Guest column: Toll too high: Push forward now to reform immigration
THOMAS RENDON of Des Moines is a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. Contact: tjrendon@earthlink.net
June 23, 2009 18:19 PM
We need comprehensive immigration reform now. The current policies don't work, and the realities of those policies are exacting a toll we can no longer tolerate. That was the message we received when a delegation from Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and the Iowa Immigration Reform Network attended the Reform Immigration for America Summit earlier this month. Nearly 800 people from more than 40 states gathered in Washington, D.C., to learn about how to fix our failed immigration policy.
The system abuses working families, perpetuates a vulnerable underclass in the United States, deprives hope for family reunification, denies an orderly process for immigrants to legalize their status and prevents communities from tapping into the talents and potential of valuable contributors to our society and economy. The summit mobilized around an urgent call to members of Congress to take action on immigration reform, an effort that generated 125,000 faxes and 7,500 calls from individuals around the country, including Iowa.
A growing consensus is emerging among a variety of interest groups - business, labor, immigrants' rights groups and communities of faith - that immigration reform is needed now. By reform, we mean workable policy solutions that reflect the common interests of the American people: establishing order at the border; focusing law-enforcement resources on criminals, not workers and parents; meeting American work-force demands; providing a reasonable path to citizenship; lifting wages for all workers; and generating billions in tax revenues that now go uncollected because some employers are operating in the shadows.
President Barack Obama pledged during the election to address immigration reform in 2009. Meanwhile, in 2006 and 2008, Iowa witnessed two devastating raids that brought upheaval and economic disaster to their communities. A popular restaurant owner was jailed and sent back to a nation he left as a teenager. Others defer their pursuit of the American dream for as long as three decades while awaiting a visa. The good news is that when our group met with congressional staffers of Iowa's delegation, there was unanimous agreement that the current system is broken and that immigration reform is desperately needed. We saw an eagerness to move beyond polarizing "amnesty" language and to talk through workable solutions.