By Dagmar Butte
In his June 2 column, "Let's hear it for Arizona's role in enforcement," Rich Lowry praised Arizona for leading the way in ensuring U.S. employers comply with federal immigration laws. If that were indeed true, it would be something everyone could agree on. The reasons may differ, but most thoughtful people do not believe employment of massive numbers of undocumented workers is good for either U.S. or foreign workers. For too long, employers and consumers -- irrespective of their political leanings -- have been reaping the benefit of this work force without facing up to the underlying problems.
On further reading, it became apparent that the piece was not actually focused on the laudable goal of increasing employer compliance with U.S. laws. Leaving aside for a moment whether E-Verify is an effective tool to reach this goal, Lowry instead appears to see Arizona's Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA) -- not to be confused with the far more restrictive Arizona Senate Bill 1070 still making its way through the courts -- as a way to deal with the United States' serious and intractable immigration problem. This view is inherently appealing for its simplicity, but that is precisely why it is wrong.
The essential contours of the U.S. immigration system were created in 1952. It established quotas and categories -- based on employment and migration patterns in the late 1940s -- that remain virtually unchanged in the intervening 59 years. Periodically, Congress would graft some fix onto the law, but since the fix was always partial and always reactive rather than proactive, the resultant Frankenstein works for no one.
In 1990 and 1996, Congress had opportunities to create a system that truly met the needs of U.S. families, employers and law enforcement. In 1990, Congress was too timid and left the general framework in place, which did nothing to meet the actual needs of U.S. employers. In 1996, it focused almost exclusively on enforcement of a law that was broken decades earlier. Enforcing a broken system is doomed to failure since the factors that lead to the violations -- including an aging U.S. work force; insufficient U.S. workers for low-skill manual labor; insufficient U.S. students enrolled in collegiate math, science and engineering programs to meet the needs of these industries; etc. -- do not go away just because you punish people who seek to fill those needs.
I often hear people say: "Why don't these people wait in line like my ancestors/relatives?" True -- if there were a line to wait in, if the line for many of those who have one were not over a decade long, or if we did not need "these people." The reality is that we do need them and the system currently in place is completely inadequate to meet that need. What is required is thoughtful, comprehensive reform and not simplistic attempts to enforce a broken system.
Dagmar Butte is an immigration attorney at Parker, Butte & Lane
in Portland.