Editorial: Real protest should focus on need for solution

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets Tuesday to demand action on immigration reform.

The march in Southern Arizona was smaller compared to last year, with protesters asking Congress to establish a clear path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country.

We agree with protesters on one point. Reform cannot wait until after the 2008 presidential election.

The need for immigration reform in Arizona is desperate.

The Border Patrol’s stepped up enforcement effort north of the border in Tubac, Amado and Green Valley will result in a permanent Interstate 19 checkpoint. But it also will result in more border crossers getting off the freeway and into neighborhoods, where they will disrupt lives and create dangerous confrontations.

Mexican drug lords have decided to fight the increase in border security by using migrants to divert patrols. They have taken over the business of smuggling illegals into Arizona to occupy the Border Patrol while they slip billions in cocaine into the country.

“We have been able to seal many of the drug routes by adding technology and more agents,” said Gustavo Soto, spokesman for the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector.

That’s the good news.

“We’re seeing a tremendous amount of drugs being seized,” he added.

That’s the bad news.

Drug-trafficking extortionists along the border may be as responsible for the drop in illegal immigration as the increased border presence.

The White House, mired in a controversial war in Iraq, recognizes it faces a long-term problem in border security. It has proposed a solution, one we endorse as a start.

This country needs a strict guest-worker program that would allow the legal flow of aliens across the border. The Bush plan would grant illegals three-year work visas for $3,500, require them to return home to apply for U.S. residency and pay a $10,000 fine.

Tuesday’s demonstrations turned up the heat on politicians to act. We think the boycott put immigrants’ livelihoods at risk and deprived children of class time, but maybe it will make the pedestrian American public understand that this issue needs a resolution.

After last year’s protests, reform legislation stalled in Congress and bipartisan proposals for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship have gotten more conservative.

Tuesday’s turnout was lower, organizers claimed, because stepped-up raids in recent months. Some immigrants are afraid to speak out, a major change over rallies in 2006 when some illegal immigrants arrogantly wore T-shirts saying, “I’m illegal. So what?”

Green Valley residents understand the “so what?” Illegal immigration affects our daily lives. It introduces unnecessary danger into an otherwise peaceful retirement area. It costs us millions of misdirected taxpayer dollars.

How this for a protest? We demand a solution as soon as possible.