Now that Judge Bolton has found that the main parts of the Arizona law are unconstitutional, the eighteen or so states which were going to have similar laws have relented. The majority of the American people want this problem solved. Perhaps it is time for all of the Republicans, who have been yelling about the illegals taking over the country, to do something about it.
A CNN survey of 1,018 adults conducted in July of 2010 found that 81% of respondents favored "creating a program that would allow illegal immigrants already living in the United States for a number of years to stay here and apply to legally remain in this country permanently if they had a job and paid back taxes." This percentage was far higher than the 55% or respondents who said they favored the recently-passed "law concerning illegal immigrants" in Arizona.
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images...Thus far there has not been a single Republican willing to do something about immigration reform despite nearly 24/7 harangues. Why is that?
All of those on the right have boxed themselves in with their extremist rhetoric. To them any reform will be considered amnesty. Once again the Party of No can do nothing but oppose the will of the people. Still there are a few rational voices on the right that see that the long term good of the party and the nation requires comprehensive immigration reform.
http://politics.usnews.com/opinion/blogs...Despite this, to most on the right, the only acceptable solution would be to arrest the 12 million who should not be here, throw them in jail, and then send them back to where they came from.
There are a few problems with this plan. First there is the cost. Julie L. Myers, chief of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement estimated the cost of rounding up and deporting illegal immigrants to be $ 94 billion.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09...Then there are the children. About three fourths of the children of illegal immigrants (about 4 million) are legal United States citizens. It is immoral to split up families, and it is illegal to forcibly deport American citizens. If you deport the parents or split up the family then many of these children would have social problems and could end up in the prison system.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/14/citizen...Finally we need these people and our economy would collapse without them. Most of our crops are harvested by illegal immigrants. It is hard back breaking work that few American citizens have any appetite for. If they had a path to citizenship they could move out of poverty, pay more taxes, purchase more goods and boost the economy.
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pa...In the long term immigrants may be the salvation of the nation. Our birth rate has been decreasing and there are few young people to pay into social security, or Medicare. As our nation grows older more and more people will be using these entitlements and with fewer people to pay in, the system may collapse. Immigrants could make up the difference if we provided a pathway to citizenship.
Why is there such hysteria at this time? They say that Obama is not doing his job, but Obama has increased enforcement since he has been in office with an emphasis on law breakers. In some ways Obama is far stricter than even Arizona:
http://www.newser.com/story/96535/feds-p...The right claims that the illegals are taking away American jobs, "but Illegal immigrants seem to have very little impact on unemployment rates. Undocumented workers certainly do take jobs that would otherwise go to legal workers. But undocumented workers also create demand that leads to new jobs. They buy food and cars and cell phones, they get haircuts and go to restaurants. On average, there is close to no net impact on the unemployment rate. But economists generally believe that when averaged over the whole economy, the effect is a small net positive." Overall illegal immigrants are five times less likely to commit crimes. They are hard working, mostly Christian, and in many ways would make ideal citizens.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story...There was not always such a lock step resistance to anything the Democrats propose. Just a couple of years ago John McCain had authored some pretty decent comprehensive immigration reform legislation, but then he was challenged for his senate seat by a radical on the right so he had to flip flop so he would appear tougher. What did John McCain's Immigration plan look like before he started pandering to the extreme right wing?
http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/John_Mc...There is hope for a half way measure, a Down Payment, if you will.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20100730/pl_c...What is becoming clear is that most people want comprehensive immigration reform and thus far the Republicans have been kicking and screaming and holding their breath till their faces turn blue, but they are unwilling to act like adults and get down to the hard work of actually doing something.