By Iya Bakare –

How do we solve the problem of illegal immigration?

It’s the never-ending question that plagues the minds of many as we discuss the delicate issue of immigration in our country. Too many often treat it and the people involved like pests that need to be fumigated. These are human beings after all, not cockroaches.

Under the Bush administration there was an increase of immigration raids in the workplace. The arrests of undocumented immigrants grew 750 percent from 2002 to 2006. One of the largest workplace raid resulted in the arrests of 1,297 workers from Swift & Co. slaughterhouses in six states. Last September, Howard Industries in Laurel, Miss., was the center of a raid that resulted in the arrest of 600 employees. More than 300 workers were apprehended during a workplace raid at Agriprocessors, Inc. in Iowa last May.

Innocent families suffered from the brunt of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) fist. ICE was focused on implementing on capturing illegal immigrants, who are only guilty of working not committing violent crimes. This in part resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of federal sentences against Hispanics, according to a recent PEW Hispanic research survey.
President Barack Obama should halt the raids and create a team of agents or a watchdog group to investigate ICE and their failed policies. We all have rights, no matter where we were born or call home.

Still, some people believe there could not be enough work-site raids. Dave Gorak, executive director for Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration, said the United States needs more of them and should hold employers responsible for violating federal law.

“If we’re going to have credibility with this law, we need to utilize it,” Gorak said. “What’s the point of having a law if you don’t enforce it? We’re a sovereign nation and we have a right to support our laws, despite what members of Congress may tell you.”

Tim Bell, executive director of the Chicago Workers Collaborative, said Obama’s administration should conduct an internal investigation on ICE in the way arrests are conducted, how immigrants are interrogated and the voluntary deportation some immigrants are forced to sign.

“I think President Obama should issue a moratorium on these workplace raids because human rights are being violated,” Bell said.

I would have to agree.

Past policies have only hurt and divided families. ICE must be ordered to stop the raids and revise their policies with the assistance of policymakers (including members of Congress), immigration attorneys and advocates. They should do so until there is a viable plan for comprehensive immigration reform.

Children who are born in this country to undocumented parents face the danger of having their families split up if their parents are deported and sent back to their native countries. So, do children go back with their parents, or do they live out their parents’ dream of living here?

I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in the shoes of so many of these families who are impacted in our country everyday by this issue.  I can only empathize with them. I suppose to them, the risk is worth the gamble.