'Red card' plan needs citizenship, critic says

DENVER — The foundation behind The Red Card Solution says that although it is just an idea, it represents progress in America’s immigration dilemma. A Colorado-based immigrant-rights’ group agrees, although it finds fault with some aspects of the plan. “It’s a real solution,” said Shari Williams, executive director of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation. “It helps with border security, and it empowers the private sector to solve the problem rather than waiting for government action. It gets rid of the politics and focuses on something that works.” “It is really important that the red card proposal tries to shift the debate from the mass-deportation strategy as a solution,” said Julie Gonzales of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “I think it’s also a good step that the proposal seeks to bring folks out of the shadows, which is the problem everyone knows about but doesn’t want to talk about. I think that’s why it’s gaining momentum in the polls. Presidential candidates realize mass-deportation strategies are not tenable.” The path to citizenship is where the road parts for The Red Card Solution and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. The plan calls for workers to return to their native countries when their jobs in the U.S. expire. The coalition contends that the hope of gaining U.S. citizenship should be linked to a guest-worker program. Williams said the red card plan does not discourage citizenship, but should not be mingled with the separate process of that pursuit. “If you want to be a citizen of the United States, then you should apply for citizenship,” she said. Williams said that simply working in a country that enables someone to earn a better living is not sufficient reason to become a citizen there. “Citizenship is about wanting to live somewhere because you embrace the way of life,” she said. Gonzales contends that the ever-growing expense and waits that can drag on for decades in the legal immigration process have discouraged legal immigration. She said lifting those barriers is central to any immigration fix from the coalition’s perspective “The red card idea that you would be a nonimmigrant visa holder and that you’d have to jump in some other line to become a citizen seems a little clunky,” she said. “If we’re talking about overhauling the system, why would we create an endless amount of hoops for them to jump through when at the end of the day they wouldn’t become American citizens?” Gonzales said tighter border security also has fostered illegal immigration. At one time, she said, it was the norm for seasonal workers to come to the United States and return to their countries, such as Mexico, when the work was done. Difficulty re-entering the U.S. makes it more appealing to immigrants to bring their families to the U.S. and keep them here while they follow the work, she said. Williams said the red card plan has supporters and its detractors on both sides of the political middle. On its face, it would seem surprising that a foundation guided largely by conservative principles and the liberal-oriented coalition could find any common ground. But they share the belief that the current U.S. approach to immigration is broken and the time has come to explore alternatives. “What’s good and what’s challenging about red card is a necessary conversation,” Gonzales said. “That’s what fixing the issue looks like. It’s been glaringly absent from the debate for too many years.” Patrick Malone 11 Dec 2011