The principles and facts of immigration
October 26, 2006| By Nathaniel Ward
Robert Rector answers a question on immigration on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” Click here to watch a video of Rector’s appearance (Windows Media format).
Immigration is a difficult issue for lawmakers to tackle. That’s why it’s vital that our leaders stick with basic principles when designing an immigration reform package:
- Do not grant amnesty to illegal aliens.
- Secure the borders.
- Uphold and enforce the rule of law.
- Renew a program of patriotic assimilation and citizenship for legal immigrants.
- Carefully consider the pros and cons of a temporary-worker program.
- Use private enterprise, not big government, for solutions.
- Encourage freedom abroad.
You can read more about these principles on MyHeritage.org.
It’s also important that lawmakers have all the facts about the consequences of current and proposed immigration policies.
In a new paper, Heritage’s Robert Rector compiled the data on immigration and found that “since the immigration reforms of the 1960s, the U.S. has imported poverty through immigration policies that permitted and encouraged the entry and residence of millions of low-skill immigrants into the nation.”
Rector first discussed his paper’s findings Wednesday evening on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” Click here to watch a video of Rector’s appearance on Lou Dobbs’ program (Windows Media format).
“Low-skill immigrants,” Rector wrote in his paper, “tend to be poor and to have children who, in turn, add to America’s poverty problem, driving up governmental welfare, social service, and education costs.”
Rector concluded that “the current influx of low-skill immigrants will raise poverty in the U.S. not merely at the present time, but for generations to come. Current low-skill immigrants will raise both the absolute number of poor persons and the poverty rate in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. The greater the inflow of low-skill immigrants, the greater the long-term increase in poverty will be.”
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
