The Next Immigration Steps

A couple of interesting articles caught my eye today. First up is from La Shawn Barber in the St. Louis Examiner. The headline is 'Now that amnesty is dead, locals must act against employers'. He talks about how the amnesty bill was killed, but there is still a LOT of work to be done in securing our borders. To that end, since the federal government has proven unable (or unwilling) to take necessary steps, it falls to state and local governments to do the job. Barber cites as a prime examples the fact that governors of Arizona and Oklahoma have recently signed into law that would severely penalize employers who hire illegal aliens. The interesting thing to note about this is that both of those governors are Democrats, proving that this is not a Republican/Democrat issue at all; rather, it's a matter of American citizens of all stripes realizing that something needs to be done, but not amnesty.

Another very interesting article comes from Matthew Spalding and James Jay Carafano at National Review Online. They point out that immigration reform doesn't need to be 'comprehensive' or even difficult. It would take four simple steps:
1. Enforce the laws. Everything we need to secure our borders is already on the books. Just do it.
2. Regain control of the southern border. Some initiatives are in progress; just keep going.
3. Emphasize legal immigration. Obviously, legal immigration is a benefit to both the immigrant and the country, so keep it up.
4. Create flexible legal opportunities to work in the United States. This is an important point for both sides, and there's no reason a workable program can't be worked out.

Given the public furor over the amnesty bill, this issue is in the forefront of the public's mind, so now is the time to act. Poll after poll shows that most Americans want border security first, then these other programs afterward. If someone in Congress would be so bold as to propose this sort of approach, I think it would meet with great success, both in the public perception and in the effectiveness of the solution itself.

There's my two cents.