In his Washington Post column Robert Samuelson presents his plan for reforming immigration law:
Most of the “dreamers†would receive legal status, as would many other undocumented residents who had led law-abiding lives. In return, there would be tougher border security (including a “wall†or its equivalent) and a requirement that most employers check immigration status through an electronic network (such as E-Verify). These steps would dramatically reduce the number of undocumented immigrants.
As for legal immigration, there would be a ceiling of about 1 million annually, which until recently was roughly the level of admissions. But there would be a fundamental change in the criteria for legal immigration, from family connections to workplace skills. The better- educated immigrants are, the easier for them to adapt to a new society.
which, as you may notice, is pretty compatible with what I’ve been saying on the subject except that I’d also create a guest worker program for Mexican workers to allow significantly more Mexican workers to come into the United States on a regular basis than the obviously inadequate 10,000 work visas per year for which Mexicans are eligible.
He goes on to give his reasons which are that present law increases poverty in the U. S., it promotes lawlessness and repression, and that skilled immigrants are good for the economy. We’re in agreement there, too. But here’s
Third, skilled immigrants are good for the economy. True, they can’t single-handedly boost annual economic growth to 3 or 4 percent from the 2 percent-plus of recent years. But every little bit helps. One area where immigrants shine is entrepreneurship. In a study of new firms, the husband-wife team of economists William Kerr of Harvard University and Sari Pekkala Kerr of Wellesley College found that about one-quarter of company founders were immigrants.
There are several problems with that last statistic. It combines legal and illegal immigrants and it doesn’t tell us anything about the rate of founding of successful companies among immigrants. The overall level of entrepeneurship suggested is comparable to that among the native born.
He also omits my main criticism of present law: it injures the most vulnerable Americans to benefit the prosperous which I find unconscionable.
And it’s still scandalous that the current proposals envision continuing to favor marriage and breeding. There is no excuse for continuing to discriminate against singles by essentially degrading the value of their friendships with foreigners and their desire of single foreigners to improve their lot through immigration to the United States without having to enlist in the religion of marriage and breeding.
Many countries, notably Brazil, follow a “tit for tat” policy in reaction to US immigration rules, and as a single Amerikan I resent being disadvantaged, if indirectly, by discriminatory Amerikan Visa rules.
Candidate Trump was going to deport 11 million illegal aliens. President Trump was going to deport 10.2 million illegal aliens, and now he is going to deport 9.2 million. Does anybody see a trend here.
This is going to trigger some people, but President Trump is going to get exactly what he has proposed. He will then deport the criminals, and depending upon the target number, crimes may include jay-walking. Once the border is secured and the correct number of criminals are deported, the remaining “good ones” will be legalized, but there will be either no or an excruciatingly long path to citizenship.
The far right will howl ‘bloody murder’ as will their left counterparts, but President Trump, Sen. Schumer, Dem. Polisi, or whomever can retire as the ones who solved the immigration problem.