After careful study and research, the National Urban League has decided to oppose the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 and urge that Congress produce a bill that will address the problems with our immigration system while protecting all workers.

We believe that certain provisions of this bipartisan compromise bill, especially the temporary worker provision, are ill-conceived, not narrowly tailored and may produce a new subclass of exploitable and exploited workers.

Furthermore, while we believe that there should be a path to citizenship for those immigrants who currently reside in the United States, this issue is separate and distinct from the temporary worker issue, and the two should not be confused.

Any effort to issue temporary worker visas should be narrowly tailored and combined with a requirement that the nation's current workers - black, white, Hispanic, Asian or Native American - be given the first right to these jobs.

There is a dire need for the nation to invest heavily in efforts to recruit, train, prepare and place American workers for available jobs prior to allowing businesses to seek temporary worker visas for the same jobs.

Moreover, inviting temporary workers to enter the country without the protection of labor and minimum wage laws, housing, or health benefits would not only lead to exploitation of these workers but would also exact a huge social and economic cost on the nation, especially its state and local governments and an already overburdened healthcare system.

Our nation can and must do better.

Our nation can develop a fix for its broken immigration laws that reflects our historic compassion as a nation for immigrants while also representing sound economic policy.

Members of Congress should go back to the negotiating table and craft a more sensible fix for the nation's immigration system.