It has become an axiom that the presence of undocumented immigrants hurts American workers. Two Nebraskan experiences challenge that notion, and make clear that to fix our broken immigration system, we must transcend easy rhetoric and address the myriad ways that our economy relies on immigrant workers.

In 1999, the Immigration and Naturalization Service launched "Operation Vanguard," a program whose stated purpose was to remove the employment magnet that draws undocumented workers to the United States. The program targeted undocumented workers in the meatpacking industry by identifying workers with discrepancies between their employment and Social Security records, suggesting the use of a false Social Security number. After workers were identified, agents scheduled interviews, admittedly hoping that a large number of workers would not show up at all, but would "voluntarily terminate."

And terminate they did. Not just those without papers, but a significant number of authorized workers who nonetheless had discrepancies in their documentation. Many of them preferred to quit rather than be interviewed because of widespread trepidation in immigrant communities regarding the INS (now U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE).

Because so many workers were leaving their jobs in Nebraska, slaughter-line speeds had to be slowed down. This slower pace of production hurt farmers, because it produced a decline in demand and prices paid for cattle and hogs. Likewise, it badly hurt consumers, who faced appreciably reduced supplies of cattle and hogs and corresponding price increases. Meatpackers argued that losing their workers could cause them to close plants, damaging the whole infrastructure of the industry. Others argued that the economic effects would reach the Latino business community.

The economic impact of Operation Vanguard on the state was so profound that Gov. Mike Johanns appointed a task force to study its statewide effects. In October 2000 the task force recommended against a resumption of the program and for endorsing amendments easing restrictions on permanent residency and citizenship and considering an amnesty.

In December 2000, the INS raided a Nebraskan meatpacking plant, accusing managers of smuggling undocumented immigrants into the country to work. The INS claimed that a Nebraska Beef recruiter had gone to Mexico to lure workers with promises of high-paying jobs, free housing and fake Social Security cards. The raid provoked public outrage when it ended in the deportation of more than 200 workers who were vital to the local economy right before Christmas. The case was ultimately dismissed by a federal court when, ironically, all of its best witnesses had been deported.

In Nebraska now, there is clear recognition of the integral role that immigrants play in the economy, and little public interest in the raids of 1999 and 2000.

"There are plenty of politicians calling for increased enforcement, but very little enthusiasm for rounding up and deporting folks who are working," says Milo Mumgaard of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, a nonprofit, nonpartisan law project that participated in Johanns' task force. "Nebraskans have learned the lesson that immigration enforcement in the workplace cripples the meatpacking industry and is an economic dead end."

Operation Vanguard's effect on the Nebraskan meatpacking industry is an example of the disconnect between our immigration policy and our economic needs. INS raids in Nebraska were a small-scale version of what many anti-immigrant advocates are now calling for: a program of mass deportation coupled with an attempt to seal the border.

So should we maintain the status quo? No. We should change our policy by first offering a number of visas for workers that actually reflects the need. And then we need to pay careful attention to strengthening the workplace rights of immigrants, so that we don't wind up with a two-tiered labor force. Immigrants are lured here by businesses seeking cheap labor. Once here, profit-seeking employers take advantage of them by denying them fair pay, safe working conditions and other important workplace rights. The result is a race to the bottom with their American counterparts who are much harder to exploit and a depression of wages across entire industries.

Perhaps all those arguing that the answer to our immigration problem is to round up all of the illegal immigrants and send them home should visit the meatpacking factories of Nebraska. Maybe there they will learn that immigration reform needs to be premised not on rhetoric but on the real needs for immigrant labor.

Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy