Wednesday, January 30, 2013

If it has the support of the Times ………..

Some of you may have already read this article which appeared in the New York Times Monday –


The Times, as expected, is already throwing bouquets at the proposals from the President and the Senate group of eight to reform the immigration process with a "path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented Immigrants." We certainly agree that such reform is badly needed and long overdue.
In its' editorial on January 28 it applauds dealing directly and presently with the issue and endorses almost every popular argument, except one.

The Times says we can't wait for the border to be secure. Specifically, it states, "But demanding an airtight 20000-mile border before making citizenship possible for the undocumented basically means the path will never be open." As with the same thinking that fatally flawed the 1986 Amnesty program, the Times on only the second day of real debate, chooses to toss aside strengthening  the border as an essential complement to making our efforts work this time. Perhaps the Times is simply restating its' twenty-seven year ago position which failed horribly.


Ben Ferro
benferro@insideins.com

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

But Will Immigration Reform Work a Second Time?


Yesterday’s inaugural post on past and present immigration reform efforts drew a very encouraging number of responses, most of which were quite positive and supportive and all of them very, very interesting and appreciated. 

From the beginning of our thinking in creating this blog, we sought to establish a forum for persons with personal experiences with immigration matters as our primary objective. We believed that sharing those experiences and feelings with others through this venue would generate a dialog that would trickle to the decision makers and make for a better final process. We’re going to give it our best toward facilitating that happening.

Among the common comments in our mail overnight was a question for me as to whether I personally favored some version of a comprehensive immigration reform, given my strong criticism of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. On that point let me be as clear as I can be not having seen the details of any of the proposals out there. 

First, as abhorrent as I found the tainted  implementation of the last effort  with the high levels of fraud and disappointing broken promises to fix the border, I nonetheless believe it was far better to do something rather than to have done nothing. I will go even further and state that from a view 25 years later, it worked in spite of itself.

Now the issue for me is, can we, in the light of what we learned, do a better job the second time around? The answer is absolutely yes! However, my support for such a program will hinge primarily on our will to learn from the past mistakes and do the job right. We’re better than our record, let’s insist on doing it better.

Ben Ferro
benferro@insideins.com

Monday, January 28, 2013

Comprehensive Immigration Reform - Redux



As the illegal alien problem reaches crisis levels for a second time in less than thirty years  the national debate on how to deal with the millions of illegal aliens living and working in the United States is being advanced in earnest this month by the Obama Administration.

In 1986, the solution was “amnesty” otherwise known as the Immigration Reform and Control Act. In 2013, the same problem has reemerged in greater numbers and under the specter of terrorism, and the proposed solution is again “amnesty” by yet another moniker, namely, “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”.

The last amnesty actually took more than four years of serious effort for the Congress and the Administration to bang out the legislation which cleared the books for millions of persons illegally here. Negotiations, consultations, and compromise at every level of government, the private sector and community organizations during the four years were painful and embarrassing for all concerned, particularly the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Painful and embarrassing because the final product looked more like the problem than the solution.   Having served as Director of the program for the INS,  I am convinced that had the INS known just what “amnesty” would look like in the end,  it would have withdrawn its support for the proposal early on. 

Through the entire four-year process, what started out as a reasonable and fair solution was warped beyond recognition by business interests, politicians, and community and religious  groups. The proposed solution was grounded on the argument that, since the vast, vast majority of  illegal aliens come to the United States for jobs, that turning off the magnet of jobs would reduce the numbers who would come. Further, the method for doing so would be shifted to employers who would, under penalty of severe sanctions, be responsible for ensuring applicants for jobs were legally here. It all made sense, particularly to most employers who already had little interest in employing illegal aliens. To some liberal members of Congress and to many community organizations, who generally were soft on or advocates for illegal aliens, it seemed like a trade worth making. Worth making because they saw it as the goose that laid the golden egg during a time when the Administration was looking seriously at using strong law enforcement as the alternative. Besides, this was legislation in the making, and community groups and legislators knew that negotiations with an over eager Republican administration would be productive. Productive they were. In fact, negotiations turned the amnesty proposal on its end. First, from within the INS, the Executive Assistant to the Commissioner, a political appointee coordinating the effort, began a campaign at staff meetings to involve community organizations in the amnesty process. She argued that community organizations would be our allies in carrying out the amnesty processing, and thus neutralize the stigma of “jack booted immigration agents” dealing directly with the frightened aliens. Having gotten her foot in the door for the initial processing being taken over from the government by these “voluntary organizations,” (Volags) she parlayed that into massive funding for these organizations.

However, the greatest concession to the community groups, and the worst blow to the integrity of the proposal resulted in turning a good idea into the biggest fraud ever perpetrated against the Immigration Service. Supporters and sympathizers convinced the then Administration that, in order give the amnesty program legitimacy, illegal alien applicants needed to be shielded from government agents coming after them for fraud. Can you imagine? Let any person come forward, make any claim they wished, based on whatever documents they chose to submit; make any statements and claims they chose, and do it with impunity.

In the final legislation, and in the implementing regulations, the law as passed by Congress did just that. Through the establishment of a “Chinese wall” barrier, Immigration Agents were prohibited from seeing any files or documents presented to the Volags, nor could they even question any applicants about their statements in their interviews. Result: Tens of thousands of ineligible persons already here made fraudulent  claims and thousands more aliens back in their home country learning of the wide-open opportunity to jump on the bandwagon swarmed into the U.S. and joined in the fiasco.  Almost ninety percent of the amnesty applications filed in the agricultural (SAW) category were fraudulent and yet approved!

Volags became solidified in championing causes for illegal immigrants and continued to receive massive government funding to “assist” in processing. While employers who complied in the past by refusing to hire illegal aliens continued to comply, those who knowingly used illegals before the law was passed continued to do so with little fear that the few INS agents enforcing the new law would cross their paths.

This was the beginning of the end of interior enforcement of the immigration laws within the INS and the beginning of the created need for a second amnesty today. Bleeding hearts in Congress and some succeeding administrations, particularly during the 1990s, shaped policies and shaved budgets to discourage enforcement programs and, in general, altered the perception of illegal aliens in the country from lawbreakers to a deprived underclass. Indeed, but for 9-11, the country was ready for and surely would have accepted another amnesty a decade ago.

Now we have a proposal by the administration to address the issue of illegal immigration again by enacting “comprehensive immigration reform” legislation. The first leg of the proposal, which actually goes back to the previous leadership, was to stem the flow of persons entering the country illegally by erecting physical barriers at the border in the form of tall fences and beefing up Border Patrol numbers as well. However, in a not-so-subtle shift in policy, the Administration has all but abandoned the idea, simply by failing to fund the construction of any additional fences, a clear signal to present and future crossers. It now appears that the true comprehensive aspect of immigration reform will be focused at finding a way to quietly blend the 15 million or so persons already illegally here onto a path to citizenship with the least disruption to them and their families waiting to join them from back home.

However, I believe all may not be lost. If the Administration is willing to return the processing of Comprehensive Immigration Reform to government control with necessary safeguards to inhibit fraud, and, in addition, to reinstate border integrity and sovereignty, comprehensive immigration reform can and will work.  However, short of those two essential factors being in place and becoming guidelines for lessons learned,  we’ll likely require a third effort to re-address the issue again in two decades or less.

Ben Ferro 


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