Immigration overhaul What we keep forgetting about immigration reform
Next month, when the Senate debates immigration reform, our elected politicians should be reminded of their responsibility to negotiate new immigration laws which finally bring sanity and fairness to all Americans and, as well, to those who would choose to become new Americans.
There will undoubtedly be colorful debate in the Senate next month as the Judiciary Committee voted last week to approve the new immigration policy proposed by the Gang of Eight. The 13 to 5 bipartisan vote was no small political achievement in and of itself given the wide range of opinions on both side of the isle; the Senate committee alone faced nearly 300 amendments to their legislation (.
On the other hand, Congress and the president are in agreement that the current immigration policy in place, the 1986 artifact known as the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), is badly broken and requires serious reform. So it is timely to recall a few fundamental facts that get lost in all the talk by the immigration “experts,” many of whom appear to suffer from short-term memory loss. And, as well, I offer three low-cost reforms that will greatly improve national security along our border with Mexico.
Any American historian worth their salt will remind us that we are a nation of immigrants. Regardless of country of origin, immigrants over the course of the last three centuries have established a legacy of lasting contributions that have allowed the United States to excel on a variety of fronts. But, at the same time, human nature, regardless of country of origin, has also repeated itself time and again in the form of blatant discrimination against new immigrants by those who came before them. The Mayflower clearly must have had to be the size of the Titanic times ten to transport all of those Americans who now claim a heritage dating to Plymouth Rock.
But rarely, in spite of the viciousness of the stereotypes frequently directed at recent immigrants, have we made it so difficult, legally or illegally, for a fair shot at the American dream. Those in Mexico who cannot qualify for the relatively small number of legal visas, nor bribe their way by way of the mordida (literally, the bite), now face 24,000 Border Patrol agents, drones, a 650 mile long wall which is in many places more than 20 feet high, sophisticated camera and sensor systems, and excruciating death from heat exhaustion. Last year 463 illegal immigrants died just trying illegally to cross the Mexican border.
