by KYW's Tony Romeo

One local immigration expert believes the American government needs to create a legal track for immigrants to cross the border and take temporary jobs.
  
Roger Laguna, a Harrisburg, Pa. attorney who focuses on immigration cases, says businesses face stiff financial penalties and as well as criminal sanctions for employing illegal immigrants -- not to mention increased enforcement in recent years.
  
He says that when arrested, undocumented workers are treated no differently than drug dealers or murderers:

“They are handcuffed, put in a car, and deported. If they have children going to a local school, those children are left at the school. The children will come home and find no parents there.”

And then, there’s the impact on the businesses and communities. Laguna talks about a chicken plant raided earlier this year near Harrisburg:

“That place had been operating for decades and had been employing a small town. And that plant is out of business now.  And a whole community, a small community that’s been there for decades, is drying up.” 

Laguna believes a process that would allow people to work without granting residency would benefit everyone:

“…that we’re not giving you citizenship, we’re not saying, ‘Welcome to America,’ we’re saying if you want to come and work here for low wages and help support this economy, yeah. And pay taxes.  Come here and work, but don’t think that you’re getting citizenship or you’re getting some amnesty if you’ve been here illegally.”

With that kind of process, Laguna believes, no employer would take the risk of hiring illegal workers.

(File photo)