Before a group of community, business, evangelical, and labor leaders and law enforcement officials at American University in Washington, D.C., President Obama declared that the time had come to put politics aside and fix America’s broken immigration system.
America has defined itself as a nation of immigrants, President Obama said, citing Albert Einstein, Andrew Carnegie, and Sergey Brin of Google as immigrants who helped to make this country great, along with the “countless names and the quiet acts that never made the history books but were no less consequential in building this country.”
But although immigration has made America what it is, the immigration system is fundamentally broken: The 11 million undocumented workers living in the United States are vulnerable to unscrupulous businesses and put American workers at a disadvantage. Billions in tax revenue is lost by under-the-table wages. And the presence of so many undocumented immigrants flies in the face of those who are going through the immigration system legally.
Yet “reform has been held hostage to political posturing and special-interest wrangling—and to the pervasive sentiment in Washington that tackling such a thorny and emotional issue is inherently bad politics.”
When bipartisan attempts to reform the immigration system fall apart—such as an effort several years ago led by Republican John McCain and Democrat Ted Kennedy—states like Arizona take matters into their own hands, often in a divisive, misguided way.
Our task then is to make our national laws actually work—to shape a system that reflects our values as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. And that means being honest about the problem and getting past the false debates that divide the country rather than bring it together.
Government has a threshold responsibility to secure our borders. That’s why I directed my Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano—a former border governor—to improve our enforcement policy without having to wait for a new law.
Today, we have more boots on the ground near the Southwest border than at any time in our history. … We doubled the personnel assigned to Border Enforcement Security Task Forces. We tripled the number of intelligence analysts along the border. For the first time, we’ve begun screening 100 percent of southbound rail shipments. And as a result, we’re seizing more illegal guns, cash, and drugs than in years past. Contrary to some of the reports that you see, crime along the border is down. And statistics collected by Customs and Border Protection reflect a significant reduction in the number of people trying to cross the border illegally.
But securing America’s borders is not a complete solution. Businesses that deliberately hire and exploit undocumented workers must be held accountable, and already the administration is stepping up enforcement efforts against the worst workplace offenders and working to help employers verify their employees’ legal status.
We must also require those here living illegally to admit they broke the law, register, pay taxes, pay a fine, and learn English before they can get in line to earn their citizenship.
Finally, the legal immigration system must be reformed—for example, eliminating the backlog of background checks and allowing people to check the status of their immigration applications through email or text message.
Progress has been made, but as the President noted, making comprehensive reform a reality requires the cooperation of the Republican Party—cooperation we’ve seen in years past.
The President said:
I believe we can put politics aside and finally have an immigration system that’s accountable. I believe we can appeal not to people’s fears but to their hopes, to their highest ideals, because that’s who we are as Americans. It’s been inscribed on our nation’s seal since we declared our independence. “E pluribus unum.” Out of many, one. That is what has drawn the persecuted and impoverished to our shores. That’s what led the innovators and risk-takers from around the world to take a chance here in the land of opportunity. That’s what has led people to endure untold hardships to reach this place called America.
As President Obama noted, “The question now is whether we will have the courage and the political will to pass a bill through Congress—to finally get it done.”
Dream Big & Dare to Fail
The Informer
