Not A Policy Wonk But...

As the debate surrounding illegal immigration really heats up here in the States(1, 2, 3), I think just about every member of Congress and Pres. Bush are missing the underlying points surrounding the topic. We have a huge supply and demand problem when it comes to immigration here in the United States on two fronts:

1) The demand to enter the United States in search of a number of socio-economic factors (higher wage, more opportunities, less corruption, etc. etc.) is much much larger than the number of visas the U.S. Government issues. More people want to come to the U.S. than our government will permit, whether it be on the H-1B Visa Program (which lets is earmarked towards high-tech/knowledge-intensive industries) or our Green Card Program. Let’s say 10 million people want to enter the United States every year and would probably do so LEGALLY if they had a means to do so. Right now, they do not because there simply aren’t enough visas available and the process and waiting period to receive a visa is ridiculously long and complicated.

2) American workers aren’t willing to work in the jobs that illegal immigrants generally occupy AT THE WAGE THAT IS BEING PAID. This last part is key as many immigrant advocates say things like “Migrant workers do the work that Americans won’t”...well, yes that is true but it leaves out the deciding part of the equation which is that migrant workers do the work that Americans won’t AT A SALARY LEVEL THAT AMERICANS DON’T ACCEPT. If someone offered to pay me $25 p/hour to wash dishes in a restaurant, I would consider doing it. However, if someone offered to pay me $6-8 p/hour to wash those same dishes, I wouldn’t even think twice about rejecting the job. This is why illegal immigrants have found and will continue to find employment in the States: they meet the demands of our labor market at a salary rate that is lower than what Americans would accept to do the job. Illegal immigrants are just the latest entry into the labor force of an America that has grown thanks to its influx of immigrants. This DOES NOT mean that illegal immigrants are being exploited. Rather, they are following the tried-and-true path of every immigrant group that has ever arrived in America: Start at the bottom and work up.

In order to help balance out this supply-and-demand problem, an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants are currently living in the United States. What can be done by our government to recognize and remedy the above-identified supply-and-demand problem, the problem of having an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country, the problem of the additional health care and bilingual education costs these immigrants place on our local, state, and federal governments, the problem of illegal documents, exploited workers, unlicensed drivers, and a host of other problems? Here are my proposals in the order they should be implemented:

1) Create a Green Card program WITHOUT A YEARLY CAP. If 10 million people want to move into the United States in the year 2006, Congress should give the power to the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) to issue 10 million Green Cards; if there are 15 million qualified applicants, the INS should issue 15 million Green Cards.

The requirements to qualify for a Green Card need to be set low: 8+ years of documented secondary education i.e. completion of 8th grade or higher, a written and oral exam of English as well as a U.S. Constitution and Civics exam given every week of the month in the capital of their home countries, and proof of at least $1,000. Anyone who meets these requirements and wants a 5-year U.S. Green Card can apply AND RECEIVE ONE within a 3-month period. After the 5-year Green Card period has ended, the holder can apply for residency. The key to the idea is that the barriers to entry need to be set realistically and the INS needs to have the ability to issue as many Green Cards as necessary to meet the demand of immigrants who want to come here - no caps of 500,000 or 750,000 Green Cards per year. We have lots and lots of space in the United States and, with the economic threat of a billion Chinese or Indian workers looming, why not add to our current ranks of 300 million Americans? As for the need to have an unlimited number of Green Cards, the perception right now is that it is easier to enter the U.S. by illegally crossing the border than by taking a chance and putting your name in a Green Card Lottery you probably will never win.

Why these requirements and why set them so low? The majority of illegal immigrants are poor Mexicans or Central Americans who come to the States in search of a higher-paying job (the difference in cross-border hourly wages between Mexico and the United States continues to be one of the highest in the world, thereby increasing the demand to come to the States). Picture this higher wage as the carrot at the end of a stick. Right now, people risk breaking the law, leaving their homes and families, and possibly dying to try and grab this carrot of a better life. This carrot needs to be altered. By setting up clear and concise Green Card requirements, I believe the majority of what are currently illegal immigrants would opt to apply for AND RECEIVE a Green Card within the 3-month time period I specified above.

This easily-available Green Card would be the new carrot . The education and language requirements would lay out a clear path for a legal way to enter the United States and would cut the flow of illegal immigrants trying to cross the border. This new Green Card would not be country nor education-specific - if you are from Albania and have a Harvard degree or are from Argentina and only went to school through the 8th grade - if you meet the requirements, you can apply for and receive the Card. Poorly-educated immigrants would strive to reach these basic requirements if only because it guaranteed them the opportunity to live and work in the States while highly-educated immigrants would find it much easier to work for the likes of Google or Microsoft because they can easily apply and receive this Green Card as opposed to the mountain of paperwork and finite number of our current H-1B Visa program.

The majority of the 12 million illegal immigrants come from a situation such as this one: I am a poor immigrant whose job prospects aren’t very good in my home country. However, I realize that I only need to complete school through the 8th grade and be able to pass a relatively basic English written and oral exam and be able to document that I have $1,000 to qualify for and receive a Green Card to go to the United States. Wouldn’t this serve as a pretty serious carrot to encourage you to meet these basic requirements and legally enter the United States rather than going through a system of people-smuggling “Coyotes” who, in some cases, take the deed to your house as payment, charge you $10,000 or more, or set you up as an indentured servant/slave in the United States because you can’t pay either of the other two options? You could go through all of this with a people smuggler and you still run the risk of being caught at the border, dying in transit, and living in another country illegally. Give these immigrants and would-be immigrants a relatively pain-free way to legally enter the country and illegal immigration will drop...significantly.

