Bush's proposal fails to repair a broken immigration system
by Helene Slessarev-JamirSojoMail 12-07-2005

Last week President Bush made several long-awaited policy statements on immigration, calling for stepped-up border security and a new guest worker program that would require people who are already in the U.S. to return to their home countries in order to apply. If accepted they would receive temporary visas allowing them to work in the U.S. for a maximum of six years. These proposals may satisfy elements of the president's electoral constituency, but they fall woefully short of the comprehensive overhaul of the country's immigration laws that is sorely needed.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there were roughly 31.1 million foreign-born residents living in the U.S., making up 11.1% of the population. The vast majority come from poor countries in the global South - roughly 80% are from Latin America, Asia, or Africa - where jobs remain scarce and salaries are very low compared to those in the U.S. For many families in Mexico and Central America, immigration has become a basic survival strategy, with one or two members risking their lives to cross an increasingly treacherous border in order to work low-paying service jobs and send money home. Most immigrants would prefer to stay home if work were available in their home countries.

Certainly there is a need to strengthen the integrity of this country's border, so that all entrants arrive with documents. However, tightening border security - without at the same time creating viable means by which people can come legally - will not work. At the moment the number of visas allotted to countries in the Western Hemisphere is woefully low, so that the only option is to cross without papers.

It is also unrealistic to think that the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants who are already in the U.S. - according to a 2005 Pew Hispanic Center report - will return to their home countries to apply for guest worker visas that will only allow them to remain in the U.S. for three to six years. Many are already well-established in the U.S. with jobs and families. They have children who were born here as U.S. citizens. Real immigration reform must include an avenue for those who are already in this country to regularize their status.

A guest worker program will satisfy the labor needs of U.S. employers who have come to depend on low-paid immigrant workers. However, most guest worker programs tie the worker to a specific employer, essentially creating a captive workforce, without basic worker protections. Organized labor has argued against a guest worker program because it will drag down the wages and benefits of native - born workers.

Immigrant activists and advocates are calling for some form of comprehensive immigration reform. Most are supporting the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005, (SB1033/HR 2330) a bipartisan bill introduced in May by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). The bill recognizes that enforcement alone will not work. Therefore it creates a pathway to citizenship for those who are now here without documents. Yet it is not a simple amnesty program. Applicants for a new temporary visa would be required to pay penalties, including back taxes for all the years they have been working in the U.S.

The bill would allow them to remain in the U.S. with their families, change jobs, and go home for visits. At the same time, it would increase border security, while working with the nations in Latin America to increase economic development there. Immigrants who are already in the U.S. would have to wait at least six years before they could apply for permanent residency, provided that they work and have no criminal record. In the meantime, the U.S. would clear out the vast backlog of visa applications that have been filed by U.S. citizens on behalf of family members living overseas. Because visa quotas are set so low for certain countries, including the Philippines, India, and Mexico, the wait to bring family can now be as long as 20 years.

A second bill, known as the Dream Act and recently reintroduced by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), would open up an avenue to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Although these children have often lived in the U.S. most of their lives and attended schools here, they cannot now legally work. They are also ineligible for any federally funded educational scholarships, and most states charge them higher out-of-state tuition to attend public college or university. As a result, these children effectively face a dead end when they graduate high school, which many believe has contributed to their low high school completion rates. This bill would encourage states to allow these children to pay in-state tuition while opening up the possibility of gaining permanent residency for those who came before their 16th birthday, have completed high school, and have shown good moral character.

Helene Slessarev-Jamir, member of the Sojourners board of directors and director of urban studies at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, is a second-generation American whose parents came to the U.S. in the 1950s.