[Rags123]

Originally Posted by Chi-Town

Perhaps revisiting the Immigration Control and Reform Act of 1986 can give us guidance towards a solution.

An opinion piece of which there are many referring to that act...

"Obama is not the first policymaker to have trouble grasping this reality. Washington made exactly the same mistake once before, with the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.

In the 1980s, as over the past decade, many reformers argued that any overhaul should include three core components: tougher enforcement of immigration law, some kind of legalization or regularization for immigrants living in the country illegally and changes to the legal immigration system — including more worker visas — to prevent future illegal immigration.

Immigrant rights advocates called for regularization — in those days, it was officially called amnesty — and they had the political power to back their demands. Then as today, immigration hawks drove a hard bargain: no amnesty without beefed-up enforcement — and they had the muscle to get most of what they wanted.

But in the 1980s, as today, the third component was the least compelling politically. Those arguing for fixing the system — employers and others — lacked the juice to get what they wanted into the bill, and the 1986 act did little to accommodate new, legal, employment-based immigration.

We all know the consequences. A generation later, America is once again home to a vast underground population of unauthorized workers. And again the argument for fixing the system is all but sure to fall through the cracks."

Obama's 'go it alone' immigration reform is a mistake | Dallas Morning News