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Comprehensive immigration reform is once again up for debate in Congress. Unless government officials concentrate upon the consequences of past reform and the interests of relevant actors, immigration policy is doomed to remain mired in the xenophobia and myopia of the past. In order for reform to be truly comprehensive, the U.S. must move from the closed-door policies of today to the sufficiently liberal immigration regime of tomorrow.
Immigration policy evaluation ought to be derived from an “equal consideration of interests.” Similar to The Golden Rule, this lens for analysis will allow politicians to adequately consider the interests of immigration sending societies, receiving nations, and migrants. Through this philosophical model one comes to understand that the rights conferred by citizenship are “arbitrary from a moral point of view.”
Host countries are justifiably concerned with the economic consequences of migration. However, from an empirical standpoint, economists have yet to prove that immigration possesses negative macroeconomic or distributive consequences for receiving societies. Practically speaking, it is not unreasonable to lend greater import to the needs and desires of one’s own people, especially those pertaining to security and economic prosperity, but freedom of movement should not be inhibited simply because of xenophobic sentiments or because it presents an inconvenience to the receiving nation. In a way, politicians must act as unbiased arbitrators throughout the legislative process and, like blind Lady Justice, balance the competing claims of various groups.
America has reacted to the influx of undocumented workers by militarizing the southwest border and enacting a system of employer sanctions. Despite the U.S. government’s expanding efforts to fortify the border, unauthorized migrants remain undeterred, continuing to trek northwards in droves. Expanding border enforcement has only succeeded in increasing the migrant death toll, levying a heavy burden on American taxpayers, and reducing the probability of Mexican return migration. The employer sanctions regime has fared no better. Employers can easily appear to be in compliance with IRCA while still deliberately employing undocumented workers. The result has been lowered wages and poorer working conditions for citizens and noncitizens alike, as well as an underground economy filled with fraud, corruption, and discrimination.
After 9/11, politicians have misused immigration policy in the name of national security. The Bush administration seems to believe that fundamental negative duties are not equally owed to all people, irrespective of their country of origin. And while the President seems to be willing to work productively towards economic prosperity and regional security alongside Canadian leaders, his diplomatic relations with Mexico demonstrate a pitiable and superficial degree of coordination.
In order to solve the “immigration quandary” successfully, four things need to occur: 1) Mexico and the U.S. must cooperate to create some type of temporary worker program for Mexican nationals, (2) employer sanctions must be repealed, (3) the government must strictly enforce labor and employment laws without regard to a person’s immigration status, and (4) most of America’s 11 million undocumented residents must be allowed “to earn” their citizenship rights.
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