San Antonio Express (Opinion) by Robert Brischetto): The detention of 200 child immigrants in temporary housing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland recently is shocking and unsettling.
It put a youthful face on the problem of immigration. Here the illegal alien is a child from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras crossing the border with no parent, seeking refuge from poverty, abuse, child sex trafficking or seeking reunification with parents.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement reports that during the past four months 5,252 kids landed in U.S. custody without a parent or guardian, almost double what it was from the same period a year ago.
These child refugees are collateral damage of the inability of the Congress and the president to reach agreement on comprehensive immigration reform.
With no federal action, last year 42 states and Puerto Rico enacted 197 new laws and 109 resolutions on immigration. Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah passed extreme measures modeled after the Arizona law.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard an appeal of the Arizona law last month. The law makes undocumented immigrants criminals of the state and places local law officers in the position of enforcing federal immigration law. It also makes anyone suspect who looks like he might be an immigrant and gives state and local officers the power to detain him until he can produce proper documents.
Don't count on Congress to act on immigration reform prior to the election in November. But the issue will play a huge role in presidential election politics.
Now some Republicans are having second thoughts about the political wisdom of draconian measures like the Arizona law, so offensive to Latino voters, to deal with undocumented immigrants. Mitt Romney, an immigration hawk, recently appeared with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to court the Latino vote.
Rubio has a version of the proposed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act, that is scaled down for Republican lawmakers. It is hard to believe Republicans in Congress have repeatedly rejected something as nonthreatening as the DREAM Act, which provides a path to citizenship for young immigrants with no criminal background who have proven to be productive residents through college or military service.
Rubio's version of DREAM would allow them to remain in the country temporarily under a new nonimmigrant visa, but it does not offer a path to permanent residency and citizenship.
The DREAM Act is an easy compromise and step down the path of a more comprehensive immigration package. But it would not put a dent in the mounting problems of immigration reform.
Comprehensive immigration reform would include a guest-worker program with temporary work permits for unauthorized immigrants now in the U.S., an entry-exit system that tracks immigrants, and permanent residency leading to citizenship for those who have shown their ability to become productive members of society.
Current federal immigration laws cannot track the flow of immigrants. And keeping undocumented immigrants in the shadows leads to human rights abuses.
It put a youthful face on the problem of immigration. Here the illegal alien is a child from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras crossing the border with no parent, seeking refuge from poverty, abuse, child sex trafficking or seeking reunification with parents.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement reports that during the past four months 5,252 kids landed in U.S. custody without a parent or guardian, almost double what it was from the same period a year ago.
These child refugees are collateral damage of the inability of the Congress and the president to reach agreement on comprehensive immigration reform.
With no federal action, last year 42 states and Puerto Rico enacted 197 new laws and 109 resolutions on immigration. Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah passed extreme measures modeled after the Arizona law.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard an appeal of the Arizona law last month. The law makes undocumented immigrants criminals of the state and places local law officers in the position of enforcing federal immigration law. It also makes anyone suspect who looks like he might be an immigrant and gives state and local officers the power to detain him until he can produce proper documents.
Don't count on Congress to act on immigration reform prior to the election in November. But the issue will play a huge role in presidential election politics.
Now some Republicans are having second thoughts about the political wisdom of draconian measures like the Arizona law, so offensive to Latino voters, to deal with undocumented immigrants. Mitt Romney, an immigration hawk, recently appeared with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to court the Latino vote.
Rubio has a version of the proposed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act, that is scaled down for Republican lawmakers. It is hard to believe Republicans in Congress have repeatedly rejected something as nonthreatening as the DREAM Act, which provides a path to citizenship for young immigrants with no criminal background who have proven to be productive residents through college or military service.
Rubio's version of DREAM would allow them to remain in the country temporarily under a new nonimmigrant visa, but it does not offer a path to permanent residency and citizenship.
The DREAM Act is an easy compromise and step down the path of a more comprehensive immigration package. But it would not put a dent in the mounting problems of immigration reform.
Comprehensive immigration reform would include a guest-worker program with temporary work permits for unauthorized immigrants now in the U.S., an entry-exit system that tracks immigrants, and permanent residency leading to citizenship for those who have shown their ability to become productive members of society.
Current federal immigration laws cannot track the flow of immigrants. And keeping undocumented immigrants in the shadows leads to human rights abuses.
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