We are a nation of immigrants. Even the people now called "native Americans" are descended from eastern Asian immigrants. We are constantly getting new immigrants, by a variety of methods, not all of which are considered equal.For years, the debate inside the Beltway has been whether, and if so how, to change the official status of some illegal immigrants. (Note: Let us emphasize the "some", as the changes would only apply to people who happened to come from certain Latin American countries.) The current idea being debated involves creating a special "guest worker" status under which some illegal immigrants would be allowed to stay for a while. Nobody has explained just exactly what this is supposed to accomplish, or how; perhaps nobody really knows.
But there is another problem.
There are also millions of people who are in our country legally, who came here to make a better life for themselves, and who are trapped in a system that doesn't consider them Americans, and may never allow them that status. These people followed the laws of both their old country and what they want to be their new one. They are making tremendous contributions to America, and being denied justice.
We are talking about people who have never committed a crime, who came here through perfectly legitimate methods, who are intelligent, educated, hard working - exactly the type of people we want. By welcoming them into our society, we boost our own status, raise our collective standard of living, create and produce more, and enhance the cultural tapestry that made America great. Instead of welcoming them as we should, however, we hold them at arm's length, placing severe and seemingly permanent barriers in their way.
Where is the debate over their status?
While we're muddling through the complexity of dealing with a problem that nobody seems to understand and to which nobody seems to have a good solution, we can certainly solve a much simpler problem. After all, the legal, productive immigrants placed in permanent limbo by our Byzantine laws are people we want to keep here; granting them permanency and the resulting peace of mind should be easy.
Politically, it will also be much easier to deal with the problem of illegal immigrants. By making it easier for legal immigrants to gain permanent status, we show in a tangible way that we are immigrant-friendly. Regardless of how we deal with the illegal immigrants, both sides with have political cover. Those who would loosen the laws covering illegal immigration can't be accused of allowing illegal immigrants to leap-frog over the legal ones. Those who would toughen the laws can't be accused of hating all foreigners.
Either way, the work can get done.
Copyright 2006, Dan Jacoby
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