2) DO NOT offer an amnesty program to the illegal immigrants currently living here. In order to qualify for this new Green Card program, you must be applying at the U.S. Embassy in your home country - no exceptios except for documented political asylum cases. Give local and state authorities the power to arrest and turn over to federal immigration authorities illegal immigrants. Punish employers with significant fines for hiring illegal immigrants and set clear, common-sense guidelines for identifying and reporting forged documents (hint: this person doesn’t speak a word of English and he doesn’t know his Social Security number or his Social Security card looks like it was run through a washing machine - maybe he’s not allowed to be in the States...).

The law of supply and demand once again comes into effect. I’ll go back to the restaurant example: I have 5 illegal immigrants who are currently working for me in the kitchen, however, now that I am faced with stiff fines for employing these people (whom I suspected were illegal all along) and I have 5 or 10 or 15 newly-arrived LEGAL immigrants who just recently qualified under the new provisions to receive a Green Card applying for the same position, why should I continue to employ these illegal immigrants? I shouldn’t and I wouldn’t. As the restaurant owner, I am offering a low-wage, low-skill job that just about anyone can satisfy - I would chose the legal immigrant over an illegal immigrant any day when faced with stiff fines.

Now from the perspective of the illegal immigrant in the restaurant example: I have been living illegally in the States for several years and have been working in several different low-wage, low-skill jobs during my time here. Right now I am a dishwasher, however, with the advent of the U.S.’s new Green Card program, I am now competing to keep this job with lots of people from my country who have their legitimate papers and enjoy a lot of rights that I don’t. Plus, these new competitors of mine actually get back a portion of the taxes that I have been paying to the U.S. Government all of these years and that I will never see because my Social Security number isn’t mine. All I need to start enjoying these same benefits is return to my country and apply for a Green Card, which, based on the experiences of other new legal immigrants, is easy to apply for and receive.

Why not just let the illegal immigrants currently here apply for their Green Card here in the United States? Because, as President Bush said, “We are a nation of immigrants and...we are a nation of laws”. It is impossible to have a grasp of the United States’s system of laws if you enter the country illegally. Simply put, someone who takes the time to apply for and receive a Green Card has shown more respect for the laws of our nation than someone who doesn’t. Those who have shown blatant disregard for our laws upon entering illegally (although I sympathize with why they entered) cannot be rewarded with a get-out-of-jail-free card (i.e. amnesty) when the creation of this new Green Card program offers EVERYONE an equal opportunity to enter and enjoy the rights and benefits of being in the United States legally. I realize this might create a heavy burden on the 12 million+ illegal immigrants currently living in the United States, however, the message should be this: We are offering you a way to legalize yourself quickly and fairly in your home countries. Go home, visit your families, apply for your Green Card, and return to the United States legally so that you can fully benefit from the rights we enjoy.

3) Construct a border fence. This should be the last step in the scheme of the implementation of our immigration policies and should only serve as a further deterrent to those who are either not motivated enough to apply for (the newly-created) easy legal entry into the United States or where denied legal entry by our government on the basis of security concerns. Yes, we should construct a border fence to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, however, we need to give these illegal immigrants an easy way to get into our country legally BEFORE we construct the fence. I believe the flow of illegal immigrants will drop-off significantly if these immigrants are presented with a clear, concise, and fair way of entering the United States legally, thereby making a border fence almost useless, however, our southern border is a joke that represents not only immigration problems but also national security problems.

What would make my policy ideas totally useless? Significant economic reform in Latin America and around the world, an embrace of free markets and free trade, a siginificant reduction in the level of corruption, and an economic boom (resulting from the implementation of the aforementioned policies) that would help alleviate the poverty that drives people to emigrate from one country to another. All of these are great ideas, however, based upon the recent trend of elections in Latin America, none of them are likely to be instituted any time in the near future.

Immigration is good for America and good for the rest of the world. Mexico’s second largest contributor to GDP behind oil revenue is the money Mexicans living outside of Mexico send back to their families in Mexico. What better foreign aid do we have? Primarily poor Mexican families receive needed funds without having the money travel through levels of bureaucracy and corruption that is often the case with U.S. Government aid to foreign countries. The money goes right to a needy family via Western Union and my government doesn’t have to tax me and send my tax dollars overseas in order to build a democracy or to support some puppet regime. Sounds good, no?

In exchange, we get cheaper labor, an increase in our collective brain power (in terms of highly-skilled immigrants), more people, and we spread American ideals around the world. After visiting a lot of different countries, there are so many misconceptions out there about American life and American people that sometimes it is funny, sometimes it is scary, but always these misconceptions shape the way they view the United States and its policies. The more foreigners we can bring into the United States, regardless of whether they stay for 5 months or 5 years, helps to dispel a lot of the misinformation floating around about the States in the world as these foreigners transmit their experiences to their fellow countrymen.

One of the ideals of the United States is that we are a boiling pot - a mixture of lots of different cultures and nations thrown together under the banner of our flag and our Constitution. Immigration is an essential ingredient in our boiling pot - let’s not put a lid on it.
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