Editorial: Sins of the fathers

Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

An immigration fight in Congress is brewing over a sensible bill that would stop the cruel practice of deporting people who grew up here but are not legal residents.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., proposed the plan before, but it was killed with the major immigration overhaul bill earlier this year. His bill would allow children of undocumented immigrants to stay if they grew up here, and they could gain permanent legal status if they complete high school and at least two years of military service or postsecondary education.

It would fix one of the many flaws in the country's immigration policy, which dictates that children pay for their parents' transgressions. One of those victims is Fiorella Maza.

Now 19, Maza was brought to America by her parents when she was 2. She was deported with her family in March to Peru, a country foreign to her. USA Today reported Monday that she plans to take language lessons "because my Spanish is really bad."

This is not a unique story. The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates there are more than 360,000 high school graduates who would qualify under Durbin's bill.

"They have nowhere to turn," he said. "They are without a country."

Bob Dane of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which wants to reduce legal and illegal immigration, said opponents of Durbin's bill aren't trying to punish the children but believe in "not rewarding them for the illegal actions of their parents."

So ship them off someplace else - doesn't matter as long as it's not here - no matter if the children are Americans in every respect except the paperwork?

That, unfortunately, is U.S. policy, which dictates that a teenager who came to America as a toddler and was raised as an American be deported. Immigration opponents may stand behind their belief in the rule of law, but the law is wrong.

Congress should pass Durbin's bill and give the law some common sense and compassion.