J.C. WATTS: We must get immigration reform right

My position is similar to one I advanced a couple of years ago on the matter of lobbying reform on Capitol Hill: If we would just enforce the laws on the books, there would be no reason for this debate. But because of the sins of our fathers, the issue is more complicated than that today.

In 1965, Ted Kennedy was chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization. He essentially directed President Lyndon B. Johnson’s immigration policy.

A younger, slimmer, dark-haired Kennedy, in supporting an immigration reform bill, said, “I want to comment on what this bill will not do. First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same.”

In 1986, speaking on behalf of another immigration bill, Kennedy said, “This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders. We will never again bring forth an amnesty bill like this.”

Now, another 21 years later, we revisit the debate, and we are dealing with 10 times the amount of immigrants Kennedy promised in 1986. If we don’t act now, I dread the debate 21 years hence.

Let’s take a deep breath and ponder semantics and priorities for a moment. I don’t believe this is truly an amnesty bill. To me, amnesty means you get off without consequence. A convict granted amnesty gets to pick up with his life where it left off prior to his conviction. It’s almost as though nothing had happened. That’s not what I read in this legislation.

The bottom line is we have 12 million to 15 million illegal immigrants in our country today who came in the back door while those monitoring the front door napped. Millions now cannot be accounted for. How do we deal with this? Some would say put them at the front of the line and let them in. Others suggest a path to citizenship over an extended course of time. Others support enforcement and border security only.

I believe border security must come first, but we can’t stop there. If you’ve got a leak in your kitchen, it won’t do a lot of good to start mopping the floor without fixing the leak. Fix the source of the leak and the water will stop overflowing the room.

We have a leaky border problem. Let’s secure the border first. We’ve been promised a 1,200 mile-long border fence, of which about 12 miles have been constructed. Maybe this is why conservatives don’t trust government.

I believe many Americans would support immigration reform, but they know that it’s very difficult to trust politicians and government to do what they say they’ll do. The American people trusted government with Social Security and Medicare, and those programs verge on bankruptcy today.

It’s important to do immigration reform and do it right. However, when you have Chamber of Commerce-types looking for cheap labor, Democrats looking for new voters and Republicans thinking border security only will solve the problem, I’m afraid we create a greater mess for the next generation, and not a better solution.

I’m willing to work for a solution, because I believe there are millions of good people in this country who are not terrorists. They’re here for opportunity and to pursue the American dream, much as your ancestors did. But the president and immigration reform proponents have a lot of work to do to build the trust of American people, based on generations of poor performance.

J.C. Watts (JCWatts01@jcwatts.com) is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002. He writes twice monthly for the Review-Journal.