Election 2008: Immigration

For most Republicans, and perhaps almost two thirds of the voting public, the problem of 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States demands some sort of strict and timely response. Unfortunately, the positions of the current Republican candidates include a significant amount of pandering and no great willingness to tackle the issue.

Mike Huckabee has continuously formed and reformed his position on the subject, trying to get a feel for the position of conservatives, and while he opposes amnesty for illegals, he also seems to support the rather impractical policy of deporting the 12 million already here. Romney is also against amnesty, but remains vague about what to do with current illegals. McCain and Giuliani have both argued for border security and tougher measures, but neither of them has gotten specific, either. The Democratic candidates, of course, wrestle among themselves on the issue of “undocumented workers,” as two of the party’s major constituents, African Americans and Hispanics, take different stances on the issue. Barack Obama talks of “hope” and “unity” and “change,” but has no real immigration plan, and Hillary Clinton yells, “No woman is illegal” to a packed Mexican restaurant in Las Vegas and claims that she can respond to the immigration problem while still treating illegals “humanely.”

But fear of an illegal-immigrant lobby should not prevent our Republican candidates from taking a hard stance on the issue. The first move should be to close the borders and strengthen border security. The way to fix the illegal immigration problem is not to make it legal, and the country’s apparent dependence on foreign workers is only an economic misunderstanding of immigration. As Thomas Sowell of Stanford University has stated, the notion that immigrants are needed to do the jobs that Americans will not do is “economics without the price mechanism.” If the jobs had higher salaries, then Americans would do them, but the prices are driven down by the availability of immigrants who will work for less. So, build a wall on the southern border and increase border security so that the “catch and release” program can be eliminated. Then fix the fraud-ridden federal agencies that are in charge of enforcing the security. The Department of Homeland Security can hardly discourage the use of fraudulent documents if it has no policy for the punishment of offenders, and an employee verification process such as the “Basic Pilot Program” is useless if, as in 2004, it only charges four employers with hiring illegals. “Comprehensive” immigration reform is simply out of the question with the current bureaucratic system, because giving 12 million amnesty applications to the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services only serves to further backlog the system already inundated with legal immigrant applications.

Once the influx of illegal immigrants is under control, we can then begin to consider the legal immigration system. Since we are a country of legal immigrants, and much of our intellectual and technological advancements stem from the input of other nationalities, priority should be given to skilled immigrants who could meet job shortages in certain areas. Temporary work visas could be issued for people who want to legally work in the U.S. and then return to their own countries. No path to citizenship and no chain visa to bring in families should be allowed, and workers should pay both income and social security taxes. Deporting 12 million illegal aliens is impractical, so a separate visa category should be created where the immigrant has to pay a fine and learn English in order to stay and work. No permanent resident status should be granted to people who broke the law and came into the country illegally. If they would like to gain citizenship, they can leave the country and get in the application line with everyone else. Reforms have to be enacted in a strict and organized manner, and the laws that Congress passes should retain the intent of carrying them out. Illegal immigrants will not respect the laws if we don’t get serious about enforcing them.