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How to fix immigration

March 2, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward


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A successful immigration policy must include and emphasize a deliberate and self-confident policy that welcomes and assimilates permanent immigrants, with the goal being American citizenship.

An estimated ten million illegal immigrants now live in the United States, and tens of thousands more stream across our porous borders each month. This poses tremendous problems for our country: criminals and terrorists can use the essentially unguarded border to smuggle in weapons or other contraband; our cities are strained by millions of workers who don’t pay taxes; and our character as a nation is diluted by residents who have no intention of becoming Americans.

“The United States is, and will remain, the land of opportunity,” Heritage President Ed Feulner writes in The Chicago Sun-Times. “But we can't afford to tolerate an underground economy, populated by immigrants who are unwilling or unable to assimilate. By cracking down on illegal immigration in a smart way, we can continue our tradition of turning many into one.”

Guidelines for immigration reform

Before we get to the solution, we must first establish the principles from which we are working. Any effort to reform our immigration system must keep in mind several essential criteria, as Heritage’s Edwin Meese and Matt Spalding explain.

  1. Consent of the governed—“Individuals who are not citizens do not have a right to American residency or citizenship without the consent of the American people, as expressed through the laws of the United States.”
  2. National security—“Secure borders, especially in a time of terrorist threat, are crucial to American national security.”
  3. The rule of law—“Congress should require and provide resources to enforce immigration laws within the United States, and individuals unlawfully present in the United States should not be rewarded with amnesty.”
  4. Patriotic assimilation—“A successful immigration policy must include and emphasize a deliberate and self-confident policy that welcomes and assimilates permanent immigrants, with the goal being American citizenship.”

Defining the problem and the solution

While additional border measures are sorely needed to stem the tide, a more comprehensive solution is absolutely necessary. In order to define a solution, we must first define the problem. The problem is, essentially, that millions of people are breaking the law to come and work in America. These illegal immigrants want jobs—jobs which American businesses clearly demand, or the workers wouldn’t be here.

“The real problem presented by illegal immigration is security, not the supposed threat to the economy,” Heritage’s Tim Kane and Kirk Johnson write. Looking at the jobs numbers, they find that immigration actually “provide[s] a net economic benefit” to America and does not cost any jobs. “Indeed, efforts to curtail the economic influx of migrants actually worsen the security dilemma by driving many migrant workers underground, thereby encouraging the culture of illegality.”

“A non-citizen guest worker program is an essential component of securing the border, but only if it is the right program,” Kane and Johnson continue. And this is what the right program entails:

  • No amnesty—guest workers should not be granted any path to citizenship
  • High-tech biometric identification for all guest workers
  • A waiting period before work permits are granted to allow time for security screening
  • No right to government social benefits or citizenship—migrant workers should have exactly the same rights as tourists
  • Strict punishment for all who violate the law, both workers and employers, including lifetime bans on applying for citizenship, prison time, and seizure of property
  • No government micromanagement—government management of the economy always works badly and inefficiently, which could reduce incentives for workers to enter legally
  • No new federal bureaucracy—the government has proved incapable of managing the existing program, so the private sector could be used instead
  • Incentives for existing illegal aliens to sign up as guest workers
  • Incentives for businesses to hire legal workers only, including stepped-up enforcement
  • An efficient way to allow existing illegal aliens to exit and legally re-enter as registered guest workers
  • Use of bonds to ensure exit—a worker would pay a fee to enter the country, which could be refunded upon exit
  • A sponsoring employer for all guest workers, including day laborers, so no excess workers are in the country and so existing illegal aliens have incentives to join the new program

A program that takes into account these recommendations will go a long way towards securing our borders while also allowing essential workers with legal and controlled access to the country.

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Individuals who are not citizens do not have a right to American residency or citizenship without the consent of the American people, as expressed through the laws of the United States.

Getting the private sector involved

Since government has proved so inept at managing the borders, it seems a poor idea to turn bureaucrats loose on a guest worker program.

As Colorado businesswoman Helen Krieble explained in a recently-published Heritage lecture, one solution would be to let private employment agencies—licensed by the government and strictly screened for security—work directly with American employers to recruit workers overseas. The government already licenses private travel agencies to issue tourist visas and private gun dealers to run background checks, so these models (with certain tweaks) could be applied here as well. After running background checks on each worker applicant, the private job agencies could then issue government-approved work permits.

In his Sun-Times article, Ed also explains another way to stem the tide of illegal workers: reduce the incentives for illegal migration by improving conditions in countries of origin. Encouraging simple and basic reforms abroad to enhance freedom and opportunity could dramatically improve quality of life for would-be immigrants—so there’s less reason for them to come here.

Dropping the ball on ports

It has been almost two weeks since the political frenzy over the United Arab Emirates ports deal began, and it does seem as though the brouhaha has quieted somewhat, as I reported on Tuesday. But as Heritage’s James Carafano explains, the Bush administration hasn’t taken advantage of the opportunity to sell the deal to Congress or the American people.

Administration officials “have not done a good job explaining why Americans should worry about U.S. port security and what needs to be done to secure the maritime domain,” Carafano writes. Regardless of the merits of this particular deal, he continues, “America’s ports are vulnerable. Americans want to know why that is and what can be done to make U.S. ports safer.”

Carafano lays out a simple, three-step process to make our ports more secure:

  1. Fund the Coast Guard, which has yet to see funds for much-needed modernization
  2. Improve public-private information sharing so intelligence officials can keep better tabs on potential threats to shipping
  3. Increase international cooperation on maritime security efforts, especially in the developing world

In other news

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