2007年VOA标准英语-US Task Force Recommends Radical Changes to Imm

By Marissa Melton
Washington
19 January 2007

As the new U.S. Congress prepares to debate immigration reform and border security, a bipartisan task force has released a report outlining suggestions to simplify and strengthen U.S. immigration policy. Recommendations include consolidating¹ immigration data and jurisdiction² under a single federal agency; establishing an "as-needed" work visa for foreign workers; and devising a path to legal residency for illegal workers already in the country. VOA's Marissa Melton reports from Washington.

The co-chairs of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future this week hosted a forum³ to discuss their ideas for making immigration reform work. The task force brought members of Congress together with business, labor⁴, and immigration groups, as well as public policy and immigration experts. Their report says, among other things, that the U.S. immigration system is vital to the U.S. economy -- and that the system is broken.

 
Lee Hamilton (19 Jan 2007)
Lee Hamilton, a former U.S. lawmaker and former vice⁵ chair of the 9/11 Commission, now heads the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He describes some of the shortcomings of U.S. immigration policy, saying it is complicated, disorganized, and its actions are frequently ignored by all but a few people.

He said, "You've got a system that doesn't help families. It's inhumane. It doesn't meet our economic needs. It is just a managerial mess."

"The system is overburdened everywhere you look, they don't have any regulatory mechanism⁶ in it, nobody pays any attention to the administration of immigration except a few people. So that's why we came to the conclusion that we needed some kind of comprehensive reform," he continued.

Hamilton says Congress tends to take up the topic of immigration policy about once every ten years or so. The task force has recommended several radical⁷ changes. The first would create a federal agency that would coordinate⁸ data on immigration with labor needs. That agency would make periodic recommendations to Congress on how many immigrant workers are needed to fill out the work force.

The second recommendation was to establish a category of foreign worker who is neither temporary nor permanent, but "provisional" -- meaning a foreign worker who could be issued a visa for a finite amount of time to fill holes in the labor force.

 
Spencer Abraham (file photo)
Former U.S. lawmaker and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham says basing immigration decisions on workplace needs rather than trying to re-unite families is a different approach for the United States, and a more realistic one.

"Participants in our task force felt that employment should be the driver in terms of the policies and approach taken, as opposed to the past, which was either principally family or primarily family-based immigration," he said.

The most controversial suggestion the task force offered was devising a way for immigrants who entered the country illegally to get legal status.

But the task force argues there is simply no good way to deal with the more than 11 million people believed to be in the United States illegally, and the process would split up families in which children are legal residents and parents are not.

But opponents of that idea say giving illegal immigrants a path to legal status amounts to amnesty for illegal acts. The activist⁹ group NumbersUSA says when Congress has granted amnesty to select groups in the past, it has been followed by dramatic increases in illegal immigration.

 
Border fence in the distance that separates the U.S., foreground, from Mexico near downtown Nogales, Ariz (File photo)
The task force also supported enhancement of border security efforts -- but not with the 1,100 kilometer fence along the U.S. border with Mexico that President Bush approved last year.

Abraham said, "I don't think the building of perimeter¹⁰ fences and more border patrols is ever going to succeed. You're trying to put a fence up that can stop both the economic forces at play and the human aspirational¹¹ forces at play. And I don't think you can build a fence big enough to do that."

Lee Hamilton put it more succinctly¹², quoting the governor (Janet Napolitano) of U.S. border state Arizona, where parts of that wall would be built.

"Show me a 50-foot wall, and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder," he said.

Instead, the force recommends speeding up the implementation¹⁴ of "smart border" measures combining personnel, equipment, and technology. It also called for greater surveillance of legal ports of entry, and government action to disband citizen vigilante groups patrolling the borders.

Hamilton complains that members of Congress often focus on high-profile issues, such as the proposed border wall, rather than work on more comprehensive policy changes.

But both task force leaders say they hope that members of Congress this year will work together to implement¹³ comprehensive immigration reform.

Lee Hamilton says he has more faith now, after seeing moves by both parties in Congress to cooperate with one another.

He said, "I'm a little more optimistic than I would have been a few weeks or months back. I think the president is clearly interested in comprehensive reform and he was forced away from that really by the Republicans."

"Now I also believe that immigration is a question where the president and leaders of Congress really think there's an opportunity to make some progress," he added.

Congress is currently discussing more than a dozen proposals to alter or overhaul¹⁵ U.S. immigration policy.

1 consolidating   

v.（使）巩固， （使）加强( consolidate的现在分词 )；（使）合并

参考例句：

• These measures are meant for consolidating the system of basic medical care. 这些举措旨在夯实基层医疗体系，让老百姓看大病不必出远门。 来自互联网
• We are consolidating the Chinese and English versions of our homepage. 我们将为您提供中英文版本一起的主页。 来自互联网

2 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

3 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

7 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

8 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

9 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

10 perimeter   

n.周边，周长，周界

参考例句：

• The river marks the eastern perimeter of our land.这条河标示我们的土地东面的边界。
• Drinks in hands,they wandered around the perimeter of the ball field.他们手里拿着饮料在球场周围漫不经心地遛跶。

11 aspirational   

志同的，有抱负的

参考例句：

• Most of the images that bombard us all are aspirational. 轰击的图像，我们都期望最大。
• Analysts said self-help and aspirational reading could explain India's high figures. 分析师们指出，自助读书、热爱读书是印度人均读书时间超过别的国家的主要原因。

12 succinctly   

adv.简洁地；简洁地，简便地

参考例句：

• He writes simply and succinctly, rarely adding too much adornment. 他的写作风格朴实简练，很少添加饰词。 来自互联网
• No matter what question you are asked, answer it honestly and succinctly. 总之，不管你在面试中被问到什么问题，回答都要诚实而简明。 来自互联网

13 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

14 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

15 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。