In an earlier post, I linked to this speech by Governor Richardson, delivered at Georgetown University.
A Manhattan law firm, Teplen and Associates, summarized the speech this way.
In his statement Governor Richardson outlined four steps which must be taken in order to solve this problem in a realistic fashion: 1) secure the border, 2) increase legal immigration, 3) prevent employers from hiring employees without proper work authorization, and 4) provide a path to legalization.
I responded, but Teplen and Associates does not seem to be taking comments on its blog any longer, so I will post my response here.
In order to be successful, step 2 must precede step 1.
The only way to completely secure the border is to allow people seeking employment to immigrate. People would much rather cross the border at a checkpoint than brave the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) or the hot Sonoran desert, but as long as immigrants believe these natural barriers are more navigable than our immigration laws, we will continue to have no idea who enters this country.
And in order to be moral, step 4 must precede step 3.
As long as the federal government prevents those who wish to change their legal status from doing so, the government is in essence mandating that employers discriminate based on a classification virtually indistinguishable from race.
This is a revisited speech, but I post it again because so much of the prevailing thinking in Congress is exactly backwards.
Nonviolent Migration 