America's illegal-immigration problems have no easy solution

[gravity]

Debate meets reality
May 17th 2007 | LOS ANGELES
From The Economist print edition

ON CLIMBING-FRAMES in the smarter neighbourhoods of Los Angeles, white toddlers occasionally shout to each other in Spanish. They learn their first words from Mexican nannies who are often working illegally, just like the maids who scrub Angelenos' floors and the gardeners who cut their lawns. Which helps to explain why fixing America's broken immigration system is proving so difficult. Californians, no less than the residents of other states, find illegal immigration distasteful. Yet they depend on immigrants for even such intimate tasks as bringing up their children.

This week the Senate was trying again to reconcile these contradictory, not to say hypocritical, impulses. As The Economist went to press, it seemed close to thrashing out a bipartisan bill that holds out the promise of legalisation for the nation's roughly 12m illegals, some 2.5m of them in California alone. But their cases will not be considered until the border is deemed to have been made more secure and the current backlog of legal immigrants is cleared—something that will take at least eight years. Worse, from the immigrants' point of view, they will probably have to leave the country and then petition to return, in what is known as “touch-back”.

If it becomes law, the Senate bill will transform America's immigration system. Following the lead of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain, America would adopt a points system that will give priority to the sort of young, employable immigrants who are most likely to contribute to the economy. Family ties, paramount in deciding immigration claims since the 1960s, would become less important.

A national compromise on immigration is sorely needed. As politicians in Washington, DC, have dithered in the past few years, local governments have increasingly taken matters into their own hands. Costa Mesa, in southern California, has asked its police force to root out and deport illegal immigrants who are arrested for crimes, in effect doing federal agents' jobs for them. On May 12th the residents of a Dallas suburb voted to fine landlords who rent to illegals.

More: http://economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9200903

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. You have kids and grandkids in America?

Sorry, you have to stay home. We only want those who can pick lettuce.

Absolute bullshit.