Immigration has recently become quite the hot-button issue, and various individuals and organizations have chimed in with their two-cents. Amid all of the talk, however, a workable solution has yet to be reached.

Most people recognize American dependence on immigrant labor. However, it has become increasingly clear that the influx of illegal immigrants is draining our educational, medical and welfare resources.

Utah congressman Chris Cannon led a committee that recently recommended a guest-worker program with a ‘natural cap.’ This means that immigrants could only legally cross the border if they could prove they had a job waiting for them. This seems reasonable, and could at least be a step in the right direction.

However, anyone who has visited California has seen the groups of migrant workers waiting on street corners for day labor. By the end of the day most of those workers have been hired. They are working, doing vital jobs for our economy, but they would not have been able to provide proof of a job to border security workers.

The situation is complicated even further when we, as Americans, consider our heritage. We are all descendents of immigrants. Most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the U.S. descend from British and Scandinavian immigrants that the government tried to deport because of their religious beliefs. These facts lead us to be sympathetic to the modern immigrants.

Missionaries who served in Spanish-speaking stateside missions may also be sympathetic because nearly all of their converts were in this country illegally. Still, when looking to Church doctrine we find the 12th Article of Faith stating that “we believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law.”

Immigration is complicated issue and The Daily Universe editorial board doesn’t claim to have the one true solution. However, while the debate goes on and more than a million people demonstrate on both sides, it is important to remember what we heard from Elder Robert S. Wood of the Quorum of the Seventy in our last General Conference.

“Political differences never justify hatred or ill will. I hope that the Lord’s people will be at peace, one with another during times of trouble, regardless of what loyalties they may have to different governments or parties.”

Copyright Brigham Young University 4 May 2006