A missed opportunity
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he failure of the U.S. Senate to reach a deal on comprehensive immigration reform is disconcerting. This missed opportunity to find a solution to a crucial domestic problem clearly demonstrates how dysfunctional our Congress is today.
Polls consistently show that most Americans want the reforms that were offered -- stronger border security, a more secure guest-worker program, and a tough but fair path toward citizenship for millions of illegal aliens who have put down roots in this nation and are working hard.
Nevertheless, small but very well-organized activists from both parties were able to bully feckless politicians into abandoning support for this bipartisan solution to immigration reform.
On the right, the word amnesty was used in a dishonest manner by a horde of demagogues in print, on the air and in chambers of Congress. It was blatantly false. There is no amnesty in the current bill -- now on life-support. To get a green card for a "Z visa" applicant would have taken years, with large fines, an insistence on leaving the country, going to the back of the immigration line, learning English and having to prove they had skills compatible to working in the United States.
The assertion that the Z visa was amnesty is also a lie. To get a Z visa, an applicant had to admit they were an illegal alien and pay a large fine. Z visa individuals would not have been citizens, nor would they have been able to receive welfare benefits.
The political left behaved little better than the right. Many liberal legislators behaved as if they were owned by organized labor. Unions, which continue to lose members, fiercely oppose the planned guest-worker program, fearing it would cut into potential union jobs. In fact, just before the bill collapsed, a deal-breaking amendment was passed limiting the guest-worker program to five years.
Showing an extreme lack of political courage were Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid, all of whom voted for the destructive amendment, which passed by one vote. Organized labor may be a paper tiger, but it still has the cash to scare the heck out of presidential candidates and the Senate majority leader.
The arguments against the guest-work program are dishonest. The guest-worker program is limited to 200,000 workers a year, hardly a dent in the U.S. labor force. Those workers are limited to two years. After that they have to spend a year out of the U.S. before returning for another two-year stint. Employers would be required to advertise in the U.S. before filling positions with guest-workers. The cold hard fact that anti-immigration demagogues won't admit is that there are jobs in this country that U.S. citizens will not do.
Now, however, we now must deal with a failed immigration reform bill. What should we do? Our solution: get started on the easy parts. There seems to be no demagogic, politician-scaring opposition to increased border security. Congress should immediately pass legislation to hire more border agents, get more equipment on the border and build a fence if necessary. If we can stop -- or at least stem considerably -- the flow of illegals we are accomplishing something.
But the other problems won't go away. We hope President Bush, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Ted Kennedy and other honest politicians won't relinquish their roles in creating the comprehensive immigration reform this nation so desperately needs.
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