LETTER: Comprehensive reform is needed

"You know that being American is more than a matter of where your parents came from," President Harry S. Truman said. "It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break."

Immigrants contribute greatly to America’s economic and cultural vitality. According to a report by the National Academy of Sciences, a typical immigrant and his or her children will pay an estimated $80,000 more in taxes than they will receive in combined local, state and federal benefits over their lifetimes. In addition, the contribution of unclaimed money for undocumented immigrants from payroll taxes has grown to $7 billion and approximately $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.

The Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996 limits documented immigrants from accessing federal programs and state partner programs. Moreover, the law requires immigrants to wait five years after attaining lawful permanent residence, commonly known as a "green card," before receiving cash assistance, Medicaid, Social Services Block Grants, and other federal means-tested programs. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for these programs, and charges on the local and state level that argue otherwise do not accurately reflect the status of immigrants under current law.

The proliferation of city ordinances to "ban" undocumented immigrants from certain localities, like the defeated ordinance in Fremont, only serves to distract the public from the pressing need for comprehensive immigration reform. During the last eight years, a number of bills, including the McCain-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, have seen defeat in Congress.

Fremont Mayor "Skip" Edwards acted wisely in breaking the tie vote of the city council. The proposed ordinance failed to imagine the greatness of America as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws by promoting a poor myth: Immigrants take more than they give. It did not recognize our history or anticipate our future as a state and nation made stronger by the contributions of immigrants and their hardworking children. Restrictive policies on the state and local level are not legally viable solutions. The push for comprehensive immigration reform on the national level is the way forward.

Editor’s note: Jones is a former Fremont resident, a 2005 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a 2004 Harry S. Truman Scholarship winner.