The Continuing Conundrum of Immigration

Enforcing immigration laws is an expensive process, a cost that too few people take into consideration in the ongoing debate about immigration reform in the United States, as my son, Gregory Weeks at UNCC, points out today. At the same time, we are coping with an unanticipated consequence of the war in Iraq--refugees. When the US invaded Iraq, the Bush administration actually expected that US soldiers would be treated as liberators, and in the aftermath of the invasion, the already small number of applications from Iraqis for resettlement in the US was cut nearly to zero. As it turned out, the Iraqi reaction to US presence was not so friendly and Iraqis who have worked in some capacity for the US and its allies have found themselves in harm's way. In early 2008 the United States Congress passed the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act, which dramatically increased the number of refugees from Iraq, especially among the Chaldean Christian population. But the process seems to have been slowing down, and as US troops are leaving Iraq, there is now concern that the US is exposing many Iraqis to danger because the paperwork required to enter the US is so onerous.