Immigration Policy: ID the Issue and attack the cause

In last week’s post I discussed the ineffectiveness of the border fence; but rather than simply complaining about what isn’t working (anyone can do that), I promised to identify some potential solutions. At the heart of the issue, as Ed McCullough stated, is to “treat the causes, not the symptoms.”

It is widely accepted that the U.S. Government’s immigration policies have been a failure; trying to physically keep individuals from entering this country through building fences and encouraging them to die in the desert is both inhumane and ineffective. The cause of the problem is what we need to work with, but there is no singular cause.

A poor Mexican working environment that isn’t nearly as lucrative as that of the United States’ is probably the largest motivating factor behind their residents’ desire to work elsewhere. As that seems to be largely out of our control, perhaps we should accept the fact that Americans will have many people trying to enter their borders. So where do we go from there?

In a very broad context, we should accept foreign workers. Statistics show that immigrant labor is an important part of our economy. In fact, the 2005 Economic Report of the President devotes an entire chapter to immigration and states that “A comprehensive accounting of the benefits and costs of immigration shows the benefits of immigration exceed the costs.”

It is because of this that I favor a carefully planned and properly executed guest-worker program. If we allow immigrant workers to contribute to their families as well as our country legally, we will find the benefits to be incredible. Studies by the Heritage Foundation support this idea, showing three important things. One, that “a 10 percent share increase of immigrant labor results in roughly a 1 percent reduction in native wages—a very minor effect;” two, that “most immigrant families have a positive net fiscal impact on the U.S., adding $88,000 more in tax revenues than they consume in services.” Finally, it was found that “Social Security payroll taxes paid by improperly identified (undocumented) workers have led to a $463 billion funding surplus.”

In next week’s post I will outline the specifics of what I mean when I referred to “a carefully planned and properly executed guest-worker program.”