Other priorities are front of mind for now, but our immigration problem never goes away. And we recently got a bracing view of all the ways our system needs changing.

Star-Telegram reporter Kristian Hernandez investigated the operations of Quality Sausage Co. in Dallas, which came under scrutiny after a COVID-19 outbreak. What he discovered is a brazen scheme that demonstrates everything wrong with our current immigration system.

Several current and former workers told Hernandez that a temporary-employment agency would provide false names and Social Security numbers. When payday came, these workers collected checks from the temp agency, Archer Services, then cashed them through an onsite van. That lessens the chance, of course, that anyone would pick up on the identity theft.

And by using a temp agency for what are in essence permanent workers, Quality Sausage may avoid legal liability. The company said it verifies employees are eligible to work, though it didn’t say how, and that it would work with Archer to confirm compliance with the law. Archer declined to comment.

Whatever your view of illegal immigration, this situation should shock and offend you. Yes, the workers are in the country illegally. But they are drawn to jobs that companies readily make available with these kinds of schemes. And though there are plenty of laws on the books, enforcement is so spotty that these transactions can happen in broad daylight for a reporter to see.

If you want illegal immigration curtailed, you should demand of your leaders that these kind of arrangements be rooted out. These business practices make a mockery of efforts to secure the borders and stop the flow of people.

Let’s be clear, too, what’s happening to these workers. They are doing extremely dangerous labor without basic legal protections. And the effect of these schemes is to suppress wages, so they’re often not even fairly compensated for it.

So yes, they’re here illegally, but don’t blame the workers. They are part of a much larger system that counts on their vulnerability to keep cheap meat on American tables. They are typical of the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants, here to work hard to build a better life and, many hope, eventually win the acceptance of the country they’ve chosen to call home.

That’s not to say the situation should be allowed to continue. This scheme illustrates how our immigration system fails at every pressure point: the border, policing businesses, providing a consistent workforce for mostly manual labor and protecting workers from exploitation.

And it’s an open-and-shut case for comprehensive immigration reform to address each of these failures.

We understand that right now, movement on this issue is impossible. The debate has long been poisoned. The country is bound up in the pandemic, the economic crisis and the urgent need for police reform. Oh, and it’s an election year.

The debate will no doubt flare up again in the next few weeks when the U.S. Supreme Court rules on whether President Donald Trump’s effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals. That’s the program implemented by President Barack Obama to provide legal protections for young people brought to the U.S. illegally.

Whichever way the court rules, it will spark intense debate about the future for these immigrants, many of whom have known only the U.S. as a home. It’s another flaw that must be fixed.

Our immigration problem isn’t going away. Unscrupulous companies will continue to rely on exploited workers, undermining efforts to create a sane system that serves the country’s needs. Workable compromises can secure the border, resolve the status of the millions of people who are here illegally and help the country honestly get the workers it needs.

Your sausage may cost a little more. But it’ll taste better knowing that situations like those at the Dallas plant are no longer allowed to fester.

This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 10:11 AM.