As the American immigration debate hits a dead end, the media likes to discuss the extremes of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR), which translates into an amnesty for all aliens here illegally, or mass deportations and criminalization of undocumented aliens. Harry DeMell, an immigration lawyer and member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, believes both sides of the immigration reform debate are wrong and recommends that we consider a "third way" to solve the America's immigration problem. In this interview, Harry discusses the "third way."
Andy Schupak: Will an amnesty put an end to the undocumented alien problem?
Harry DeMell: During the last amnesty in 1987, we legalized some 2 million aliens. This encouraged millions of aliens to come to the U.S., and, as a result, we now have a 12-million-person problem. If we have another amnesty, we might have a 20-million-person problem. Amnesty would encourage more illegal immigration and takes us further away from control of our borders.
AS: Will mass deportations eliminate our undocumented alien problem?
HD: The fallout from a mass deportation program would be an economic and social disaster. Implementation would cause severe economic and social dislocation. Mass deportation would force many families who rely on undocumented alien family members to rely on public assistance, many businesses would not be able to find the necessary labor to continue, and we would need a police force larger than all the existing police forces combined to enforce the deportation laws
AS: What should we do to better manage the problem?
HD: We need to break up the problem into manageable pieces, and handle each piece differently, while recognizing that this problem didn't happen overnight and won't be solved overnight.
AS: Should we recognize the economic realities and allow foreign workers to work in the United States?
HD: A western hemisphere temporary worker program would acknowledge the economic reality and supply the labor America needs, while limiting the benefits to permission to work only. To make a temporary worker program successful, we would need increased enforcement (now going on under the Obama administration) to make it more difficult to live, work and travel in the United States without papers, and we would need to grant immigration judges more authority on deciding whether aliens could remain in the United States.
There are 1 to 2 million applications approved for aliens to become legal permanent residents. But for technical reasons these applications cannot be completed. Allowing these aliens to complete their applications would decrease the pool of undocumented aliens here, without creating another amnesty and without encouraging millions more illegal aliens to come to the United States in search of the next amnesty.
What we need are new ideas that may not play well on cable news shows, but that allow the government, in a humane way, to take increasing control of our boarders.