Immigration Reform, In Search Of Answers and Solutions

Commentary
By Scott McLean

Oftentimes in politics, solutions are difficult to arrive at. Issues seem to be debated forever. And answers continue to elude those asking the questions...

The following are but a few of the questions politicians are asking these days:

What to do about the millions of illegal immigrants in the United States? What to do to prevent millions more from sneaking across the U.S.-Mexico border?

Those issues are now being considered by the U.S. Congress, something that should have been done years ago.

Are there 11 or 12 million illegal immigrants, as we are told over and over, or is the number even larger? Clearly, federal and state social services, paid for by taxpayers, are overburdened now by the wave of immigrants.

The emotional debate over immigration is understandable, yet Congress should neither bow to pressure to do next to nothing (grant amnesty and move on), nor just put up a barrier, which could be viewed by other countries as U.S. isolationism.

Anyone following American politics realizes compromise is a defining characteristic of U.S. Congress. Unfortunately, Congress and the President let the the illegal immigration get out of control, and only now is an effort being made to address it.

Of course the idea of amnesty for the millions of illegal immigrants is not a popular one, and President Bush gave reasons for his opposition to amnesty in his radio address, which is also found in printed form as a White House press release.

The President wants Congress to pass a temporary worker program as part of immigration reform, instead of providing amnesty, which would amount to giving citizenship to illegal immigrants.

Why should illegal immigrants be allowed to stay when so many people from all over the planet are waiting to immigrate legally? Special treatment for illegal immigrants would not be fair to illegal immigrants.

Recently, protests by and for illegal immigrants brought attention to their demands to remain in the United States, yet the rallies were not given much critical scrutiny by mainstream media.

Observing such a spectactle may cause voters to wonder whether they, too, need to hold rallies in order to gain the attention of the media and Congress.