– 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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It is obvious that Diane Furchtgott-Roth is painfully out of touch with the viewpoint of most Americans. Over 95% of the responses to her article are NOT in favor of granting
citizenship to illegal immigrants that are taking jobs from Americans who are willing to
do them. The problem is not lazy Americans - it is opportunistic, ILLEGAL immigrants.
They are by law here breaking the law, should be deported along with family members,
and by no means given a chance at citizenship.
Sincerely,
A Berkeley Liberal
In my economics courses we were taught that this sentence is incomplete: “People who want to enter this country to work in jobs Americans are not willing to take ought to have an easy, legal way to do so.”
The proper wording is “People who want to enter this country to work in jobs Americans are not willing to take AT THE PRICE (or wage) BEING OFFERED….”
How can an economist leave out such an important part of the equation?
Economists seem to be engaging in a lot of sloppy thinking lately.
What exactly is a job that “an American is not willing to do?” Perhaps the employer isn’t paying enough or is abusive to their workers because illegals have to put up with it.
This commentary could only be written by a rich privileged fat cat of the district who wants to have their gardening,dog walking, house cleaning and laundry done on the cheap. Out in the real world of working men and women - we know American jobs should be done by American citizens. The Democrats have pulled off the greatest illusion trick in the history of illusions - the rich have convinced the poor they are their greatest champion while in truth they continue to manipulate the country so the rich get richer.
what garbage. all’s we hear from these self serving pundits is politically biased comments from some tenured economics professor, who more than likely have never run a business or gotten their hands dirty doing hard work.
americans would take those jobs, but the employers have been immersed in a culture of cash-under-the-table for so long that they feel it would be cost prohibitive to do it over the table. and they are right. the cost of complying with all the government mandates is why the employers continue to hire illegals. and that is why there would be no rush by illegals to become citizens.
what would you do if you had the choice? live with multiple false id’s, pay no income tax, get free medical care, free government assistance, free education for your kids, and get paid cash, OR join the ranks of american citizens, the over taxed, unemployed, cannot afford health insurance, etc., etc.
a native spanish speaking individual can walk into a mexican consulate here in the U.S. and get a legal mexican ID with absolutely no verification whatsoever. and then come back a week later and get another, then another, and so on.
And that’s what they do. And that’s what I would do if I could. And so would most of you if you had a choice.
this woman is out of touch with reality.
When enough of them get here and drive the wages of enough jobs down far enough, no one will want to work as an architect, plumber, engineer, doctor, lawyer, etc. That’s like burning someone’s house down and then saying, “Well, you didn’t want to live in a burned out house anyway”.
Why do we get the sense that what she really wanted to say is : ‘Well, it’s cheaper to let the retards take the crap jobs that nobody wants’. This is the voice of the RICH who have a pathology for obtaining OBSCENE margins (and therefore paying obscenely low wages). If these jobs payed well enough, the RICH would have no problem finding workers. (Don’t hold your breath - it’s a fetish thing).
The problem is Mexico not the United States. Mexico ‘dumps’ their most valuable asset on our doorsteps. The 100 families that control 95% of Mexico’s economic wealth don’t give a damn. Better to send the ‘la gente’ north than have them start a revolution in the country.
Until they have a ‘comprehensive economic reform’(revolution) we, the United States, will continue to pay the penalty for Mexico’s internal problem.
I love hearing elitist speak about “jobs that Americans wont take” I think what she really means is “jobs like white breads like me find underneath me”
Pretty much any job that pays a fair wage is gonna get grabbed up. I mean yeah most ppl wont haul away trash for 8$ (hard smelly back breaking work) But were I use to live they had no problem finding ppl with 14$ a hour wages. By the same token most of the ppl I have talked to who support cheap immigrant labor just want to be able to staff there hotels with minimume wage staff.
Oh and LOL at the whole immigrant workers and health care bit, I mean come on, this lady actually believes that an illegal is sudden going to be able to afford health care if he/she becomes legal?
The “jobs that Americans won’t take” are jobs that aren’t paid according to skill level and experience. And with benefits. Many contractors will go to Home Depot, put a bunch of illegals in their truck and go to a home construction site, whereupon the inexperienced illegals make big mistakes in roofing, hanging drywall, plumbing, you name it. Why should any American get paid correctly when illegals will work for practically nothing. Sorry, but this “Americans won’t do” argument is just hogwash. Plus, there is the extra added disaster of breaking the law. Criminals will work for practically nothing.
Can’t she speak about anything else? America doesn’t need anymore people or workers. All more immigrants are going to do is create more politicians and more of an employment and economical problem than we already have. Our politicians need to start standing on the principals of our constitution. We are a republic and we should be acting like one. We don’t need more politically ignorant citizens in our country voting for the likes of obama, clinton, bush, or mccain and letting them get away with not obeying our laws. We already have far too many here now as it is.
