Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the House of Representatives’ top negotiator on immigration reform, says the House and Senate bills now on the table are “moons apart.” But the distance between them is more accurately measured in millions–millions of people.
The Senate’s insistence on providing a path to citizenship for most of the 12 million undocumented immigrants already in the country is the only real difference on which key House Republicans say they won’t budge.
Sensenbrenner and others have signaled a willingness to consider a guest worker program, a grudging acknowledgement that the U.S. economy regularly absorbs far more workers than the government admits legally. Better to open more channels through which workers can arrive legally, and make sure the number of new workers who are admitted bears a realistic relationship to the number of jobs available.
Last year, only 5,000 visas were granted for unskilled laborers, while about 500,000 came illegally. Most of them went right to work.
The House’s emerging spirit of compromise on guest workers is encouraging. But immigration reform won’t be accomplished without resolving the status of the millions who are already here illegally.
Many taxpayers resent providing such things as emergency medical care, law enforcement and education for illegal immigrants. Allowing them to work here legally would ensure that they are paying their own way. It would encourage them to buy homes, invest in their communities and assimilate into U.S. culture–all things that are hard to do when you live in constant fear of being deported.
Legalizing those workers and their families would also allow the new immigration system to focus on the future. It would be foolish to waste time and money trying to identify and deport millions of people who are productively employed. Those efforts are better spent making sure new hires are legal and sanctions are enforced.
Failure to legalize those workers would leave the government in much the position it is in now–swamped by millions of violators it can’t possibly prosecute. A law that can’t be enforced only invites more violators. That’s how we got to 12 million.
It makes sense to legalize them, bringing them into the sunshine and onto the tax rolls. Many Americans find that idea distasteful because they believe it rewards people who have broken the law. But the Senate’s plan for “earned citizenship” would not make legalization easy or automatic. Those who have been here less than two years would not qualify. The rest would have to clear a series of hoops and hurdles that include paying thousands of dollars in fines and back taxes, learning English and yes, getting in line.
The alternative is the perpetuation of a huge underground population, which isn’t good for the nation. Putting immigrants on a path to citizenship will help them get on the right side of the law, which is where most of them want to be.
