The Freedom of Migration Act Challenge

The present recession overshadows our unresolved immigration mess. However, be it the stimulus package or the recently passed State Children's Health Insurance Program -- those unsettled immigration issues pop up in the background. Whether we want it or not, we have to address this issue again.

Below, I am presenting for public scrutiny a proposal for immigration reform, which I call the Freedom of Migration Act. I see it as logically coherent, at least much more than any other proposal considered so far in Washington.

I welcome all comments; however, in this instance I am less interested in voices repeating party-line immigration mantra. I challenge readers to find lapses in my reasoning. Please tell me why the Freedom of Migration Act, if implemented, would be bad for the country. I hope that this experience will allow us find the best solution.

1) The concept

a) The free market system should govern immigration.

b) The government should have no power to limit the freedom of Americans to hire foreigners.

c) Commercial agencies should administer and control the flow of foreign workers, for profit.

d) Rules governing migration of foreigners with the purpose of work or settlement in the U.S. should have incorporated provisions allowing government security agencies to monitor potential security threats.

2) The solution

a) The only way that a foreigner could settle in the USA should be by finding employment here.

b) Private employment agencies should, for a fee, manage the recruitment of foreigners, administer background checks, issue ID cards, and keep records of their employment.

c) During the first 5 years of living in the USA, an alien worker should not be entitled to any social benefits available to citizens and permanent residents.

d) After staying in the USA for five years, a foreign worker, his or her spouse, or minor children should be entitled to obtain a status of permanent resident, opening the path to the citizenship.

e) During the first five years of work in the USA, a foreigner should pay income taxes and Social Security taxes like everybody else. Temporary workers that decide to return to the country of origin should have they Social Security taxes refunded upon leaving the USA.

3) Fixing the current mess

a) Both the legislative and executive branches of government need to acknowledge that the current immigration law has been bad from its inception and never was or could be effectively enforced.

b) Legislators need to apologize to the nation and to the illegal immigrants for creating such havoc.

c) No amnesty for illegal aliens. The current immigration law is bad and it needs to be revoked.

d) Illegal immigrants should register their presence in the USA by obtaining a worker's ID from an employment agency and paying a standard processing fee.

e) Illegal immigrants that could prove that they have stayed here for at least five years should be entitled to obtain a status of permanent resident, opening the path to citizenship.

f) Illegal immigrants registering their presence here should pay their past due taxes, with interest, if that is the case. Penalties for not paying taxes on time should be voided.

g) There should be only one type of visa used for all foreigners working in the U.S. All presently used categories of workers' visas should be terminated.

h) All family-sponsored immigration should be terminated.

i) All visa lottery programs should be terminated.

j) All currently opened cases of family-sponsored or visa lottery immigration should be honored and resolved on terms equal or better than those in force at the time the petition was filed.

4) Other

a) Political refuges and other individuals admitted to the U.S. for humanitarian reasons should be assisted by private charitable organizations to register as alien workers and then follow the same path as all other foreigners settling here.

b) Foreigners who are rich enough to live here without working should be allowed to do so.

More about my reasoning behind the Freedom of Migration Act:
- "Migration to the future" - about history and dynamics of immigration
- "Neither immigration nor reform" - critique of immigration reform proposals considered in 2006
- I offered $200 award for proving me wrong
- "Will desperation prevail?" - my comments on immigration debate in 2006
- "The Smiths vs. the Joneses" - our current immigration laws could be challenged as unconstitutional, as the Constitution does not guarantee employment
- "Benefits of the failure of the immigration bill"
- "The Immigration Debate Is Not About Immigration"
- A slide presentation of the Freedom of Migration Act concept
- "Security of the Mexican border"- my video question to then presidential candidates
- "Are you a leader? " - my video question to then presidential candidates
- "U.S. Government loves my family" - nonsense of the family reunion principle explained
- "Beliefs or knowledge?" - my general comment on political debates, like the one about immigration

Comments

[jumperpin]

The working poor in this country are just goofing off and need more competition.

How can our corporate engines of profit/jobs compete in a global marketplace with the legacy opulence of $10/hr labor costs? Some of these same workers are living in households of less than 4 adults - often even in separate beds.

Lord knows, we've tried decades of education, public aid, etc. But they just don't get it.

Fortunately, right-sized benefits, fresh migrants, hyper-schooling, ever more thorough surveillance and tasers are yielding some efficiencies and promise.

