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\"The recent increase in illegal immigration invalidates the Obama administration's narrative that our borders are more secure than ever,\" [Bob Goodlatte] said in a statement. \"Any successful immigration reform must first secure the border and guarantee the enforcement of our laws before other necessary improvements are made.\" \"(The new numbers) mean we obviously do not have secure borders,\" [Rosemark Jenks] said. \"Once an illegal alien is in the United States, there is virtually no fear of being caught and removed. This administration has undermined immigration enforcement consistently, and that's having an impact.\" \"Two of those things have not changed,\" [Tamar Jacoby] said. \"Border enforcement is still very tough. And the situation in Mexico has not turned south. So the only conclusion I can come up with is the U.S. economy is improving and attracting more workers.\"

Most of those who have been entrenched in the immigration issue for years know that when you say the word \"immigration,\" the person you're talking to is likely to think only about the illegal immigration problem. And most people don't recognize this bias within themselves. ImmigrationWorks USA, a national organization of employers working to advance better immigration law, in concert with the polling firm Penn Schoen Berland, conducted focus groups earlier this year with people of varying political affiliations in Dallas and Denver. They also surveyed 300 opinion-forming U.S. \"elites\" and 1,002 members of the U.S. general population -- some who had college degrees and others without -- who responded online. \"We needed to repeatedly remind people, 'we are not focusing on illegal, but legal immigration'\" said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks. \"Really, it was stunning. In close to dozens of times, we had to stop people and reiterate that we're talking about legal immigration.\"

Most of those who have been entrenched in the immigration issue for years know that when you say the word \"immigration,\" the person you're talking to is likely to think only about the illegal immigration problem. \"We needed to repeatedly remind people, 'we are not focusing on illegal, but legal immigration'\" said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks. \"In the focus groups, we did divide people into college-educated and not college-educated subgroups, and we found that, in general, the college-educated workers were more favorable toward legal immigration and the non-college- educated were less favorable, which we expected,\" Jacoby said. \"But the focus groups also showed us that in certain cases, it was the non-college-educated people who understood the need for legal immigrant workers much better. In many cases, these non-college-educated workers are closer to the issue -- they may be managers at a hotel or the foremen of a worksite and have an appreciation for the tier of workers beneath them. They want to be able to hire and manage others to clean toilets, make beds and do hard physical labor.\"

\"That means a lot of people are going to college,\" [Greg Siskind] said. \"It's a message I'm trying to get across - that a lot of people [applying] don't fit the stereotype.\" \"Don't be too nosy,\" Siskind advises employers. \"If you engage in profiling of employees by assuming that someone might be applying for DACA, you're going to get yourself into trouble.\" \"The word 'egregious' has been a very slippery, weasel-y word for the past decade,\" said [Tamar Jacoby]. \"To me, that's a big piece of Swiss cheese.\"

\"I don't think House Republicans respond well to protests,\" said President and CEO Tamar Jacoby of ImmigrationWorks USA, a federation of businesses in favor of immigration reform. \"They look at protesters and they say, 'You are making it easy for me not to' \" vote for immigration reform. \"I sort of think of it as an orchestra, where there is room for many different instruments,\" Jacoby said. \"To the degree that civil disobedience is one of those instruments, I think that's great. But I think if most of the orchestra starts to sound like civil disobedience, it would wind up being counterproductive.\" \"To be honest, they are sort of sympathetic figures for the most part -- young adults who have achieved a great deal in the United States who are at least nominally trying to protect their families,\" [Louis DeSipio] said. \"Their claim is they want a reform that doesn't just address the dreamers\" but also legalizes their parents.

[Tamar Jacoby], in town this week to speak at a border seminar, recently observed a group of conservative Republicans grousing about illegal immigrants. The group was in Dallas, a city as politically red as San Francisco is politically blue. For Jacoby, a guest on numerous news shows from Fox News to National Public Radio, the Dallas experience shows that Americans, when given the range of facts and information about illegal immigration, will support a comprehensive immigration reform plan that calls for border enforcement but allows immigrants to legally work in this country. Today's immigrants, like yesterday's immigrants, bring vitality and energy to American communities, said Jacoby. Allowing foreign workers to legally work in this county will free border agents to focus on security. And true comprehensive immigration reform will deal with the estimated 10 million to 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the country.

