Our immigration system should reflect our nation's values of family and hard work, and our elected officials should have the courage to bring our laws in line with both our values and with economic and demographic reality. Unfortunately, neither has happened.

Our country is dealing with the consequences of more than 20 years of half-baked immigration policies from both parties.

Whether we like it or not, our nation relies heavily on immigrant workers, many from Mexico.

Our workforce is aging. In 20 years when I am 71, the ratio of seniors to workers in the U.S. will jump from the current 24 per 100 to 41 seniors for 100 workers. The answer to the Beatles existential question, "Who will still need me, who will still feed me, when I am 64?" is simple: Immigrants!

We offer few legal channels for these needed workers, especially low-skilled workers, to come to the United States. However, the laws of supply and demand ensure that immigrant workers come, and many stay.

The half measures of the past have only made the problems worse:

The '86 reform did not account for future labor needs, and employer sanctions were ignored.

NAFTA increased trade, but did not address the increased flow of workers.

Border enforcement pushed immigrants into the desert and as a result, they now stay put here.

The '96 reform makes it impossible for even productive, well established undocumented immigrants to get legal status.

So here we are in 2007. We have the untenable situation of an undocumented population of 12 million people, overwhelmingly productively working yet vulnerable to exploitation; we have 200 deaths on the border already this year; and we have no workable system for our future labor needs.

Our immigration and enforcement policies are severely out of alignment with our trade policies, economic needs and nation values.

A solution to this mess must be comprehensive, and ICIRR supports the STRIVE Act introduced by Reps. Gutierrez and Flake.

• Legal status and earned citizenship for undocumented workers

• Increases in visa allocations to cut the long backlogs

• Temporary worker provisions, with worker protections, for our future labor needs.

• Enforcement provisions that are generally reasonable and targeted.

There are provisions we don't like, but we applaud Rep. Gutierrez and Rep. Flake for seeking a solid middle ground.

Chest thumping, racially charged "get tough enforcement first" deportation and workforce enforcement strategies that do not address our underlying labor market demands are doomed to failure. Meanwhile the human costs of breaking up families are tragic and the economic costs of churning our workforce are incalculable.

The current political strategy of those who bully the vulnerable undocumented and pander to the most bigoted in their political base is both un-American and politically suicidal.

President Bush proved that both parties can compete among Latino and immigrant voters, but the current climate just drives them into the arms of the Democrats.

And there are those in the majority party who seem to believe that if they sit back and allow others to do the immigrant bashing then Latinos will be satisfied with lip-service.

Shame on demagogues, opportunists, and political cynics!

We need real reforms that will benefit not just immigrants and their families, but our whole nation.

We hope that this committee, this Congress, and this Administration, will take such leadership and pass the STRIVE Act. Thank you.

--U.S. House of Representatives - Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. Spoken Testimony of Joshua W. Hoyt, Executive Director, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, September 6, 2007