Sensible Immigration

The recent dust up on the border enforcement raises again the need for a sane immigration policy, which the country has struggled with for a decade or more.   I will try to cut through the demagoguery and name calling to lay out some broad principles for immigration that I hope you will find sensible, but perhaps difficult to implement.

Along with abortion, no other issue seems to elevate emotions quite like immigration.  The position of Democrats has gotten so extreme that many Democrats – like Dick Durbin of Illinois- have elected to spend more time representing the interests of noncitizens, rather than citizens of the U.S.  Many jurisdictions, including my home town of Chicago, have declared themselves sanctuary cities, and thus we are seeing the practice of nullification employed in a manner that we have not seen since the Civil War.  Cities like Chicago are permitting illegals to obtain state ID’s which will make it very difficult to prevent them from voting.  Many Democrats are now beginning to take a position that the U.S. should get rid of ICE entirely, and that includes DeBlasio, Kirsten Gillibrand, and the new Social Democrat candidate darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  Increasingly, there is a segment of the Democratic party that is championing an open borders policy.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has announced a zero tolerance policy, has begun (in some way) the construction of a border wall, and has otherwise strengthened enforcement, although he was pushed into issuing an executive order preventing children from being separated from their parents (never mind that a shoplifting mom will be temporarily separated from her child if she is caught stealing socks at Macy’s).  Trump offered a path to citizenship for the 1.8 million “dreamers” that are already here in return for wall funding and other enforcement mechanisms, which the Democrats have rejected.  

But is there a sane set of principles for all this?

Yes.

My principles are broad, yet simple.  The hard part is how to set the filters, and implement them, although I have some ideas for that, too. 

When someone comes to America, there are only three possible buckets he or she can land in:

1.      Working and supporting themselves.

2.      Social Welfare system.

3.      Criminal justice system.

Those are the only possibilities.   There are no others. We want people that are going to end up in the first category, and we need to reject individuals that are likely to end up in category 2 and category 3, or bounce between category 2 and category 3 over time.   This means doing exactly what Donald Trump has in mind—implementing a merit based system.   If you go to the Department of Labor website, you will see that the forecast for unskilled labor over the next ten years is to go DOWN dramatically.   The modern economy is going to need a lot fewer unskilled people, as opposed to the first 60 years or so of the 20^th century, when the need for unskilled labor was greater.  Because if a person isn’t in category 1, they will necessarily end up in category 2 or 3 unless they have someone to support them.  What does this mean?  It probably means taking fewer people from Mexico and Central America, and more people from places with good educational systems like India.  

In order to implement this policy, we need to be honest about the data we collect on people, correlate it to where we get them from, and track what happens to them after they get here.   With a dynamic economy, this will necessarily be an iterative process.  And we need to be honest about the costs of immigrants—both legal and illegal—that end up in buckets 2 and 3.  And we need to be honest about the total costs – that includes the costs of educating their children.  We have assumed that immigrants are good for our country (and I believe they are), but at $21 trillion in debt, we need to be more certain about it.  For instance, an illegal Mexican immigrant that works for cash and has 3 children that the American taxpayer is educating and who sends the bulk of his remittances back to Mexico is probably not a good deal for us.

With this in mind, I’ve developed three key principles for a sensible immigration policy and process, and who we let in to become part of the American fabric.

1.      Don’t kill us.  A sensible immigration policy and process should address border safety, and maintain a low level of risk that we are letting in people to do us harm.  From MS-13 to Islamic terrorists to the illegal immigrant that killed Kate Steinle, the idea that we could do away with ICE is simply insanity.  Merkel’s open borders policy is insanity.   Government’s primary job is to protect its citizens and we need to tighten up these processes, not loosen them.

2.      Pay your own way.  As discussed above, we need to ensure that immigrants don’t end up in the criminal justice or social welfare systems.  

3.      Adapt to our culture and social norms--don’t expect us to adapt to yours.  It’s fine to be proud of your heritage, but there are elements that need to be left behind.  And here I am speaking directly to immigrants from Islamic countries.   No burkas, no FGM, no child marriage, no assaulting people for drinking alcohol or refusing to serve it if you get a restaurant job.  If you don’t like our free and open society—don’t come.

These are simple, straightforward guidelines but hard to develop processes around them.  The key is how you set the filter so that we get the kind of immigrants we want.  And we MUST set filters.   No matter how you set filters, you will be open to the charge that you are racist and bigoted.   That is because the era of European immigrants is largely over.   Those nations are having a hard time maintaining their populations, and are in no position to export them.

How is Trump doing?  Actually, fairly well.  The travel ban is an attempt to set some filter, albeit imperfect.  He is enforcing border security and pushing the legislature to legislate on the issue.  With Venezuela in crisis and Mexico electing a leftist (we know where that takes economies), it will be more important than ever to solidify our border security.  But we need to do it in a way that lets in the people we want and need to be a prosperous nation.