U.S. Wants Complete Immigration Reform
The immigration debate is once once again dominating the news as members of Congress concentrate on the long-neglected difficulty of fixing our country's failed immigration laws.
American lawmakers are now at a important point. Enforcement-only legislation will not perform and hasn't worked. catholic church supplies st benedict Preceding efforts to resolve this issue by focusing exclusively on border security have failed miserably.
In reality, throughout the past decade, the U.S. tripled the quantity of agents on the border, quintupled the spending budget, toughened our enforcement tactics and oil lamps heavily fortified urban entry points.
However for the duration of the exact same time period, America saw record levels of illegal immigration, porous borders, a cottage business developed for smugglers and document forgers and tragic deaths in our deserts.
We have to find out from our blunders, not repeat them. What we want is complete, 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. Folks already right here who are not a threat to our security, but who work tough, spend taxes and are studying English, really should be allowed to earn permanent residence.
The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, introduced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and other people, consists of the essential elements of reform and supplies the basis for fixing our method. It combines toughness with fairness, developing a new temporary visa system that offers a legal flow of workers.
This "break-the-mold" worker program would considerably diminish illegal immigration by making a legal avenue for individuals to enter the U.S., some thing that barely exists today. Current immigration laws provide just five,000 annual permanent visas and 66,000 temporary visas for vital lesser-skilled workers, in no way meeting the annual demand for 500,000 such workers.
In addition, decreasing the decade-long backlog in family members-based immigration would reunite households quicker and make it unlikely that folks would cross the border illegally in order to be with their loved ones.
Congress and the administration need to act wisely as they weigh their choices. We've had enough "speedy fixes" that have produced an currently unworkable method worse. We can not control our borders - or improve our national security - until we enact comprehensive immigration reform.
Deborah Notkin is president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. - NU
