Ed Meese: A fair immigration proposal
December 14, 2006| By Nathaniel Ward
Former Attorney General Edwin Meese poses an important question in Human Events: What would Ronald Reagan do to solve the problem of illegal immigration? “For one thing, he would not repeat the mistakes of the past, including those of his own administration.”
Meese, the Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy and Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at Heritage, explains that the late president would understand that “secure borders are vital, and would now insist on meeting that priority first.” To meet this goal, we should work to “strengthen the enforcement of existing immigration laws” and employ new technologies to “make enforcement and verification less onerous and more effective.”
“The fair policy” for dealing with illegal immigrants already in this country, he continues, “is to give those here illegally the opportunity to correct their status by returning to their country of origin and getting in line with everyone else. This, along with serious enforcement and control of the illegal inflow at the border—a combination of incentives and disincentives—will significantly reduce over time our population of illegal immigrants.”
One of Reagan’s proposals might be worth re-examining, Meese added: “a pilot program that would allow genuinely temporary workers to come to the United States.” This could be, he said, “a reasonable program consistent with security and open to the needs and dynamics of our market economy” so long as we ensure that it is truly temporary, and not an amnesty or a “path to citizenship.”
Meese concludes with a call to strengthen citizenship by better assimilating new immigrants. “[W]hile we seek to meet the challenge of illegal immigration,” he argues, “we must keep open the door of opportunity by preserving and enhancing our heritage of legal immigration—assuring that those who choose to come here permanently become Americans.”
“[W]e should remember,” he writes, “Reagan’s commitment to the idea that America must remain open and welcoming to those yearning for freedom. As a nation based on ideas, Ronald Reagan believed that that there was something unique about America and that anyone, from anywhere, could become an American.”
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
