Rebuilding the nation of immigrants
IT'S HIGH TIME we dealt with the reality of immigration. Most of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already here will stay (by any means necessary); more will come (by any means possible) -- and most of those newcomers will also stay. Our economy's demand for cheap labor ensures a steady supply of immigrants.
So what should we do in the face of these facts? How do we make policy that matches the reality on the ground?
For starters, we should stop making punishment the primary motive for immigration reform and legislation. Instead, we must acknowledge our role in the increasing numbers of newcomers, look for ways to organize the necessary flow of new workers into the country and begin an upfront process of incorporating immigrants into society.
The plan President Bush has announced to great fanfare comes up short. It makes a politically convenient nod at beefing up border security and establishing a "compassionate" guest-worker plan that would nonetheless turn those workers out of the country in six years. But it just as conveniently avoids the details because the White House knows that in six years few of those "guest" workers will leave.
Still, the Bush proposal is not quite as ridiculous as the plan recently approved by the House, which would make the undocumented into felons, or the one presented earlier this year by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Their plan demands that all undocumented immigrants leave the country -- it doesn't address how -- and then apply for a temporary-worker program that, like the president's, carries no promise of permanent residency or citizenship in the future.
Where Washington is closest to realidad is another Senate measure, sponsored by John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). It also includes temporary work visas for newcomers and for undocumented workers already here. But after six "temporary" years, immigrants would be eligible for permanent residency, and five years after that (a typical residency requirement for naturalization), they could apply for citizenship.
It may be close to reality, but it's still a long way from the needs of immigrants and the communities they live in. The terms of the McCain-Kennedy proposal mean that it would take 11 years before immigrants could fully participate in U.S. life. That's a long time, especially when you consider that, according to research by Philip Martin, a labor and immigration expert at UC Davis, most undocumented residents have been here for eight years already.
