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Immigration reform—the right way

May 10, 2007| By Nathaniel Ward

 

Congress and the White House are once again looking to push through an immigration reform measure.

Reform is absolutely essential. Millions of illegal immigrants reside unlawfully in the United States, and many more come each year, posing a challenge to our nation’s security, laws, culture and sovereignty.

Lawmakers must remain cognizant of the essential principles of immigration reform, write Heritage scholars Ed Meese, who served as Ronald Reagan’s Attorney General, and Matthew Spalding, director of Heritage’s Center for American Studies.

These are the principles Congress and the White House must keep in mind when considering any change to the nation’s immigration laws:

  1. Protect national security. America’s immigration system must be a national strength and not a strategic vulnerability.
  2. Uphold the rule of law. The rule of law requires the fair, firm, and consistent enforcement of the law, and immigration is no exception.
  3. No amnesty. Those who enter, remain in, and work in the country illegally are in ongoing and extensive violation our immigration laws, and rewarding their lawbreaking is no solution.
  4. Strengthen citizenship. Each nation has the responsibility— and obligation—to determine its own conditions for immigration, naturalization, and citizenship.
  5. Benefit the American economy. Immigration policy should be a fiscal and economic benefit not only for immigrants, but also for the nation as a whole.
  6. Temporary means temporary. Any temporary worker program must be temporary, market-oriented, and feasible.

Meese and Spalding point out that the 1986 immigration reform violated many of these tenets, and as a result did little to resolve the problem of unlawful immigration. Congress should avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and understand “the immediate and long-term implications of their actions,” they write.

“For the sake of immigrants and American citizens alike, any meaningful and long-term policy concerning immigration must be consistent with these principles and, thus, with the highest ideals and long-term good of the United States.”

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.