Last summer I did freelance work for the Catholic Herald. One of my assignments took me to a church in Waukesha. A group of roughly 70 people, mostly Hispanic, came together to discuss the McCain-Kennedy Bill. The bill proposed that undocumented workers would pay a fine for being illegal immigrants, then stay and continue with the jobs they had. In six years time they could pay another fine and receive a green card.

During that meeting I saw a woman break down into tears because she feared deportation. She worked in the United States for almost a decade and had two children. However, she was undocumented and knew at any moment she and her children could be deported. It is a sight I'll never forget.

Now, what President Bush characterized as a possible "fractious debate" looms regarding what should be done with undocumented workers. One argument is that undocumented workers provide a valuable service to the economy, therefore we should work to bring them from the shadows and give them citizenship. The other side of this argument is that such measures would reward the illegal activity of border-dashers.

Almost 12 million undocumented workers sit and wait for lawmakers to decide what will happen. As hard a decision as it is to make, I side with those who want undocumented workers deported. As tough as it is to send the teary-eyed person home, it is even more difficult to let them stay and take jobs from American workers.

Consider California. An estimated 2.4 million undocumented immigrants work in California. According to a survey by the Ventura County Coalition for the Homeless, 40 percent of the homeless in California are unemployed. Those are 2.4 million jobs that are not available to citizens. I'm not saying all of the homeless would take these jobs, are qualified for them or even want them. Still, those jobs should be open to American citizens before undocumented immigrants can have them.

Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, told Reuters that type of plan reflected "anti-immigrant" sentiments. He said those sentiments have deeply motivated the immigrant community and will cause a record turnout of voters in coming elections. I respectfully disagree with Bhargava's first point.

I do not want to see those who are here legally lose their jobs, homes or families. I just do not want to tell another American citizen that an undocumented immigrant deserves a job more than he or she does. That doesn't make me or anyone else anti-immigrant. It makes us pro-American.

Giving these jobs to the underprivileged in our country puts wages in the hands of Americans who need money in the worst ways.

Sometimes we get so caught up in helping other people, we forget to help ourselves. That needs to come to an end, and the immigration debate is a good place to start.

Tough decisions will be made in the coming weeks. There will almost certainly be more tears than I saw last summer. But sometimes the sad decisions we make are the best ones for the nation.