Position Paper: Immigration

[Note: this position paper, as all position papers, is a work in progress. I expect to put some more links and facts in here, and - who knows? - maybe I'll flip-flop somewhere along the line.]



With the exception of 100% pure Native Americans, every person who lives in America has immigrants in their background. I have some from the 1600s, and a Japanese sister-in-law. This is the norm for Americans - we live with immigration and immigrants as part of our lives and part of our economy.

Immigration is complicated - Americans enjoy relatively cheap prices for many products and services that require cheap labor. Aliens, both legal and illegal, provide much of the labor for this part of the economy. While many Americans have been smugly monolingual their whole lives, learning a second language is becoming increasingly important in the job market. Deporting fathers and mothers and putting their citizen children into foster care doesn't feel right, but is what the law prescribes. Immigrants have lower than average income, and thus are net recipients of federal assistance instead of net contributors.

My stance comes from 3 main beliefs:
1) America does not deport its citizens
2) All children born on US soil are US citizens
3) It is morally reprehensible to break up a loving family for any reason

The Federal Fiscal Case

US law accords citizens with a certain set of rights and responsibilities. It also accords all people on US soil legally with a certain set of rights and responsibilities. I'm not a lawyer, and have some more study to do before I add a bunch of links to this post. Among some of these rights and responsibilities are to abide by US law, pay taxes, primary and secondary education, police and fire protection, protection from discrimination based on certain demographic facts, receive Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and voting.

There is an argument that illegal aliens receive far more from the government than they put in. The Center for Immigration Studies says that it's fiscally worse to grant such aliens citizenship than it is to keep them as non-citizens. That is, most households headed by illegal aliens consume more federal dollars than they pay in taxes, to the tune of $2700 per household per year. But households headed by citizens in the same income bracket consume far more: $7500 per household per year. (The CIS is nominally non-partisan but is headed by Mark Krikorian, who often writes for right-leaning organizations.)

Most of this money, reports CIS, goes to providing services for US-born citizen children of illegal aliens. Which means that even in households headed by illegal aliens, the bulk of services are provided o US citizens. CIS also reports that because illegal aliens do not consume Social Security but do pay in to the system, that they provide a net benefit to the social welfare net in the US.

Arrest and deportation are lengthy and expensive processes (need link). But in the long-term, it is likely cheaper to arrest and deport than grant amnesty. The fiscal case is fairly clear.

The Cultural Shift Case

There is undoubtedly a shift in culture. That's what cultures do, and have been doing for centuries. The broader question is simpler: is American culture changing in a good way? I would argue that there is no good answer to the broad, simple question. There are pieces of the changing landscape that I love - the rise of bilingual education, Spanish and Chinese TV channels, cartoons on PBS that feature non-whites as leading characters. There are pieces I don't love - the sexualization of children (bikinis and high heels for toddlers????), increasing acceptance of pornography, a focus on differences instead of commonalities.

I am far less concerned with immigrants' negative influences on American culture than I am with Americans' negative influence on American culture. Bring on the Espanol - and make sure my kids learn it, too.

The Social Welfare Case

When did it become acceptable to break up a family just because they are of different nationality? One can argue that when a parent breaks the law, they go to jail. Got that, it's complicated, but okay. That's the law-and-order argument, and I understand it.

I disagree with it completely, however, because it is myopic. For one, if my crime is to drive into Canada, get a job, and raise my kids there, it's not reason enough for Canada to raise my Canadian-citizen kids without me and put me in jail or deport me to Peoria. For another, our tax structure and economy depends on population growth.

Industrial nations have, on average, a steady population. Russia, Germany, France, and Japan all have declining populations. This decline is balanced by US population growth. The largest driver for US population growth is immigrants and their children. If we are interested in our taxes and social welfare benefits being similar to what current retirees enjoy, we need immigrants. And we should be grateful that we don't have to resort to the same kinds of incentives that Russia and Germany have done (which don't work).

My position

It is too late to deport the 12 million people here illegally. So what do we do in the near term?

America needs to welcome immigrants. Many of those immigrants' children are citizens. So what do we do to welcome these citizens' parents and help them contribute to the country's welfare? For one, we need to grant green cards to parents of citizens. If those parents commit crimes other than entering or living in the US illegally, they go to jail just like any other criminal. A green card means lots of things: driver's license, marriage (and divorce), Social Security (if you have worked more than 10 years before retiring), voting in local elections, and a host of other things. It also means you have to tell the government every time you move, have to carry ID with you at all times, may never be able to live outside of the US again, and have to deal with the possibility that the US government can pull your permanent status any time you leave the country (see Extended Stay section in previous link).

In the long term, America needs to realistically assess its appetite. Do we really want that cheap produce, cleaning service, construction labor, or taxi driver? If so, we already have an incentive for them to come. We need to make an incentive for them to come legally. I'm not sure what that is, but it would likely look like a guest worker program, somewhere between nothing and a green card.

Will this solve our problems? Of course not. It resolves a quandary about citizen children and illegal alien parents, and puts the money on the table where we can see it instead of being hidden in a shadow economy. It costs more in the short run as these newly permanent residents use government services, but is a great benefit in the long run as the US economy maintains enough young workers to keep the economy going and sustains the tax base so old people like me (in their 30s) can realistically think about retiring someday.