Immigration reform must take reality into account

The fence-builders and border-closers were up in arms on May 17 when a coalition of conservative and liberal U.S. senators jointly unveiled a plan for immigration reform that contained provisions for a guest-worker program.

And earlier this month, the same group howled when a new organization of Colorado employers, mostly in the construction, hospitality and agricultural industries, struck at the heart of the immigration issue with a call to overhaul the so-called H2-B visa program allowing a limited number of foreign workers into the U.S. labor force.

The allied senators and the state employers group both are rightly aligned with reality. The…