– Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. –
It’s welcome news that President Obama will turn his attention to immigration reform this year, as was announced on Wednesday by Deputy Assistant to the President Cecilia Muñoz. Economic recovery will happen more quickly if both high- and low-skill immigrants are permitted to enter the United States and work legally.
Two years ago, when Congress was considering comprehensive immigration reform, both President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers and the Congressional Budget Office, headed by Peter Orszag, an economist closely identified with the Democratic Party, estimated that the benefits of additional immigrants outweighed the costs. If Congress allowed more immigration, then American taxpayers would come out ahead financially.
Yet, after Congress refused to pass President Bush’s plan to allow most undocumented workers to receive work visas and wait in line for citizenship, the Bush administration’s immigration policy deteriorated into a series of arbitrary raids on different companies, rounding up undocumented workers and deporting them, in many cases separating husbands and wives, parents and children.
We can do better. Although the unemployment rate reached 8.5 percent last month, the jobs are going to come back, and, as has been the case in the past, native-born Americans will want jobs that are different from those of immigrants, according to economics professor Giovanni Peri of the University of California at Davis.
Congress needs to overhaul immigration law and create an expanded temporary worker program with a path to citizenship, along with more verification to prevent workers from working illegally, and monitoring of tourists and students so that they do not overstay their visas.
A rational immigration policy would have numerous advantages:
- Undocumented workers would pay taxes to federal and state governments rather than to grey-market check cashing services.
- Payments for health care through insurance could be collected more easily, rather than burdening hospital emergency rooms with immigrants without health insurance.
- Foreigners who want to work here could pay the government for visas rather than pay smugglers for unsafe, illicit transportation.
- Improvements in security. Legal visas and bank accounts would make it far easier to identify and track potential terrorists, dubious financial transactions, and those who simply overstay visas.
A rational immigration policy would solve several real problems the United States faces with regard to immigration. The international economy is tremendously dynamic; our immigration system is not. Temporary workers must spend months applying for admission, and due to the pile-up in April of every year, may not even get a visa.
Few low-skilled workers have a legal and reliable method to enter this country and work legally, and few Americans want to do the jobs, such as fruit picking and cleaning, that these workers want to pursue. And even high-skilled workers trained at U.S. colleges and universities, often at taxpayer expense, might have to wait years and spend thousands of dollars to become permanent residents of the nation.
Mr. Obama might want to consider transferring the authority of setting quotas from Congress to the Labor Department. The Labor Department already has the presumptive authority to judge whether demand for foreign labor is justified, through its foreign labor certifications. If the Labor Department is allowed to determine whether or not a foreign worker would displace a native one, it could also be allowed to calculate visa quotas.
High-skilled workers educated in America ought to be able to stay; otherwise, our investment in their education becomes lost to another country. If the Labor Department determines that a foreign worker would not displace Americans, that worker should not be barred from entering the country due to an arbitrary quota. And people who want to enter this country in order to work in jobs Americans are not willing to take ought to have an easy, legal way to do so.
Mr. Obama has the opportunity to craft a sensible and dynamic immigration system. All Americans should wish him success.
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As a society, we should make an effort to structure work in a way that makes it palatable. I have a friend in his 60’s who told me that as kids they were permitted to leave school in the fall to pick apples. Now we make certain that our kids remain in school so that they are fully indoctrinated in the corporate system. One feature of this system is the formation of “think tanks” that support big agribusiness with the white papers that they “produce.” Mainstream media is indoctrinated as well and prints these same white papers without the caveat: “Beware! This article was “produced” by a big agribusiness flack!”
Barack Obama ran on a platform of comprehensive immigration..and WON!
GOP voters nominated John McCain, who also endorsed comprehensive immigration reform. Why didn’t GOP voters nominate an immigrant flame thrower like Tom Tancredo, Mitt Romney, Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, etc?
Latino voters are THE reason he won Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/cross_t abs/2008/11/the_gops_growing_latino_prob le.html
Florida ALONE is reason enough to court Latino voters. The GOP is not a viable national party without Florida.
The coasts plus Florida (not to mention Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada) guarantees Obama re-election in 2012…and a lasting Democratic majority.
Will Growing Number of Latino Voters Turn Texas into a Blue State?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=634300 6&page=1
Prosecute and punish all who live here and don’t obey ALL our laws, or our laws become meaningless.
I support the immigration reform and I hope it will happen this time around. The few who are against it in this country are a loud ignorant minority whom will have to just suck it up this time.
We cannot pick and choose which laws to obey or which may be applied to us (ourselves) as individuals or members of sub-groups.
