Immigration is an emotion-laden issue for many people. I would like to present my thoughts on the matter and then discuss two of the steps that should be taken by our government.
I am in favor of immigration that is legal and limited. The national origin of our fellow American citizens and permanent residents should not matter.
Our country accepts more immigrants annually than any other country in the world.
In 2016, 1.2 million people were admitted to the United States as legal immigrants — 1,183,505 became lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, while asylum was granted to 25,900 people.
I support an annual immigration rate limited to that number.
According to the Pew Research Center, the United States has more immigrants than any other country in the world. Today, more than 40 million people living in the U.S. were born in another country, accounting for one-fifth of the world’s migrants in 2016.
But that same year there were 10.7 unauthorized immigrants in the United States, PEW reports.
Legal immigration is fine with me. Legal immigrants follow our laws, even when it may mean waiting several years or more to be admitted.
Illegal immigrants ignore our laws and violate our borders. The difference between legal and illegal is fundamental, not trivial.
I agree with the iconic Democratic Congresswomen Barbara Jordan, who was chair of the 1995 U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. In a speech to her college alma mater she said: “But we are a country of laws. For our immigration policy to make sense, it is necessary to make distinctions between those who obey the law and those who violate it. Therefore we disagree with those who label any efforts to control immigration as somehow inherently anti-immigrant. Unlawful immigration is unacceptable — period. So too is poorly regulated legal immigration because it denies some of the greatest advantages of an immigration system.”
Here are two steps that can be taken to impede the entrance of migrants who seek to enter and live in our country illegally?
One step is to construct “The Wall” or other form of physical barrier that would impede the flow of illegal migrants across our southern border. Walls are effective, albeit not 100 percent. According to the nonpartisan, Migration Policy Institute, walls have also proved effective at decreasing movement across international borders.
A border wall was built between San Diego and Tijuana in 1992. According to the United States Border Patrol, prior to the wall’s construction, 565,000 people were apprehended trying to cross the border there illegally. In 2017, the number was just 26,000.
Similarly, a wall was constructed between Tucson and Nogales, Arizona, in 2000. Apprehensions dropped from 626,000 that year to 38,000 in 2017.
According to the Harvard International Review, similar results have been achieved in at least three other countries — Israel, Egypt and Spain. A wall impedes migrant traffic where it exists. A completed wall would be more effective.
What about cost? Senate Republicans have asked for $25 billion to build a complete barrier on the southern border.
That represents 0.00568181818 percent of our $4.4 trillion fiscal 2019 federal budget, and the actual building and its funding may stretch out over a number of years.
The wall is necessary but not sufficient. Of the people in our country illegally, 40 percent overstayed their visa. That is to say, they entered the country on a legal visa and then simply didn’t leave when the visa period lapsed.
In order to minimize that number of those who cross illegally or stay illegally, it is important to take away the magnet of employment.
The U.S. civilian workforce includes 7.8 million unauthorized immigrants. E-Verify is an Internet-based system to confirm that a prospective hire is authorized to work in the United States. Today, E-Verify is primarily a voluntary program. I believe that the program needs to apply to all employers for every new hire.
Many of the people seeking to enter our country are fleeing poverty, war, gang violence and a host of other very serious problems.
Americans are a compassionate people. Private citizens donate $23 billion annually to charitable causes overseas. In 2016, our government gave $27.3 billion in non-military foreign aid — $20.5 billion in long-term development aid and $6.8 million in humanitarian aid to alleviate short-term humanitarian crises.
But there are hundreds of millions of people in the world in dire and dangerous circumstances. Looking at poverty alone, the World Bank estimates that in 2015, 736 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day.
The U.S. cannot be expected to accept all of them into our country. Compassion must have its limits.
Unfortunately, President Donald Trump is the most prominent advocate of “The Wall” and other steps to limit illegal immigration. He is incompetent and frequently mean-spirited, among his many other faults. I oppose his declaration of “national emergency.” But this is not about Donald Trump. It is about us as U.S. citizens. Congress should appropriate the funds to build the wall. We have a right to insist that our borders be respected and our laws obeyed.
Richard Fein retired from the Isenberg School of Management as the Director of the Chase Career Center for undergraduate business students. He is the author of nine books on job search skills and holds an MA in Political Science and an MBA in Economics.