Deportations show the need for reform

CourierPOstOnline.com • November 11, 2008

The status quo is failing with immigration; major policy changes from Washington are needed.

Federal officials in New Jersey say deportations and arrests for immigration violations in the state hit record levels in 2008. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials say nearly 4,200 illegal immigrants were deported from New Jersey in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 -- up 25 percent from the year before. Of those deported, 1,200 had prior criminal convictions.

Nationally, ICE has been stepping up deportation efforts, but not with all illegal immigrants. ICE is only targeting those who have defied previously issued deportation orders or those who have criminal backgrounds.

Estimates are that about 350,000 illegal immigrants live in New Jersey. Nationally, there are thought to be about 12 million immigrants in this country illegally.

All of this hammers home the fact that, while fixing the economy must be the foremost priority, our next president and Congress must also deal with the immigration question. While we should deport criminals who are here illegally, we cannot and should not try to deport every immigrant here illegally.

For one, it is completely impractical and would cost a fortune. Secondly, it would be wrong to tear families apart. Third, and perhaps most important, deporting all the illegal immigrants here would throw our economy for a loop. Thousands of businesses large and small depend on immigrant labor. Those ultra-nativists who ignore that factor and cry "deport 'em all" do so foolishly and without consideration of just how much immigrant labor means to our economy.

What our nation must come to grips with is that we need to change our outdated immigration policies that don't let enough immigrants enter the country legally to account for the worker needs of businesses.

We should tighten our border security because it is inhumane to have a border where people trek across miles of sweltering desert and risk dying to get here.

We should have a guest-worker program, as proposed by President Bush, that would let workers come here seasonally or just for a few years before returning home.

And we should have a process by which those illegal immigrants who are here and want to stay can apply for citizenship by getting at the back of the line and paying taxes they owe and penalties.

The wink-wink system we have in place now of having a huge population living in the shadows isn't working. When these illegal immigrants are the victims of violent crimes, they are afraid to go to the police. When they drive cars -- without licenses or insurance -- and get in accidents, they often flee for fear of being caught. They are too often paid below the minimum wage and completely off the books by their employers.

None of this should be.

We've failed to properly address the immigration, so ICE officials in New Jersey and elsewhere are left to manage the mess as best they can and simply go after the criminals.

Our new president and new Congress must deal with this issue and address each facet of it. Just focusing on the border or just doing a guest-worker program is not enough. We need major immigration reform so ICE doesn't have to keep setting record numbers each year for deportations in this state and around the nation.

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