Danielle Alleyne

Putting politics aside, how should the United States best address immigration now? What about in the next five years? What about the next ten years?

Immigration has been a touchstone of the U.S. political debate for decades, as policymakers must weigh competing economic, security, and humanitarian concerns. Congress has been unable to reach an agreement on comprehensive immigration reform (Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996) for years, effectively moving some major policy decisions into the executive and judicial branches of government and fueling debate in the halls of state and municipal governments. Though many of the policies that aim to reduce unlawful immigration focus on enforced border security, individuals who arrive to the United States legally and overstay their visas comprise a significant portion of the undocumented population. According to the Center for Migration Studies, individuals who overstayed their visas have outnumbered those who arrived by crossing the border illegally by six hundred thousand since 2007. “This has been driven at least in part by a complete failure of the U.S. government to publish credible border security measures that the public trusts and tell them what they really want to know about the state of border security” (Roberts, 2017).

America has long welcomed immigrants to our shores. “A nation of immigrants” isn’t a cliché, so much as it is a fact since before our country’s founding. Immigrants come here looking for economic opportunity, freedom, and a better life for themselves and their families. They’ve crossed oceans to work, learn, and live. Our country has benefitted from this influx of cultures and ethnicities, and immigrant workers have made lasting contributions to our economy. But our immigration system hasn’t kept up with the ever-changing world economy. Today, jobs go unfilled because companies can’t find the workers with the skills they need. Our outdated and ineffective system now welcomes some immigrants and blocks entry to others often with little consideration of what skills they bring and what roles they would fill in the economy.

Our elected leaders need to resist the temptation to talk past each other and focus on scoring political points against the other side.  It is long past time that our leaders worked together to address very serious issues. “The only truly effective, long-term solution to the many problems associated with our immigration system is Congress and the president working together to pass meaningful, commonsense legislative reforms” (Hackbarth, 2016). Partisan demagoguery and divisive executive actions will not get the job done. We need a system that works for a modern economy with all its economic demands and demographic changes mentioned above.  This includes addressing the green card backlogs in our employment-based immigration system and creating effective temporary worker programs for workers of all skill levels.  Addressing these two key issues will not only allow employers to innovate and create jobs, but effective temporary worker programs for the lesser-skilled occupations are essential to preventing unauthorized migration in the future. Congress must put in place a worker employment verification system that works for businesses of all sizes in all industries to curb unauthorized employment, commonly referred to as the “job magnet” that drives unauthorized migration to the U.S. And finally, there must be a process that sets forth strict eligibility criteria for allowing the otherwise law-abiding people individuals who are not authorized to be in the U.S. an opportunity to earn a legal status. “People who know there is a very high chance of being caught, and a very high chance of giving up after being caught, will be less likely to make an initial illegal entry attempt” (Roberts, 2017).

This issue simply cannot define our immigration system moving forward, and while it may not be the optimal solution for some, it’s certainly more realistic and humane (and significantly less costly) than rounding up and deporting every undocumented worker and their families.

References

Hackbarth, S. (2016, September 30). How America’s Immigration System Failed and Why We Need to Fix It. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from https://www.uschamber.com/series/above-the-fold/how-america-s-immigration-system-failed-and-why-we-need-fix-it

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996

Roberts, B. W. (2017). ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION OUTCOMES ON THE U.S. SOUTHERN BORDER. Cato Journal, 37(3), 555-572. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/1944209057?accountid=8289

Adrian Abille

Putting politics aside, how should the United States best address immigration now? What about in the next five years? What about the next ten years?

The solution to our immigration issues today are simple, but Congressional inaction puts public safety and our national security in jeopardy. The biggest issue we have today for immigration is our incapability to close loopholes, which encourages personnel to play our immigration system. The following solution that I found are as follows:

1. Effectively      screen and track all foreign visitors. Most illegal immigrants in the      country have entered lawfully, but overstayed their visas and other      entrance documents. We should reform comprehensive screening and      background checks on foreign visitors and a means to track their      whereabouts and monitor their intentions while being in our country. The      terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center,      Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania farm field, which killed almost 3,000 people,      exploited weaknesses in our immigration system. This also includes ending      the Diversity Visa program (luck of the draw). This program treats people      not as individuals, but as the means to artificially create representation      from various countries and it discriminates based on national      origin (Inserra, 2018).
2. Reducing      Illegal Immigration. Between 10- 20 million individuals reside in our      country without authorization. A segment of this population has added      strength to a certain sector our economy, while others has drawn from      public assistance at the expense of American workers. Mass deportation of      undocumented immigrants may not be a realistic solution, but removal of a      select group is favorable. A strategy called “Attrition Through      Enforcement” has been drafted by a Senior Policy Analyst, Jessica Vaughan,      of the Center for Immigration Studies (Legion, 2010). Her proposal      includes: mandatory workplace verification of immigration status      (E-Verify); measures to curb misuse of Social Security numbers and IRS      identification numbers; discourage illegal settlement by adopting      additional state and local legislation; or increased noncriminal removals      through increased interior enforcement.
3. No      Amnesty. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 provided amnesty      for 2.8 million undocumented immigrants living in the country. The net      cost of the amnesty was more than $78 billion according to a study      released by the Center for Immigration Studies. This was supposed to be a      one-time fix, but population of undocumented immigrants has only      quadrupled and more amnesty was later demanded. The most recent amnesty      was the Catch and Release Policy and the Deferred Action for Childhood      Arrivals (DACA). These policies led to border states being swamped with      unaccompanied alien minors (UAM), thus overwhelming border protection      agents (Smith, 2015).
4. Enhance      Border Security. Immigration Reform is ineffective without securing our      ports of entry and borders first. According to the Homeland Security      Quadrennial Review of 2010, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the      Philippines are the next leading sources of unauthorized immigrants other      than Mexico (Napolitano, 2010). Securing our borders and coastline      require multi-layered security that compose of border agents, air and      ground surveillance technology, fences or barriers in certain locations,      support from military units, and collaborations between state and local      law enforcement agencies.

“Border Security is Homeland Security, which is National Security”

                                                                                  ~ DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen

References

Inserra, D. (2018). Legal Immigration and the U.S. Economy: How Congress Should Reform the System.Washington, DC: The Heritage Foundation.

Legion, T. A. (2010). Policy on Illegal Immigration: A Strategy to Adress Illegal Immigration in the United States. Indianapolis, Indiana: National Americanism Commission.

Napolitano, J. (2010). Quadrennial Homeland Security Review Report. Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security.

Smith, I. (2015). Amnesty Encourages More Illegal Immigration. Washington, DC: National Review.