EDITORIAL A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS AMERICA'S WELCOMING TRADITION MUST ADAPT TO CURRENT NEEDS.IT'S a cliche to observe that America is a nation of immigrants, but the familiarity of the statement doesn't make it any less true. Ours is a country of some 300 million Americans, nearly all of them tracing their families back to some faraway far·a·way adj. 1. Very distant; remote. 2. Abstracted; dreamy: a faraway look. faraway Adjective 1. very distant 2. country. So it's ironic that as America celebrates its 230th year, the issue that most divides the country is immigration immigration, entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. . There are many explanations for this, but chief among them is that the nation's immigration laws immigration laws npl → leyes fpl de inmigración immigration laws npl → lois fpl sur l'immigration immigration laws npl are broken -- outdated and unrealistic given the needs and realities of these times. It's no longer safe to have ``invisible'' people living among us, or crossing the border anonymously. Nor is it compassionate com·pas·sion·ate adj. 1. Feeling or showing compassion; sympathetic. See Synonyms at humane. 2. Granted to an individual because of an emergency or other unusual circumstances: to allow people to live this way. America, because of the opportunities it offers, will always be a magnet for newcomers. This is one of our greatest strengths. But it comes with a challenge: how to maintain the country's immigration tradition while meeting 21st-century needs. It's a challenge we must find a way to answer, especially as Congress continues to wrangle over immigration reform Immigration reform is the common term used in political discussions regarding changes to immigration policy. In a certain sense, reform can be general enough to include promoted, expanded, or open immigration, but in reality discussions of reform often deal with the aspect of . |
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