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Stop work-site raids nowIn recent weeks and months, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has dedicated more of its resources in conducting an increasing number of work-site raids as an immigration enforcement tool. There is no question that DHS has the authority and the right to enforce the law. However, an enforcement-only strategy cannot hope to round up and deport the estimated 11 million undocumented workers living in the U.S. The financial – and more importantly the unacceptable humanitarian – costs are simply too high. In the aftermath of these raids, husbands are separated from their wives, and children are separated from their parents. Whole communities are terrorized – work sites are invaded by law enforcement personnel brandishing weapons and the sweeping nature of the raids make it difficult for those arrested to secure basic due-process protections, including legal counsel. Sure, the raids demonstrate the ability of the government to enforce the law – sort of. But, they don’t, however, really address the broader challenges of illegal migration. An enforcement-only strategy ignores America’s economic need for this labor force. Because of our present broken immigration system, there are insufficient visas available for workers to come to the U.S. legally. Without these workers, many agricultural and other businesses will be forced to move their operations overseas. The authorities generally have recognized this – and were, until recently, rather reluctant to enforce laws sanctioning those who hired “illegal” workers. The status quo is certainly unacceptable – as a nation we should not tolerate a marginalized underclass created by illegal migration. But we have it because present laws are antiquated and inadequate. This has created a cynical system in which those who survived the dangerous gauntlet of “illegal entry” do, in response to market forces, find work in short order. But, the solution is not stepped-up enforcement with work-site raids and their tragic human costs such as we saw in Pottsville, Iowa, last May when children came home from school to empty houses because their parents’ were put into detention. These sad outcomes to an enforcement-only strategy only demonstrate how seriously flawed our present immigration system is. The solution lies with comprehensive immigration reform, as the U.S. bishops have called for the last several years. The anti-immigrant forces in our nation often accuse the bishops – and other reform advocates – of favoring illegal migration. And we do not – and never have. However, we do advocate on behalf of those trapped by our broken system and we have argued for a path to legality for them. In this we agree with President Bush who said in January 2005: “America’s immigration system is … outdated, unsuited to the needs of our economy and to the values of our country. We should not be content with laws that punish hardworking people who want only to provide for their families.” Comprehensive reform that provides a path to legal status to these “hardworking people,” that provides for future labor needs through a temporary worker program, and that eliminates visa backlogs that keep families separated for too long can do better in solving our “illegal migration problem” than bigger walls and draconian roundups of men and women “who want only to provide for their families”. It’s time for a truce. Let’s halt these raids. Homeland Security can put our scarce resources to better use; and Congress, with whoever will be our next president, can engage once again the issue of immigration in a humane, thoughtful and courageous manner and move toward the adoption of comprehensive immigration reform legislation.
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