NAFSA on Comprehensive Immigration Reform

"One of the pillars of the rationale for comprehensive immigration reform is the essential truth that effective border enforcement is impossible absent visa reforms that would provide legal avenues for entry for those seeking employment in sectors that depend on foreign workers. Yet two successive administrations have bought into the narrative that the border must be secured first, pouring resources into border enforcement and vastly increasing the security presence on the border.  Another pillar is another essential truth: We can't deport 11 million people. Yet two successive administrations have sought to defuse anti-immigrant sentiment through high-profile deportation policies: the Bush administration through workplace raids; Obama by deporting immigrants in record numbers. Yet no matter how far we ratchet up enforcement, we only get farther away from immigration reform. The administration must accept the reality that it cannot out-enforce the enforcement-firsters, that comprehensive immigration reform will not be enabled by any amount of enforcement. Enforcement first is a road to nowhere. We have to stop conducting this narrative on the other side's terms." - NAFSA, Nov. 7, 2011.