Thursday, October 18, 2007

Who Says Undocumented People Are Not Self-sufficient?

The Washington Post speaks "admirably" about President Bush's attempt to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The paper's stance on the Prince William County vote against undocumented immigrants is encouraging.

It's a shame that to have a balanced approach to immigration would be considered "politically risky" - but these days in our xenophobic America, who could be surprised.

What I do have to question is the comment about undocumented immigrants need to "find work so that they may be self-sufficient and contribute to the community." The one thing I have seen during these last 20 months of doing research on immigration and the DREAM ACT is that undocumented immigrants ARE self-sufficient, often much more so than U.S. citizens. Of course they contribute to their community - they pay sales taxes and lose billions in income tax with-holding and social securty contributions that they will never be eligible to claim.


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Wrong Response
Frustration with the federal government's failure to manage immigration provokes bad decisions.
Washington Post
Thursday, October 18, 2007; A24

THE PRINCE William County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously at 2:30 a.m. yesterday to deny some county services to undocumented residents and to try to make them feel unwelcome in other ways. The board didn't come up with the funds that its new policy will require, and some of the measures may well be thrown out in court. But never mind: The supervisors fulfilled one goal they had cynically set for themselves, which was to look tough on illegal immigration before Election Day.

Prince William is not alone in this region as it struggles to come to terms with an unprecedented wave of immigration, both legal and illegal. The newcomers in many cases bring a willingness to work hard and a faith in the American dream that enrich their new communities. They also impose fiscal and social costs that arouse understandable anxiety, and those who have come illegally inspire resentment among many of those, both native-born and immigrant, who have played by the rules.

Unfortunately, those who should be providing a solution have failed to do so. Congress had a chance this year to pass sensible, desperately needed reforms and did not. President Bush, having pushed admirably for a comprehensive overhaul, then rolled out draconian and unworkable rules meant to prove his seriousness about enforcement. He may want to ratchet up the pain felt by businesses so that they will renew their lobbying for change. One provision, challenged by businesses and unions, called for the use of government data to identify undocumented workers who have used fake Social Security numbers; employers would be fined unless they fired those with "no-match" numbers within 90 days of being notified of a problem. A federal judge in California put this rule on hold after concluding that thousands, if not millions, of innocent citizens and legal residents could be caught up in immigration stings because of typographical errors and other mistakes that pervade the Social Security database.

Likewise, crackdowns such as Prince William's will accomplish little while harming many legal immigrants, as the outpouring of opposition at the board meeting Tuesday and yesterday suggested. The wiser, if politically riskier, course is what Montgomery County is pursuing: providing services to help the undocumented learn English and find work so that they may be self-sufficient and contribute to the community. Frederick County commissioners put the onus in the right place when they voted recently not to pursue punitive measures, even while imploring Washington to act. And if Congress continues to abdicate its responsibility, voters should remember a year from now which senators and representatives favored constructive change and which stood in the way.

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