Editorial: Soto's bill highlights need for piecemeal approach

One frustrating thing about watching a government of 325 million people in action — or maybe it's inaction — is to witness lawmakers seeking to fix complicated problems with massive, sweeping regulations. Health care, financial services, even funding the government are areas where Congress in recent memory has passed legislation with hundreds and hundreds of pages that even lawmakers didn't or won't read.

We could add immigration to the list. The current stand-off between the White House and congressional Democrats has renewed interest in the "comprehensive" immigration bill that the Senate passed in 2013 with notable bipartisan support. (The majority included 68 senators.)

Yet that measured failed — then-Speaker John Boehner refused to even bring it up — because House Republicans preferred to go step by step rather than enact the 1,198-page proposal all at once, as Democrats wanted.

The Republicans were correct then, as history shows the "comprehensive" approach often produces unwanted outcomes. And recently we saw evidence that some Democrats have learned that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

Rep. Darren Soto, a Kissimmee Democrat who represents eastern Polk County, has introduced a bill designed to ensure that illegal-immigrant spouses of U.S. military personnel will not be deported.

Soto acted after personally trying to prevent the deportation of Alejandra Juarez of Davenport. Last August Juarez self-deported to her native Mexico instead of being removed by U.S. authorities. She first entered the country in 1998 and was discovered to be here illegally after a 2013 traffic stop. The Obama administration overlooked her status, but she was targeted for deportation because of the Trump administration's tougher approach.

Juarez's husband, Temo, is a retired Marine and Iraq War veteran, and the couple has two daughters who are American citizens.

Soto, who introduced a similar measure last year, said at a press conference last week that they are among almost 12,000 military families facing this situation.

"Alejandra’s departure from the United States was heartbreaking," Soto said at the event. "This continues to be the perfect opportunity for both political parties to come together and act to make sure we’re standing by our military families." With a Democratic majority in the House, he added, "we are optimistic this legislation will move forward, giving Alejandra hope to soon reunite with her family in her home, the United States."

We concur with the congressman, although we correct him on one point.

During his comments, Soto blamed President Donald Trump's "devastating" immigration policies for "literally tearing families apart."

That's not quite the case. Those who choose to enter our country illegally are breaking our laws. So in such situations blame should not be cast on officials enforcing our laws. Rather, it rests on those who knowingly bypassed the legal route to entry and rolled the dice on not getting caught. When that happens, they are responsible if their families are divided.

Still, the spouses of those who have pledged their lives to defend our nation are a special case, deserving of special consideration. Although some immigration hawks may decry this version of amnesty, the universe of potential beneficiaries is small and defined.

Thus, Congress should pass Soto's bill, Trump should sign it, Juarez should be allowed to return to her family in Orlando, and lawmakers should get to work fixing the next part of our broken immigration policy.