OPINION: State needs immigration reform

A policy package should address four key issues, including border security.

Fresno Bee
Published online on Thursday, Jun. 18, 2009

As an immigration magnet from its beginnings that remains reliant on immigrant workers, California is directly impacted by the nation's broken immigration policy.

Fortunately, Barack Obama promised during the election campaign to take up reform as president. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has pledged to tackle immigration this year, after health care and energy.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the San Jose Democrat who chairs the House immigration subcommittee, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein will be among the key players for California. They know that a root cause of the mess is that legal channels of immigration are few and inadequate to U.S. needs.

It is extremely difficult for the foreign-born to join family members or to turn a legal temporary job into residency. Waits are routinely seven years and as long as 22 years. As Lofgren has pointed out, the backlog problem in California is "quite severe" and "runs the gamut from family members separated from each other to Nobel Prize winners."

Employment-based visas don't begin to fill the demand for workers -- especially those in less-skilled jobs such as farming or food processing. As a result, many families and employers take matters into their own hands, evading the law due to a lack of legal options.

A reform package should include these basic elements:

Border security. This is a foundational issue to limit the growth of the problem and protect the nation from terrorists.

Future flows of immigration. Past attempts at reform, such as in 1986, did not address the need for future flows -- so illegal immigration continued apace. One solution: Congress should create a standing commission to make recommendations for adjusting immigration levels.

Existing undocumented immigrant population -- estimated at 5.4 million men, 3.9 million women and 1.8 million children. Have each adult pay a $10,000 fee to register (nonprofits are lining up to help with this). Give them a chance to work toward citizenship if they pay taxes, maintain steady employment, have clean criminal records and learn English.

For kids brought here by their parents before age 16, revive the DREAM Act. If they graduate from a U.S. high school and have no criminal record, they can get a green card within six years if they go to college or join the military.

Californians, like other Americans, historically have been ambivalent about immigration -- drawing upon the work, drive and innovation of immigrants while decrying the costs of integrating those who speak foreign languages and have different customs. In their worst periods, Californians have been the driving force behind exclusion -- including the national Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which closed the nation's open door.

But Californians at their best have treated foreign workers as potential citizens. Now is the time to draw on that tradition to craft a practical policy that reflects U.S. needs for workers and our heritage as a "nation of nations."

The debate should be about ra

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