Nancy Pelosi’s hysterics over the Texas anti-sanctuary city law obscure some important questions that people on both sides of the debate need to ask themselves. The truth is that sanctuary cities have become havens for criminals; and the states and the federal government have made mistakes in their rush to correct a decades-old problem that eludes one-sided solutions.
In the name of standing up to policies such as those of Texas (and before that, Arizona), Pelosi casts Texas as the villain and sanctuary cities as the good guys. That was opportunist and manipulative.
Nevertheless, I believe that immigration reform by-decree (a.k.a. executive order) is a hit-and-miss proposition. I also believe that the Texas policy repeats all of the missteps of its Arizona precursor. Witness to how the fabled SB 1070 law has been dismantled.
Turning police officers into immigration is a losing proposition. The Texas Police Chiefs Association, along with the chiefs of the major cities, agree. That is if you want the 1.5 million illegal immigrants of Texas ― half of whom have lived in Texas for more than ten years ― to cooperate and remain engaged with law enforcement. Illegal immigrants who fear the police will also not report crimes.
But the cities and government at the state and federal level need to give up their intransigence and together carve out a sane compromise.
Going after 1.5 million illegal immigrants all at once, even if the law says we can, is simply impractical. Why not go after the “bad hombres” first, as the president himself suggested? By honoring detainers for this class of illegal immigrant the cities will do everyone a big favor.
The non-violent illegal immigrants would be allowed to carry on with their lives until their status is resolved through comprehensive immigration reform ― the only thing on which Pelosi and I might agree. Lesson to be learned? We cannot and should not protect all illegal immigrants; but we should not criminalize and go after all of them.
Let me preempt the objection that comprehensive immigration reform is “amnesty,” or “path to citizenship.” I am for legal status for hard-working illegal immigrants, but not for path to citizenship.
However, all studies show that almost thirty-five percent of the work force in the U.S. in the next twenty to thirty years will have to come from immigration.
In those eleven million illegal immigrants, we have a pool of workers whom we can grant legal status to work in the U.S., to fill the gap created by the retiring baby-boomers.
The need for immigrant labor will not go away; and the kind of labor these immigrants do will not go away either.
Elvira Salazar is a five-time Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist and news anchor of MEGA TV. She has interviewed Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and was the only U.S. Spanish language television journalist to obtain a one-on-one interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Salazar wrote her first book, "If God Be With You, Who Shall Be Against You?" selling out the first edition in three months. She holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of Miami and earned her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. To read more of her reports — Click Here Now.
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