Our Opinion: STRIVE: Compromise produces an imperfect act
by Tucson Citizen on May. 02, 2007, under Edge, Local, OpinionImmigration reform and improved border security have been tied together in what may be the best and only chance for Congress to deal with both issues anytime soon.
They aren’t one and the same, but the proposed Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act, known as STRIVE, can bring about both reform and security.
The issue is at the forefront in the wake of Tuesday’s demonstrations across the country, including the Tucson march and rally that attracted an estimated 2,500 people.
Much to the chagrin of many activists, proposed reform legislation would focus on border security first.
But while STRIVE is far from perfect, its opponents should recognize that it’s the best compromise yet forged in Congress, and it’s our only hope for reform anytime soon.
The border security provisions wisely call for technological approaches rather than an ineffective wall.
That’s important if dangerous, gun-wielding drug and people smugglers are to be found and apprehended.
Workers need legal pathway
But the people being smuggled are mostly seeking U.S. jobs.
The way to keep them out of our desert is not apprehensions; it is with a legal program to let them take the jobs U.S. employers are desperate to fill.
Any implication that impoverished, would-be workers must be hunted down like criminals insults them.
It also is an affront to the millions of illegal immigrants who long have worked in the United States, buying homes, paying taxes, raising families and helping, not harming, our society.
Yes, they broke the law coming here. But they wouldn’t be here if U.S. employers weren’t hiring them.
Despite protesters’ concerns, though, the STRIVE Act addresses both groups – criminals via border security and workers by legal means. That’s the only solution to immigrants’ plight and to some Americans’ consternation over their presence.
Quick, secure and thorough background checks would allow legal hiring of temporary workers, those who harvest crops or bus tables in ski resorts, for example. They would spend only limited stints in our nation.
Act is odd, clumsy, but effective
A different approach must be taken for the more than 12 million illegal immigrants who have made this their longtime home and have become upstanding members of their communities.
While many Americans chafe at the idea of “granting them citizenship,” it is unrealistic to think they can be rounded up and deported en masse.
The STRIVE Act’s approach is odd and clumsy. It would require an illegal resident to pay a $2,000 fine, undergo an extensive background check, pay taxes, learn English and – the odd part – leave the U.S. and then return.
The path to citizenship might take 11 years. But that is far preferable to having a chunk of our population living in the shadows, vulnerable to exploitation.
The key to both approaches is secure background checks to weed out criminals and other ne’er-do-wells.
STRIVE Act our only hope now
Despite its flaws, this act is our only hope to fix our broken immigration system anytime soon.
If a reform package isn’t enacted this year, it most assuredly won’t be passed in 2008, when politicians will be consumed by election campaigns.
Big compromises have been made on both sides for STRIVE, and neither side is entirely comfortable. But something must give for there to be gain.
Without passage of this act, hundreds of illegal immigrants will continue to die in our desert each year, and millions will keep living in shadows.
Employers will keep hiring illegally, and drug runners and coyotes will bring more violence here.
Reform is decades overdue, and the STRIVE Act is our best hope today. That’s the political reality today.
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