Today is my last post on A New Approach for class. The blog will go on a hiatus for at least the summer, although I would like to continue it in some fashion in the future.
I hope that A New Approach succeeded in its goal of presenting the immigration debate in a new light, one that places greater importance on the human cost of not reforming the current system.
The current system has created a black market for human smuggling, and violent "coyotes" have taken the market over with ruthless tactics and little regard for human life. Making legal immigration easier would lessen the number of immigrants who put their safety in the hands of people who see them as dollar signs and little else.
Reform is also needed to stem the "reverse brain-drain" phenomenon that our country is currently experiencing. Skilled and intelligent immigrants who have come to the United States to study and work and being denied permanent residency by the thousands. These workers provide huge net gains for the economy, and their departure leaves a hole in the economy that we simply cannot fill.
For those two reasons alone the U.S. immigration system needs to be reformed, not tomorrow, not next week, but today. When you consider the emotional pain caused by workplace raids and the separation of families, as well as the resources and attention diverted from true public safety concerns to enforcing current immigration laws, it becomes obvious that a path to amnesty has to be included in any reform. Otherwise, we are just ignoring the elephant in the room while sweeping around it.
Hopefully by the next time I post there will have been some meaningful progress in this direction. The longer the problem drags on the harder and harder it will be to deal with it.
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