Immigration reform is more than just driver’s licenses

We can continue the political soap opera over driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants or comprehensively tackle immigration issues impacting our daily lives. I’m sponsoring legislation that attempts to do the latter. I invite others to help me improve it.

While Washington plays out its habitual gridlock on immigration issues, American citizens as well as immigrants suffer needlessly.

The public justifiably worries about national security and public safety issues when there is no reliable identification system for immigrants. They also worry about strains on public services and scarce tax dollars.

In the meantime, our economy takes hits from every direction. Unscrupulous employers take advantage of undocumented workers they know will not complain for fear of deportation. Workers in construction and hospitality industries suffer from depressed wages and reduced job openings from unfair competition with undocumented labor.

Farmers who can scarcely find anyone but undocumented workers to harvest their crops are turned into lawbreakers for hiring much-needed labor. Businesses of all stripes face uncertainty about how immigration law will be enforced from one month to the next depending on political winds.

An additional toll is taken on our social structure. Undocumented families are split apart when family members are deported, or when a worker cannot afford to pay coyotes for the treacherous process of smuggling wives and children into the country. Fractured families cost all of us thorough increased crime and burdens on our social services.

On top of that, money earned in the United States is sent across our borders to support family members instead of driving our own economy.

Let’s drop the political soap opera

So with just about every honest stakeholder suffering from the current state of dysfunction, how is New Mexico tackling immigration issues? By waging an epic political battle over driver’s licenses.

I receive many constituent e-mails supporting the removal of driving privileges for undocumented immigrants. Fair enough. There are clearly problems with misuse of driver’s licenses for federal identification.

Unfortunately, many mistakenly believe banning licenses will be a significant step toward solving immigration issues. Not so. Forty seven states do not allow driver’s licenses for undocumented workers. Just about all of them still face the same immigration issues we do.

As anti-license proponents rail at the opposition for supporting de facto open borders, and pro-license proponents decry their opposition as mean spirited racists, we seem to be headed down the same well-worn path that defines most of our current politics. It leads to a land where everybody hates each other and no meaningful problem is ever solved.

We don’t have to go there. Let’s drop the political soap opera and get down to the real work.

A bill that would truly address immigration issues

I have introduced guest worker legislation (SB 14) that addresses immigration issues in a manner that can significantly improve our security, our economy, and our quality of life; and that addresses driver’s license issues to boot.

SB 14 creates a predictable immigration policy for New Mexico in partnership with the federal government. It ends policies that make lawbreakers out of employers and workers who serve the economic interests of our state, while protecting jobs for legal citizens, and increasing accountability for unscrupulous employers. It also creates a funding mechanism that requires no new taxes and will actually add money to our state coffers.

While there is plenty to debate and improve upon, I believe SB 14 creates a framework that has real payoffs for our state. Since others on this blog have grossly misrepresented my guest worker bill, I’ve detailed exactly what it does below:

1. Creates incentives for both workers and employers to obtain guest-worker documentation good for two years so immigrant workers can be tracked effectively and live without fear. Allows federal enforcement efforts to be focused on those who do not qualify. The program goes into effect only after federal approval is obtained along with guarantees that ICE will not deport guest-worker permit holders.
2. Allows cities and counties to choose enforcement policies that work best for their jurisdictions in co-operation with federal immigration authorities. There are no Arizona- or Alabama-style mandates for local officials to ask for identification or otherwise encroach on federal enforcement authority.
3. Denies guest-worker status to any foreign national with a criminal background.
4. Protects jobs for New Mexicans by setting appropriate guest worker quotas between 3 percent and 6 percent of the workforce; that can be adjusted annually. Current estimates put undocumented workers at 6 percent of New Mexico’s workforce versus 5 percent nationally.
5. Stops abuse of driver’s licenses as federal ID by creating driving privilege cards for guest workers that qualify as New Mexico ID only.
6. Provides guest workers with the same protections from employer abuses as all other workers. This is crucial not only from a human rights perspective, but because it protects our citizen workforce from unfair competition.
7. Ensures that guest workers contribute their fair share to cover public services. Federal payroll taxes that should not be paid by federally undocumented workers are replaced with guest-worker fees that are paid to the state. These funds will cover administration of the guest-worker program and other general state costs. The measure will almost certainly add money to the New Mexico treasury with no additional tax burdens on business, the public, or immigrants.
8. Creates penalties for employers hiring undocumented workers without a N.M. guest-worker permit. Sanctions include fines, and, after three violations, potential suspension of business permits.
9. Creates a family status for dependents of guest workers to protect families from being split up.

An invitation

The challenges of enacting guest worker legislation are great, but the potential rewards are even greater. Responsible legislation is an opportunity for states to put the federal government on notice that it is time for them to face up to immigration issues with national legislation.

I invite all concerned to review my proposal objectively and help me improve it. We can lecture one another other over driver’s licenses or we can comprehensively tackle the important immigration issues impacting our daily lives.

If we stay focused on what people really need, we’ll choose option number two.

Steve Fischmann, a Democrat, represents the Las Cruces-area District 37 in the New Mexico Senate.