Posted on Wed, Nov. 29, 2006

A ladder to citizenship

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

(MCT)

The following editorial appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Friday, Nov. 24:

X X X

Sears sells aluminum ladders in Mexico for about 1,500 pesos ($137). That's all it would cost to defeat the $2 billion, 700-mile-long fence through the desert authorized by Congress for our southern border.

A 700-mile fence to protect a 1,900-mile border might keep a few coyotes out, but it is not an immigration policy, which may explain why Congress didn't authorize the funds to build it.

In any case, the new Congress, with Democrats in charge, will have a chance to join President Bush in passing a sensible plan to reduce illegal immigration and deal realistically with the 12 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States. Coherent and comprehensive federal law also could reduce the temptation for communities to enact their own immigration ordinances. A hodge-podge of reactionary, simplistic local laws is not in the best interests of immigrants (legal or illegal), employers, municipalities or the nation as a whole.

Some newly elected House Democrats, populists at heart, have their own doubts about immigration reform. But the congressional balance clearly has tipped toward reform.

Such reform must come in three parts:

1. A practical accommodation for the 12 million illegal immigrants who already are here. Many are settled in, working and paying taxes. Quite a few are raising American-born children who automatically are citizens. It would be a logistical nightmare, and a costly one, to try to deport 12 million people. And American businesses, especially in the agriculture and service sector, don't want them to go. The Senate bill passed last May - and shot down by the House - would allow most such immigrants to stay legally after paying fines and back taxes owed on any off-the-books wages. It would provide them a path to full citizenship, albeit a long one.

2. A plan to stem the flow of illegal immigrants across the border. Illegal immigrants won't come if no one will hire them. So, President Bush is right in calling for tougher enforcement of hiring practices in the work place. As a practical matter, employers need a quick way to verify an applicant's immigration status. A temporary visa for guest workers, which Bush supports, would allow tens of thousands of workers to come and go legally. But there must be stiffer penalties for those who knowingly hire illegal immigrants without temporary visas. Employers should not be allowed to import Mexican workers in order to undercut American wages. Strong "prevailing wage" requirements are a must.

We also need tighter border security. A partial answer may come from the Boeing Co., which is developing a "virtual fence" of electronic sensors to help the Border Patrol spot border crashers.

3. A higher limit on the number of visas for knowledge workers. Foreign registered nurses, medical doctors, scientists and engineers should be allowed to work in fields where there is a shortage of licensed, qualified U.S. professionals. As with workers in other fields, prevailing wage standards must be maintained.

Immigration is one issue on which the president and most Democrats agree. Congress must seize this moment to enact meaningful national reform. Millions of people have come to America with hope for a better life. Now, they form a vast underclass, afraid of the police, subject to exploitation by unscrupulous employers and unable to move out of the shadow economy.

There should be no underclass in a nation founded on the principle that all men are equal.

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© 2006, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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