We cannot ignore the laws we do not like and only follow those we do, nor should we encourage or promote this behavior in others.
What this person, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, is doing is actually advocating exactly that. Yet, the whole concept is kindred to things such as racism, cronyism, favoritism and pure and simple bigotry. It is a separate privilege from which only others may benefit and it is fundamentally illegal at its core.
This article is so hopelessly and completely wrong that it defies description. How could someone write such preposterous nonsense and attempt to claim any credibility?
I have a challenge for you Ms. Diana Furchtgott-Roth: we each (you and I) may pick one law to choose to ignore (and revoke), one law the suppression of which would affect only a sub-group of people now living in this country. It seems quite obvious that you have already decided to ignore several laws; immigration, residency, entry and border laws, smuggling, etc. I however will only choose to ignore (and revoke) the law of “citizenship based on birth-soil” (14th Am.). No more will persons be citizens of the USA simply by being born in this country. From now on, you are a citizen by birth if and only if your parents are USA citizens. That is the law I choose to ignore and to revoke.
Do we have a deal Ms. Diana Furchtgott-Roth ? Will you help to overturn the 14th Amendment ? If you do, I will support your laughably specious arguments to overturn the plethora of laws you appear to want eliminated or revoked. 1 each, yours and mine.
Laws we don’t like? NO! … Laws we do like? YES!
Is this how it is to be Ms. Diana Furchtgott-Roth ?
Before you get started - this is not the same thing as fighting a Civil War to end the horrors of slavery. This is not about civil disobedience to protest laws on abortion, Selective Service or draft, etc. This is about choosing to ignore laws so that a small group may gain special and anomalous benefits. Don’t you dare try to equate freeing slaves to allowing foreign nationals to break a plethora of the USA’s laws. I sincerely hope that not even an intellectual charlatan such as yourself would stoop so low.
I wonder if Diana Furchtgott-Roth ever had to worry about getting laid off, or does she have lifetime tenure like many other academics? I wonder if she ever had to face wage competition in a shrinking labor market where real wages have been at best flat, or are her skills developing deep theories she congers up at the Hudson Institute so in demand that she has no fear of an economy shrinking under her feet. In the real world, people think about these things.
Maybe she should get a real job and see what its all about.
This lady is absolutely loyal to Israel and the Jewish interests, and cares not for the USA, workers, or US voting majority will.
The author states, “Legal visas and bank accounts would make it far easier to identify and track potential terrorists. . .” What would prevent a potential terrorist from entering the country illegally and continue living here without documentation? Any changes to the system will aid those interested in obeying the law.
I would desire stricter employment laws requiring some demonstration that there is, in fact, no US citizen interested or qualified to perform a job. If the minimum-wage jobs paid sufficiently to allow an individual to support his or her family there might be more US citizens interested in the jobs that are currently considered “unwanted.”
Another fine propaganda piece by Furchtgott-Roth. The American dream has died with “free” trade, outsourcing, robotics, building American corporate facilities overseas and tolerance of illegal immigration. What American in their right mind wants a middle class, minimum or sub-minimum wage job which is worth less than it was 30 years ago? How can an American compete with a few billion workers around the world who will work for $2-$3 a day?
It’s a great worldwide labor leveling pushed by corporate interests while they work for even more tax cuts, both personal and corporate.
Goodbye America. Hello U.S. Banana Republic. It’s as certain as the sun rising with world-wide corporations running the world and its governments.
After every American has realized the American dream, then we’ll consider immigration.
These fools conflate the economy with the country. Two different things. We can pack in a billion people here to “grow” the economy, but the country will resemble Mexico on steroids.
“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” - Adam Smith, economist and ethicist
Everything you need to know about immigration and what to do about it humorously told.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBw1nUlf3 8I
(Roy Beck and NumbersUSA are the “gumball” heroes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuO fQ
Oh yeah, I forgot.
Legalizing millions of law breakers also means that these people have more rights then you. If you or I break a law, we get the punishment that the law describes. They break the law, live on the benefits that this country has to offer, then get rewarded with legal status because they are more important to politicians and corporate interests than you or I. Ms. Furchtgott-Roth should spend some time living in the real world where people have to compete for jobs, produce as expected or be fired, and be responsible for themselves and others. I’d like to see how long she would last having to produce more then just some wonky policy paper where there is no downside for her being wrong.
Well written Todd. I agree with most everything you said but I’d like to add that another reason the illegal immigrant is willing to take these low wage jobs is because they tend to go against the traditional American lifestyle of a one-family residence. Instead they opt to live with siblings, nieces, nephews, etc oftentimes placing 8-15 people in homes that were designed for 4-5. But how else can they afford to live in America with the wages they are being paid? They can’t, which is why the employers need to stop being greedy and pay what Americans are willing to accept for “low skill” positions.
