Neither Amnesty Nor the Path To Citizenship

America is facing a twofold problem: a broken immigration system and a rapidly changing economy.

Not only does America have 8-20 million undocumented immigrants within the country — a number most folks settle at around 11 million — the levels of workforce participation are starting to drop off in ways that politicians will not be able to control.

With anywhere from 17-40% of the American workforce slated to become obsolete in the era of automation, this is no longer a conversation about a living wage for low skilled workers but a conversation about what happens when work is no longer fundamentally productive.

If the grand solution is the basic minimum income or some approximation of it — a return to the shareholders of the public trust — such as solution will be physically impossible in a world of open borders.

Yet even if we restrict immigration to the very best and brightest of the world, even if we perform the heavy lift of fixing our immigration system, the inimical problem of what to do with the 11 million people already here remains intractable.  No government is going to invest in tearing apart families, ripping students out of chairs, or sacrificing basic civil liberties in the apprehension of 11 million people.  Even the most anti-immigrant contenders squirm at the prospect.

So where is the solution?  Amnesty has been tried before and failed.  Proponents of reinforcing the immigration system rather than reforming it are correct in the sentiment that a “path to citizenship” is indeed a flawed premise — merely amnesty on a timetable.

Policy being based on practical solutions, here are four basic steps to help set the table:immigrants

1.  Secure the borders and fix our visa system.  The solution may not stop at “build a wall” but it certainly starts there.  Though a “digital fence” would be a much more active security solution than the more passive solution of a wall (plus it would be incredibly more helpful for combating illegal drug cartels), only a third of America’s illegal immigration problem stems from the U.S.-Mexico border.  Expired visas through American airports remains the critical and unaddressed issue in this debate, and until visa enforcement is resolved, the border will remain unnecessarily and tragically insecure.

2.  The best and the brightest.  Let’s face it — America is the land of opportunity, and when immigrants create opportunities, they bring jobs and investments that help all Americans.   What does that help look like?  Try $896 billion dollars over 20 years reducing the federal deficit.  $329 billion from those who are undocumented and assimilating in a four-year institution.  3.22 million jobs created in the next eight years.  Those are numbers you cannot deny easily — and they help lift millions of Americans right here out of poverty as well.

3.  Create a pathway to legal status.   Out of the starting block and ironclad: no illegal immigrant should gain American citizenship until they operate through already existing legal pathways.  The effort here is not to create a Helot class, nor is it to gift amnesty to a soul, but to normalize a pre-existing condition for 11 million people that grows the economy, creates jobs, and protects families.  Applicants should be screened, pass a criminal and medical background check, pay fines, and go through a probationary period.

4.  Implement E-verify and streamline the verification process.  Those who do not take up the offer of the land of the free and home of the brave?  Get deported.  There are already existing pathways to provide identification among American workers — those pathways should be strengthened to verify American citizenship before employment.  Employers found skirting the new regulations will be caught, fined, and/or imprisoned — simple as that.

us_mexico_border_pacific_600pxThe bottom line here is that there is tremendous support for fixing America’s broken immigration system — 75% of all Americans and over 70% of Republicans support this.  No one — categorically no one — supports a program of mass deportation, and those who insist that anything less than mass deportation is “amnesty” only prolong the crisis of illegal immigration to serve their own personal advantage.

Speaker Paul Ryan is already in support of the “path to legal status” in principle if not in concrete form.  Thankfully for Virginians, the real path to leadership runs through the House Judiciary Committee and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (VA-06).

Republicans have already done tremendous damage to the conservative brand this cycle, some of it self-inflicted, but most of it through inaction and an unwillingness to lead.

Goodlatte has the opportunity to be this sort of leader that would give the United States not just a workable immigration solution that secures the border, but one that revitalizes and focuses on the free-market essentials that make the American economy thrive — all without abrogating law or principle.

For one, I have not really opened up my thoughts on immigration, mostly because the issue is so highly charged that frankly, few people are interested in listening.

Acting in a manner respects the other for who they are and who they could become is a very principled act.  Offering them the opportunity to do that in America and conform to our laws?  Is an political opportunity, not just for the Republican Party, but for us as a nation.

Let’s not spoil it.  Let’s act.

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