Dennis Shulman for U.S. Congress: Sensible Leadership for New Jersey’s 5th District

October 26th, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. | With its porous international border and troubled immigration system, the United States finds itself with about 12 million people it can’t keep track of.

After a major immigration-reform initiative died in Congress last year, the groundswell for change fizzled.

The issue has not disappeared. Workers continue to cross the nation’s borders for jobs.

In their campaigns for Warren County’s congressional seat, Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett and Democratic challenger Dennis Shulman are proposing changes to fix deficiencies in immigration laws.
Shulman’s plan

Shulman said it would be impractical to deport 12 million undocumented immigrants.
“We have to realize we cannot just say, every single person who’s here illegally, we cannot just ship them out,” Shulman said. “It’s not a possibility.”

He said the country should develop an avenue toward legal status for noncriminals who have paid their taxes. Many undocumented immigrants are doing necessary work and following laws, he said.
“We have to find a way to vet the group that is here so that in fact we can make decisions about who can stay and have a path to legality and who has to leave the country because they are in fact some kind of threat,” Shulman said.

The solution to the immigration problem has to be comprehensive because piecemeal laws have not worked, Shulman said.

“Everyone realizes the system is broken,” he said. “We know that the government has been extremely lacking when it comes to just knowing who in fact is in this country.”

Shulman said a significant portion of undocumented immigrants came into the country legally and overstayed visas, so reforms should include developing a better tracking system, he said.
Garrett’s plan

When Garrett discusses immigration, he notes strains that illegal immigrants have on taxpayers and businesses.

For example, he said, emergency rooms must treat everyone, even people in the country illegally who cannot pay, which leaves hospitals and taxpayers with the bills.

Garrett said businesses that hire inexpensive illegal labor create an uneven playing field against businesses that compensate employees fairly. Landscapers in his district, he said, are going out of business because they cannot compete with companies that hire undocumented labor.

“The federal government under the Constitution has a specific requirement to deal with immigration in this country,” Garrett said. “In order to remain a sovereign country, you have to define where your borders are, decide who comes in and who’s not allowed to come in. The government has done a lousy job on that for a long time.”

Garrett supports an increase in fences, people and technology stationed at the Mexican border.
He said the country already has myriad programs that allow people to work in the United States temporarily. If laborers could not cross the border illegally, those programs might work as intended, Garrett said.

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