Also, the immigration laws are VERY biased. I married a woman from a foreign country and spent thousands of dollars and countless hours filing the proper paperwork to get my wife to the US legally. It then took over one year to process and approve the visa. And because not many tourist visas are issued to residents of my wife’s country, I now have a slew of close relatives that are not able to visit my daughter.
So, my blood boils when I hear comments like this:
“Bush administration’s immigration policy deteriorated into a series of arbitrary raids on different companies, rounding up undocumented workers and deporting them, in many cases separating husbands and wives, parents and children.”
Stop blaming the government for separating families and trying to engage the emotions of naive, ignorant Americans. Each and every immigrant (regardless of legal status) makes a conscious choice to leave their families or risk being separated from their families.
Its always about the money, isn’t it. No thought at all about laws that are intentionally ignored because they happen to serve someones special interest group or their personal “feelings”. No thought at all about the millions of Americans who haven’t realized the “American dream” for themselves yet, just more competition for the American worker. These pseudo intellectual policy people don’t care at all about American citizens, they only care about what serves their purpose. They’re willing to reward the millions of law breakers with legality, which just encourages more illegality because it establishes the precedent and they can justify law breaking because “its good for the economy”. What they REALLY want is another voting block and cheaper labor. They willing to make American residency and citizenship the cheapest in the world because it serves their agenda, in the mean time, your children’s future is sold to the lowest bidder. Its not the late 19th or early 20th century anymore. We don’t need more people to work in heavy industry at low wages. We want the best and the brightest, but were taking the lowest and most dependent.
The census for births was released just last week. It showed that there were more Americans born in this country than at any other time in history. Way more than is needed to replace the population. What about their futures? Will they get the country that was passed on to you?
88% of the people in American DON”T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN. But the socialist don’t care what you want, they only care about what they want.
Welcome to the United Corporate / Socialist States of Mexico.
I do not believe Ms. Roth would feel the same way if one of these immigrants were a journalist and successfully took her job away from her for lower wage than she was paid. Then she would loose her house and starve like the rest of us unemployed.
I hope people like her get a “taste” of their own “do do”
This is another form of slavery.You cannot be so naive as to think this isn’t wrong.A decent livable wage must be paid for ANY job.Wealth must be more fairly distributed.Years of disparity have destroyed the American dream.To encourage action like this will welcome revolution.Maybe this would be a good thing.Every house needs a good cleaning out once in a while.
How the heck does Amnesty for criminals help the economy?
How does Amnesty get 13,000,000 unemployed Families back to work?
How does Amnesty stop the flow of illegals into this country?
The answer is Amnesty hurts this nations citizens and the American unemployed and it will only encourage more illegals to come to this nation like the misguided Amnesty of 1986!
http://www.numbersusa.com
When it comes to economic recovery the answer is not amnesty. Many native Americans are struggling right now and you would like to kick the door open to more of the same. Run away population in is a concern for our world and our nation. American’s are tired of falling for the banana in the tail pipe trick. I believe Pres. Obama will experience a grand opposition in any attempt to grant amnesty.
I believe this journalist should simply say she is for free immigration.
No need to figure out some weird reason to let foreign people enter.
Any other comment is a nonsense in my opinion.
A “rational immigration policy” would be one where we enforce the laws already on the books, deport those who are in this country illegally and stop using the word “undocumented workers”. They are criminals despite your opinion or position on the subject.
The “jobs Americans don’t want” is a fallacy and myth wrapped in a far left ideological lie. And if there are a few jobs Americans don’t want why not look at why? improve the working conditions and wages to the required level and people will want those jobs.
People like you would rather see illegal immigrants working to pay taxes than make those industries relying on such slave labor change their HR policies and wage structure to employ Americans who need jobs. I personally feel that those who share your opinion are traitors to citizens of this country who want fair wages and stable employment. Your ideology wreaks of disdain your fellow Americans and unfortunately you’re too blind by your cause to be embarrassed.
“Bush administration’s immigration policy deteriorated into a series of arbitrary raids on different companies, rounding up undocumented workers and deporting them, in many cases separating husbands and wives, parents and children.
We can do better.”
Yes, we certainly can. We can continue to enforce the laws on the books in this nation without prejudice and with more diligence such as shutting down corporations profiting through the use of illegal labor. Economic recovery in America will only occur when Americans have jobs, not foreigners.