Senate leaders and the White House forged a vital compromise Thursday that could lead to historic changes in this country’s broken immigration system.
The agreement, which would give legal status to workers already here while beefing up control of the border, gives Congress a workable blueprint to debate beginning next week. It would create a temporary worker program for new immigrants and a separate program for migrant agricultural workers. And to prevent employers from continuing to hire illegal workers, new high-tech enforcement measures would be instituted to verify a worker’s status.
The compromise, whose passage won’t be a slam dunk, was reached just as new data were released outlining precisely why we need a solution to illegal immigration. According to the nation’s top demographers, U.S. population and labor force growth in coming decades will depend on immigration rather than growth in the native-born population.
That population growth – tomorrow’s workforce – needs to be legal and out of the shadows. Congress has a very small window for approving immigration reform before election-year politics makes sensible debate impossible, underscoring the timing of Thursday’s agreement.
A stalemate in negotiations was apparently broken when leaders agreed on a “point system” that would for the first time prioritize immigrants’ education and skill levels over family connections when awarding green cards. A parent already here could still be reconnected with minor children and spouse. The new rules would make it tougher for an immigrant’s siblings and older children to enter the U.S.
Provisions to better secure the border while punishing businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants were added to win GOP support, and they’re important. For any type of guest-worker program to work, the U.S. needs to control its borders.
The last major immigration overhaul, 1986’s Simpson-Mazzoli Act, failed miserably because the government never cracked down on businesses. The failure stemmed from congressional refusal to create a tamper-proof ID card. If a new plan is going to work, there needs to be some type of secure identifier for workers so employers know the legal status of potential hires.
The proposal also includes a separate, temporary-worker program for 400,000 migrants a year, which we consider essential, given labor shortages in the fields.
The need for immigration reform is clear. Whether Congress can enact necessary and historic legislation on a hyper-sensitive issue is not.
