President Obama plans to meet with Congressional leaders today to discuss long-awaited immigration reform.
Whether or not they will pass a bill this year remains doubtful. But conservative Republicans and even some Democrats are not convinced their constituents will support immigration reform under the current economic conditions.
But there are some convincing economic arguments for immigration reform. If you legalize people who are already working here, they will have to pay taxes. One 2006 study by the Congressional Budget Office estimated revenues would increase more than $66 billion over 10 years, wrote Frank Sharry the founder and executive director of America's Voice.
The Immigration Policy Center estimates that undocumented workers make up 5 percent of the workforce. So bringing those people into the legal workforce would allow them to contribute and pay taxes.
In order for any plan to pass, conservatives will insists on enhanced border enforcement or security.
One idea being floated by Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York would require that all workers identify themselves through fingerprints or an eye scan, according to a story in the Washington Post. Essentially this would require all of us to prove our identity.
But the truth is no security plan is foolproof. Just as counterfeiters have found a way to make fake green cards I'm sure they would devise a way around biometrics as well.
Still, it will be hard for Congress to pass any kind of immigration
reform bill unless they make efforts to appease those concerned with
border enforcement.
Various polls have shown that most Americans favor some sort of
immigration reform that would include a plan for legalization. But
those who are against any form of legalization are very vocal. Their
voices often drown out the moderate ones.
The good news is discussions on immigration reform are finally
underway. It may take time but at least our new president is starting
the dialogue.
So many people are expecting him to be able to fix so many things that
are broken in this country - the economy, health care and our
immigration laws.
Hopefully, Obama will be able to live up to those expectations. But
immigration reform may be one of the hardest issues for him to tackle
yet.
Filed under: Hispanic, immigration, politics
Tags: Obama meets with Congressional leaders on immigration reform
