CONGRESS’ FAILURE TO ADDRESS IMMIGRATION DEADLOCK WOULD LEAVE BORDER VULNERABLE, HURT ECONOMY
With barely a month before it is scheduled to adjourn for the year, several congressional leaders doubt that Congress will pass an immigration reform bill this session. Congress is allowing a major opportunity to get away. “It is a shame that some key Members of Congress have chosen this course of inaction,” said Helen E. Krieble, president of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation. “Doing nothing is not an option. Our national security, and our economy, require that Congress get to work and get something done.”
The House and Senate are deadlocked over differing bills, one concentrating only on border control and the other on amnesty. Both bills require massive new appropriations and bureaucracy. The Congressional Budget Office lists the cost of the Senate measure at $126 Billion, including hiring 31,000 more federal employees. Krieble called on leaders to abandon both ill-conceived measures and focus on something workable. “Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana have proposed a workable plan to secure America’s borders while allowing businesses to find workers our economy needs,” Ms. Krieble said. “Our national security and our economy cannot wait until next year.”
“The Hutchison-Pence plan, based largely on a concept we developed at the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation, would be operated by private sector companies, so it would not require increases in bureaucracy or appropriations. It would ease pressure on U.S. borders and allow border agents to concentrate on apprehending criminals. Employment agencies would link specific workers to specific jobs, efficiently process and track employees, through tamper-proof smart cards.
“The most important element of this plan is that it is based on incentives. Workers who are in the United States illegally would have the incentive to leave and apply for legal admission from outside the U.S. Companies could hire the workers they need. Most importantly, border control would be absolute.
“Congress has a practical solution to the immigration impasse that could be voted on before the October adjournment. Congress needs to examine this proposal and put to it a vote in both houses,” said Ms. Krieble. “The time for politics is over; it is time for action.”
