As the director of a nonprofit Immigrant Legal Services program, I confront the irrationalities of our nation's immigration legal system on a daily basis. Our current system consists of antiquated laws that are only selectively enforced because it is missing the legal mechanisms for the entry of the immigrant workers upon which our economy relies.
The losers in the current system are not just undocumented immigrants - who have usually violated the law in economic desperation - but also the rule of law itself, which gets flouted every day by both employers and employees.
We need sensible reform to concurrently do three basic things: 1) Make it much more difficult to work illegally, by creating fraud-proof employment authorization documents; 2) Make it much easier for workers and their families to enter the U.S. legally, by providing visas for both low- and high-skilled laborers to match the needs of the economy; and 3) Require those currently present unlawfully to register with the government, pay a fine, undergo a criminal-background check, and get on a long-term path toward citizenship and integration.
The Comprehensive Immigration Reform ASAP bill (H.R. 4321) introduced recently is a good start. Our legislators - especially suburban representatives like Peter Roskam, Judy Biggert, Mark Kirk, and Melissa Bean who have opposed similar legislation in the past need to get on board.
Some will call this amnesty, but that's absurd: amnesty would imply forgetting the offense of an unlawful entry or overstay. This bill punishes that offense with a fine, which is an appropriate penalty-more realistic, affordable, and humane than deporting millions of people.
For our representatives to do nothing, while the rule of law is mocked day in and day out, amounts to what John McCain has called a de facto amnesty-one that they're voting for by their inaction.
Catherine Norquist
Director, Immigrant Legal Service Program
World Relief DuPage
Wheaton
Source:dailyherald.com/
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