The pandering for votes has begun. For the past several weeks, the plans and policies of Senators McCain and Obama in the area of immigration reform have been highlighted as they speak to different advocacy and social reform groups.

Sen. McCain once supported comprehensive immigration reform, even co-sponsoring a significant bill in the Senate which was declined by the Republican Party. When Sen. McCain began to expand upon his aspirations to the presidency, his position completely changed. Sen. Obama has always supported comprehensive immigration reform, including rational border security measures.

The answer is not in the hands of the president — the U.S. Constitution places the burden of immigration legislation squarely on the shoulders of the Congress. Congress prefers to play political chess with the question of immigration reform, using rhetoric-promoting fear, xenophobia and intolerance in the hearts of their constituents.

There is no automatic “path to citizenship.” A person must first become a legal permanent resident. A non-immigrant is a person who comes to the U.S. for a specific purpose (study, visit, work) and for a specific period of time. For a non-immigrant worker, there are provisions to allow them to become legal permanent residents.

Currently, our immigration system allows only highly educated and/or highly skilled people to come to the U.S. as non-immigrants and change their status to legal permanent residents. There is no similar system for

In the 1980s, Congress removed the low-skilled labor non-immigrant (guest-worker) visa category. The low-skilled laborer immigrant category was also rescinded. And, employers were prohibited from hiring undocumented laborers. These measures were intended to resolve the unemployment situation during the 1984 recession. But it backfired.

Unemployed U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents did not take the low-skilled labor positions. Nor do we in 2008, no matter how dire our current economic situation. We do not want our children to enter low-skilled labor careers, we want them to go to college and enter into the professions.

There is nothing wrong with this; we have progressed as every immigrant society progresses. But our immigration system has placed us between a rock and a hard place; our economy, at its lowest level, depends upon low-skilled labor.

We do not want to engage in low-skilled labor. Our immigration laws do not allow unskilled foreign nationals to take those jobs. Business owners need the laborers. When a system does not meet the needs of the community, the community adapts — in this case, undocumented workers fill the jobs and the employers gladly hire them.

Our current employment-based immigration system does not provide a mechanism for low-skilled laborers to enter the U.S. legally. Nor does it allow families to easily and efficiently negotiate the family-sponsored immigration process. Current immigration law and policy imposes unreasonable burdens on immigrants, which impede their ability to comply with the law.

The office of president is a leadership role for political parties. The person holding that office can go a long way to create a climate where immigration reform is possible.

Yes, the pandering for votes has begun. But let us be clear in our understanding; immigration reform is necessary. The responsibility for its success is in the hands of Congress.

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