A Good Immigration Bill
Family reunification should be supported to the extent of holding the nuclear family together; keeping spouses and children together makes good humanitarian, social, and cultural sense. But narrowing family immigration categories—as well as eliminating the random "visa lottery" program that allows in 50,000 people a year—would open up over 200,000 annual slots for legal permanent residents.
Skills needed. The proposed point system favors applicants who speak English, who have a higher education and specific job skills, and who can address our shortages such as nurse's aides or researchers. This would redress the gross imbalance of the moment and align American policy more closely with an American ideal-meritocracy. In an increasingly globalized economy, we need skill! Last year 63 percent of visas went to relatives of U.S. citizens or legal residents; only 13 percent went to individuals because of their skills; and only 37,000 went to workers with high-priority skills, such as professors and engineers.
The second good thing is that the senators' bill tackles what we do with the estimated 12 million people who have been living here illegally. Many of them have been here for years, if not decades; they own businesses and homes and have given birth to children who are automatically U.S. citizens. Hardly anybody thinks that they can be rounded up and sent home. A drive to deport them would cost billions and require police to raid the barrios of our cities. It would strike much of the public as draconian.
Surely the only practical solution is to identify these unauthorized workers, and their families, as genuine immigrants (and not creators of terrorist cells) and give them a way to end up on the right side of the law. The cry has gone up that this is an amnesty. Not so. The bill spells out a long route to legality and citizenship. Illegal immigrants could apply for a green card only after the 4 million families who are now in line for immigrant visas have been cleared through the system; this process would take an estimated eight years. Illegal immigrants would thus not have an advantage over those who have played by the rules. They would also have to pay fines and demonstrate that they have clean records. In a sense, they would be allowed to earn citizenship over time—an American version of a "second chance."
To win conservative support for this position, the bill calls for substantially stepped up security to be in place before more immigrants are admitted. We do have to get control of our borders. And a second lock is also justified: The bill would sanction businesses that hire illegal immigrants and would assist employers in verifying that job applicants are here legally. To acquiesce in 12 million people living in the shadows is corrosive to the rule of law. These people must be incorporated into America's social fabric.
This ingenious compromise owes much to the bipartisan leadership of John McCain and Edward Kennedy. Both sides have accepted things they do not like. The Democrats accepted a constrained temporary-worker program in exchange for winning a pathway to legalization for those here. The Republicans are willing to provide illegal immigrants the path to citizenship in return for getting a more secure border and eliminating the much-abused extended chain of family relations.
But the real linchpin is skills-based immigration. If that survives, we will have an opportunity to rationalize immigration in a way that works for America.
A strong majority of the American people want Congress to reflect the bipartisan origin of the bill—problem solving instead of problem creating. The endless politicking that has accompanied the debate is a disservice to everyone. Immigration is both the history and destiny of America. Let's get it right.
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