Washington – The bill passed by the House late Friday to step up border enforcement and crack down on the millions of undocumented workers in the country would be doomed to failure if enacted because it does not acknowledge the inexorable economic forces that drive illegal immigration, according to many analysts.
“Enforcement alone will not do it,” said Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. “There is a certain emperor-has- no-clothes aspect to these enforcement-only bills. The only way they can work would be if you totally militarize the border. And even then, people would find some other way to come in.”
The view that more than tougher enforcement is needed has been echoed by President Bush, who endorsed the House measure but also has said that a guest-worker program that would create a legal channel for a significant number of unskilled workers to come into the country is a crucial element to controlling illegal immigration.
“It is a significant step forward,” Erin Healy, a White House spokeswoman, said of the House bill. “But the Senate has said that it plans to move next year on a comprehensive immigration measure.”
The bill, passed by the House 239-182, would significantly strengthen enforcement by building sections of double walls along more than a third of the 2,000-mile southern border and incorporating more high- tech tools, including sensors, radar, satellites and unmanned drones, to enhance patrols.
The bill also would discourage the hiring of illegal workers by intensifying enforcement against employers, who would have to confirm the authenticity of employees’ Social Security numbers against a national database or face fines of as much as $25,000 per violation.
In addition, the bill would require that undocumented immigrants apprehended in the United States be detained until they are deported. Currently, a severe shortage of detention space forces authorities to release many non-Mexican detainees after giving them summonses to return for deportation hearings, which most ignore.
Illegal Mexican immigrants are deported.
The Senate is expected to act on its own immigration bill early next year. That measure is widely expected to include enhanced enforcement measures and a guest-worker program.
Congress has passed laws to crack down on illegal immigration in the past – most recently in 1996 – but those efforts have met with little success, especially when it comes to holding employers accountable.
