One issue I hope the next Congress and the new president can quickly address is comprehensive immigration reform. The nation badly needs a sensible immigration system that is compassionate, but that also requires immigrants to follow the law.
While Pres. Trump has been harshly criticized for his tough immigration rhetoric and policies, it is Congress that has been derelict for many years in creating a sensible system. Today’s immigration system is a hodgepodge of laws and court decisions that together make little sense.
We are a nation of immigrants and we should recognize the immense value of legal immigrants in the past, present and future. But we should not allow people to come into this country illegally, and slip into the shadows. Instead, we should speed up the processes and screening for legal immigration, especially for workers needed in many industries.
We should have a closed border, but with wide gates for deserving immigrants who follow proper procedures. Any immigration reform should resolve the DACA issue, allowing young people brought to the United States as a child a path to legal status so they are no longer in limbo.
Pres. Trump did a great job stopping the immense caravans of thousands of immigrants seeking to enter the country, many of them illegally. Now that the flow has been greatly slowed, Congress and the next president must work toward comprehensive reform.
It shouldn’t be a difficult issue: Stop illegal immigration while providing sensible legal immigration.
