An immigration fix

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

Calling the immigration system “fundamentally broken,” President Barack Obama last week called for Congress to take up reform legislation. The president will have a serious battle on his hands in Congress — immigration has been a polarizing issue in America.

“Unfortunately, reform has been held hostage to political posturing, special-interest wrangling and to the pervasive sentiment in Washington that tackling such a thorny and emotional issue is inherently bad politics,” Obama said in a speech Thursday.

He called for bipartisan support, but the debate in Washington has been bogged down by some rather heated rhetoric. Many Republicans, for example, say they won’t support reform measures until the current law is aggressively enforced and the borders are “fully” secured. Egged on by such talk, there are people who argue for tough enforcement not just on the border — some want the nation’s nearly 11 million illegal immigrants rounded up and deported.

Republicans are using this as a wedge issue. They want voters to see Obama as weak on immigration. Arizona’s Republican Gov. Jan Bewer, for example, keeps trumpeting her state’s punitive law aimed at illegal immigration and saying the president isn’t doing his job. Never mind the fact that in the past few years America has made a major investment in border security and has seen the number of illegal crossings decrease.

A proposal for a massive law enforcement effort may rally the conservative base, but it isn’t realistic. Not only is it poor policy, but it is also expensive and devastating to families and communities. One estimate put the cost of pursuing and deporting the nation’s illegal immigrants at more than $200 billion over five years, and that doesn’t include the economic impact of removing the spending of millions of illegal immigrants. It also doesn’t consider the strain on law enforcement or the problems created when millions of people are afraid of reporting crime.

However, it is clear that something needs to be done. The president has outlined a good position on immigration reform that includes more enforcement and border security measures, as well as a reasonable policy toward illegal immigrants already in the country.

“Our borders are just too vast for us to be able to solve the problem only with fences and border patrols,” he said. “It won’t work. Our borders will not be secure as long as our limited resources are devoted to not only stopping gangs and potential terrorists, but also the hundreds of thousands who attempt to cross each year simply to find work.”

Obama said illegal immigrants should have a chance to “get right with the law.” Unfortunately, some conservatives paint any effort to do that as “amnesty,” and that’s incorrect. For example, a plan proposed in Congress by Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., would offer illegal immigrants a chance to stay in the country, but they would have to pay fines and back taxes, undergo a background check and be able to speak English before being eligible for legal status.

Giving illegal immigrants who are here and aren’t in any other legal trouble a way to gain legal status makes sense. It would take pressure off law enforcement and ease the problem of illegal immigration.

Unless conservatives want to spend billions of dollars on a massive deportation effort, they should see the value in this. It’s time for them to drop the rhetoric and work with Democrats to pass comprehensive reform legislation. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s long overdue.