Estimates of the amount of illegal immigrants in the U.S. are now up to 11 million. Immigration reform has been necessary for a long time, yet a bill that aims to do just that is stagnant in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives.
America owes immigration reform to the millions of hard-working immigrants who came here in search of freedom. We have a debt to these immigrants whose home countries have been ravaged by war, drug cartels and corrupt governments for decades.
And although this fight is taking place in other countries, it is definitely an American battle.
Our nation has funded both sides of this conflict. Our penchant for drugs and our willingness to pay almost $85 billion per year for them has empowered their cartels, while our government funds its military to fight these same cartels.
Honest people are caught in the crossfire of this American-funded war. While some immigrants have arrived in America to further the drug trade, by most estimates the vast majority of immigrants in America came attempting to escape countries broken by our drug war. They came to the U.S. as refugees from corrupt governments, violent cartels and widespread poverty for an honest chance at the American dream – even if that dream is tarnished by the ever-present risk of deportation.
Currently, there are very few options for legal immigration from these countries. Even for educated, highly-skilled workers, immigration is difficult. For those without access to education, legal immigration is nearly impossible. Our current system criminalizes both the ones trafficking drugs and the ones looking for an escape from the drug trade.
America should not turn a blind eye to those fleeing wars we have created. We have an obligation to provide a safe haven to those attempting to escape. Why are we happy to spend billions of dollars trying to free Iraqis on the other side of the globe and ignoring the refugees we have here?
The bill – now sitting in the lap of the Republican-controlled House – creates multiple measures to try to help this situation.
For one, it offers a legal path to citizenship. Immigrants who are here only to traffic drugs are unlikely to take this legal path. However, immigrants who are here for honest work and education will. No longer would the hardworking immigrant be treated the same as the drug runners in the eyes of the U.S.
The bill also plans to construct a wall to try stemming the flow of drugs and money across the border. This is a start at undoing the years of damage done to these countries by American dollars. It also encourages honest immigrants to take legal routes into the U.S. once they become available, further setting them apart from the drug traders.
The amount of illegal immigrants in this country has been too high for too long. This bill could change that — and the sooner it passes, the better.
Robert Klare is a 22-year-old engineering senior from New Orleans.
Opinion: America is in debt to immigrants and reform is needed
By Robert Klare
July 17, 2013