Fixing A Broken Immigration Policy, A Framework For Reform
Immigration has proven to be one of America's most difficult policy issues. But solving the dilemma of immigration policy is important. Immigration impacts our economic future, affects our national security and shapes the fabric of our society. It is a pervasive and consequential topic - which is why people are rightly concerned about it and why it was selected as the topic for the 2009 DU strategic issues panel.
For the better part of a year the panel examined the topic in depth, receiving some 30 presentations from individuals in academia, government, business, labor, law enforcement, education, health care and other fields. The panel heard from immigration advocates and opponents; federal, state and local officials; business executives and community organizers; immigration attorneys.
After listening to many perspectives and reviewing an extensive list of readings, the panel began its own deliberations. During the summer and into the fall, panel members weighed the research and opinions offered and engaged in discussions based on the information presented and panelists' own views and experience. They sought practical solutions rather than ideologically oriented outcomes and used a consensus process to identify underlying issues and develop recommendations.
The report, which may be downloaded from the University's web site at www.du.edu/issues, presents a comprehensive strategy for immigration reform. It examines global migration, the impact of immigration on the United States, priorities and establishes the following goals for immigration policy: national security, social cohesion, economic advantage, family unification, and refugee relief, in that order. The report contains 25 recommendations designed to reform the immigration system and support these goals.
The report identifies six major immigration issues: three of which are opportunities to be captured; and three of which are major problems that need to be solved.
Immigration Opportunities:
National Security
Maintaining the security of the United States and the safety of its citizens is a fundamental requirement. Nation security must be an overarching concern, so several of the panel's most important recommendations relate to national security and touch other issues as well. Four recommendations relate to national security:
•Continue to strengthen U.S. border security (#13) - an important recommendation not only for controlling illegal immigration but to protect against drug smuggling, human trafficking and potential terrorism.
•Remove the primary incentive for illegal immigration - jobs - by giving employers the tools and protections to be key allies in stopping illegal immigration (#14).
•Require employers to use E-Verify for all employees to reduce the employment of illegal workers (#15)
•To make E-Verify effective, establish a secure, national ID card issued by the government and required for new and existing employees (#16)
Economic Strength and Global Competitiveness
The strategic use of immigration policy to build economic strength and create global competitive advantage for the United States represents an exceptional opportunity. Other countries know this as well so it is an opportunity we ignore at our own peril. The United States needs be on an aggressive talent hunt, working hard to improve our educational and training systems to maximize talent development at home while actively recruiting the best and brightest from abroad.
The report contains seven recommendations focusing on strengthening the economy and creating global competitive advantage for the United States. They include:
•Consider global migration as an opportunity to be capitalized upon (Recommendation #1)•Provide a reasonable time for those earning advanced degrees from U.S. universities to look for a job here (#8)
•Increase the total number of employment-based visas set by Congress (#21)
•Eliminate the diversity lottery and transfer those visas to employment based (#12)
•Regulate the issuance of employment visas so that they respond to economic conditions using the Immigration Management Commission (IMC) (#9)
•For employment-based visas, let economic conditions determine visa levels, not artificial limits - high or low - by creating a collaborative, bottom-up process, starting with employers working through states then going to the IMC for annual allocation of employment visas based on economic conditions (#10)
•Create a convertible visa that encourages those with outstanding education, skills, abilities and talent to accept jobs in the U.S. and perhaps stay here (#22)
•Simplify and streamline the process for temporary work visas (#23)
Social Vitality and Cohesion
United States immigration policy must support the social vitality and cohesion of the nation. Social vitality embraces diversity, not for its own sake, but for the flow of new ideas, varying perspectives, innovation and entrepreneurship that it brings to American society. In the panel's view, there is no contradiction between appreciating the benefits of a national community built upon a panorama of cultures, while at the same time recognizing the inestimable value of English as the binding thread of our social fabric. Hence the panel's first recommendation in this area relates to encouraging English as a common language. There are various ways to do this including English classes that would be widely available across the country at low cost (#17)
Family unification is important to social vitality and the United States benefits from having strong families. The panel supports family unification but believes that the historical approach has been founded on a faulty premise. Traditionally, family unification has been positioned so as to compete with employment-based and refugee immigration. The panel considers this zero-sum approach to be inappropriate. The panel offers two recommendations relating to family unification:
•Structure visa system so family visas don't compete with employment visas (#24) and, as a condition of that recommendation:•Limit family visas to members of the immediate family only (#25).
Immigration Problems:
Illegal Immigration
One of the most difficult and contentious issues is the matter of illegal immigration. An estimated 12 million persons are in the country illegally, representing about 4% of the entire population. The panel concluded it is a problem that cannot be ignored or wished away. The panel does not say that illegal immigration is acceptable. However, as a nation our choices are limited.
