Cut the Rhetoric and Work on Solutions : Immigration: Tough but humane policy changes are possible; the alternative will lead to social suicide.

Gov. Pete Wilson says he wants to stop illegal immigration. So do I. But Draconian, and mostly unconstitutional solutions, like denying citizenship to illegal immigrants’ U.S.-born children, are not the answer. We need to look at solutions that promise positive, not negative, long-term effects. First, we need a balanced approach to immigration, a get-tough but humane policy to tighten up our borders, while ensuring that legal immigrants are allowed to reach their potential.

Some suggestions:

* Extradite illegal immigrants who are convicted of felonies to serve their sentences in prisons of their country of origin. According to Wilson, this would save California $500 million a year, yet when I proposed to do this during our budget negotiations, he vetoed the idea.

* Consolidate the hearing process for federal trials of illegal immigrants accused of crimes, so that both the criminal trial and the deportation hearings are merged in the process.

* Increase penalties and institute assets forfeiture for convicted immigrant smugglers--”coyotes.”

* Tighten up the visitor visa and political asylum process, and limit the benefits refugees receive. Overstayed visas rival the Mexican border as the prime source of undocumented immigrants.

* Divide the enforcement and naturalization functions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies, one for border control and one for citizenship, and bring the Customs Service into the border enforcement agency.

This reorganization would streamline training and administration, reduce duplication and help eliminate the backlog of applications for citizenship. With the INS’ current capacity to process 60,000 new citizens a year, it would take 87 years to process the 5.2 million permanent residents in California alone who will be eligible for citizenship by the end of 1994.

* Impose a $1 to $2 toll on everyone who crosses the border into the United States. Half of the money raised would go to the states that absorb most immigration, to facilitate job training and work-force development, and toward the costs of citizenship processing.

* Adopt the federal proposal recently unveiled by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services that would limit undocumented immigrants to preventive and emergency health care.

* Convene a summit between the U.S. and Mexican presidents to create an economic development plan that would stem the flow of illegal immigration.

* Congress must rework the taxation/usage equation to better fit the realities of expenditures. A report commissioned by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors found that in 1991, the county spent $940 million on immigrants. The immigrants, on the other hand, paid $4.3 billion in taxes to all levels of government--$2.6 billion (60%) to the federal government, $1.2 billion (29%) to state government; $350 million (8%) to local entities, and $139 million (3%) to the county.

* The federal government must provide immigrant-heavy states with the $812 million promised but never delivered, and the additional two years needed to complete the amnesty process, under the Immigration Act of 1986. Federal citizenship centers also are needed, to help permanent residents become citizens. There is a bill in the California Legislature that would set up these centers at the state level, using existing programs, such as adult education, community colleges and community-based organizations.

* Increase federal and state enforcement of labor and wage laws, which would encourage employers to hire legal residents.

Although immigration has become a new political lightning rod, it is not a new issue. The Founding Fathers struggled with it. Now, as we again encounter politically volatile and economically unstable times, the federal government must take thoughtful and balanced steps to remedy the illegal immigration situation. If we don’t--if we go along with Gov. Wilson’s quick fixes--we are setting our country up for social suicide.