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Posted on Wed, Dec. 07, 2005

Our broken borders
Undocumented immigration is a growing worry. The question is how to fix…
By DAVID GOLDSTEIN
The Star’s Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON –– With 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country, there’s little disagreement that the system is broken and needs to be fixed.

The fight in Congress is over how.

Most advocate better security at the borders; some would build more fences and put U.S. soldiers behind them.

Others argue for a guest-worker program; opponents contend it would just reward the undocumented immigrants already here.

Low-skill jobs are being filled, and the social ills of Latin America are being eased, goes the debate. No, good jobs are being lost and our social services are being drained, the other side says.

Sorting it all out will be complicated because the debate likely will take place next year, when all of the House and a third of the Senate is up for re-election.

“Immigration is going to come up in all sorts of races and in all sorts of ways,� said Jennifer Duffy, a congressional analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “I don’t think it’s an issue that any candidate can ignore. It’s everywhere.�

Indeed, the problem is no longer a major concern just for Texas, California and other states on the Mexican border. The issue popped up at a recent candidates’ forum in Minnesota and was road-tested in the race for governor in Virginia.

Congress has several immigration bills to consider. The House could begin debate before the Christmas recess, the Senate in January.

Much of the divisiveness is within the GOP, whose members are involved with most of the major pieces of legislation under consideration. Some Republicans call strictly for stiffer penalties, and others are looking for practical solutions to the millions of undocumented immigrants already here. President Bush is trying to find his balance between different factions.

Appealing to his more conservative base by talking mostly about enforcement, Bush promised in Tucson last week: “I’m not going to sign an immigration bill that includes amnesty.�

Only briefly at the end did he discuss the temporary worker program that he trumpeted in 2004: “People in this debate must recognize that we will not be able to effectively enforce our immigration laws until we create a temporary worker program.�

Proposals for some kind of temporary or “guest� worker program have bipartisan Senate backing.

Yet, outspoken opponents in the House, such as Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, largely equate the idea to amnesty and surrender.

“No one in the leadership is saying, ‘Please give us a guest worker program,� said John Keeley at the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan research group. “It seems to be a nonstarter.�

The issue is so politically sensitive that some worry that hard-liners might be tarring the party as anti-immigrant, particularly as it tries to make gains among the Latino voting block.

In an e-mail, Tancredo writes of a “struggle to preserve our national identity, against the tide of illegal immigrants flooding the United States.�

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman told GOP governors Thursday that while stronger law enforcement was crucial, America was a nation of immigrants and its doors should never be closed.

Two key questions will be what to do about the undocumented immigrants already here and how to control the future flow of those escaping poverty in their home countries.

“The (undocumented) workers are going to where the jobs are,� said Janet Murguia, who grew up in Kansas City, Kan. and is now president of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights and advocacy group. “There are jobs that need to be filled that no one else is filling.�

Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a right-leaning think tank, told a Senate committee last summer that those jobs were easily filled 50 years ago because half of all American men were high school dropouts and took them.

Now less than 10 percent drop out.

“We now need foreign workers to do the low-skilled, low-paying jobs these men used to do,� Jacoby testified.

“The native-born American work force is aging; it’s shrinking.�

In the Kansas City region, a recent survey by El Centro, a social services agency serving Wyandotte and Johnson counties, found that 82 percent of Latino adults in the metropolitan area lived within families where some members were here illegally.

Most come from Latin America; nearly 60 percent are from Mexico alone, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group. The center found that undocumented immigrants annually outnumber those coming here legally.

“Some would say the proper penalty is deporting them all,� said Randy Johnson at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “That’s not going to happen. We’re not going have hundreds of SWAT teams rounding up people.�

Some promote better technology to allow businesses to verify whether workers are here legally. “It enables employers to pick up the phone or use the Internet to type in basic information about newly hired employees,� said Caroline Espinosa, a spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, which supports reduced immigration.

One bill has the backing of Republicans such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. It also boasts Democratic backing, from Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts to Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.

