Five Observations about an Ugly, Primitive and Important Debate over Illegal Immigration

President Obama's important speech on illegal immigration and the need to reform the United States' immigration policies deserves to heard. Obama articulated the problems with the current debate with impossible expectations by both open borders advocates (amnesty now!) and anti-illegal immigration activists (deportation now!). He also emphasized the need for a reasonable, fair, and comprehensive immigration reform.

Let me make five moderate observations on this hyper-emotional subject as a former director of a citizenship program in Los Angeles

1. The only way to build consensus for fair, rational and humane immigration reform is to FIRST vigorously enforce the current immigrations. It's like the oil gusher in the Gulf; nobody thinks Obama wants the disaster, but he's been utterly impotent and far too friendly to BP while appearing indifferent to the real suffering of American citizens. President Obama, please protect the borders.

2. Fair immigration reform should both grant visas to needed technical specialists, doctors, nurses, and engineers - and prosecute anyone who has used false documents while illegally working in the United States. Identity theft is a real crime that devastates individuals and harms the society. Again, enforcing state and federal laws is a reasonable starting point.

3. Citizenship must be earned by paying significant fines ($20,000?), passing a real English test (not the bogus 2nd grade equivalent of the new citizenship test), and establishing a waiting period of 5 years after the 10 million illegal adult immigrants receive their green cards. Rewarding lawbreakers over people who follow the rules almost guarantees more lawlessness.

By the way, enlightened immigration activists should vigorously support expansion of adult education classes and emphasize the multiple advantages of speaking and writing English. English has become the lingua franca of international business, yet too many ethnic nationalists keep demanding Spanish language programs instead of English. This profound error has lead to millions of miseducated, barely literate immigrants - and citizens who need translations to vote. Pathetic.

4. Democrats and Republicans need to avoid silly demagoguery, focus on genuine national interests, and stop pandering to corporate interests over American workers. Translation: no guest worker program for McDonalds, Marriot Hotels, and other service jobs that can be filled by American teenagers and the 10% unemployed. Immigration reform should and must work for the American people, not just the people are who pseudo-Americans and faux patriots.

5. Given the level of widespread popular opposition to this latest immigration reform and the vast corruption in our political system, bet on the corporate sponsored law being debated – and passed – by a lame duck Congress. Why? Well, there will be plenty of unemployed Congressional Representatives looking to pander to corporate interests and seeking financial rewards. Incumbent representatives have also shown themselves very eager to appease corporate campaign donors. Remember how NAFTA and GATT got passed? Both won approval from lame duck sessions despite widespread public opposition.

Bottomline: It appears that America's dysfunctional political system often fails to reflect both longterm national interests and popular will on vital, complicated problems. Hopefully, I'm wrong. I want to be wrong.