Immigration: Future On The Fence http://www.newsweek.com/id/96375/page/1
Perhaps no pressing national issue has been so neglected by the U.S. government as illegal immigration. Sure, construction's begun on a border fence and Immigration agents have stepped up workplace raids. But such measures barely bandage the problem. The next president will confront a complex scenario: more than 12 million undocumented immigrants, an additional flow of about 500,000 per year, social services around the country strained by the influx and public fury at government failure to fix it. Count on the situation to get worse. As immigrants continue to bypass traditional gateway cities and settle in smaller communities ill-equipped to handle them, the backlash will likely intensify. And with the economy in a tailspin, "many Americans will look for a scapegoat," says David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.
There's no shortage of opinion about what to do. Some argue for beefing up border security with enhanced surveillance technology. Yet that will do little to address the estimated 40 percent of undocumented immigrants who enter the country legally and overstay their visas, says Audrey Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Others clamor for the government to deport illegal immigrants—a prescription most experts consider unrealistic. For many, the sensible solution is a comprehensive immigration-reform package that includes enhanced border security, a temporary-worker program and a path to legalization for the undocumented. Local communities, adds Singer, will also need more help to relieve the burden that the new arrivals place on their infrastructure.
Yet the political climate doesn't favor getting much done. Republicans have adopted harsher stances to appease their right-wing base, and many Democrats fear venturing near such a divisive issue. After Congress's failure last year to strike a deal on an immigration-reform package, opponents are feeling even more emboldened. "It will be difficult to pass anything," says Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrants' rights group. "The debate will get uglier, and the political class will be even more polarized and paralyzed." That's not a way to do what many polls show a majority of Americans want: a reform package similar to the one Congress debated last year. "There are no easy answers," says Doris Meissner, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, "but there will be an opportunity that will require some leadership and skillful politics." Two qualities that have been lacking in this debate for too long.
—Jamie Reno, Sarah Kliff And Arian Campo-Flores
I like this article in that it's pretty objective. Bottom line, immigration reform is gonna be tough but it has to be done. Numbers give this issue the national weight, +12 million people gives the immigration issue the national attention we all want and it's not gonna go away through deportation. Not that I'm advocating illegal immigration but the sheer number of undocumented people in the US and it's daily increase will continue to make immigration an issue that cannot be ignored. I guess the question is how much longer will it be ignored.
