Over a century ago. my own great grandfather came from Sweden to Louisiana to chop sugar cane. He came for the same reason that many people come to this country today: to take on the most difficult jobs in order to have a better life. Until we address that economic concern with a meaningful guest worker program. we will not address immigration today. To the extent that the border is inadequately patrolled. this is a direct result not of the lack of a law. but a lack of will by the Bush administration in its mismanagement of the Border Patrol. Last year. this Congress approved 2.000 additional Border Patrol agents. and President Bush responded by saying we only need 210 of those 2.000 Border Patrol agents for the entire country.. In September. even our Texas Republican colleagues demanded that President Bush "stop raiding our Texas Border Patrol" and called the reassignment of agents to Arizona an "outrageous action [that] is crippling border security in Texas." Today. instead of Border Patrol agents. the Republicans say we need to punish church workers who live their faith by assisting persons in need without first checking their visas. The kind of measure we are offered is not new. It is part of a sad and recurring theme in American history.
Keywords matched
border security visas Border Patrol immigration