Sensible Immigration Reform

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Another thread brought up illegal immigration, and it just so happens Michael Medved is discussing it on his show this very minute. I’m glad to hear the guest worker program ideas aren’t dead.

nytimes.com/2005/08/14/opinion/14brooks.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fDavid%20Brooks

…there has been an important change in the immigration debate. Among practical people, it’s no longer pro-immigrant folks against anti-immigrant folks. It’s no longer law-and-order hawks versus amnesty doves. Practical people understand the only way to establish law and order is to create a temporary-worker program and step up enforcement to make sure people use it.
In the Senate there are two bills, which if combined would get us a long way toward a solution. The McCain-Kennedy bill has an effective temporary worker program. The Kyl-Cornyn bill has tough border security provisions. As Jacoby notes, the sponsors of both may come to realize the two bills are not rivals. They complement each other.

This reform won’t satisfy people who want immigrants to disappear. But most Americans just want to know the system is under control, and this will do it.

Michael mentioned that a recent poll in Mexico found that 40% of Mexicans want to come to the US…70 Million people. They also had numbers on how many are willing to do it illegally, but I need to find the poll.

The current immigration situation is a problem, and we need to deal with it. Hopefully, we can find something realistic. We can’t deport 11 Million people.

God Bless,

Robert

 

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Here’s the polling data…

pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=52

In order to probe the views of potential migrants in Mexico, the nation that is by far the largest single source of new arrivals to the United States, the Center conducted surveys of nationally representative samples of the Mexican population in February and May of this year.

Both surveys had samples of 1,200 adults who were interviewed in their homes and both had a 3% margin of error. Identical questions on migration were asked in both surveys and produced similar results.

Major findings include:

• Asked whether they would go live in the United States if they had the means and opportunity, 41% responded positively in the February survey and 46% in the May survey.

• A fifth of Mexican adults (21% in both surveys) said they would be inclined to go live and work in the United States without authorization.

• A majority of Mexicans (52% in February and 54% in May) say they would be inclined to go to the United States through a temporary worker program that would require them to return to Mexico in some years and even greater majorities (68% in February and 71% in May) said their relatives and friends would be interested in participating.

• The propensity to migrate is evident in all sectors of Mexican society although it is somewhat higher among males, young adults and people with relatives already in the United States. It is by no means restricted to either the poor or the less educated. For example, more than a third (35%) of Mexican college graduates said they would go to the United States if they had the means and the opportunity and more than one in eight (13%) said they were inclined to do so without authorization.