U.S. Needs Complete Immigration Reform
The immigration debate is as soon as once more dominating the news as members of Congress focus on the extended-neglected issue of fixing our country's failed immigration laws.
American lawmakers are now at a critical point. Enforcement-only legislation will not function and hasn't worked. Previous efforts to solve this issue by focusing exclusively on border security have failed miserably.
In reality, in the course of the past decade, the U.S. tripled the number of agents on the border, quintupled the price range, toughened our enforcement techniques and heavily fortified urban entry points.
But for the duration of the exact same time period, America saw record levels of illegal immigration, porous borders, a cottage business produced for smugglers and document forgers and tragic deaths in our deserts.
We should learn from our blunders, not repeat them. What we need to have is extensive, bipartisan immigration reform that deals smartly with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living and operating in the U.S.
Most are relatives of U.S. citizens and lawful residents or workers holding jobs that Americans do not want. People already right here who are not a threat to our security, but who function hard, spend taxes and are mastering English, must be allowed to san diego arrest records earn permanent residence.
The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, introduced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and others, includes the essential components of reform and provides the basis for fixing our program. It combines toughness with fairness, creating a new temporary visa program that offers a legal flow of workers.
This "break-the-mold" worker system would significantly diminish illegal immigration by making a legal avenue for individuals to enter the U.S., a thing that barely exists nowadays. Present immigration laws provide just 5,000 annual permanent visas and 66,000 temporary visas for crucial lesser-skilled workers, in no way meeting the annual demand for 500,000 such workers.
In addition, minimizing the decade-extended backlog in family-based immigration would reunite households more quickly and make it unlikely that folks would cross the border deacon apparel illegally in order to be with their loved ones.
Congress lesiones corporales and the administration must act wisely as they weigh their options. We've had enough "rapid fixes" that have created an already unworkable program worse. We can't control our borders - or improve our national security - until we enact extensive immigration reform.
Deborah Notkin is president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. - NU
