iWeeks of ups and downs and high points and low points in the Immigration Reform debate have left the stakeholder community wondering how next to proceed. Last week, Washington Post opinion writer George Will crystalized the issues raised by House Republicans, and addressed the reasons not to move forward. See article here and key items from the article included below in italics.
Political Excuses
- Republicans should focus on the problems of the Obama Health Care Reform Bill. This has already been done very effectively.
- This is a divisive issue for the Republicans and should be avoided. Republicans say the Immigration System is broken and it is a matter of how to fix it, not when to fix it.
- Immigration Reform will create Democratic voters. Voters gravitate to candidates with similar values and offer opportunity.
- President Obama cannot be trusted to enforce immigration reforms. This distrust may be addressed by crafting legislation to ensure enforcement with checks and balances.
Substantive Excuses
- Immigrants could negatively impact American culture and not assimilate. Assimilation will be an important part of any immigration reform proposal and nearly 60 percent of the illegal population has already been in the U.S. more than 10 years and have been assimilating.
- Enforcement is a key component of Immigration Reform. I am in agreement that enforcement is a key component of sensible Immigration Reform.
- Immigration Reform will encourage low skilled and less educated workers that will depress wages of Americans. Lesser-skilled and lower skilled jobs must be done and U.S. workers are not taking them. The Congressional Budget Office says that immigration may causes a slight reduction is wages, but there will be an increase in economic growth overall attributable to immigrants. The economy needs workers at all levels to grow. When there is a need, there should be a mechanism to allow immigrant workers to fill that need.
Let's move forward and do what everyone thinks should be done – sensible Immigration Reform in 2014.
