Published: June 11, 2007 07:48 am      

Immmigration issue still touchy

Conservative leaders last week lauded the defeat of S.1348, otherwise known as the 2007 Immigration Reform Bill, a measure that would have (among other things) "eased" the path toward legal status for the estimated 12-20 million immigrants currently living in the United States. Among those to celebrate the measure's defeat was Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., who said it was an "injustice to those immigrants who have gone about the citizenship process legally."

Inhofe's stance is factually correct, and he has the support of tens of millions of Americans who argue our borders and immigration laws have failed miserably to stem the flow of the illegal tsunami. Americans have watched the population of illegal Mexican immigrants balloon for decades. The most common complaints focus on the loss of American labor-oriented jobs to those illegals, as well as the titanic cost of paying for health care and other expenses incurred by those immigrants. Some estimates put the cost of illegal immigrant health care and other "social services" at hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Those numbers could anger even the most compassionate taxpayer, but there are heart-tugging realities on the "other side" of the coin that have lawmakers all but riding the three-foot wooden fence that divides Mexico from the Arizona desert.

There is no disputing that illegals are in violation of current law, and many could care less about their “illegal” status. But tens of thousands of others have skirted the borders in desperation, seeking to feed starving families. They live every second of every day knowing they could be deported at any moment, but they gladly take that chance and endure the wrath of angry American citizens because they feel they have no other option.

So, what's the answer?