“Challenges are opportunities in disguise.” John F. Kennedy

“We can’t reform immigration without controlling immigration. And we can’t control immigration without first securing our borders…” Lou Dobbs, CNN Anchor, “Lou Dobbs Tonight”.

“We can take the “amnesty” out of the bill…(by imposing a return-home requirement for heads of households)…” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), on the Senate floor during this year’s debate on Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill.

“After we secure the borders, I’m willing to look at the hard cases to see what can be done that is fair…the people who have been here for many years and have been caught in the system…” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), primary opponent of Comprehensive Immigration Reform on the Senate floor at the time of the defeat of the bill, (paraphrased).

IMMIGRATION REFORM in 2008 and beyond, particularly resolving the long-standing and intractable “illegal immigration” problem, will test America’s ability to unite red and blue states for the common good. The next presidential administration will be presented with a golden opportunity to bring the nation together, and solve this divisive and highly-emotional 40-year-old problem once-and-for-all, “without animosity or amnesty”.

The place we are at in the highly-charged “immigration debate” may be where we need to be, and can serve as the launching point for a blueprint for America’s future. The rough outlines of a solution are clear: a principled and practical compromise in the proper sequence between securing the borders, and re-directing the focus of future immigration, and dealing with the 12 million illegals who have been “caught in the system”, as Sen. Jeff Sessions put it.

That compromise can be called: Sequential Immigration Reform (SIR). SIR takes up from where Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) left off and failed, but builds on its positive steps. SIR is essentially a three (3) part plan to address the issue, and help bring the country together around the inevitable answer:

1. SECURE BORDERS WITH INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT: Secure the borders with new personnel and technology. A newly-appointed Presidential Commission consisting of the border state governors and a group of independent border experts must CERTIFY that the borders are secure. By "secure" is meant a 90% or better probability that an illegal border crosser will be identified, apprehended and returned within a very small timeframe. This phase must be completed before the other phases can begin. No longer would the American public need to "trust" the federal government, because independent experts and border state governors would have to CERTIFY that the borders are secure before other parts of immigration reform take place. In addition, a careful program of interior enforcement with significant penalties and fines on employers which hire undocumented workers must be implemented to ensure that only aliens with legal status under a tamper-proof biometric card are hired and retained. This would also discourage visa holder overstays, most of whom overstay for employment. Full implementation of the VISIT Entry/Exit system would also better identify and track overstays.

2. WORK-BASED SHIFT IN IMMIGRATION FLOW, WHILE RETAINING A STRONG FAMILY COMPONENT: After certification that the borders are secure, a shift must be made in future immigration flow towards giving greater weight to employment and education by implementing a new broad Guest Worker Visa program, including new agriculture worker visas, and increased skilled worker visas such as the H-1b visa. While a shift to employment and business based immigration is undeniably required by U.S. economic and employment needs for the 21st century, family ties will continue to remain extremely significant but would be rated at least equally or better than employment and education criteria for new visa applicants. Current family-based LEGAL IMMIGRATION must also be reformed and improved. Adequate resources, technology and strategy must be implemented to clear unacceptable backlogs and reduce waiting times for family visas to no more than 5 to 7 years.

3. TEMPORARY REVOKABLE WORK STATUS FOR SOME CURRENT ILLEGAL UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS WITH SIGNIFICANT COMMUNITY TIES:

A strict and regimented program, on a case-by-case basis, for QUALIFYING illegals to come out of the shadows and gain temporary revocable work status using a tamper-proof biometric card based on: significant years of employment, no criminal background in USA or abroad, English and assimilation tests, back taxes paid, waiting-in-back-of-line, return to home country by head-of-household within 3 years and re-entry into the USA with visa, and payment of significant fines and penalties. A select few may be able to get on a path to residency and citizenship after a 13 to 15 year wait.

SIR emphasizes the SEQUENCE of reform as key to the successful final solution. The sequence of reform will also probably be vital to gathering sufficient political will in our divided political system to enable this reform to pass the Congress and be accepted by the public. The emphasis on sequence and especially the return-home and re-entry requirement imposed on illegal housholds will effectively take the "amnesty" out of the bill, in Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson's words. Border security first, then followed by immigration reform and dealing with the 12 million illegals.

The failure of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) was due to the word “amnesty”, and the anger that flowed from it on radio talk shows and from a minority but vocal segment of the public. Perhaps even more importantly, the failure of CIR was due to the word “trust”, namely the disillusionment and fury of the general public that the U.S. government has failed miserably to secure the borders up to now.

SIR addresses these issues head-on, and also recognizes the cold simple reality which the vast majority of the American public know in their hearts to be true: we must somehow effectively deal with the 12 million workers who are here now. Many have U.S. citizen children and have worked here for many years. And most will not and cannot as a practical matter simply leave or be wished away. They did not arrive overnight, and in a divided system, the political will and public money cannot be summoned to create a force structure to uproot and deport them all. Nor would the American public tolerate the massive privacy invasion and disruption of family life that would be depicted on TV and the Internet from mass round-ups. Moreover, the U.S. economy and the tens of thousands of U.S. businesses which hired them must remain competitive and robust for the 21st century, if America is to succeed and win in the global economy.

Here is one PRACTICAL ROADMAP to get reform of immigration and illegal immigration done with TRANSPARANCY and on COMMON GROUND:
1. A NATIONAL TOWN MEETING, held simultaneously in major cities and towns, to have all public sides air their views and grievances and suggested answers;
2. A CAREFUL CONSENSUS between the new presidential administration, and both Republican and Democratic sides in the Senate and the House concerning the sequence and parts of SIR, with the proposed draft text availble oinline on the Internet for discussion, suggestions and comments; and
3. A BI-PARTISAN SIR BILL introduced into both the Senate and the House, and signed off on by both the Majority and Minority leaders in both the Senate and the House

No solution will be easy, cheap or fast, and none will be "clean" or perfect. No one has 100% of the answer. But SIR offers the best practical long-term hope. For too long, America in effect hung two signs at the border: one saying: “Keep Out”, and the other saying “Help Wanted”. The illogical inconsistency of this message and painful inhumanity of people literally dying to reach America must be changed. And red states and blue states, and liberals and conservatives, and those who favor enforcement and those who favor a path to citizenship for everyone, must not be pitted against each other. Rather, all Americans must find a principled and practical way to make that change together.

And the next president’s effort and commitment will be critical in answering the immigration reform issue: a challenge which, in JFK’s words, is actually a disguised opportunity to unite America in a new politics of hope.

GARY BALA supports the Barack Obama Presidential Campaign 2008.
E-Mail: garybala@VISA-Attorney.com

Copyright©. Gary Bala, USA Immigration Attorney.