This is the type of vermin who staffed the Department of Labor for the last few decades.
Well, this article was so much half truths and propaganda it’s amazing.
We do need better immigration policy. Has the author seen the line outside the building in Los Angeles? People want to get into our country legally, at least good people do.
But there are so many issues like ‘Z’ visas, that people flatly reject. The populations in prisons are proof they don’t just come here to pick lettuce. So, all the twisted half truths don’t wash in this story.
I bet AP has a similar story, since they’re so dependably left wing also.
Can’t they just reform the INS paper pushing log jams, then adjust the immigration quotas to be more realistic where needed?
Temporary worker program yes. But WITHOUT a path to citizenship. The country doesn’t need millions of new unskilled citizens, only left-wing politicians want to expand their voter base at the conutry’s expense.
Nothing is mentioned about the true costs of illegal immigration to state and local governments as well as a population of 450 million in the US by 2050! Think we have have traffic problems, water problems and pollution problems, wait until we reach half the size of China! Go to FAIRUS.ORG to see how you can help create immigration policies that are in line with the true interests of US citizens and taxpayers. Congress won’t get it until citizens are ringing their phones off the hooks.
I believe we have to get used to the idea that this country was built by immigrants and that’s the reality. Immigrants are willing to do the work Americans don’t want to do. Our economy is worst then ever due to the American greed and their egos. On the other hand, China and India are on the rise. They produced the best engineers, doctors, and everyone in between. The US is losing lots of money by no allowing immigrants to work legal. America has become lazy and enriched other countries by buying their cars, technology, furniture, etc. We do not care if our company is doing good or not as long as we get our hourly rate. What happened in Detroit? I don’t understand how can a person making 30-50 dollars an hour for 20-30 years are losing their home and everything else. I wonder why? I would continue with my point of view but I actually need to go back to work. Peace.
What this is really about is governments failure to fix festering problems. Take Social security. In the beginning, there were about 20 payers into the system. today there are about 10. In the near future there will be about 2 payers into this entitlement program and that makes it unfeasible. What they are trying to do is to stuff as many people into the U.S. as they can to bring the numbers of payers into entitlement programs back to a number that will alleviate some of the shortfall. as they can. This along with the added benefits to pandering politicians for a voting block and cheaper labor to corporations. So for the politicians and their corporate lap dogs, this all makes sense for them. They don’t care a bit about what it will do to the country and the environment from having to feed, house and maintaining the 400+ million people who are forecast to be living in the country in 2050.
If this passes and millions of illegals are given amnesty, expect a very bad reaction. It would mean that your American citizenship is the cheapest in the world.
After a recent trip to western europe recently, I was amazed at all of the nationals doing labor that Americans supposedly “shun”. I do not buy the argument that native born Americans are unwilling to do jobs that illegal immigrants are. This is merely a muse by big business to keep labor cost low. It is also intellectual fodder for those that debate these issues who have no contact with those involved with the Americans with whom compete with illegal undocumented workers.
All countries in the world have sovereign borders. All countries enforce those borders and have immigration controls (except perhaps Afghanistan and Somalia). All countries have a process for gaining citizenship that does not involve walking across the border obtain a job illegally and, then, eventually hope to gain citizenship
“because were here”.
I, as an American, worked illegally in a western european country as well as Japan fora total of 2 years when I was in my 20’s. I knew full well at that time -if I was found out, I would be deported. I did not expect them to be lenient with me and expect them to grant me a work visa and residency status. This is a realty.
In addition - the concept of an “anchor baby” (having a child here granted citizenship) is also wrong.
Wow. When did Americans lose their ability to reason out a problem? People are so busy defending their “values” and “culture”, that they can’t just stop and find a solution.
Yes, illegal immigration is a problem. But why is it problem? The reason is not baby-toting immigrants from third world countries who want to swindle Americans out of money and jobs, and then have babies here to take over our culture too. The reason is because America has jobs and money, and their country doesn’t. It takes YEARS to be able to get into the country and work, meanwhile their family is starving.
So now that we know the problem, we can find a solution. Making it easier and quicker to get a temp work visa would go a long way to solving the problem. Put a cap on the number of people coming in for a certain period to prevent a large influx of people. Actually enforce the illegal immigration laws on companies to make cheap labor not so cheap. As for amnesty for current illegals, take it on a case-by-case basis. Some of the people living here illegally actually deserve to be here.
Come on people. This is only a problem because we’re making it so.
If there is no immigration reform in this country, it will turn out to be in the future a country with illiterate citizens.
Right now the majority of the immigration cannot even access higher education. In the next 10 years, these immigrants will become a large piece of the population doing jobs that no one wants and with families that barely finish high school.
Is this the future that this country wants?. A middle class that cannot afford school and an illegal immigrant class that is banned from doing so?.