• Originally published July 27, 2008 at 8:29 p.m., updated July 27, 2008 at 8:29 p.m.

Our nation’s immigration system remains broken, and Washington seems content to avoid addressing the issue during this election year. Yet as we remember the fifth anniversary of the tragedy near Victoria, we are confronted with the human consequences of our immigration policies and a harsh reminder of the need for real reform. We need to be tough on the border, crack down on employers and increase penalties for human trafficking. However, as we remember the 19 dead in Victoria, we must also remember that immigration policy has a human, and often tragic, face.

First and foremost, our broken immigration system requires real border security. As the Laredo Sector Commander of Operation Jumpstart, the National Guard's border security campaign, I know how important being tough on the border is to the security of our nation. Real border security means additional border guards and more electronic surveillance in order to patrol the border against unlawful entry and to protect against the scourges of human trafficking and drug smuggling. Currently, we simply do not have enough resources to effectively patrol the border or prevent all smuggling operations from crossing into our state. And “solutions” such as the border fence are a 700-mile monument to Washington’s failure to solve the problem, not a real long-term solution.

Coupled with enhanced border security, our immigration policy needs to target both the supply and the demand sides of the immigration equation. In 2007 and 2008, 98 percent of all worksite immigration arrests were of undocumented workers, despite the fact that many employers and supervisors are knowingly employing illegal aliens. Employers and those who profit on the backs of the illegal alien population in our country need to be as much of the focus of immigration enforcement as the illegal workers themselves. Focusing on only one side of the equation ensures that our approach will remain both lopsided and ineffective.

Finally, we need penalties that match the crime. Drug traffickers currently face much more severe federal penalties than do those who traffic in human cargo and seek to exploit our porous borders. Many who smuggle immigrants across the border and deal in other forms of human trafficking are unfazed by getting caught and continue their operations even after their initial apprehension. We need to ensure that our policies and penalties treat human traffickers to the fullest extent of the law and with full recognition of the heinous nature of their crime.

Many in Washington have never been personally touched by the consequences of our immigration policymaking. Yet all of us living in a border state can share our own stories and reflections about the human face of the immigration debate. We are the ones most directly impacted by the inability to resolve this issue with a tough and practical policy solution. Serving both on the front lines of the border patrol and as the Chairman of the Task Force on Border Security in the Texas House of Representatives, I have dealt first-hand with the difficulties of protecting our borders while not losing sight of the human side of this debate.

With five years perspective, the tragedy of the Victoria 19 is no less shocking than it was in 2003. However, due to Washington’s failure to secure the border and enact sensible fixes for our broken immigration system, we remain no closer to ensuring that we won’t face future tragedies on a mass scale. We are a nation of immigrants as well as a nation of laws. We deserve an immigration approach that reestablishes the rule of law and protects the border, while remembering the human consequences borne by our policies.

 

Rick Noriega is from Houston and a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

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