The Feds Do Immigration

The immigration debate is a heated one that raises serious questions: What does it mean, exactly, to be an American citizen? Are there jobs "Americans won't do" – or for which U.S. industry prefers cut-rate workers? How is nationality linked to human worth?

People have very different answers to these questions. Yet all sides generally agree that layers of government regulation have historically clogged the process of resident documentation, effectively discouraging would-be U.S. residents from taking the legal route. So, the politicians have gotten together to design some additional layers!

Of the 30-odd pieces of legislation under consideration, two bills are being taken the most seriously – or, at least, being talked about the most: S.1003, sponsored by Arizona Sen. John McCain and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy; and S.1438, sponsored by Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl. Each is an omnibus immigration bill intended to completely revamp the current system.

According their press summation, the Cornyn-Kyl bill (aka the Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Reform Act of 2005) will "dramatically strengthen enforcement, bolster border security, and comprehensively reform our immigration laws," with an emphasis on "enhanced border security and interior enforcement, employer accountability, and reform that addresses temporary workers and the current illegal population." The first bit is self-explanatory: more border agents, more guns. The unnamed reform for the "current illegal population"? – well, kick 'em out. Cornyn's Mandatory Departure process would allow people up to five years to "depart the United States voluntarily and re-enter the country through normal legal channels (e.g., as temporary worker)." Which brings us to a temporary-worker system – an idea endorsed by the Bush administration – that would establish "a new visa category that allows aliens to enter the U.S. to work temporarily when there are no available U.S. workers."

McCain-Kennedy's Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act is more forgiving, with a temporary-worker system that allows for a worker to at least work toward citizenship, if he or she chooses. Enforcement consists of a "new electronic work authorization system – that will ultimately replace the paper-based, fraud-prone I-9 system" – that will be integrated gradually and, they go on to specify, "cannot be used to discriminate against job applicants." There's some vague border security talk, too, requiring the "development of various plans and reports" on "information-sharing, international and federal-state-local coordination, technology, anti-smuggling, and other border-security initiatives."

Higher on the headline radar but lower on the legislative handicapping list are more fanatical proposals covering everything from building a literal California-to-Texas wall to ending the "catch-and-release" practices (as they are so charmingly called) currently used for some non-Mexican immigrants.

However, although everyone gives lip service to immigration reform, the internal conflicts of interest – between industry (especially agribusiness, construction, and the hotel/restaurant industries) and anti-immigrant nativists, as well as simple political opportunists – make it hard to establish enough of a political consensus to enact major legislation.