Jeanfromfillmore
03-30-2010, 04:06 AM
Immigration will be next bloody battle
Observer-Reporter
Grant blanket amnesty.
Deport 'em all and build a wall.
These are the two extremes in America's heated debate on illegal immigration. And neither offers a satisfactory way to solve a problem that seems to raise the collective blood pressure like few others.
It's estimated that more than 10 million illegal immigrants, the lion's share from Mexico and Central American nations like El Salvador and Honduras, are living and working in the lower 48 right now. Border guards are engaged in a seemingly fruitless, Sisyphean struggle to keep illegals out and, as it currently stands, there's no way to track visitors who enter the country legally but then overstay their visas and slip into America's neighborhoods and workplaces.
Now that health care has been checked off the to-do list of Congress, overhauling immigration could very well be the next issue to make partisans reach for their flamethrowers. The starting gun was fired two weeks ago when New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, introduced a bill that would offer a path for illegals to become citizens and, on a broader scale, revamp how visas are awarded in the future.
The proposal is more stringent than the failed immigration reform bill that President George W. Bush championed in 2007. On the one hand, it would beef up border security and enforcement and require that workers carry a biometric identity card to show they are eligible to work in the country. But it would also establish a temporary-worker program and a no-nonsense path to legalization for those who are already here.
Under the plan, Lady Liberty would smile a little more broadly at legal immigrants who get advanced degrees in fields like math and engineering from American universities. They would be given easier access to green cards, while less-skilled workers would move further back in line. As Schumer and Graham pointed out in a jointly penned opinion piece for The Washington Post, "It makes no sense to educate the world's future inventors and entrepreneurs and then force them to leave when they are able to contribute to our economy."
President Obama has characterized the bill as a "basis for moving forward," which basically means it's likely to be altered considerably before it moves across the finish line, if it gets that far at all. With Capitol Hill exhausted after the protracted health care brawl and mid-term elections looming, no one should anticipate lickety-split action.
But this is an issue that shouldn't be pushed to the back burner ad infinitum. Though it's something of an abstract issue in this region, due to the relatively small number of legal and illegal immigrants that have been drawn to the Pittsburgh-area in recent years, it's an urgent matter in other cities, particularly urban behemoths like Atlanta and Washington, D.C., as well as Southwestern states like Texas and New Mexico.
America should take pride in its melting-pot heritage, but, lately, the pot has had a crack running through it. It's time to mend it.
http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/editorial/03-30-2010-Immigration--Editorial
Observer-Reporter
Grant blanket amnesty.
Deport 'em all and build a wall.
These are the two extremes in America's heated debate on illegal immigration. And neither offers a satisfactory way to solve a problem that seems to raise the collective blood pressure like few others.
It's estimated that more than 10 million illegal immigrants, the lion's share from Mexico and Central American nations like El Salvador and Honduras, are living and working in the lower 48 right now. Border guards are engaged in a seemingly fruitless, Sisyphean struggle to keep illegals out and, as it currently stands, there's no way to track visitors who enter the country legally but then overstay their visas and slip into America's neighborhoods and workplaces.
Now that health care has been checked off the to-do list of Congress, overhauling immigration could very well be the next issue to make partisans reach for their flamethrowers. The starting gun was fired two weeks ago when New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, introduced a bill that would offer a path for illegals to become citizens and, on a broader scale, revamp how visas are awarded in the future.
The proposal is more stringent than the failed immigration reform bill that President George W. Bush championed in 2007. On the one hand, it would beef up border security and enforcement and require that workers carry a biometric identity card to show they are eligible to work in the country. But it would also establish a temporary-worker program and a no-nonsense path to legalization for those who are already here.
Under the plan, Lady Liberty would smile a little more broadly at legal immigrants who get advanced degrees in fields like math and engineering from American universities. They would be given easier access to green cards, while less-skilled workers would move further back in line. As Schumer and Graham pointed out in a jointly penned opinion piece for The Washington Post, "It makes no sense to educate the world's future inventors and entrepreneurs and then force them to leave when they are able to contribute to our economy."
President Obama has characterized the bill as a "basis for moving forward," which basically means it's likely to be altered considerably before it moves across the finish line, if it gets that far at all. With Capitol Hill exhausted after the protracted health care brawl and mid-term elections looming, no one should anticipate lickety-split action.
But this is an issue that shouldn't be pushed to the back burner ad infinitum. Though it's something of an abstract issue in this region, due to the relatively small number of legal and illegal immigrants that have been drawn to the Pittsburgh-area in recent years, it's an urgent matter in other cities, particularly urban behemoths like Atlanta and Washington, D.C., as well as Southwestern states like Texas and New Mexico.
America should take pride in its melting-pot heritage, but, lately, the pot has had a crack running through it. It's time to mend it.
http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/editorial/03-30-2010-Immigration--Editorial