We have two options regarding undocumented immigrants in this country: to either try to enforce a law that is broken or to amend the law to meet the country’s needs going forward.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, we have been informed that we do not have the resources necessary to deport the 13,000,000 people who are currently living in the U.S. illegally. We know this from the highly publicized worksite raids that took place in Bedford, Mass. and Postville, Iowa. These actions are counterproductive because of the negative economic and human consequences.
Many are hesitant about legalization programs because they claim that the Amnesty Program did not work over the long term. But the old “amnesty” under the 1986 Immigration Reform & Control Act made a deadly mistake. It didn’t create a working system that would allow people to come to the U.S. to obtain worker visas, or to immigrate in a timely fashion to meet our future economic needs. It did not make provisions for family unity.
It can take up to six years for a legal permanent resident and his or her spouse or children to be reunited. If a U.S. worker can fill the job, then we need a secure, legal, and organized way for them to get into the U.S. One might ask: “Why now?”Because we understand that visa systems must work in both full-employment and current recessions. The basis for a legal work visa must be that there is a shortage of U.S. workers. The minimum wage offered to U.S. as well as foreign workers must not exceed the average wage paid to workers in the same occupation and geographical area. When there is a large demand for labor, our national workforce will not be able to meet it, then we will face a crisis. We must create laws that permit legal entry to better protect our borders and prevent a new wave of uninspected immigrants.
