A smart, small compromise on immigration

There’s a glimmer of hope in the Senate as Democrat Krysten Sinema of Arizona and Republican Thom Tillis of North Carolina are working on a small-bore immigration proposal, as the session comes to an end.

The major points, according to reporting by the Washington Post, is to extend for a year the effective Title 42 gimmick used by President Donald J. Trump to expel illegals due to pandemic concerns. Title 42 is due to sunset soon.

The deal would provide a path to legalization for the estimated 2 million Dreamers, in exchange for #25 billion in increased funding for the over-stressed Border Patrol, and border security.

The Dreamers are in a separate category from other illegals. They were brought here as children by their parents.

Here is a test I use for evaluating the case of illegals.

1- Did you come here voluntarily? 

2- Did you know you were breaking the law?

3- Did you realize there would be consequences?

If the answer is “yes,” you don’t get much sympathy from me.

But the answer to the first question is “no” for the Dreamers, who were brought by parents. We don’t punish children for the crimes of their parents. To qualify, they had to be in the U.S. since 2012, so this will not create a new wave of illegals.

They should be eligible not just for legalization, but for citizenship.

But not their parents, not citizenship.

There are at least 11 million illegals in America and a majority of Americans don’t want them deported. Some feel it would cost too much, others think it is inhumane.

Almost two-thirds would allow them to become citizens. 

I would not, not without certain penalties for law-breaking (as proposed by President Obama) and moving them to the back of the line to insure that everyone who followed the rules would get citizenship first.

Our “broken” immigration is not hard to fix. It requires common sense and compromise.

Sinema and Tillis are showing us how.