TedPage: Immigration Reform

It's been an interesting few days as student walkouts have occurred in LA over proposed immigration reform in the US legislature. While we realize that many of these students are just ditching class, it does bring to light an interesting change in politics over the next 5 years. These students are young citizens who will be voters shortly, and they are concerned about politics. Many of their parents are illegal immigrants (I know many people hate that term, but I'm okay with it) and they won't vote to have their parents deported. This creates an interesting situation for politicians who want to get reelected. While border reform is an issue for many, the solutions range from building a wall to amnesty for anyone who makes it across the border.

The problem with the legislation currently being discussed, is that it is likely to be ineffectual. While providing a more reasonable way for workers who are interested in jobs in the US to get them legally is important, it doesn't solve the problem on it's own. We need to further enforce currently labor laws that employers are skirting by using illegal immigrants, putting them in dangerous situations or paying them bellow minimum wage. We need to provide a way for employers to verify documents other than "it looks good." Something like a phone number that they can call to verify driver's license or social security numbers. (not look them up, but query them to see if they're valid, and not used 200 times in the last two days)

In the end, basically ignoring this problem because it was too tricky for years has made it even more difficult. There are people who are effectively citizens of the US living within its borders today, whether they have documentation or not. But, we shouldn't punish those who took the effort to get here through the current system (however bad it may be).