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Immigration policy can wait until current storm passes

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 22, 2009

It's clear our country needed to change direction in a lot of areas, and that's certainly been the case in the last several months - even if a lot of people disagree on the change. Some powerful people are pushing hard for even more controversial change involving immigration. We agree that immigration policy is important and necessary, but not this year. We have too much already on our plates.

Republicans, Democrats and just about everyone else in between want to take on immigration reform. They have good reasons for this, to be sure. It's an issue that isn't going to go away and Americans have strong feelings on the issues.

At issue, for the most part, is if some kind of amnesty should be offered to illegal immigrants who have been in the country for years. Other parts of the policy will be about securing our borders and to what degree.

Many Republicans and Democrats support some kind of amnesty. Republicans want it because it will allow workers to continue to work for lower wages, which is good for business. Democrats support it because those low-wage workers would then be allowed to make more money, which puts all worker wages on a more level playing field. Of course, this is a simplistic explanation and it's much more involved than that. The bottom line is, though, that now is not the time for this long, difficult debate.

We don't even know if the changes put into place since Obama was elected work. Until our economy is on better ground, only national security is more important.

There will be a time and place for immigration policy debates. It's an issue we can't dodge anymore because politicians lack the backbone to make difficult decisions. However, we must be patient.

Perhaps next year will be better to address this issue. First we need to get people back to work, get the stock market working again and build consumer confidence. After that, bring on the immigration debate. In the meantime, enforce the laws we already have on the books.

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