1003 FAIR Targets Legal Immigration Reform
As health care and the economy continue to command center stage, other domestic stressors have not lessened. Related agendas are moving forward with little media attention.
Immigration is one of those stressors. The onslaught from Mexico, Central America and South America is government’s responsibility to solve but illegal immigration is only half of the problem. Effective immigration and naturalization systems, the other half of immigration problems, are just as much a part of government’s mandate as catching terrorists. America cannot prosper by completely sealing her borders; no nation ever has.
Even so, the present situation makes criminal immigration more attractive to millions than entering our country honorably. The Migration Policy Institute notes that last October, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) was still processing family-related visas from 1987. It still had unprocessed work-related visas from 2001. With 10 percent of Americans unemployed, such bottlenecks are inexcusable facilitators to the growth of the illegal labor pool in the U.S.
The legal system can be fixed, but not in the way the HIRE (the Hiring Incentive to Restore Employment bill, SA3310 & HR2847) does. The bill contains some good ideas but ends up incentivizing illegal labor. Its definition of “qualified employee” makes no distinction between legal or illegal employee status.
Recession hurts skilled and unskilled citizens and legal resident immigrants more than anyone else. Making it possible for employers to benefit from tax breaks while filling positions with illegal competitors is the last kind of “fix” Americans need.
Solutions are available which would both discourage illegal labor and encourage people who want to share our nation with us legally. Agencies and enforcement mechanisms already exist.
Targeted reforms, are the answer, not comprehensive reform. The first place to start is with the USCIS. According to Heritage Foundation, the USCIS could not handle any increased processing. The bottom line is funding problems.
The Employment Eligibility Verification System (EEVS or “E-verify”) is another common sense program. All 50 states have access to this system on a voluntary basis. It allows employers to electronically verify legal status of prospective employees. Some states have begun instituting requirements for E-verification.
The Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR) notes that we accept over one million legal permanent residents annually. That combined with the illegal traffic is simply economically unsustainable. FAIR suggests no more than 300,000 new legal immigrants annually.
Among many other system changes, there is still more to do. We must eliminate birthright citizenship for children of illegal residents and limit family preference visas to immediate members only. FAIR also suggests that citizen workers be given preference to hiring and layoffs.
As this column has noted many times in the past, government at every level, federal, state and local, is divinely charged with only one mandate – to promote justice and righteousness. Justice requires government to resolve and control every threat from shoplifting to foreign aggression. Righteousness requires government to create an environment which encourages good citizens to be responsible for everything else.
The constitution masterfully formulates our government’s role. By its very nature as a legal contract framed and ratified by and for Americans, it does not grant citizen rights to non-citizen populations but does require government to protect us from threats, both those derived from legal flaws and those blatantly illegal.
None of this is rocket science but it is the difficult political path. But what is more important, dodging political hazards or preserving the blessings of this nation for ourselves and future immigrants.