Editorial»
A vital immigration debate
JAN 10 - President George W. Bush has now waded into one of the most turbulent and emotional issues of our day: immigration reform. He had barely thrown out the first hints of a new guest worker program on Wednesday when it came under a noisy assault from both conservatives and advocates for immigrants. For simply reopening what has always been a torturous debate in the United States, the president deserves applause. He has recognized that the U.S. immigration system is, as he put it, “broken.”
At first glance, it is not clear exactly how the Bush plan would clear up a border policy that has become steadily less rational, humane and secure, if you count the 350,000 who still make it through illegally each year. But the president started at the right place by addressing one of the basic conflicts in America’s immigration policy - that persistent tug of war between keeping the borders secure and enticing needed low-paid workers to sneak past the immigration agents. Essentially, the White House wants to create a guest worker program, mostly for lower-skilled jobs. Yet for this proposal to be anything more than a bow to Hispanic voters or a convenient prelude to meetings with the Mexican government, Bush and his party have a lot of work to do.
The president says he wants to set up a job registry of positions that no American will take. Employers could hire immigrants for these posts - either from abroad or from among those already working illegally in the United States.
The workers accepting these new visas would have them for only a few years. How many workers would be allowed into the program and what would happen to them when the visas expired loom as large unanswered questions in this proposal. Despite the lack of details, the president’s guidelines clearly do not constitute a sweeping amnesty, as some anti-immigrant groups are
labeling it. It is a long way from that. In fact, there is reason to worry that if participants in this guest program have no hope they can eventually qualify for permanent legal residence, they may well slip back into the shadows when the visas come to an end. The president’s outline seems to mirror a bill offered by three Arizona Republicans: Senator John McCain and Representatives Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe. But that bill has the advantage of offering a real, if slower, path to a green card for those among the eight million to 10 million illegal immigrants who come forward to join the new visa system.
The president spoke emotionally and well about America’s long dependency on immigration, and he recalled the many hard-working immigrants he knew in Texas. But he made it clear that his top priority was not ensuring the welfare of illegal immigrants, but securing U.S. borders and meeting the economic needs of the United States. Posted on: 2004-01-11 05:02
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