Point of View: The Case for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

There is little disagreement that our present immigration system doesn’t work. Efforts to tighten border control and compel employers to verify documents have had little effect.

By Gordon Quan

There is little disagreement that our present immigration system doesn’t work. Efforts to tighten border control and compel employers to verify documents have had little effect. The amnesty program adopted in 1986, which legalized 2.9 million individuals, was to have resolved the problem of undocumented aliens. Instead, we have seen the undocumented population in the U.S. balloon to an estimated 12 million, of which 30% to 40% are minor children who do not know their homeland. Yet at the same time, we have seen a ten-fold increase in the Border Patrol budget between 1986 and 2002.

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