Guest column: Toll too high: Push forward now to reform immigration

Some say that the national agenda is full, and we have no time for this. But comprehensive immigration reform is an important strategy to help fix our economy. It would ensure that minimum wage and labor standards are enforced, that all workers are documented and that all employers are paying their fair share of payroll taxes. It would level the playing field among businesses by making everyone compete fairly for labor. Workable solutions would redirect dollars from prohibitively expensive "smart walls" and threatened deportation of 12 million immigrant workers and their families, thus easing the debt load on an overburdened federal budget.

Immigration reform cannot be thought of as a third-rail issue any longer. Most Americans want this issue resolved: We are tired of 12 million of our co-workers living in the shadows; we are tired of sharing the roads with drivers who cannot get licenses or insurance; we are tired of families that spend years apart; we are tired of perverse incentives that reward businesses that operate illegally; and we are tired of a dysfunctional visa program that makes people choose crossing a desert over standing in line.

America wants a system that reflects its values, one that combines fairness, accountability, justice and a heavy dose of pragmatism. We want a nation that lives its motto of e pluribus unum, out of many, one.