Immigration is an extremely complex, difficult, and very emotional issue that has caused many divisions in our community. Yet over a three-day period in Phoenix, we witnessed an unprecedented gathering of advocates and experts from different regions and vastly different views who tried, with civility and real purpose, to come together  on an issue that is central to our state’s and our country’s future.

I am personally appreciative and grateful to each and every one of our participants for all the time they spent with us, and for their willingness to try and find some common ground on this extremely important and politically charged issue.

What we accomplished was something special – we heard from both extremes, took into consideration arguments from different segments, and worked together to try to solve the basic problems associated with immigration.

I was delighted to have been a part of it, and to have worked with advocates from both sides. I want to commend everyone who participated in making this conference such an amazing experience.

Over the course of the conference, several key themes emerged:

·       There is an undue influence of extreme viewpoints on immigration that prevents real progress on reform. In fact, immigration has become a third rail in American politics. Even before solutions are fully presented and debated, they are attacked from the left and the right. 

• There is continuing tension between the federal government and states over immigration reform and border protection. Historically, border states have blamed federal inaction for the breakdown in border security, prompting tough local laws and ordinances to crack down on undocumented workers.

·       The “status quo” is not working. There is consensus that the system is broken, that our borders aren’t secure and that there is an unchecked underground economy in our communities. While there is agreement the status quo is not acceptable, finding a solution has proven to be elusive.

• Our broken immigration system creates serious issues for employers trying to ensure all their workers are in the country legally. Verification is a problem, and current systems may be mistake-prone, and not give employers accurate information.
• Lack of federal action creates havoc and a lack of clarity for state and local governments. This leads to a patchwork of different laws and ordinance across the region, and causes further divisions in our communities.

This is why conferences like ours are so important – because the collapse of efforts to shape national immigration policy have failed. We cannot wait until 2009, hopeful that consensus will somehow emerge after years of politicization of the issue.

Opportunities to come together on immigration do not happen often, so that is why I am so grateful that our conference gave so many people from so many different backgrounds a rare chance to try to reach a broad agreement on possible solutions.

I think we can all agree immigration is one of the most volatile and emotional political issues we are facing today.

And it is clear that lack of cohesive, meaningful immigration reform legislation will continue to have a negative impact on economic development, on our political discourse and on the millions of immigrants who have moved to the United States.

That is why I urge you to take the spirit of collaboration from our conference and take it into your communities so that someday we can find meaningful solutions.

It will not be easy, and it will not be done overnight. But I think we saw during our conference that consensus is possible, if we just try hard enough.

Catherine R. Eden, Ph.D.

Director

Ramsey Executive Education