Sunday, December 14, 2008

Colorado State of Mind: Immigration and Our Work Force

Since we announced our topic of immigration for our program beginning in January, we've drawn a good deal of attention from both the public and the media. Over the weekend, the Director of our program, Jim Griesemer, appeared on Colorado State of Mind on PBS. The show also hosted former Governor Dick Lamm, immigration attorney Amy DeVan, and the Director of HISMinistries, Rev. Stan Perea.

As host Cynthia Hessin explained, “the reform of U.S. immigration policy is still very high in the minds of many Americans, especially those employers who depend on imported labor, the activists who are alarmed at rising population numbers, and certainly with anyone who is concerned about whether current immigration law is being enforced.”

However, our policies and approaches toward the problem of immigration in the U.S. don’t have much coherence. The show’s guests all seemed to agree that there are several problems with immigration law as it stands.

In approaching the problem, though, “it seems to be a subject where everyone talks past everyone else,” said Jim. The multitude of competing opinions and viewpoints is part to blame for the lack of coherent immigration policy.

Cynthia asked Jim how next year’s Immigration Issues Panel plans to discuss the issue.

“[U]ltimately you can’t create any policy without some clarity in terms of what you’re trying to achieve. I think and hope that one of the things our panel will really focus on is “what are the goals?”…something has to be more important than something else, otherwise you end up with mutually exclusive outcomes. You have to decide what’s most important and I hope our panel will do that.”




Amy DeVan and Jim Griesemer