsensical commentary.

No one with a clue about the borders -- all of them: east, west, north and south -- thinks borders should be "open."

We need efficient systems to monitor who enters and leaves the country.

To the north lies our No. 1 trading partner, Canada. To the south is our No. 2, Mexico. You do not wall off trade partners. Nor can you keep all who will try from sneaking into the country.

But you can devise ways to help workers who are needed in some industries to arrive legally. No one likes illegal immigration, especially the illegal immigrants. The most honorable -- those who would be good, often temporary additions to our country -- would apply for legal passage. We do not have a workable system allowing them to do so, which also allows easy access to the less worthy.

Immigrants both add to the economy and cost it at times. Admit this, and honestly talk about easing the costs while enhancing ways they can benefit us.

You can discourage employers from dumping their workers into overburdened county and city health-care systems when they deny workers adequate health-care coverage at work.

You can help out school districts, overwhelmed with the needs of educating children who are not fluent in English, with more funding.

States need your leadership. Some, such as Arizona, are passing poorly thought-out legislation in the effort to do something, because Congress has done nothing for so long.

Does this sound too overwhelming?

OK. Start with an easy piece of legislation: the Dream Act. The idea behind it is simple: Children are often brought by their parents into the country, many without the proper documents. Because children are among the fastest to assimilate, they are English-speaking, text-messaging, savvy young people. But technically, they are "foreigners," subject to high out-of-state rates for college, despite living most of their lives in the United States.

The Dream Act allows such students to pay in-state college tuition rates. This is not a handout. Let them attend college, enhancing their ability to be an asset to the nation.

Hammering out such legislation is the minutia of your new job. Congratulations. You won. Now get to work.

Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star.

Readers can write to her via e-mail at msanchez@kcstar.com.

Ultra Left Allert!

gofer,

That's pretty bad when the writer can't even get the title right.

It's Immigration Enforcement, not Reform. No Reform! No More Illegal Aliens on a Path to Citizenship. We know what Reform means.

Dixie

She is a racist. As for her "unemployment" argument, it overlooks the Americans who have left the job market, and the drop in real wages.

Mary Sanchez ... I researched her a long time ago .... she's ... well ... you read her article and it's self-explanatory.

She's a free lance writer that posts articles with the KC Star and other select publications.

She's a La Raza type.

Why the KC Star posts her articles is well ... beyond me really.

No wonder Missouri is up in arms about illegal immigration. They are being inundated from illegals scurrying out of Arkansas and Texas.

We want our borders secured and US Immigration Law enforced .. to the letter and that means getting illegal aliens out of the country and keeping them out ... by all means necessary ... whatever it takes to execute our laws.

Period.

Very simple.

She's an opinion columnist. Nothing more. Anyone can write opinions.
It takes a real journalist to research facts and do it without bias.