Related articles:

Ernesto Portillo Jr.: Immigration answers are all in the eyes of the beholdersArizona response to Senate immigration-law vote: jeers to cheers Border security push fails in Senate Giuliani: Focus immigration efforts on border enforcement Napolitano: More states will pass border laws Kyl hails $3B border allocation as victory Vital employer sanctions get short shrift in border debate

Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor

The Senate's passage Thursday of the Border Security First Act must be the first step in a series of acts that eventually reform the nation's immigration system comprehensively.

The legislation, an amendment to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security appropriations package, would allocate $3 billion to fund more Border Patrol officers, fencing, unmanned aerial vehicles and other mechanisms that would help plug the porous U.S.-Mexico border. The measure is similar to the security-only portion of the comprehensive immigration-reform package that died earlier this summer.

Thursday evening, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who championed the failed comprehensive plan and the new security act, got the Senate to add $60 million to the amendment for improvements to the Basic Pilot Program, the federal database of those able to work in the country legally.

Kyl said Thursday that he has not given up on the comprehensive approach, but it will be hard to accomplish this session.

Thus, he said, he "took advantage of an opportunity on the Homeland Security appropriation bill to send a strong message that we're serious about enforcement."

Kyl said the public is reluctant to accept reform until there is action on enforcement.

Without question, security must be part of immigration reform. The Star's long-held position is that immigration reform must be comprehensive and include security, as well as a guest-worker program, workplace controls and an equitable system for dealing with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants working in our country and contributing to its economy.

Kyl told us he hopes enforcement funding will encourage people to look toward other areas of reform. We hope he's right and that the security boost placates the enforcement-only factions and that other aspects of immigration reform will be able to move forward.

The $60 million boost for the Basic Pilot Program should help Arizona employers smacked by a draconian state law that requires verification of new employees' legal status using the iffy system. Under the ill-conceived employer-sanctions law, a business' license could be suspended and the workplace shut down — leaving all employees out of work — if the business knowingly hires an undocumented worker.

The law was a knee-jerk response by a frustrated Arizona Legislature to Congress' inaction in solving the illegal-immigration problem. The law penalizes businesses and gives them responsibility for immigration enforcement without giving them adequate tools to meet the task.

The unintended consequences of the law may be that U.S. citizens and folks legitimately in the country are denied employment because of an inaccurate database. This is a civil rights lawsuit against the state waiting to happen. The law goes into effect Jan. 1.

If the security amendment gets congressional approval and the president's signature, it must be a beginning to solutions on illegal immigration. It will not end the problem.