Thread: No way to handle immigration

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/o ... 85,00.html

No way to handle immigration
Congress can't duck this issue forever

October 7, 2005

In one corner we have three pistol-packing Colorado lawmakers who toured the U.S.-Mexican border this week, hobnobbing with members of the Minutemen Project and suggesting that Colorado somehow owed assistance to border states in order to control the influx.

In the other corner we have those whose first instinct in debating immigration issues is to denounce their opponents as a pack of racists. "Their actions and words are hateful and inhumane," declared the president of the Denver Area Labor Federation of the trio of lawmakers.

Yes, the news stories recounting a trip to the border by Reps. David Schul- theis, R-Colorado Springs; Bill Crane, R-Arvada; and Jim Welker, R-Loveland, and the reaction here in Colorado, tend to highlight the two extremes of the immigration debate. But the stories also underscore why Congress needs to get off the dime and address the issue of illegal immigration: Even Americans who dispute what should be done usually agree that the present system is dysfunctional.

Our own thinking on this issue is grounded in several premises.

• The thought of rounding up millions of hard-working illegals and sending them home is repulsive. Such a crackdown would also be economically disruptive and those advocating it are damaging the anti-immigration cause. Not all illegal immigrants work, of course; a few are indeed the parasites of anti-immigration lore, preying on the fringes of society. But most came here for honest labor.

• Our southern border is a sieve, and that's a scandal. No, it can't be sealed as tightly as, say, the Soviet Union once sealed its borders. But there is no excuse for policies that in some cases merely go through the motions of deterrence.

For example, tens of thousands of non-Mexicans who cross the border and are caught by immigration agents are given citations to appear in court and immediately released. This is an absurd practice - an invitation to wholesale migration from countries such as Brazil.

• Illegal immigrants who break the law should be deported, not released back into the community. Local police and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency have been derelict on this vital crime front.

• To maximize immigrants' contributions to our economy, Congress should hike the number of H-1B visas for foreign workers with special (often highly technical) skills. And it should create a guest worker program that allows employers to fill the many jobs for which they now have a hard time finding qualified or willing American applicants.

Details of a guest worker program would of course have to be worked out. For example, should multi-year work permits be renewable? (Yes, in our opinion.) Should permit holders jump to the head of the line for green cards? (Not in our view.) But such matters can be settled through negotiation.

No one doubts that any serious effort to reform immigration laws will provoke a bitter congressional debate. But Congress has successfully tackled equally difficult issues - welfare reform in the 1990s, for example. For too long it has simply closed its eyes and ignored the growing clamor for action. So long as that's the case, activists on the extremes will continue to dominate the headlines.

• To maximize immigrants' contributions to our economy, Congress should hike the number of H-1B visas for foreign workers with special (often highly technical) skills. And it should create a guest worker program that allows employers to fill the many jobs for which they now have a hard time finding qualified or willing American applicants. Evil or Very Mad

Good catch


Bah I can see that the threat off this invasion is catching the eye of the other end. Can we kill to birds with one stone

I feel like a piece of dog doo and see how everyone wants to trample and tread over me. What am I? Who stands up for me?