Immigration Policy

The nomination of Maryland Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez as head of the Justice Department's division of civil rights should rise or fall on his qualifications and not on partisan rancor over immigration reform. The president's nominee for this post was likely to spark a fight regardless of his or her political views because the division's 300 lawyers enforce the civil rights laws banning discrimination based on race, sex, disability and national origin. Their cases cut across a broad range of areas, from education, employment and housing to voting rights and access to health care.

IS IMMIGRATION an environmental issue? That's what Sierra Club members were essentially asked in a mailed ballot in which they voted by a 3-2 margin to affirm the environmental organization's neutral stand on U.S. immigration.Sierra Club has long supported global population stabilization to reduce resource consumption.The United States is the world's leading consumer nation. If its population continues to soar -- it has risen by one-third since 1970 -- consumption will mushroom and environmental pressures will multiply.

AS THE NATION braces for one of its toughest crackdowns ever on illegal immigrants and on the benefits available to legal aliens, court challenges are predictably under way. One of the first erupted with an April 1 deadline, as organizations seeking to protect would-be newcomers convinced a federal judge that the government had goofed in not giving 30-days notice of new procedures for summary deportations. But he was quickly reversed by an appeals court apparently influenced by government warnings of "chaos."

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - ''Hey, hey, ho, ho!'' The all-purpose protesters' refrain echoed through the snowy streets outside Harvard University's Institute of Politics, a sure indication that someone with arch-fiend status was about to arrive and be heckled. A Republican, probably. But who?''Immigrant bashing has got to go!'' Ah, it must be Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, here to talk about immigration policy. And so it was.Reasoned discourse about the volatile issue of immigration isn't easy, especially on college campuses where chanted slogans are a way of intellectual life.

There is a sense in which current immigration policy is Adolf Hitler's posthumous revenge on America. The U.S. political elite emerged from the war passionately concerned to cleanse itself from all taints of racism or xenophobia. Eventually, it enacted the epochal Immigration Act (technically, the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments) of 1965.And this, quite accidentally, triggered a renewed mass immigration, so huge and so systematically different from anything that had gone before as to transform -- and ultimately, perhaps, even to destroy -- the one unquestioned victor of World War II: the American nation, as it had evolved by the middle of the 20th century.

The Social Security Administration has a perverse tendency to run its programs so badly it sets up a public backlash hurtful to the very people it tries to benefit. The latest confirmation of bureaucratic mess is a General Accounting Office report on massive fraudulent payments to non-U.S. citizens, some of whom are coached by unscrupulous middlemen to fake disabilities.As The Sun reported after a nine-month investigation of the SSA's Supplemental Security Income program, federal authorities at the Woodlawn-based federal agency have known of serious shortcomings for years but have done little to correct a worsening situation.

WASHINGTON -- A federal advisory commission will soon recommend gradually reducing legal immigration by one-third and reshuffling visa priorities to speed up the admission of spouses and young children of legal aliens, members of the panel said.The proposals, to be presented to Congress later this month, would make the biggest changes in more than 40 years in policies governing the selection of legal immigrants.The panel would clear up a huge backlog of visa applications from immediate relatives of permanent resident aliens.

THE CLINTON administration's determination to keep fleeing Cubans out of the United States by holding them in Guantanamo Bay camps collapsed last week, and the only surprise was that it lasted so long. Months, even.The 21,000 refugees, most of whom left Cuba in 1994, will be allowed in, but no more. After this, the United States will be really really tough, said really really tough Attorney General Janet Reno."Cubans must know that the only way of coming to the United States is applying in Cuba," Janet Reno said.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The tide of immigration is costing Florida's schools, hospitals, prisons and other public services $2.5 billion last year, according to a report Gov. Lawton M. Chiles Jr. will release today.Mr. Chiles' 28-page report -- "The Unfair Burden, Immigration's Impact on Florida" -- will serve as the basis for a lawsuit the governor plans to file against the federal government over a failed immigration policy.The price tag the state has settled on is a big chunk of public spending -- roughly equivalent to all the money spent to run Florida's public colleges and universities.

WASHINGTON -- If confirmed by the Senate, Attorney General-designate Janet Reno will head a highly skilled Justice Department plagued in recent months by severe criticism, feuding and declining morale.Among the myriad problems facing the new attorney general, who will manage 92,000 employees and a $10.9 million annual budget, are the following:* FBI director -- Beset by ethics charges and an image of weakness, FBI Director William S. Sessions may not survive much longer at the top of the nation's No. 1 police agency.

