Amnesty Battle: Where do we find sensible solutions?

          While the topic of immigration stirs many into discussion, it has been a particular hot topic in media coverage since the President's State of the Union Address. As a close neighbor to Mexico, Texans have always held strong, often varied, opinions about immigration system reform. I personally come from an immigrant background, so I took interest in The Dallas Morning New's editorial on recent legislative proposals about amnesty.

          The author, whose credibility we cannot investigate as they leave the spokesperson unnamed, points out the current failings of our immigration system as well as the flaws in the recent radical plans that have been proposed. The target audience most likely is composed of local readers, those who keep up with political happenings and possibly reside in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The newspaper takes on a vague, pro-amnesty attitude but instead of clearly defining their reasoning and evidence, leaves the readers with a question: "At some point, those who decry amnesty must contend with a question they might rather avoid: What do you do about the 11 million illegal immigrants already here?" That is the question of the hour indeed, but is hardly evidence of why we too, should support amnesty. From there, the author explains why simply rounding immigrants and taking them back is not a solution; consider the enormous cost of transporting almost 11 million people back to their homelands. I agree, it makes no fiscal sense in our current debt crises. Besides most of these people have come to America to find a brighter tomorrow. 

          The author's actual argument for amnesty is weak as it consists only of opposition to current proposals because they are "burdensome" or require actual effort for immigrants to become citizens. While this editorial provides little evidence and persuasive argument, I fundamentally agree that there are better ways of reforming our current immigration system. However, granting complete "guilt-free" amnesty to undocumented illegals is no solution either. Marco Rubio, Florida Senator and son of Cuban immigrant parents has sold the most convincing plan yet:  “If we do nothing, what we have is de facto amnesty because we don’t know who the undocumented are. We couldn’t enforce it even if we wanted to. What you get is a work permit, the ability to be here legally. We know where you are, we know where you live, we know where you work, you pay taxes, you have paid a fine — this is not amnesty.”