The group, which issued four major reports on illegal immigration for the Migration Policy Institute, said the U.S. government must establish a more effective system for verifying the employment eligibility of prospective workers. At the same time, the group said, the United States needs to revise its work visa program to both accommodate American labor needs and make it easier for foreigners to fill that demand legally. \"The experience of the past 10 years demonstrates that border enforcement alone has not been enough,\" said Doris Meissner, a former immigration commissioner and now the director of the expert panel that produced the studies. \"More robust interior enforcement combined with border control and a practical system for new work visas to meet the ongoing labor needs of U.S. employers are inseparable elements of a well-functioning immigration system.\" At present, employers have more than 25 documents - an overwhelming and confusing amount - from which they can choose to verify legal status in the United States, [Tamar Jacoby] said. Many also are ill-equipped to distinguish counterfeit documents from valid ones, she added.

During a talk Monday at the College of the Holy Cross about the assimilation of immigrants into American society, journalist Tamar Jacoby said some pessimists believe many immigrants today are not going to make it in the United States. She made it clear she does not share that concern. A story about her address appearing in Tuesday's Telegram & Gazette may have implied otherwise. Ms. Jacoby said that assimilation is almost a dirty word to some who take a pessimistic view. She is more hopeful than pessimistic, saying that the bad news about immigrants often obscures the good. Speaking to a reporter before the forum, Ms. Jacoby said that closing the nation's borders to new immigrants would be a big mistake. She pointed out that there were 19 terrorists involved in the attacks who had entered this country, but a million immigrants who are not criminals arrive in the United States every year.

Last month, hundreds of \"freedom riders\" -- legal and illegal laborers from many nations -- crisscrossed the United States on buses, drawing attention to the plight of the undocumented. In the California recall race, the bill allowing illegal migrants to get a driver's license came to symbolize the much larger immigration issue that roils the state. All the Democratic presidential candidates have proposed plans to increase immigration quotas while legalizing some share of the 9 million illegal migrants already working in the United States. And it isn't only liberals clamoring for change: Over the summer, several Republican members of Congress put forward legislation on the subject -- and more is expected. At the heart of the consensus is a deal between Democrats and Republicans -- and, by extension, between business and unions backed by immigrant advocates. Businesses facing labor shortages want a regulated \"guest worker\" program to enlarge the pipeline bringing needed laborers into the United States, while unions and immigrant advocates want to create a way for the undocumented who are already here -- working and paying taxes -- to come out of the shadows, gaining access to public services and eventually citizenship. But -- and both sides recognize this -- neither of these provisions can stand alone. What's most important is that the new consensus is gaining ground. Left and right increasingly agree: The status quo is broken. Cracking down on illegal immigration hasn't worked. Despite vastly increased spending, the illegal flow has only grown. Even in the middle of a supposedly jobless recovery, both agriculture and the service sector remain worried about worker shortages -- and employers in both industries back legislation that would provide a more stable, legal work force.

\"House Republicans will not do this if they see it as, 'The president just beat us and now he's going to shove this down our throats,'\" [Tamar Jacoby] said. \"That is just not a way to get it done.\" \"If Republicans want to get credit for reform, they have to come forward with something serious, which includes legalization and a path to citizenship,\" said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a national organization that champions comprehensive immigration reform. \"If they do, I think the Democrats will work with them on it. But right now, the Republicans are off talking to themselves. Until they come forward with proposals, there's really nothing to react to.\" \"There's just not that much enthusiasm to deal with it up on the Hill,\" said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that supports more immigration enforcement and overall reductions in immigration. \"The Republicans don't have that much incentive to deal with it, there's a million other things to contend with it, and time constraints matter enormously. All of that makes it unlikely.\"