Thread: SCHUMACHER-MATOS: Can we now debate immigration?

EDWARD SCHUMACHER-MATOS | Posted: Saturday, September 5, 2009 12:00 am | 1 Comment

Font Size: Default font size Larger font size BOSTON ---- The new truth about illegal immigration is that enforcement is working. It is time to give up the fight between pro-immigrant activists who never see an enforcement measure they like and opponents who refuse to recognize that government works.

Along U.S. borders and across the country, measures begun under the George W. Bush administration and refined and extended under President Barack Obama are reducing illegal entries, cracking down on employers and deporting immigrants with criminal records.

The results so far are such that, for the first time in its history, the nation is getting a handle on the enforcement side of controlling immigration. Some of the numbers are dramatic.

More adjustments are needed, especially the development of fraud-proof worker ID cards that would allow for even tighter control over jobs and employers, the most effective enforcement of all. But implementation of that will take more than a decade, and the current electronic system required of all federal contractors and in a growing number of states is now passably working.

What all this means is that it is now time for political leaders in both parties to take the debate away from the shrill extremists and give what upward of two-thirds of all Americans repeatedly tell pollsters they want, in addition to enforcement: Bring the roughly 12 million unauthorized immigrants out of the shadows by offering earned legalization that requires they undergo background checks, learn English and pay taxes; and expand temporary work programs that meet future needs for immigrant workers.

Most Americans recognize that these elements are necessary for any immigration system to work. There is no practical or humane way to kick out 12 million people. And our economy needs them. Earlier reform efforts failed because they lacked both enforcement teeth and legal ways to meet pressing labor demands of both employers and foreign workers.

Obama has too full a plate this fall to lead the charge for such desperately needed comprehensive immigration reform, and so Janet Napolitano, his industrious Homeland Security Department secretary, needs to step into the breach. Her executive experience as a governor and the immigration knowledge she has in coming from the border state of Arizona have made her one of the administration's most effective Cabinet members. But her energies have been focused on improving enforcement and not publicly championing the complementary elements, as she herself recognized in a recent White House meeting with reform activists.

There is some Republican support for reform. Obama, Napolitano and Sen. John McCain share virtually the same immigration views. The president and McCain reportedly have been speaking in private on the issue. The Arizona Republican has been a leader for comprehensive reform, and with the improvement in enforcement, he now has all the political cover he needs to return to the ramparts.

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, have gotten with the program. New York's Charles Schumer, who is leading the Senate's reform effort, has shown that he supports effective enforcement. He even pleased anti-immigrant news personality Lou Dobbs recently by dropping the use of the euphemism "undocumented" immigrants to call them "illegal."

Aside from Democratic divisions over temporary-worker programs, the main question now is whether populist Republicans in Congress will accept that enforcement is in fact working.

The number of Border Patrol officers has grown to almost 20,000 from 3,000 in 1986, according to Homeland Security. And the Pew Hispanic Center concludes that the annual number of Mexicans entering the country ---- the overwhelming number of them crossing illegally over the border ---- has declined from nearly 600,000 in 2004 to roughly 200,000 in the year ending in February. One reason is the recession, but prospective illegal crossers from Mexico report that the mix of fences, vehicle barriers and growing electronic surveillance has made the passage too dangerous and costly.

Since the government in 2006 stopped the "catch and release" of illegal immigrants inside the country, the number of detentions rose to 369,000 last year and is expected to surpass 400,000 this year. Deportations increased to 360,000 last year, seven times the number in 1995.

Napolitano is building a system that essentially will screen for immigration violations almost every person arrested and jailed in every city and town in the country. The stated aim is to weed out criminal immigrants, but it is largely up to local authorities to decide how to define "criminal." Almost everyone turned over to the feds is deported. In some places where the screening has begun, there are profiling and other abuses that need to be halted. But overall, the system is considered effective.

EDWARD SCHUMACHER-MATOS writes for the Washington Post Writers Group. Comment online at nctimes.com or contact him at edward.schumachermatos@yahoo.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/col ... 1ec88.html

Well there you have it, an admission that the recent spat of 'Immigration Enforcements' was done with the objective of giving Amnesty to those already here. It's not an out right admission I know but it is so easy to read between the lines.

After I read it my first thought was that only the very first sentence was an absolute 'truth'. The rest of the statements were half truths and out right lies.

What all this means is that it is now time for political leaders in both parties to take the debate away from the shrill extremists and give what upward of two-thirds of all Americans repeatedly tell pollsters they want, in addition to enforcement: Bring the roughly 12 million unauthorized immigrants out of the shadows by offering earned legalization that requires they undergo background checks, learn English and pay taxes; and expand temporary work programs that meet future needs for immigrant workers.

Is that one a whopper or what?

Out of the shadows - arrrrggggghhhhh.

We would like 23 years of enforcement please, then we will talk about it!!

Stuff your Amnesty!!

Ratbstard wrote:
"Is that one a whopper or what?"

Unfortunately for us, we are now the "Home of the Whopper" in more ways than one.

There is no practical or humane way to kick out 12 million people.

Why not employ patriotic unemployed Americans to do that? It would be money better spent than bailing out the likes of AIG!
And 12 million illegals in this country are just a guestimate founded on no hard facts, and the expenditure for the Census will do nothing to give us hard facts. After all, who in their right mind would admit they are here illegally, waiting for shipments of illegal relatives?

There is no practical or humane way to kick out 12 million people.

Yes there is because other countries do it every day. Once illegal aliens are found, deport them. It might take a decade to get rid of them all but thats okay. 2/3 of Americans want the present immigration laws enforced.