[iczlite]

"2-c) During the first 5 years of living in the USA, an alien worker should not be entitled to any social benefits available to citizens and permanent residents.

e) During the first five years of work in the USA, a foreigner should pay income taxes and Social Security taxes like everybody else."

This already exists. Undocumented immigrants, in growing numbers, are paying federal and state taxes, without any of the benefits, deductions and rebates that residents and citizens enjoy. Considering immigrants' level of income, it's safe to say that dollar x dollar earned, immigrants are paying MORE taxes (not less) than residents or citizens.
This principle is known as "taxation without representation". It also corresponds with the economic system that allows the utilization of human workforce without providing a just or equivalent reward (a.k.a. slavery).

Henry, the ball is in your park. Prove me wrong.

[Henryk A. Kowalczyk - Huffpost Blogger]

I see no contradictions between your point and mine.

As you correctly say, illegal immigrants, at least most of them, (I found an estimate of 85%) pay taxes now. It is a legal equilibristic now, the FMA makes it straightforward.

In the current system, I know people that pay taxes without benefits for about twenty years. You are correct, it is taxation without representation. The FMA proposal offers a reasonable compromise. It arrives form the premise that we should allow foreigners to work on temporary visas, with an assumption that many of them would return to their mother countries after a few years. Those that would decide to stay, after living here for five years, would be able to obtain a status of a permanent resident, opening the path to the citizenship. In other words, anyone proving himself or herself productive here for five years would be given a fair chance to be represented.

It is not perfect. However, if you have a better idea, I want to know it.

[iczlite]

Thank you for your reply, Henryk.
I basically agree with you, and your proposal is by far the most progressive I've seen.

Point 2-c, though, carries the ghost of the infamous "Bracero Program" too close for comfort. I.E. th obligation of the immigrant worker to put up money, not for a benefit but for the option for the promise of a benefit. Right now undocumented immigrant workers are paying for the border fence, for privately held detention centers and for their own deportations. They will ask how this new system is going to be any different from the current one.

There are two things that can be done right now to slash the number of undocumented immigrants and all the injustices they have to endure:
1) Restitution of the article 245i, allowing immigrants to modify their status without having to leave the country and without fear of legal retaliations.
2) Repeal those stupid articles that punish immigrants with 3 or 10 years prohibition to reenter the USA (which everybody knows anyway that it's a sentence of "10 years to life").
These, by themselves, will a) slash in half (if not more) the number of undocumented immigrants already living and working in the USA, and b) eliminate the only reason why undocumented immigrants are not leaving the USA to follow the already-st­upid-enoug­h rules.

[newmexicogold]

You have failed to note the difference bettween emmigration and immigration., and without that, the free market isn't.

[lancesjogren]

A freedom of migration act would be a nullification of the sovereignty of the United States.

That would eliminate the rights Americans enjoy under the Constitution and its amendments.

Some consequences:

1). All civil liberties would be nullified
2). All social programs would vanish
3). The US would become part of a global police state


Thanks, but no thanks.

[papapj]

You jump to rather sinsister conclusions without illustrating how any of these actions would come about. You initially state that the rights under the Constitution would vanish without any explanation other than an implied fulfillment of the nightmare of all xenophobes.

Scary stuff, but not a shred of evidence to back it up.....

[POWA]

Henry, I'm glad to see you're still thinking. However, I still disagree with at least some of what you propose. In the first place, foreign workers must not be given priority over American citizens. It simply cannot be. In a perfect world, where there would be no need for borders, your proposals would make sense. Until that world materializes, each nation is responsible to protect their own citizens in their own way. Many years of the goverments' looking the other way has brought us to the immigration problem we face today. Now, because Latinos have realized they can take advantage of our inattention, we are being over-run to the extent that Latinos will become the dominant group in our society. When that day comes, of course, all bets will be off, and our fine government will probably open the borders anyway, so all this discussion will be pointless, in the end. However, I predict by that time, our country will become a much weaker society, because the people who have made this country so strong, will be gone, replaced by a society which will be incapable of maintaining the economic, scientific, and educational status our country has always enjoyed. As a result, we will be open to takeover by other nations who have maintained their strength, and have always coveted what we have.

However, open discussion is always a good thing, so I continue to applaud your efforts, Henry.

Stan (SZGraphite2)