The business community supports the McCain-Kennedy bill because it provides undocumented immigrants a path toward citizenship.

Undocumented workers take low-wage, low-skilled jobs that companies find hard to fill.

“Many jobs in agriculture are seasonal and are jobs that U.S. workers are unwilling to do,� Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a statement backing Bush’s temporary worker proposal.

Melinda Lewis, El Centro’s director of policy, said that families are often split between two countries and the wait to reunite relatives takes years.

Combined with the limited supply of work visas, the easy availability of false documents and the tendency of employers to look the other way, she said, “There’s a general sense of almost anarchy within our immigration system because it’s so dysfunctional.�

BY THE NUMBERS

47,000 undocumented immigrants in Kansas in 2000, compared with 13,000 in 1990 22,000 in Missouri in 2000, compared with 8,000 in 1990 1.2 million arrests along the southwest border in fiscal year 2005.

Sources: Department of Homeland Security and Pew Hispanic Center

The proposals

White House

â–Â* More border fencing, agents, technology, detention beds.

â–Â* Faster court hearings.

â–Â* Help businesses spot forged documents.

â–Â* Temporary worker program, though few details.

Sens. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat

â–Â* More border security.

â–Â* Temporary six-year work visa as path toward citizenship based on work history, background, payment of fines, fees, back taxes, English and civics skills.

â–Â* Access to emergency health care for undocumented immigrants.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska Republican

â–Â* More border agents, technology.

â–Â* Increased penalties for immigrant smuggling and document fraud.

â–Â* Worker verification system for business.

â–Â* Renewable two-year temporary worker program with legal status through background screenings, work history, payment of taxes, fines, military registration, English and civics skills.

Sens. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, and Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican

â–Â* More border agents, technology, detention beds, immigration judges.

â–Â* Faster removal of undocumented immigrants.

â–Â* Greater Justice Department accountability.

â–Â* Mandatory departure program allows undocumented immigrants to voluntarily leave and apply to return as temporary workers.

Reps. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, and Virgil Goode, Virginia Republican

â–Â* Border fence from Pacific Ocean to Gulf of Mexico.

â–Â* More border agents, detention beds.

â–Â* Require employers to verify worker eligibility.

â–Â* Stiff employer penalties for hiring undocumented immigrants.

Lawmakers’ views

â–Â* Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri Democrat

Backs the McCain-Kennedy bill and temporary worker programs with labor and civil liberties safeguards. Favors “narrow, but clear path toward citizenship.� Opposes more border fences.

â–Â* Rep. Sam Graves, Missouri Republican

Supports stronger border control, including more agents and fences. Opposes special programs for undocumented immigrants, including temporary worker programs, but wants to ensure U.S. has needed workers. Sponsored bill to suspend nonresident visas until an immigration reform plan is developed.

â–Â* Rep. Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat

Opposed bill requiring hospitals to collect data on undocumented immigrants before they can be reimbursed for treatment.

â–Â* Sen. Jim Talent, Missouri Republican

Sponsored border security bill calling for tougher fines and penalties, and money for more manpower, technology, fences, detention beds and immigration judges. Says he is not necessarily opposed to temporary worker program for undocumented immigrants, but fixing the border problem takes precedence.

â–Â* Sen. Kit Bond, Missouri Republican

Supports more border enforcement. Does not specifically back temporary work programs for undocumented immigrants, but many “perform hard-to-fill jobs� and that reality must be recognized.

â–Â* Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican

Co-sponsor of McCain-Kennedy bill that, among other steps, creates a temporary worker program for undocumented immigrants as a path toward citizenship.

â–Â* Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican

Says system needs to be reformed and borders need better protection. No position yet on various Senate proposals.

â–Â* Rep. Dennis Moore, Kansas Democrat

Calls system “broken� and says solution must be bipartisan. In past has opposed bill requiring hospitals to collect data on undocumented immigrants before they can be reimbursed for treatment.


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To reach David Goldstein, call 1-(202) 383-6105 or send e-mail to dgoldstein@krwashington.com .