Our immigration system has been broken for too long, and the costs of that failure are growing. Getting immigration policy right is fundamental to our national interests - our economic vitality, our diplomacy and our national security. In the report of the bipartisan Council on Foreign Relations' Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy, released last week, we lay out what is at stake for the United States. Immigration has long been America's secret weapon. The United States has attracted an inordinate share of talented and hardworking immigrants, who are enticed here by the world's best universities, the most innovative companies, a vibrant labor market and a welcoming culture.

The nomination of Maryland Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez as head of the Justice Department's division of civil rights should rise or fall on his qualifications and not on partisan rancor over immigration reform. The president's nominee for this post was likely to spark a fight regardless of his or her political views because the division's 300 lawyers enforce the civil rights laws banning discrimination based on race, sex, disability and national origin. Their cases cut across a broad range of areas, from education, employment and housing to voting rights and access to health care.

Pro-immigration advocates frequently make the point that with millions of baby boomers about to retire, we should be doing everything possible to expedite legal immigration into our country. Not only do we need these immigrants to help do the nation's work now, goes the argument, but we also will need them to shore up our Social Security system in the future, because boomer retirements are causing a shortage of new contributors to the system. But increased immigration has a downside rarely mentioned in the debate between pro- and anti-immigration forces: overpopulation.

Maryland's seafood processing industry is once again in the crossfire of the battle over national immigration policy, and the economic pain could be severe. Nearly 70,000 foreign workers who have received temporary visas in past years to work as crab-pickers and food processors in Eastern Shore plants will be locked out this year unless Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and other members of the state's delegation can dismantle a congressional roadblock standing in the way of legislation that would provide their visas.

Under a new federal directive, millions of workers whose Social Security numbers differ from government records will be threatened with dismissal, and employers who don't act within 90 days against those workers will face penalties, including heavy fines and possible prosecution. That sounds good for those of us who believe in secure borders and respect for the law. But this enforcement-only focus on Social Security "no-matches" is an unrealistic approach that will severely disrupt our economy, hurting employers and workers.

Anne Arundel County officials said they will sever ties with government contractors that employ illegal immigrants, wading into controversial territory that has prompted lawsuits in other jurisdictions across the country. County Executive John R. Leopold issued an executive order this week that will require businesses to sign an affidavit swearing they do not employ people living in the country illegally. Evidence that a company has hired illegal immigrants would constitute a "material breach of contract," allowing the county to drop the contractor from the job. Leopold said the federal government "hypocritically" tolerates such practices, but Anne Arundel will not. "Any company that is complying with federal law and not hiring illegal immigrants will have nothing to be concerned about," said Leopold, a Republican.

The revived immigration bill will again be up for debate in the Senate this week. Amendments will be heard, and compromises made. One element that needs that extra look is the way the bill would profoundly shift the priorities of U.S. immigration. For more than half a century, the core principle of the system has been family reunification. The proposed bill would create instead a point scheme dominated by "human capital" considerations - those who have certain educational credentials and labor-market qualifications would be first in line.

Teodora Unlayao was a 34-year-old single woman when she applied in the Philippines for a U.S. visa to reunite with her sister in Glenview, Ill. Now the mother of a college student, Unlayao is almost 58. And she is still waiting. Though she is eligible to immigrate to the U.S., only a limited number of Filipinos are admitted to rejoin their families each year. Demand worldwide is at least triple the supply, and the odds are much worse for Unlayao because she hails from a high-immigrant country.

These profiles were compiled from information provided by candidates to the League of Women Voters of Maryland and The Sun's editorial board. In most cases, candidates responded to both the league and the newspaper; in other instances, they responded to just one. The League of Women Voters asked the following questions: Energy: What actions should the federal government take to reduce dependence on fossil fuels; Immigration: What sort of immigration policy...

WASHINGTON -- More than two in three Americans want Congress to pass an immigration bill that includes border security, employer enforcement, a temporary worker program and a means for illegal immigrants to earn citizenship, according to a recent nationwide poll. They recognize that we have ignored the way America's broken immigration system has undermined our security, laws and economy for too long. I should know: I represent America's restaurants. We are creating jobs faster than the overall economy, employing almost one in 10 American workers.