Letter: Offer green cards, but not residency

Tuesday, April 11, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

An Easter break truce has been called in the Senate over the war on illegal immigration. Clearly the current proposal proffered by Sen. Arlen Specter and the Senate Judiciary Committee - the 12 million green card tickets to citizenship - is really an amnesty wolf in sheep's clothing. All kinds of rationales have been exhumed to justify rewarding bad and illegal behavior by our government, American businesses and foreign nationals.

Put aside for a moment all the pro and con arguments, including our economy will go south when 12 million illegal immigrants are forced to leave or the irreparable financial and social harm they will cause if they stay. Assume that we do now, and will for the foreseeable future, require low-skilled immigrant labor. Then why give legal status to those who broke the law and still live here when there is a less complex solution?

Establishing controlled conditions that foster reverse migration of illegal immigrants not only solves a logistical nightmare but also frees up resources to focus more upon controlling bad business behavior while ferreting out the criminals and terrorists.

A simpler approach to the immigrant worker problem would be to, as many have suggested, first secure our borders and then allow for the adequate importation of legal foreign workers.

To solve both of these requirements, first satisfy the needs of American businesses by offering green cards to foreign nationals but not citizenship. Businesses would be required to pay these workers a fair wage and provide adequate medical benefits so that taxpayers don't pick up the tab. Those who want to come here to work would, after screening, be issued green cards but only when they first apply from their country of origin.

Why spend a decade or more trying to identify and process up to 12 million illegal immigrants when all they need to do is return home and apply for their green card? New government-sponsored billboards would read, "Got your green card? Hurry and beat the rush! Get in line in your country now."

Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas