Weekly Briefing

Event highlights why immigration reform should be a part of our national recovery

For decades, one of the most persistent stereotypes in American policy and politics has involved the depiction of conservatives as hard-headed realists and progressives as hopeless dreamers. Think about it: we can all easily conjure up such images. Many progressives have helped promote the myth themselves.  

Often, however, the opposite is actually the case. For a good example, take a look at the current debate over national immigration policy.

On one side is the anti-immigrant right. Led by a passionate group of overwhelmingly white, European-Americans, this side seeks to hold back the latest tide of newcomers – mostly from Latin America and other points south. Though often couched in terms of law and order, the actual, overarching goal of this group is clear (just as they have been for virtually every other anti-immigrant movement around the world since the beginning of time): to keep out “the other.”

These activists have an idealized vision of America – often derived from a rose tinted view of their childhoods – in which friends and neighborhoods were static and familiar, diversity was limited, and English was the only language ever heard. This group sees large infusions of darker-skinned people speaking different languages as a threat to this vision. They fear dramatic change and look desperately for ways to stave it off – whether it’s through building big fences, denying health care and education to children, passing “English only” laws, empowering midnight raids that sweep up whole neighborhoods, or creating a domestic gulag to hold those detained.   

Now, contrast this with the progressive take on immigration. Sure, some pro-immigration advocates can get a little mushy when talking about human cooperation and harmony between different races and ethnicities, but, for the most part, the overarching motivations for the progressive take on immigration are tough-minded and pragmatic.

Pragmatic progressives

Progressives don’t favor comprehensive immigration reform that would dramatically increase the number of legal immigrants because they’re under any illusion that it will create some kind of multihued utopia. Some may imagine such a world and work toward it, but for the most part, progressives favor real reform because:

1. They know that we have no choice. Whether anyone likes it or not, there are enormous global forces at work – economic, demographic, and environmental – that make significant immigration to the United States inevitable, unavoidable and irreversible.
2. They know the United States economy needs immigrants. As the U.S. population rapidly ages, immigration provides an essential source of new, younger workers that can prevent a demographic crisis. Who do you think is going to pay for Social Security for retiring Generation X’ers?
3. Progressives fear for their own freedom and civil liberties. They know that the only plausible way to halt and reverse immigration (i.e. to martial the forces necessary to arrest and deport millions of people and/or make their lives so miserable that they’ll voluntarily self-deport) would involve the construction of a police/apartheid state of such massive proportions that everyone’s civil rights and liberties will endangered.

In other words, progressives favor comprehensive reform that would dramatically expand legal immigration because they see the reality of the world that confronts their country. They recognize that the nation cannot thrive in the interconnected economy of the 21^st Century by closing its doors and putting its head in the sand. They may wish that things were easier or that such hard realities could be avoided, but they understand the difference between wishing and thinking.

They understand that if the Unites States is to continue to thrive as a healthy and free country that preserves and promotes its historical commitment to democratic government and individual freedom, it must get about the business of intentionally turning the immigration issue to the advantage of its people. It must welcome immigrants and devote significant resources to integrating them into American society as rapidly and thoroughly as possible. It must, in short, re-imagine and reenergize its longstanding claim to be the world’s great melting pot.

National recovery

In the long run, such a renewed commitment to liberalized and regularized immigration policies offers enormous advantages to the U.S. – both economically and in the moral authority it will lend to the country’s foreign policy. As the country continues the work of repairing its fiscal and economic standing and international reputation in the aftermath of the disastrous Bush-Cheney years, few steps could send a stronger signal to the rest of the world that the nation had turned an important page.  

This Thursday morning, January 14, at 10:00 a.m., advocates for such a rational policy shift will gather near the state Capitol Building in downtown Raleigh for a rally and press conference. The event is part of a new, national movement known as the Campaign to Reform Immigration for America. In keeping with the themes of pragmatism and national recovery and renewal, the group is emphasizing four common sense arguments. Here are some highlights:

1. For America’s Families - The family is the basic unit of our society, and immigrants who have the support of strong families are more likely to contribute to society, pay taxes, and start businesses that create jobs….It doesn’t make sense to spend billions of dollars rounding people up, breaking up families, shutting down businesses, and deporting people who are working, learning English, and putting down roots here. For immigrants who don’t have legal status, we should require them to come out of the shadows and register, pay taxes, and start working toward becoming Americans, while keeping their families together.
2. For America’s Workers - Reforming immigration will help protect all workers from exploitation and unfair competition….When [undocumented workers] are on equal footing with other workers, unscrupulous employers will not easily be able to pit one group of workers against another, driving down wages for all Americans….Reforming immigration is an important part of fixing the ailing economy. The federal government has an obligation to reform immigration for all American workers.
3. For America’s Economy - Today, almost every American company needs smart planning, to navigate through hard times and be ready for growth when the economy recovers. Unfortunately, for too many American businesses, the unreliable and obsolete immigration system makes planning for the future more difficult….One of the challenges American businesses face today is the aging American workforce, the rapid retirement of the large Baby Boomer generation. To maintain a balanced and a stable workforce, American businesses must find younger workers, especially in manual labor jobs. With more and more US citizen youth earning high school and college degrees, the trend is making the prospects of adequately filling jobs in certain sectors extremely difficult, even in this tough economy.
4. For America’s Security - The immigration system we have today makes little sense in terms of America’s security. With few legal options to come in through the system, many seek ways to go around it. The broken system has spawned a thriving market for smugglers and has generated chaos on the border. A seemingly random enforcement regime targets ordinary immigrant workers and families, diverting resources away from protecting against genuine threats. Millions of immigrants are unknown to the government. Unscrupulous employers have little fear of punishment for recruiting and exploiting undocumented workers and undermining their honest competitors.

Immigration reform will allow more immigrants to come with a visa, not with a smuggler. It will require undocumented immigrants to get right with the law, register with the government, and go through government background security checks. This screening process will separate ordinary immigrants who have come seeking opportunities to better their lives from those who may be exploiting opportunities a broken system provides to those who may be coming to do us harm.”

Let’s hope that the group, its event and its arguments have the desired effect on North Carolina’s political leadership. They just might if those leaders considering the matter with their heads and hearts.  

For more information on the event, you can contact event organizers at either of the following email addresses:

ggillis@reformimmigrationforamerica.org or igodinez@reformimmigrationforamerica.org.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 11:08 am and is filed under Weekly Briefing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.