How to Reform and Control Immigration

Is there a solution to the nation's immigration problem?

Yes. But first we must define the problem more precisely. We do not have an "immigration problem"; we have an illegal immigration problem. Our system of legal immigration, while it needs a tune-up to meet the national interest, is acceptable while we take care of the immediate problem. Later, we can look to fixing what's wrong with the legal immigration system.

The elements of a solution are easy to consider and hard to do. They will require political will that may not exist. The solution will require discarding some common preconcieved notions and adopting some different ways of looking at things. Most particularly, it will require considering solutions that meet the national interests, not a narrow range of interests.

There is no single silver bullet that will resolve things; it will take a package of programs that act together. Failure of any one of them will result in the entire solution tumbling like a house of cards and we will wind up back where we are now.

What follows below is a list of the major points. Each has a link to broader explanation of the point. The explanations will open in new windows. Close them to return to this page.

• The current population of illegal aliens must be addressed. Amnesty, or anything like it, is not a solution, it is a blessing of illegal conduct that will simply encourage more illegal conduct, and in and of itself be damaging to the nation. Neither need there be mass roundups and deportations; the disruption to society in many respects would be too severe. The answer is enforcement through attrition; create a pattern of laws that will make it inconvenient to unpleasant to impossible for illegal aliens to stay here.
  No amnesty       Enforcement through attrition

• There must be a plan of balanced enforcement. If the border is to be secure the things that draw illegal immigration must be removed from the reach of those who would come here illegally. And if the interior is to be secure the border must offer significant deterrence to illegal crossing. The two efforts must work hand-in-hand. Each of them will require signficant effort to achieve, both legislatively and from an administration and bureaucracy that is not inclined to do them.
  

• Employers' legitimate concerns about an adequate labor supply must be addressed. These concerns are real, but not well-founded (we'll discuss that). We are talking about an economic life and death issue for them, so it is to be expected that they will oppose any plan that will dry up the source of foreign labor. Their current push is for a guest worker program to bring foreign workers here, but we should make them part of a solution that is better for the nation than that. That is a domestic temporary worker program, whereby the unemployed are given the same benefits as a foreign worker: recruitment, transportation to where he is needed, housing, decent wages, and transportation home when the job is over. This is not a solution that should be designed in Washington and imposed on employers. They must have the primary role in shaping it, with the government as moderator, enabler, and monitor.
  No labor shortage      Temporary worker program     Americans won't do it?

• We must ignore the demands from leaders south of the border that we allow their people unhindered access to our jobs. There is clearly a diplomatic push underway to make that happen, with claims that attempts to control immigration are violations of human rights. Hogwash. Every nation in the world has the right to control who comes into and stays there; to have it otherwise defeats the concept of "nationhood". No, those leaders are pursuing their own agendas, and it is not human rights. As long as the U.S. is a place for their populations to come, and a source of income for their economies, they will continue the push. A firm set of laws that deal with the phenomenon of illegal immigration will send a message that will go a long way toward controlling the border and that will force those leaders to undertake reforms that will make their countries fit places for their citizens to live.