This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Tribune editorial encouraged us to use compassion and support a pathway to legal status and eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants. ("Try compassion: Immigration issue is about people," Our View, Feb. 11). Compassion is wonderful, but we also need to make good decisions.
Many think that comprehensive immigration reform will only encourage even more illegal immigration, and that it's unfair to immigrants who came here legally.
Considering the 11 million illegal immigrants residing in our country it's obvious that as long as employers hire people here unlawfully, they will keep coming. Not fences, unenforced immigration laws or even comprehensive immigration laws will stop the flow.
Unfortunately, there seems to be little to no will to stop employers from breaking the law. E-Verify is a simple Internet program that informs an employer whether a job applicant may work here legally. Congress has never made E-Verify mandatory, and Utah's E-Verify law only applies to public employers and private employers with more than 15 employees.
Even if E-Verify were mandatory, would it be enforced any better than past laws? Without good, permanent solutions, we will just be doing this again.
Susan Rounds
Midvale