Thread: Immigration reform has starting point

http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/ ... eid=193333

Immigration reform has starting point
By Linda Chavez
Saturday, April 7, 2007

The Bush administration is desperate for a victory somewhere - anywhere - and White House operatives are hoping that they may eke one out on an unlikely issue: immigration reform.

For weeks now, administration officials have been meeting with Republican senators to try to put together legislation that will appease the party’s immigration hardliners while still attracting enough bipartisan votes to assure passage. Details of the plan leaked last week when Democrats got a look and the reaction was, predictably, negative.

The heart of the administration’s proposal is a new temporary workers program, something the country needs if we are ever to stem the flow of illegal workers and still provide necessary workers in a full-employment economy. But as outlined, the plan will do nothing more than create a class of workers who will never assimilate into the mainstream of our society, much less become Americans.

The plan would not allow workers to bring their families with them, no matter how long they continued to work on renewable two-year permits. But increasing the number of young, unattached males in our society is a recipe for problems.

Families bring stability - indeed, one of the reasons immigrants have low crime rates is that they are more likely to live in married, two-parent households with children than those who are native-born and of comparable socio-economic status. Instead of families, we would have a permanent class of non-English-speaking workers with no ties to their community.

And the proposal for dealing with the 12 million illegal aliens already living here isn’t much better. The plan would be to create a new visa that would be renewable in three-year increments for a $3,500 fee, on top of an $8,000 initial fine. These provisions would essentially make indentured workers out of the 12 million.

But the proposal is just a starting point, and there is room to bargain. The bill also includes a huge expansion in enforcement efforts and a secure identity card everyone would have to use, citizen and non-citizen alike, to gain employment. The proposal would also expand the border fence with Mexico.

One of those who see the administration’s efforts as a glass half-full is the Manhattan Institute’s Tamar Jacoby.

“Parts of the proposal are more realistic than others,” she said. “But it shifts the battle away from what to do with 12 million already here - the GOP senators now seem to understand they are going to stay - to the issue of who will come in the future. The terms and conditions for new workers’ visas is where both sides will have to do some hard negotiating that will come to compromise.”

I hope she’s right. But there may be a long road ahead to craft a bill that will serve the nation well. And the closer we get to another election, the less likely it will be that Congress will put aside partisan bickering to get this done.

Deport the 12 million and start from there. Ya think they could come up with that.