Obama needs to remember immigration reform

[AlphaCentauri]

On Jan. 20, President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress will have their hands full with two wars and the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression. It will be easy to overlook a problem that received relatively little attention during the presidential campaign: the need to develop an immigration policy that acknowledges the reality that our economy depends on immigrant workers - far more than current law allows - and the presence of an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants whose precarious status needs to be resolved.

History has shown us that the issue of illegal immigration cannot be solved by enforcement alone. This nation simply can't build a border fence high enough - or raid workplaces frequently enough - to offset the lure of jobs and opportunity, as long as there is such a wide disparity in prosperity between Mexico and the United States. The downturn in the U.S. economy may have lightened immigration pressures for the moment, but there is no doubt it will return when conditions improve.

The election of Obama, who received a strong majority of Latino votes, offers hope that Washington might once again wade into an issue that has stalled in recent years against waves of fear and demagoguery.

Even with the enhanced Democratic numbers in the House and Senate, however, a reform package would encounter major hurdles. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that any immigration-reform legislation would require significant Republican support.

In his campaign platform, Obama laid out a balanced and pragmatic vision of reform that made border security a priority while recognizing the need to meet the demand for jobs and provide a pathway to citizenship for otherwise law-abiding undocumented workers who are already here. Obama's plan would require them to pay a fine and learn English before getting in line for citizenship. Obama has suggested a six-year waiting period for such immigrants.

"In exchange for accepting those penalties, we must allow undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows and step on a path toward full participation in our society," Obama said in an April 2006 speech that offered an expansive look at his views on immigration. "In fact, I will not support any bill that does not provide this earned path to citizenship for the undocumented population - not just for humanitarian reasons; not just because these people, having broken the law, did so for the best of motives, to provide a better life for their children and grandchildren; but also because this is the only practical way we can get a handle on the population that is within our borders right now."

His choice of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security chief could help invigorate the immigration debate. As a border-state governor and former U.S. attorney, she has strong credentials on the issue, with a pragmatic approach that blends toughness and compassion.

For example, she has been a critic of the fence and has ordered National Guard troops to patrol the border; she has advocated a crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants and has supported a pathway to citizenship. "Don't label me soft on immigration," she wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece last year.

Immigration reform has tended to break down on Capitol Hill when its provisions become cumbersome and impractical, leaving both sides unsatisfied. Examples include the "touch back" provision that would require heads of households to return to their country of origin before qualifying for a green card; overly complex point systems to establish which workers would qualify for green cards; and proposed temporary-visa systems that require immigrants to cycle back and forth between the United States and their countries of origin.

No one expects Obama to put immigration reform on his 100-day list. But it would be a great waste if this president-elect, with his sensible and practical approach, does not apply his considerable skills to resolving this stalemate during his first term.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/06/EDJV14GCBT.DTL

[glowing]

1. Not sure how much he needs to do.. now that the economy is tanking

people are leaving.. no jobs, why stay in a country that costs so much to live in? Soon, Americans near the borders may be hopping over to work?

[guruoo]

2. Increasing immigration will raise the % of unemployed, and help corporations drive down wages n/t

[AlphaCentauri]

3. Also it could improve production n/t

[guruoo]

5. Yeah, just what we need, higher unemployment, and more work for less pay..

for those lucky enough to not be displaced.

[Two Americas]

4. "they" are leaving

The dreaded "aliens" - human beings condemned to less than human status by the declaration that their very existence makes them "illegal" - seeing human beings as "illegal" is a hallmark of a tyrannical state and fascistic mindset among the public - are leaving, and we will be much poorer as a result.

Human beings are not an expense, a burden nor a liability - all of that is right wing thinking - there is no fixed amount of wealth - workers are the source of all wealth - and no fixed number of jobs.

Immigrants do not drive wages down - the same corporations can hire the same people for much less on the other side of our border than they can here, and workers wages in other countries are what is crippling Labor here. Global market, remember folks? If Capital - that is to say the wealthy - can cross any border they like and do whatever they like, and set up sweat shops and pay lower wages, destroying our manufacturing here and crippling Labor here, then why cannot poor people have the same rights and freedoms in the cause of feeding their families?

Corporations would rather pay people a $1 a day back there for the same work, than $10 an hour here, believe me. And they have the ability to do just that. Labor - poor starving people - are moving across borders in direct response to the wealthy - in the form of US corporations - first crossing those same borders.

I think we should throw out of the country - deport if you will - all 3rd, 4th, and 5th generation and longer white Americans, who have come to take their unearned privileges and status for granted and seem to have forgotten the sacrifices their ancestors made to win those privileges for them. They are taking jobs and cannot understand or live up to the principles and ideals the country was founded upon. They have lost all compassion and are extremely greedy and self-centered. They are hurting our country.

Send 'em back to England and Germany and they can fix the problems back there in their home countries, instead of taking up space here like dead wood and whining and complaining all the time.