Border debate on the air in Elgin

There are no easy answers on immigration.

That, at least, was clear Tuesday as panelists from around the Chicago area took part in a special town hall discussion broadcast live from the Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin.

The broadcast was part of Chicago Public Radio's yearlong look at immigration issues in the Chicago area.

"This is a community that not only accepts diversity but welcomes it," said Elgin Mayor Ed Schock, one of the panelists Tuesday. "It is our sincere belief that diversity is an economic benefit."

The problem, Schock said, is that the federal government has not devised an effective process to admit immigrants into the country -- leaving local communities to deal with the problems of illegal immigration.

"For years the federal government has turned a blind eye … as millions of people streamed across the border," he said.

Barry Chiswick, another panelist and head of the economics department at the University of Illinois, agreed.

"To me, the primary goal of immigration policy should be promoting the economic well-being of the United States," Chiswick said

And in that regard, he said, the government has failed.

But history says that today's problems will work themselves out, he said.

"The patterns that we're seeing now are the same patterns we've seen 100 years ago, 200 years ago," Chiswick said.

Still, local communities have to address the problems of today, Waukegan Alderman Larry TenPas said, which is why officials in his city applied for greater local authority to arrest and detain illegal immigrants.

"Our goal is not to check every person," TenPas said. "We want the violent people out of the country."

It's that attitude, however, that breeds some of the problems, said Guadalupe Luna, law professor at Northern Illinois University.

"Immigration itself is such a highly complex, nuanced endeavor," Luna said. "It's all reactive, this anti-immigration hysteria. We need an enlightened approach to immigration policy and law."