Starting sporadically in the late 1970's and turning into a weekly series by the 1980's, CBS Radio's Newsmark was something of a last-gasp at serious radio documentaries produced by mainstream media. With a rotation of weekly hosts and a wide range of subject matter, Newsmark tried to revive what had already become a largely ignored radio genre and inject some new life into it.

One such episode first aired in January of 1988 and the subject was Immigration and the battle over Immigration Reform (sound familiar?). Realizing this is from 23 years ago, the controversy and the attempts at reform are still very much front-and-center in our collective consciousness. And, it would appear, we're as far away from a solution now as we were then.

At times it's gratifying to know some things never change. In this instance, it's rather sad.

A half hour rundown on current life via CBS Radio from a series no longer produced - Newsmark for January 17, 1988.

(With dismal regularity: The Roundup)

Continuing our survey of Immigration and attempts at Immigration reform, here's a documentary produced for NPR's All Things Considered in 1973. Titled "The Desperate Journey", it traces the steps most illegals take in getting across the border to the U.S., what happens, who takes advantage of the situation and what was happening in 1973 to reform it. Peter Rodino, who was co-author on a number of bills dealing with Immigration reform (including an early incarnation of the Simpson-Mazzoli Bill initially called the Simpson-Rodino Bill in 1986) is interviewed on what the then-current problems were and what was being done to change it.

It makes for interesting listening, especially when you consider the climate they were talking about was 1973 and not 2010. You begin to realize nothing has changed much. There has always been the threat of vigilante violence and "get tough" policies - but as history has shown, they haven't worked nor are they very likely to work in the future.

And the problem goes on.

(Immigration Reform Protests 2006 - didn't just happen overnight)

With the Obama Administration's focus on Immigration reform, I thought I would start with a series of attempts, arguments, legislations and problems over the last several decades associated with revamping and reforming a hopelessly outdated system. I'm going to try and go back to the 1930's in an attempt to give you some overview at what the Immigration issue has become over the years and what has happened as a result. Like Healthcare reform, it is no easy fix and has been ingrained in our society for a very long time. Many attempts have been made over the years to bring a solution - a lot have been mired in partisan rhetoric, many have suffered from bad timing. But each was an attempt to try and fix a broken system.

The first post up, and most recent was the attempt at Immigration reform by way of a military solution in 2006 under the Bush Administration in this address from May 15, 2006.

Bush: “It is important for Americans to know that we have enough Guard forces to win the war on terror, to respond to natural disasters and to help secure our border. The United States is not going to militarize the Southern Border.”

Senator Dick Durbin offered a rebuttal:

Dick Durbin: “All Americans agree we must act now to secure our borders and fix our broken immigration system, but we don’t need a military solution to break a political stalemate. We need leadership.”

A week before the address, on April 20th, ABC News Nightline ran a segment on the Immigration issue with this telling comment:

Migrant Farm Worker: “I have worked since I was seven years old in the fields, and not once have I seen an Anglo-American pick alongside me.”

The last segment probably goes more to the heart of the matter than anything else. But who wants to admit that?

In the coming days I'll be posting items going back to give you an idea of the complexity of this issue and how long its been going on.

History is loaded with repeats.

(Rarely invited - barely a guest)

With talk of Immigration reform looming before Congress, I thought it would be a good idea to start looking at the Illegal Immigration question as its been posed for easily past 50 or so years. Today's particular installment puts us in 1973, a little less than a year after Congressman Peter Rodino introduced a bill to address the illegal immigration issue. It wasn't terribly popular and it ultimately did nothing to stem the tide of illegal immigration into the U.S. Here is a documentary produced as part of All Things Considered from NPR on July 16-21, 1973.

Peter Rodino (discussing The Rodino Immigration Bill): “This law is intended to provide some kind of a red flag and penalties for the employer who knowingly employs illegal aliens. It’s a fair bill, it’s designed to provide for an orderly flow of immigration, to eliminate the incentive of the illegal alien who comes into this country believing that here is his only opportunity and I sympathize with him because I know a good many of these people are unable to get jobs which will give them the kind of existence they could find here. But on the other hand, it disrupts the orderly flow of immigration in this country. It swells our welfare rolls, it prejudices the working conditions of those people who are on regular labor standards, it also serves really as a vehicle to exploit the very illegal alien.”

At the moment, it would seem the tidal wave of illegal aliens has subsided simply because there is little or no work to be had. But I suspect the reason there hasn't been an effective piece of legislation dealing with the issue of illegal immigration is that it effectively cuts off a source of cheap and exploitable labor which, lets face it, is a bargaining chip held over many states in lieu of companies packing up and heading overseas. Although, to be fair, most immigrant workers have been field labor in the area of agriculture - and that's something you can't export overseas.

It will be interesting to see which direction this all takes in the coming months/years. Like Health Care, Immigration reform has been something talked about but rarely acted upon since World War 2.

Stay tuned for more examples.

("Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your . . . .never mind")

Since debate on the issue of our current Immigration laws should be heating up soon, this may be jumping the gun. But it's never too early to start getting some historic perspective on issues. So this post is about the debate over the McCarran/Walter Immigration Bill of 1952.

The program, American Forum Of The Air, hosted a debate on the bill with Senator Herbert Lehman (D-New York) and Congressman J. Frank Wilson (D-Texas)on May 17, 1953.

Sen. Herbert Lehman: “Aliens already in this country can be apprehended and placed in custody. In some cases they can be deported without even the benefit of a hearing. Mister Blair, the McCarran -Walter Act took over all the worst features of all the immigration laws which have been enacted over the last thirty or forty years. But it added many new provisions that were equally bad and combined the whole structure into a legal code which is anti-humanitarian, anti-foreign and, in the profoundest meaning of the word Un-American. It is a complex law and very difficult to summarize in all of its details. But if we are to keep faith with our American traditions, this law, in my opinion must be completely revised and rewritten.”

Then, as now the subject of our Immigration Laws was the object of much heated debate. In the 1950s, with the Red Scare in full bloom, the fear was mass migration of Communist subversives and assassins - however, then as now there was the racial/ethnic overtone which seems to be really what the debate is always about.

Some of it isn't so subtle.