I am an almost 80-year old retired teacher. For years I have read about the Congressional stalemate on immigration reform. The most recent comprehensive immigration reform bill was passed by Congress in 1996, and it was meant to stem the flow of increased immigration that continued after the 1986 bill. The earlier bill provided, among other things, sanctions on businesses hiring immigrants without work permits or valid social security numbers. The 1996 bill provided for increased border security and fewer grounds for asylum applications. It was supposed to provide for increased detention and deportation.
Yet, here we are 30 years later unable to take responsibility for a full-blown humanitarian crisis. As a society, we benefited from the labor of hard-working immigrants, legal or not. American businesses have been eager to hire immigrants, and by law, these businesses must deduct income, Social Security and Medicare taxes. If anyone tells you that immigrants don’t pay taxes, it is because their employers are failing to follow the law.
Clearly, the 1996 law was ineffective. Either it was underfunded or American farmers, building contractors, meat processors, healthcare facilities and other employers benefited from hard-working employees and wanted the brakes put on enforcement. Let’s acknowledge that.
It is time for Congress to start talking across the aisle to address immigration, acknowledging its many benefits, establishing realistic population benchmarks for housing, schools, employment and stop play-acting with masked enforcement officers. We as a country are damaging our national honor by treating people desperate for work as criminals.
MARCIA COOKE
New Orleans