A beacon of opportunity

The State, Columbia, S.C.: The illegal immigration debate is producing plenty of inflammatory rhetoric; one side sees the breakdown of the rule of law while the other sees blatant racism at work. America needs something that will be difficult to create in such a hot debate: an immigration policy that is in keeping with the values that built this country -- and also works.
We do need more control of our southern border. We simply have not dedicated the resources necessary to patrol the 2,000-mile frontier effectively. We also need to add resources to internal enforcement to crack down on workplace violations.
After 9/11 shook the country, Americans made a conscious decision that despite the calamity, we wanted to be an open society, taking only those security measures deemed necessary to protect ourselves. We saw our openness to the world as a strength, as it has been; America's growth from colonial outpost to superpower has been built with the labor of those new to our shores. While today's immigration challenges require new solutions and tougher enforcement, they cannot be fixed by building a long fence -- or by changing the country's essential role as a beacon of opportunity to the world.