Crafting An Effective Immigration Policy

Separating children from their parents at the US southern border by our country’s immigration service and border patrol has created an horrific backlash against the Trump administration.  The inflammatory rhetoric of both the president and his attorney general intensified the negative reaction to the point that the policy has been walked back temporarily, but the atmosphere for crafting a responsible immigration policy for America is not apparent.

The issues involved in enabling positive immigration are complex.  Both parties are at fault when comes to addressing those issues, but it is not helpful when one party’s leader accuses the other of being in favor of “open borders.”  Lying is not a useful negotiating tactic.

A major source of the respect and influence the US enjoys in the world is directly tied to our status as a place of refuge and opportunity.  As a nation of immigrants America can hardly justify raising impossible barriers to future aspirants, but neither can we fail to impose reasonable criteria for entry. 

The first step in developing an appropriate immigration policy must be determining our objectives.  Currently, there are a multiplicity of objectives being batted around, each championed by its own group of special interests.  Trying to shape an immigration policy serving our collective national interest is being lost in the melee.

From an economic standpoint, our country gains from a reasonable stream of new citizens capable of filling a variety of jobs. The US labor force participation rate, a key factor in economic growth, has been declining since 2000 in part because of baby boomers retiring and fertility rates dropping.  Since immigrant workers tend to be younger that their American-born counterparts, they could help address this problem, but only if they are brought in under circumstances that protect the job and financial security of our existing workforce.  

Dealing effectively with immigration is also critical to our nation’s political health.  The inflammatory rhetoric characterizing the issue is hardening the partisan divide and taking on bitter racial overtones.  This is foreboding since the population of the US will likely become more racially diverse regardless of our immigration policy. 

Race is not the only demographic issue that a sound immigration policy could help us address.  As mention earlier, part of the labor force participation rate problem is the aging of our current workforce.  However, it will not be enough to recruit only young immigrant workers. We also need to maintain some age balance in our labor force.

Finally, there are humanitarian considerations.  Our Declaration of Independence expresses a firm commitment to the sentiment that all people “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,...that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  And it also speaks to our “respect for the opinion of mankind.”  Ignoring the plight of refugees fleeing tyranny of any origin denies our heritage, and just as the US reacts negatively when other nations treat Americans without respect, other countries will judge us harshly if we discriminate against their citizens. 

Obviously, our present immigration system has not responding well to any of these objectives.  Instead, over the years a rag bag of reactive measures have amassed each designed to appease a specific interest group.

Work visa  programs originally approved for short term needs have become permanent threats to job security and wage growth for American-born workers as well as to the ambitions of US students who see visas used to fill jobs that otherwise might be available to them in the future.

These programs respond to the immediate profit concerns of business and agricultural interests, but do little to meet the long term requirements of a stable and growing US economy.

In addition, there are in the US 11 million undocumented immigrants who have slipped through the cracks in the current system and have been living and working in this country for many years.  Most of these people are not rapists or murderers, but in general are law-abiding citizens meaningfully employed and paying taxes.

Proposals to address the status of undocumented immigrants usually begin by assuming immigrants are all criminals.  Technically, this is correct, but as a matter of practical circumstance this is a bureaucratic obstruction that prevents any common sense solution to the problem.  For the most part these people are already integrated into our country economical and socially.  The only thing they lack is citizenship which would provide the political and security protections that all Americans deserve.

It is not ideal for American citizenship be acquired in a haphazard manner.  There should be clarity as to what criteria a potential immigrant should meet.  There should be programs to recruit future citizens who can meet important needs, and there should be programs that allow the US to respond to refugees.

To develop an appropriate immigration policy our country’s political leadership needs to have an informed debate about the various issues and to recognize that success will be determined in large part by our relationships with other nations.  Border walls and guest worker programs are poor initiatives in that regard.