Editorial board, The Republic | azcentral.com Published 9:05 p.m. MT March 5, 2017 | Updated 8 hours ago
The Department of Homeland Security issued a sweeping set of orders Tuesday that implement President Trump's plan to increase immigration enforcement. Wochit
John Moore/Getty Images Our national political leaders committed the real crime of illegal immigration. The United States needs comprehensive immigration reform in order to solve its border problems. Increasing the numbers of Border Patrol agents and spending billions on surveillance and security efforts are not enough.(Photo: Getty Images)
Immigration reform matters to Arizona for reasons that range from humanitarian to economic. That made last week a wild roller-coaster ride.
It was encouraging to hear reports early in the weekthat the Trump administration thinks the time may be right for reform including a pathway to legalization.
Donald Trumps history of bashing immigrants gives him a Nixon-in-China opportunity to muscle comprehensive reform through Congress, so this was promising.
But the presidents address to Congress Tuesday did not capitalize on that opportunity.
Instead, he hurled the usual unrelenting litany of blame at the undocumented. He also made the ridiculous assertion that our southern border is wide open for anyone to cross.
With the conciliatory tone toward the countrys undocumented population absent from the speech, it looked likecomprehensive reform was off the agenda.
Instead of proposing to solve the long-standing problem of 11 million people living and working in shadows of a great nation, Trump used his bully pulpit to tout his new office of Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement, which is ostensibly to support victims of crimes by undocumented immigrants.
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Should such victims be supported? Of course. All crime victims should get the help they need.
Should dangerous criminals be deported? Of course. Quickly and permanently.
But Trumps new VOICE office is an official U.S. government platform from which to promote the fallacious idea that undocumented immigrants as a whole are prone to committing violent crime.
They are not. And portraying them as dangerous inflames the discussion and makes reform much more difficult.
That was the low point of the roller-coaster ride.
Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, and John McCain, R-Ariz.(Photo: Rob Schumacher/The Republic file)
A couple of Republican senators began the uphill climb from there.
ArizonaSen. John McCain and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham understand the difference between criminals and hard-working mothers a distinction that Trump misses.
RELATED:McCain, Graham: Deportation efforts should focus on serious criminals
Among the questioners at a CNN town hall the senators attended Wednesday were Angel Rayos, the son of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, a working woman who was deported after checking in with Immigrationand Customs Enforcement in Phoenix, and Jamiel Shaw Sr., whose 17-year-old son was murdered by an undocumented immigrant.
Graham told them:
"Here's what I think: Most Americans want the man who killed your son to be deported yesterday, and never come back," Graham said. "I think most Americans want your mother not to have been deported. I can tell the difference between your mother and the person who killed his son. Don't you think most Americans can see that difference?"
Now another Phoenix parent has been deported after what was supposed to be a routine visit to ICE. The children of Juan Carlos Fomperosa Garcia are left wondering why. Their father was following ICE requirements, they say.
The president should be able to see it and explain it to the American people.
McCain said: "We have to have comprehensive immigration reform, which gives people a path to citizenship, but it's a long, hard, tough path.
Arizona has known the need for that kind of reform for many years. Our state has been through the spasm of anti-immigrant nativism on which Trump built his political career.
MORE:Phoenix church said no 2 years ago, is now asanctuary for migrants
It didnt work here, and it wont work on the national level either.
The very important job of reforming our immigration policies should bring lasting order to the border and assure this country has a legally authorized workforce. But reform can't ignore11 million people whose presence is a result of our flawed immigration policies.
Nor will continuing to vilify those people create an atmosphere conducive to the kind of compromise necessary to achievemeaningful reform.
Many undocumented people are relatives, friends and neighbors of Arizonans. They have family and social ties to our communities. They have also contributed their labor and their talents to our collective success.
Arizona knows this very well, and Arizona has a great deal to gain from rational, humane immigration reform.
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Our View: Another wild ride on the immigration reform roller coaster - AZCentral.com