Stop complaining & start offering some ideas about immigration ...

Newt Gingrich has an interesting and thoughtful article regarding our current immigration mess (read the whole thing at http://www.newt.org/articles/default.asp?ci=55 ). Here are a few excerpts:

... While U.S. immigration policy has clearly failed to keep up with the millions of migrants who have come to the U.S. in search of economic opportunities, it must be readily acknowledged that this failure is owed in substantial part to the failed economic policies of their home-country governments. For too long, these governments have placed too much reliance on foreign remittances from the United States to sustain their economies.

... Latin America in general, and Mexico especially, has tremendous natural resources, hard-working populations and wonderfully rich cultures. Mexico has a free trade agreement with the United States and has the largest economy in the world as its neighbor and market for its products. Its economy must be made to work. As U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said in a May 2005 speech in Mexico City: "Let's be honest with each other. Reliance on remittances from the U.S. and windfall revenues from high oil prices is simply not an economic policy."

... It is altogether reasonable that the United States pursue an immigration policy that makes sense to our citizens and is sensible economically. Part of that orderly rational immigration policy is a systematic, effective and enforceable temporary worker program. ..... Enforcing compliance must be focused on holding American employers accountable to the law. Any new proposal should sanction severely employers who willfully break the law by hiring workers without verifying legal status or by failing to pay employment taxes on them.

... At the same time we develop solutions for our immigration policy, we must find ways to work with our Latin American neighbors to seek solutions and economic opportunities for their citizens.

As is often the case I find myself agreeing with much of what the former Speaker has to say. While I generally have little idea about "how do we do that/where do we start," at the very least he offers concrete ideas and thought-provoking suggestions, something that most of our so-called pundits and politicians seem unable to do, preferring to pass off sound bites, political posturing and demagoguery as "reasoned commentary."