Mitt Romney, running to the right of McCain for the Republican presidential nomination repeats a fairly inaccurate and unhelpful, classist view of present immigration policy, that debases the contribution of non-university educated migrants. (Photo of Romney (Boston Globe) proudly standing with anti-immigrant Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, in Arizona during a recent campaign stop) Speaking in Council Bluffs, Iowa to 300 supporters yesterday Romney let it be known that

he maintains his tough stance on illegal immigration but proposes offering foreign students attending U.S. colleges and universities the chance to remain legally in the country upon graduation. "Our immigration laws are upside-down," Romney said. "It makes no sense at all that we have concrete borders with people who have skills and education, but we're wide open to people who have neither."

Political paralysis overshadows an inescapable reality: beginning with a series of terrible policy decisions in the 1990s, Congress through sheer incompetence and cynicism has created an untenable situation, culminating in its disastrous decision to allow Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to "sunset" on April 30, 2001. The end of 245(i) and the establishment of a 10-year bar on any one who had been in the U.S for a year or more unlawfully and then departed the U.S., trapped millions of undocumented men, woman and children without providing any alternative to them but to go underground and establish themselves as a permanent underclass. When 245(i) existed, a non-citizen could be sponsored for a green card by a qualifying family member or employer, pay a fine and become a legal resident, albeit often after waiting as long as 10 or more years. Since its expiration, the undocumented can neither leave (10-year bar!) nor be sponsored domestically by family or employers. Six years later, it is a crime that such a provision has not been extended (talks were underway to do so in September 2001, then 9-11, perhaps understandably, derailed common sense.)

The clock ticks on millions of lives, many of whom have been working hard and contributing faithfully to this country (including sending their sons and daughters to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan) for the past twenty years. We owe it to ourselves and to them to do better. Each day, at great cost to our collective conscience, our economy and our identity as a free and welcoming nation, we delay action on this complex problem.

We are guilty of denying hope and opportunity to some of the most ambitious, brightest, law-abiding and industrious people in this country. This includes, for those who cannot be inspired to care for non-citizens, millions of American children raised by parents who are undocumented, and who are forced by law and policy to live with the gave consequences of instability every day of their young precious lives. Those children will one day grow to voting age, and when they do they will enjoy a single basic right, access to which their parents have been systematically and intentionally denied, i.e., the right to vote.