With all of the talk about whether comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) will happen this year, or even next; with all the rhetoric around Arizona's tough new immigration law, SB1070, and the federal court's intervention to stay its most offensive provisions, I am amazed at how much of the current debate still centers around only two things: border security and earned legalization. By focusing on these two issues alone, we are missing one of the most important, and most overlooked, facets of reform: We must fix the visa system.
According to the Border Patrol, apprehensions are down, deportations are up,and the border is more secure than ever. On the other side of the coin, well-meaning legislation like the DREAM Act, which would allow the children of undocumented immigrants to earn legal status through education and military service have been held hostage to the drive for comprehensive reform. So I'll say it again: As unsexy as it sounds, the biggest issue in immigration policy today is the availability of immigration visas.
Every year the U.S. grants only 140,000 permanent visas (green cards) to workers who want to come here. The vast majority of these visas go to the most highly skilled and professional workers, while only 5,000 are given to low-skilled workers. On paper, having a system weighted toward the highly skilled and professional sounds great -- why shouldn't the U.S. admit only the best and brightest? And, with an unemployment rate of 9.6%, wouldn't low-skilled workers take American jobs?
The reality is quite different. Earlier this year, the United Farm Workers (UFW) started the "Take Our Jobs" campaign, to encourage Americans to find employment in the agricultural sector. According the UFW, three-quarters of all crop-workers in the U.S. were born abroad and at least half are unauthorized immigrants. So with unemployment so high, how many people have signed up to "take their jobs"? According to President Arturo Rodriquez of the UFW, only four people have, one of them being Stephen Colbert.
Furthermore, according to the Migration Policy Institute, there are already 8.3 million undocumented immigrants working in the country. MPI estimates that between permanent and temporary work visas for the low-skilled (roughly 150,000 for both categories together,) the U.S. each year gives out visas (and thus legal status) to less than 1% of the number of undocumented immigrants working in the country.
So to recap: the U.S. has the highest unemployment rate in years, but no Americans willing to take the agricultural jobs that feed its population. The U.S. has over 8 million immigrants already in the country, but with no possibility of obtaining a legal visa. (According to the most recent State Department visa bulletin, the waiting time for the 3rd labor preference category for "skilled, professional, and other" workers is no less than 8 years, and so over-subscribed as to be completely unavailable for applicants from Mexico. Since low-skilled workers are only a portion of this 3rd preference, in reality the delays are much longer.)
So when pundits talk about undocumented immigrants having to "get to the back of the line," before than can gain legal status, we need to understand that there is no line to get in -- there are simply nowhere near enough visas given to handle the demand for immigrant labor. If we were to do the impossible and seal the border today, we would still have the same disconnect between the number of people working here, and the number of visas available. If we were to legalize everyone inside of the nation, but do nothing about visa reform, within a few years we'd be right back where we started. Enduring reform must include visa reform.
Thankfully a tentative first step has been taken toward solving the problem, in the form of the AgJOBS bill. According to Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), a co-sponsors of the legislation, the bill would allow many of the undocumented workers already in the country to receive legal status to continue to work at their jobs and make the temporary work visa for agriculture (H-2A) better suited to America's labor needs. Sadly AgJOBS has been held up in the fight for CIR.
No matter when or in what shape immigration reform occurs, I hope that changes to the visa system are part of it.
Follow Philip Wolgin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pwolgin
Ben Daniel: Immigration Reform: We Can Do Better
FAIR: Federation for American Immigration Reform
Democrats unveil immigration-reform proposal
Reform Immigration For America
Immigration reform: Obama's political dilemma - CSMonitor.com
More generally, it is not clear why liberals should not want there to be some scarcity in farm labor. I have read that labor costs represent about 11 cents on a head of lettuce. If that number were forced to double due to labor scarcity, bringing in lots of Americans to do the job, would that be a bad thing for the US?
BTW, it is a bit strange to see a PhD candidate flacking for the Ag industry as you would appear to be. Have you disclosed any financial connections you might have with the Ag Industry? Just asking.
Enforce the law on EMPLOYERS, make employers in ALL fields obey labor and wage laws, get stricter on things like VISA programs. Then see what problems remain and what (if any) new laws are honestly needed.
Yes we have a problem, but the immigrants are only half of it. Why do we keep concentrating on only half?!?
You're ultimately right, not going to argue that, we can't just keep scapegoating immigrants. Not when the problem also includes a badly broken system and EMPLOYERS who are ALSO abusing the system. And it's not doing us a bit of good to keep applying bandaids to one part at a time and seldom or never to all parts (or at least quite persistently missing certain ones - like the employers)...
Then, I guess we should stop the ineffective red herring debates on side issues like "profiling" and "guest visas", with which both wings of the Corporate Party keep us spinning our wheels. Rather, we could do what the majority of the citizens of THIS country want and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, the industries and their leaders who profit at the expense of the well-being of the nation. Illegal immigrants come here because they are given jobs by wealthy business owners who enjoy having a cheap source of desperate and disposable workers. If the CEO's and wealthy individuals who BENEFIT from violating our immigration laws were sufficiently punished (e.g. asset stripped) there wouldn't be a problem. ILLEGAL immigrants would be forced to return home and demand change for the better from their own mis-run, corrupt governments. This is what AMERICANS want and this is what our "elected" officials refuse to do.
Want to threaten us with "higher prices"? How 'bout we threaten YOU with "sharper pitchforks"? HARR HARR!
There is no line! There is no line! There is no line! Ugh!
As I understand it, these new visas would be for folks from
"countries which represent at least 5% of the total unauthorized migration population within the United States for the past five years and will be distributed on a percentage basis through a lottery system.
# Individuals may apply to the lottery if they are not present in the United States at time of filing, do not have other family or employment based means to immigrate, submit to criminal background checks, and have completed less than a 4 year college degree program.
# Individuals awarded visas will be admitted to the United States as conditional residents and may petition for LPR status after 3 years.
The proposal also has provisions for “recapture” of unused visas from '92 - '08.
I remember when I was young, and I could not wait to reach the ripe old age of 14 so that I too could go to work in the tobacco fields in CT. The farms had school buses that came into the suburbs to pick up the kids during the summer. IT was a great way to get back to school money, and more importantly, to meet girls. So yes there are plenty of Americans who would do this kind of work if the illegals were sent packing home. We did it for nearly a century without them, and can do it again.
There are many more facets to Immigration Reform than Border Security and Amnesty.
Those two things block anything else and there are logical arguments for both.
So it is proposed to end illegal immigration by issuing visas to everyone who wants one, starting with the 8 to 20 Million who came here already. Then we have how many more for everyone around the world?
Though immigration history may be important, American and Mexican history should be considered.
Our Federalist papers cautioned against giving citizenship to everyone who set boot on our shore.
Without Mexico's help we cannot seal the border except through military means. They object to any move we make which may force their citizens to stay or return home.
Mexico has historic objections they teach their people to the US owning the Western half of the country.
So what motive would they have for sending 10% or more of their population to the US? And why the insistence that we make them ours even though they plan for them to remain Mexican?
They are now protesting other immigration laws as if the US is not supposed to have them at all.
They don't need visas on a golden platter. They need transportation to the south of Mexico.
Our citizenship is more precious than to just give it to anyone who arrives
This would be a really bad idea.
Support the Uniting American Families Act(UAFA).
solutions to our nations problems and stop focusing on the next election. When did the
word compromise get deleted from the english language? We all need to work together
to solve our nations problems. The party of NO has become the INTOLERANT party
of NO compromise. Most children outgrow their NO phase when they begin school
and learn the world does not revolve around them.