Scripps Howard Foundation Wire

WASHINGTON – Growing up in the United States, Luis Miranda did not know he was an undocumented immigrant until years after he and his family had left Colombia.

“It wasn’t until later when I tried to join the Civil Air Patrol … that I realized that I didn’t have a Social Security number. And that’s when it dawned on me what being undocumented actually meant,” said Miranda, who was 11 years old when he found out.

Miranda, 36, who is a strategic communications consultant and a former director of Hispanic media for the White House, shared this story Monday during a discussion sponsored by the International Center for Journalists, “U.S. Immigration Reform: What’s Ahead.”

Miranda spoke about how he benefitted from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and how immigration reform today could help thousands of young immigrants who have grown up in U.S. and who feel American, yet are undocumented because their parents brought them to the U.S. when they were young.

“I think about what my life would be right now; I certainly would not have been sitting on this panel,” Miranda said.

Joining Miranda on the panel were Los Angeles Times reporter, Cindy Carcamo; executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, Mark Krikorian, and the senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, Jeffrey S. Passel. The discussion kicked off the journalism center’s International Reporting program for 20 journalists.

“The illegal immigrants who are here, yeah, there are going to be some people who are surgeons and mentors, and some of them are going to be criminals,” Krikorian said.

Krikorian’s group, the Center for Immigration Studies, supports less immigration in the U.S.

He countered Miranda’s point of viewing immigration law through the eyes of the immigrants themselves, arguing that those examples can be used to illustrate a broader story but should not become the story themselves.

“Neither the criminal nor the surgeon tells us anything of what immigration policy should be,” he said. “The problem is too often the examples become the story and you have sob stories that simply don’t illuminate – they just manipulate.”

Krikorian said there is a “pretty good argument to be made” for legislation that would allow undocumented youths that were brought into the country by their parents to gain legal status, but that the current Dream Act is “too expansive.”

He said a sensible solution would focus on three main points: a border fence, an electronic employment verification system and a visa control system.

According to the latest research done by the Pew Hispanic Center, 73 percent of Americans agree there should be a way for undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States legally. However, only 39 percent believe immigration reform should be a priority for the president and Congress.

The final question for the group was what many Americans might be wondering themselves: Will there be an immigration reform package this year?

The answers were divided, with one yes, one no and two “I don’t knows.”

“I think what will come out is probably slightly more conservative than what’s going through the Senate,” said Miranda, the only one to have replied to the question with a yes. “But I do feel optimistic. I think the Gang of 8 has been able to hold the line on defeating a lot of the amendments that would have been really problematic for either side, and so I do think that it will make it.”

A Senate committee approved an immigration bill Tuesday that is expected to go to the floor after next week’s Memorial Day recess. A House bill remains in committee.

The international reporting fellows will report from abroad on social issues relevant to their communities. The program is funded by the Ford Foundation, Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Scripps Howard Foundation, the Brooks and Joan Fortune Family Foundation and United Airlines.

Carcamo, then of the Orange County Register, was a fellow last year. She covered stories about human smuggling along the Pacific Ocean.

“I focused on the people who were paying an obscene amount of money to come to the United States, particularly to California and Baja California,” Carcamo said. “And they were coming from everywhere, from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, but mainly Mexico.”

Carcamo said she hopes discussions will provide more awareness about immigration issues and help improve media coverage.

“I really think that there should be more immigration coverage. I don’t think there are enough of us immigration reporters out there so that’s what I hope people will take away from it,” Carcamo said.