Immigration Reform Must Find Balance

Politico reports: As Washington fiddles on immigration, the rest of the nation burns. State and local law enforcement are now being charged with immigration enforcement responsibilities, leading in some jurisdictions to roundups and racial profiling. Legal immigrants and U.S. citizens have been caught in the dragnet. States are also attempting to pass immigration laws that are inherently unconstitutional - creating conflict with the federal government and sapping political energy better used on a federal bill. The lack of immigration policy on the federal level has led to a de facto abdication to state and local governments, which are ill-equipped to handle it effectively or humanely. Now, immigration is being carried out by hundreds of governments, not just one. What are the human costs of this federal inaction? Immigrant families - many with U.S.-citizen children - are being separated; the effective working relationships and trust that once existed between immigrant neighborhoods and local law enforcement have been seriously eroded. Should federal reform be shelved indefinitely and state and local enforcement continue unchecked, the nation's social fabric will begin to tear - to the detriment of all Americans. The Obama administration and Congress would be wise to avoid such a legacy and forge an immigration compromise. To his credit, President Barack Obama's recent speech in El Paso, Texas, was an attempt to show leadership and generate some political momentum for immigration reform.