The Cost of Unlimited Immigration

The editors of the New York Times call for immigration reform:

It is difficult to find an issue that more exemplifies the dysfunction of American government today than immigration.

In the past year, more than a million people have entered the United States through the southern border, overflowing shelters and straining public services. Most of the newcomers claim asylum, a status that allows them to be in the country legally but leaves them in limbo. They often must wait years for their cases to be heard, and it can be a lengthy process to obtain legal permission to work.

This nation has long drawn strength from immigration, and providing asylum is an important expression of America’s national values. But Congress has failed to provide the necessary resources to welcome those who are eligible and to turn away those who are not. Instead, overwhelmed immigration officials allow nearly everyone to stay temporarily, imposing enormous short-term costs on states and cities that the federal government hasn’t done enough to mitigate.

concluding:

President Biden announced on Sept. 20 that his administration will extend temporary work permits to nearly half a million Venezuelans, a concession to intense pressure from Mr. Adams and other state and city leaders from his own party who find their communities overwhelmed.

That will help some businesses that are desperate for more workers. But Mr. Biden’s reluctance is understandable; expanding work authorization without addressing America’s broken immigration system will do little to deter people from trying to cross the U.S. border unlawfully or to seek asylum, and it gives Congress a pass.

Some Republican leaders have stepped up to offer help. Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and Gov. Eric Holcomb of Indiana wrote an essay in The Washington Post in February offering to sponsor immigrants, citing more than 300,000 job vacancies between the two states. “In meaningful ways, every U.S. state shares a border with the rest of the world, and all of them need investment, markets and workers from abroad,” they wrote. “That border can remain an embarrassment, or it can become a big asset to us once again.”

For that to happen, leaders in Congress will have to do their part. It’s been a decade since Congress has seriously considered immigration reform. Both parties have missed opportunities to do so, the Democrats most recently at the end of 2022. The party had a narrow majority in Congress but failed to pursue a compromise bill that would have increased funding for border security as well as expanding capacity to hear and decide asylum claims quickly. The future of DACA, a program for those who were brought to the United States as children, is also in doubt, despite its broad public support.

The White House is limited in the actions it can take; Mr. Biden may have exhausted what he can do through his executive authority. Until Congress decides to take meaningful action, America will continue to pay a price.

I agree that Congress has been remiss in not acting. I attribute part of the problem to Congress’s attachment to omnibus bills that address multiple issues in one piece of legislation, many of which may have nothing to do with solving the problems the legislation is intended to address.

The editors are playing fast and loose with the facts, however. The number of people who have crossed our southern border since the beginning of 2023 is nearly 1.5 million according to U. S. Customs and Border Protection. The percentage of those who have been admitted has grown in recent year.

This

In July there were more than two million open positions, for example, in construction, hospitality and retail, and the current system keeps out many engineers, computer programmers and scientists.

is misleading. I would submit that the proportion of “engineers, computer programmers and scientists” coming across our southern border is minuscule. Most have, at most, the equivalent of a high school education if that. Furthermore, I would assert that the very large number of phony asylum applications is inhibiting the acceptance of legitimate asylum-seekers.

I think that the Congress should enact several distinct bills in, probably, this order:

• Legislation to deal with the crisis at our southern border
• Legislation to address the plight of those who’ve been called “dreamers”, e.g. individuals brought to the United States illegally as children
• Legislation to regulate individuals working in the United States illegally

The easiest probably being the second. It is my understanding that such legislation has been blocked in the interest of omnibus legislation to address immigration.

I also believe that all of the unaccompanied minors encountered at our southern border should be returned to their countries of origin. What we’re doing now amounts to kidnapping them.

The costs of what we are doing now are substantial, billions of dollars a year, much of which is falling on local governments that are not prepared to shoulder them. Beyond that there are the costs that millions of new workers impose on the previous cohort of immigrants and native born Americans trying to enter the workforce. Econ 101 demonstrates pretty conclusively that the present supply exceeds the demand.