Guest Column
Congress should act now to allow guest workers, path to citizenship
- Editorial: REFORM IMMIGRATION
- Congress should act now to allow guest workers, path to citizenship
- Newsday
- April 11, 2007
President George W. Bush went to the border in Yuma,
Ariz., Monday to try to resuscitate immigration reform in Washington. It's
an important effort. If Congress doesn't confront the issue this year, it
will languish for at least two years, until a new president can weigh in.
That's too long to let the prickly problem fester. But getting something
done this year, won't be easy.
It helps that immigration is one of the few issues
where Bush and the Democratic majority in Congress are on the same page.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Democrats won't tackle the
controversial issue unless Bush delivers Republican votes for reform.
It was Republican opposition to a guest worker program and a path to
citizenship for 12 million people in the country illegally that killed
reform last year. Democrats could expect withering political heat if they
enacted those important elements of reform without bipartisan support. But
it will be hard to win the votes of enforcement-first Republicans.
Bush spoke in general terms Monday about tougher border and employer
enforcement, temporary workers and a path to citizenship as essential
elements of reform. But to attract reticent Republicans, the White House
is floating the idea of requiring people in the country illegally to break
cover, return to their home countries and wait, probably for years, for
the chance to pay steep fines and return to what would be left of their
lives in the United States.
That might work as a political strategy. But it wouldn't work in the real
world of illegal immigrants and Washington bureaucracies. It's not an
offer many illegal immigrants could reasonably be expected to accept. And
if millions did, the nation's immigration bureaucracy would be swamped.
Consider the problem sluggish bureaucracies have caused for East End
businesses seeking visas for legal, seasonal workers. More applications
and fewer federal staffers to process them this year could leave 500 to
750 of the critical jobs unfilled. The nation needs immigration reform
sooner, rather than later. But it needs pragmatic reforms that will solve
old problems, not create new ones.
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