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IMMIGRATION REFORM
January 3, 2004
President Bush is said to be preparing a list of principles for overhauling the nation's unworkable immigration policy. That is an excellent way to begin the new year -- Washington has not made any serious attempt at reform since the Reagan administration. But a presidential wish list announced during a campaign season is not enough. The president has to convince some of his fellow Republicans in Congress that the system isn't working. American officials cannot keep pretending that 8 million to 10 million illegal immigrants do not exist.
A simple crackdown aimed at sending all illegal immigrants back where they came from would not work. It would simply drive people without proper documentation deeper into the shadows, where they would continue to be at the mercy of unscrupulous employers and would be afraid to report crimes, send their children to school or seek treatment when they had infectious diseases. Mr. Bush apparently recognizes the need to give them the hope of gaining legal status, undoubtedly by a slower route than is offered to those who have been following the rules and waiting their turn to enter the country.
Four years ago, the president campaigned on immigration reform, an idea that faded after Sept. 11 when immigration policy suddenly focused, understandably, on security. But immigrants, who have continued breaching the borders by the thousands, have posed a danger mainly to themselves: more than 490 died in 2003 trying to get here.
At a White House press conference last month, the president ruled out any "blanket amnesty," a policy favored by many in Mexico, the homeland of almost half of the illegal immigrants now hiding in this country. But there are hints that Mr. Bush wants a system that would give illegal immigrants who work an opportunity to get in line for legal status.
To win support in Congress, Mr. Bush is going to have to be specific enough to let lawmakers know that he is willing to take some of the heat for concrete steps that go beyond pious generalities. He might begin by looking at an intriguing bill offered by Senator John McCain of Arizona and two of his Republican colleagues.
It would create a Web site where employers could advertise jobs, and legal American workers would have the first shot at them. Then the jobs would be open to people trying to immigrate and to illegal immigrants already in the country. The bill would also create a new kind of visa that would give illegal immigrants the hope of changing their status by putting them in line behind those who have applied legally for residence permits.
The McCain plan has its limits. The workers who would be willing to take low-paying jobs might be the same ones who would have trouble consulting a Web site. And the bill does not deal adequately with the problems of legal immigrants' families. Many are stuck in limbo, waiting five years or more for legal status.
It may be that a grand reform plan -- balancing security, cleaning up the immigration backlog and luring illegals into the system -- will be too much to tackle in an election year. That does not let Mr. Bush and his Congressional leaders off the hook. They can easily make a good-faith start at immigration reform by enacting two excellent bills that already have broad bipartisan support.
One, called the AgJobs bill, would help 500,000 agriculture workers already in America earn a form of legal status. This bill has a blue-ribbon list of supporters: business and labor, Republicans and Democrats. The other, called the Dream Act, would allow illegal immigrants' children who have grown up in this country to pay in-state college tuition rates and earn a path to citizenship. This bill also has strong backing by members of both parties.
Presidential support would almost guarantee the bills' passage. It would also send a signal that the White House really understands the need to start untangling and repairing immigration policy.
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