INDIANAPOLIS — Let’s say you live in a safe and friendly neighborhood – so safe that no one on your block locks their doors, and so friendly that you can wander into your neighbor’s house with just a quick knock and a shouted, “Hello!”
Sometimes, you borrow things from your neighbor, even if he’s not there. He’s let you do this for years. And sometimes you fix things for your neighbor, or cut his grass. He’s come to count on you for these little jobs.
One day a police officer shows up at your door to take you to jail. Why? Because, technically, what you’ve been doing is against the law, and your neighbor suddenly decided to press charges. Would that be fair? Perhaps not, but under rule of law, you could be charged with trespassing and theft.
Certainly, it would be an oversimplification to compare this scenario to Indiana’s immigration situation, but you can see a parallel. For years, we have participated in a routine, but now some of us want to invoke “rule of law” and end that routine.
Yes, an unknown number of foreign nationals have entered the United States, either with visas they overstayed or without documentation. Those are the “illegals” the Indiana General Assembly is targeting with Senate Bill 335. And, yes, technically, they are here illegally.
I agree with the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mike Delph, when he says we must enforce the rule of law. But I would argue that we must do that in a way that is rational, practical and humane. SB 335 is none of those.
It is not rational because we cannot change overnight a practice that has become ingrained in our culture and economy. We can, however, work toward a day when we can effectively enforce our immigration laws, secure our border and provide an orderly process for those who wish to experience the American Dream.
SB 335 is impractical for a number of reasons. For starters, it would rely on E-Verify, a Federal immigration-status checking system so plagued with flaws that the state of Illinois forbids its use. Also, it would rely on local and state law enforcement officers to take on duties for which they are not trained, equipped or legally empowered to fulfill.
Finally, it’s inhumane because it forces employers and immigrants to abandon a system they have been taught to rely on. As a practicing immigration attorney, I must repeatedly tell even the “legal” immigrant that it could take 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years, given current backlogs, to unite a family legally in the United States. Similarly, I must tell employers who need manual labor to build our houses, clean our offices, and grow and cook our food that there are too few visas to meet even 5 percent of our labor needs.
SB 335 also is inadequate because it ignores our role in creating this problem, and fails to show the compassion demanded by our complicity — compassion that recognizes the more than 20 years that we have left the door to our house open with lax border protection and immigration enforcement; compassion that recognizes that we have allowed U.S. jobs to act as a giant magnet drawing those from less successful countries to enter the U.S. and work with impunity; and compassion that recognizes how our broken immigration system fails the twin goals of maintaining family unity and attracting the best workforce.
Such compassion is not unprecedented. One great compassionate conservative, Ronald Reagan, in 1982 saw through the rhetoric, realized the value of these people to our country and afforded one of the largest legalization programs in the nation’s history. Not fearing the word “amnesty,” he did what was right and compassionate.
Other American communities have ignored compassion to pursue policies similar to SB 335. Some proved to be in violation of the Constitution; others became ensnared in costly legal battles. Rather than heed these lessons, though, the Indiana General Assembly is embarking on a similar ill-fated drive to rid Indiana of “illegals.”
There is no question: Our immigration system is broken, and the time to address that brokenness is now. But a knee-jerk, doomed solution like SB 335 is not what we need. Instead, we should take the time to forge a solution that is rational, practical and humane — one that acknowledges current and future economic and cultural realities while also embracing our legacy of compassion for people who aspire to the American dream.
John Broyles is an attorney and founding partner of Broyles Kight & Ricafort, LLP, in Indianapolis.
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