Illegal lip service

Immigration is an issue often discussed, but rarely acted upon. Every once in a while the powers that be decide to take another run at immigration reform with generally lackluster or nonexistent results. That time has come once again.

As The New York Times reported on Nov. 14, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has thrown down the gauntlet for congress to get the ball rolling on immigration reform, hopefully starting this coming January. Arguably, the toughest part of reform will be trying to figure out a good way to legalize immigrants already here. The consensus seems to be a pathway that is, as Napolitano puts it, “tough and fair.”

Apparently, the Obama administration’s—or at least Napolitano’s—idea of fair includes registration, paying fines and taxes owed, passing a criminal background check and learning English. Some of these requirements sound pretty fair, but all of them together seem overreaching and would perhaps be an obstacle to anyone looking to become legal.

The idea of having to pay back taxes and fees is not entirely unfair. It may, however, be virtually impossible for some who hardly have enough to live on as it is. And what of all the companies that hired illegal immigrants under the table to avoid taxes? Will they be asked to give themselves up and pay fees and back taxes as well? I doubt it.

Illegal immigrants are able to negatively impact the local economy by taking jobs at lower pay and dodging taxes. They also help the economy by taking jobs that no one wants and providing other services—foreign labor is only a bad thing when it’s illegal and under the table. Some may claim that they “took our jobs,” but I don’t see long lines of legalized Americans applying to pick strawberries in California all summer, even in this recession.

I understand that they violated our laws and came here illegally, and that dues should be paid. But any conclusion reached needs to be reasonable, and the companies and corporations that violated laws by employing illegal immigrants should be held as accountable as the immigrants they hired.

Another obstacle is whether or not comprehensive immigration reform is even possible. Every couple of years, some progressive politician with a bit of power starts making a stink about reforming immigration. Pundits and advisors chat with each other on CNN for a few weeks while the issue is hot and Congress is thinking about it, and eventually someone throws up another couple miles of fence along the border or hires a couple hundred police officers until the issue is forgotten.

It seems that there is always another issue that gets deemed more important. That issue is health care. The way we deal with the health care issue now and over the next months will greatly impact whether or not, and to what extent, we deal with immigration reform. I cannot imagine that immigration reform will last more than a couple of weeks if we are still dealing with health care and partisan politics come January.

This is also evidenced in the concessions being made on health care reform due to partisan politics—concessions which will almost certainly be made on any kind of immigration reform bill, assuming anything even reaches Congress.

Napolitano made a bold move by calling out lawmakers to address immigration reform and even speaking on the Obama administration’s behalf by laying out some possible guidelines. But health care and other issues are going to make this tough. If we really want to address comprehensive immigration reform, we need to make sure that it actually gets some follow through and not just a word or two.