The Best Pathway to Immigration Reform-Opinion
Community columnist: The best pathway to immigration reform
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February 28, 2014 11:55 pm • By JOHN GAGE(36) Comments
John Gage, community columnist.
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As a new year begins, it looks like Congress is at another impasse with immigration reform. Immigration is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed, but both parties are handling it incorrectly.
The Democratic Party calls for comprehensive immigration reform that would include a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The Republican Party wants reform and has proposed legal status for illegal immigrants, but it is opposed to a pathway to citizenship.
The immigration debate is a classic example of party politics. On the Democratic side, you have a party that wants some freshly recruited voters. On the Republican side, you have the GOP establishment desperately trying to find a way to persuade the Hispanic community to vote for its candidates. Either way, a potential deal would almost certainly be for purely political purposes and not for the good of the country.
America deserves an immigration policy that is good for the country and not just politicians. America is not isolationist when it comes to immigration. In fact, it could be argued that America has the most generous immigration policy in the world. Every year America welcomes thousands of people fleeing their home countries because of economic and social insecurity. In addition, we accept hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants a year on different types of work visas.
While immigration is a simple issue, politicians love to complicate it. We repeatedly hear cries to build a fence that will probably be tunneled under. On the other side, people say we need to stop deportation and extend citizenship to illegal immigrants because they have nowhere else to go.
The solution to illegal immigration is more simple than any proposed comprehensive immigration plan.
First, we need to stop incentivizing illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants freely educate themselves in our schools, live off our welfare, petition our government and even tell us what we should call them. Common-sense measures that would de-incentivize illegal immigration should include closing tax loopholes that allow illegal immigrants to steal billions from Americans. In addition, we need to pass E-Verify for worker status checks while enforcing existing laws so illegal immigrants will not be able to find jobs. If the federal government were to do this, we would find that amnesty and deportations were unnecessary. The free market would naturally solve the problem itself.
Secondly, America needs to encourage legal immigration. After all, America is a country of immigrants. Congress should start by uncapping H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers. For some reason, people are under the impression that these workers would steal high-skilled jobs. In reality, skilled immigrants who come to America, even on a temporary basis, only add jobs to the American economy. In fact, the National Foundation for American Policy did a study that showed that for every H-1B visa requested, five additional jobs are created. In addition, Congress should pass entitlement reform that includes limiting benefits to legal immigrants. If this were done, America could thrive with an immigration system that would help our economy without adding to our national debt.
The goal of eliminating illegal immigration while promoting legal immigration is something both parties can agree on. No one wants people to enter our country illegally, and both sides agree that immigration is a good thing. Yet, in the end, it would seem that a permanent solution will not be taken up because of a lack of merit, but merely for potential political profit.
John Gage is a senior in high school in Lincoln, where he enjoys playing basketball and competing in speech and debate.
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