ook back a short while at the proposed immigration reform offered by George W. Bush. Overall it was reasonable. Now, apparently, it's been cast aside as too soft; not hard enough on undocumented people. His idea sought to give illegal immigrants a way of eventually achieving citizenship. It also proposed making it easier for future immigrants to reside, temporarily, in the United States as guest workers. There are more and more calls for a tougher approach so, recently, the White House has talked of charging guest workers punitive fees for the permits that they would need to acquire. They also call for sending home the illegals for extended periods. This is surely not such a good idea and hardly workable. Yes, of course, it will look tougher but it wouldn't put the immigrants on a sounder footing, nor succeed in cutting down their ever mounting numbers.
Immigration reform is and has been one of the most bitterly contested topics in Washington D.C. and more and more so across the country. The president claims that a deal can still be achieved on comprehensive reform. I doubt it, during the remaining period of the Bush administration.
We need the millions of illegal immigrants who live here. They are hard workers, in large measure doing jobs that Americans do not want. If they were to be repatriated to their country of origin tomorrow, there would be enormous problems for us all.
Many of the laws currently being flouted on Capitol Hill would be unenforceable.
We should guard our borders for many reasons and we should send to Washington men and women who have the courage to enact the fairest of immigration reform laws.
Our policy on the immigration of skilled workers is also off-kilter and possibly even more so. Of course we offer annual visa quotas but they are filled within days of their being offered. We then turn away thousands of highly skilled and well trained, hard working young people from all over the world. And then they go elsewhere. And what we are seeing more and more as a result of this is American companies are taking the jobs to the would-be immigrants; high tech off-shoring of United States companies. All round it is sounding sort of defeatist when you take into account that we are a nation of immigrants.
How the world has changed. When, as an Englishman, 43 years ago I wanted to apply for entry and eventual citizenship in this country I went to the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square in London. They gave me forms, set a time later in the day and invited me back three hours later. I was on a ship about 2 weeks later.