The panel did not think that trying to deport some 12 million people who can't be found, and most of whom live in families where some members are citizens and some are illegal, was a realistic option.
So our real options seem to be two. Keep things basically as they are and watch the problem grow larger as soon as better economic times return. Or, as the panel recommends, take action to bring people out of the shadows and, very important, create conditions to discourage illegal immigration in the future. In making this recommendation, the panel was especially concerned that, before creating a pathway to legal status, we try to insure that there is little incentive for illegal immigration in the future.
To do this, the panel offered 6 recommendations to deal with illegal immigration.
•Continue to strengthen U.S. border security (#13)
•Remove the primary incentive for illegal immigration - jobs - by giving employers the tools and protections to be key allies in stopping illegal immigration (#14).
•Require employers to use E-Verify for all employees to reduce the employment of illegal workers (#15)
•To make E-Verify effective, establish a secure, national ID card issued by the government and required for new and existing employees (#16)
•Finally, after E-Verify is required and the issuance of secure ID cards has begun, provide a Provisional Legal Status program and a pathway to legalization for illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. (#19)
•To further reduce incentives for illegal immigration, do not extend additional public services (from any level of government) to illegal immigrants (#20)
Lack of Policy Focus
In many ways the most fundamental problem, although it receives little media attention, is the lack of focus of our nation's immigration policy. To be direct, there is little agreement and even less clarity about what we are trying to achieve with immigration policy. As a starting point, the United States needs a foundation on which to build immigration policy.
The panel offered 5 recommendations in this most important area:
•First, we must clearly define our overarching purpose, which should be the creation of economic, social and other benefits to the nation as a whole (#2). This means:
•A policy grounded on enlightened self-interest not altruism
•All proposed policies must show how they benefit nation
•Immigration is a means to a stronger nation, not an end in itself
•Second, we need a rational basis for ordering immigration priorities which should be the benefit to nation as a whole compared to benefit to immigrants (#3). This is the foundation for the panel's recommended architecture for immigration reform.
•Third, we need clear goals that identify the things we are trying to accomplish with immigration policy. The report recommends
•National security, social vitality, economic advantage, family unification, and refugee relief, in that order(#4)
•Fourth, we need effective governmental institutions to implement the policy
•Federal government must define roles for federal, state and local governments (#5)
•There needs to be a shared responsibility on implementation of immigration policy and no unfunded mandates from federal or state levels (#6)
The Need for Reform
The American immigration system is broken and in need of fundamental reform. It is almost impossible to overstate the byzantine complexity of the current immigration system. The present system is unpredictable and opaque with processing backlogs that almost defy imagination.
Piecemeal fixes are not enough, in fact they are likely to worsen the situation. To his end, the panel offered four recommendations for reform of the immigration system:
•Need a system that supports goals, responds to rapidly changing economic situations, produces predictable results and is as simple, comprehensible and transparent as possible (#7)
•We need to greatly simplify the number of visa categories, the panel recommends eight major visa categories (#8)
•Congress should set numeric limits only for the eight major categories and create Immigration Management Commission to allocate within those categories based on economic conditions (#9)
•Increase per-country diversity limit from 7 to 10% (#11)
If there were a simple answer to the question of immigration, the issue would have been resolved long ago. Even the term "immigration," with its singular tone, belies the complexity of the topic. Immigration is not one issue, but rather a host of interconnected issues. It is more like a puzzle to be assembled - where the pieces must correctly relate to one another - than a single question to be answered.
An effective immigration policy is about applying enlightened self-interest to capture a national opportunity. It is about creating benefit to the United States in a highly competitive global economy. In the process of benefiting the United States there is also the ability to provide opportunity to talented people from other countries who can contribute to a stronger, more vital America society. Immigration policy need not be a win-lose game between the nation and prospective immigrants.
Achieving these benefits requires more than simply adding new legislative patches to a sagging and inefficient system. It requires an overall architecture for immigration policy, grounded in a shared purpose with clear goals, priorities, and governmental roles and responsibilities. Within that framework, an effective policy requires strategies to address structural reform of the system and a number of specific issues that constitute key elements of immigration policy. These elements include border security, the role of employers, a national identification card, employment verification, supporting a common language, a plan for dealing with illegal immigrants, a mechanism for attracting persons with extraordinary talent, a process for temporary workers, family unification and others.
It is this architecture and these elements that the DU Strategic Issues Panel on Immigration has addressed. Findings and recommendations on these topics are reflected throughout this report and summarized in the following section. It is the panel's hope that its work will help inform the public discussion on immigration policy.
By Dr. Jim GriesemerChairman, University of Denver Strategic Issues ProgramAuthor of "Architecture for Immigration Reform: Fitting the Pieces of Public Policy"