Bipartisan Legislation on Undocumented Immigration

[vcczar]

Let's see if we can also reach something close to a concensus on this issue. 

Typically I get the idea that the divide is often between focusing on treating undocumented immigrants respectfully in a humanitarian way or by treating them as perps who have broken the law. I think the goal if this exercise should be to harmonize this. Here are some questions:

• What incentivizes immigrating people to break immigration laws? What can be done to weaken or eradicate these incentives?
• What ways could we strictly enforce the law while also treating immigrating people humanely? What inhuman rhetoric, language, or actions regarding immigration could be altered or eradicated?
• What could be done with the immigration process to better decrease undocumented immigration or better document immigrants?
• What requirements of naturalization and immigration should be changed?
• Here are some random immigration facts that might play a role in our discussion:
  • Temporary employment seems to be one of three major causes of undocument immigration. Many coming from Mexico to border states to work under-the-table for US employers, typically under the minimum wage and without benefits or healthcare. These jobs are often jobs that US citizens don't want, except for cases of desperation unless they're well paid.
  • Family reunification is another of the three major causes. These might be spouses, children, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, siblings, of immigrants, whether documented or not. 
  • Humanitarian protection is the third of three major causes. These are often people who cannot get asylum or refugee status for whatever reason, althought this shouldn't discount that they aren't worthy of getting it. Urgency might be the issue. 
  • A major cause of undocumented immigration is long backlogs and waits and restrictions to certain nations with high immigration rates. 
  • Mexico has the highest rate of undocumented immigration and for temp workers. Many go back to Mexico after making some under-the-table money. The rate of Mexican undocumented immigration is dropping, actually, w/ Cent America and Asia on the rise.
  • China has the highest rate of immigrants that come over for education, although they're almost all documented. 
  • India has the highest rate of immigrants that come over for permanent employment, although they're almost all documented. 
  • 11 million undocumented immigrants are believed to live in the US with 2/3rds having been here over a decade.
  • Overstaying one's VISA is a rising issue
  • Undocumented immigration related to drugs or violent crime are certainly an issue, but it's a very small part of undocumented immigration, and could be considered mostly a different issue. 
  • Xenophobia and American Nationalism certainly plays a role in this discussion. I like to combat this with two things: 1) We have always been a nation of immigrants and its people the children of immigrants, even some of the Founding Fathers were born overseas, and not just in England either. 2) George Washington said it best when he wrote in a letter to a xenophobic that while the immigrants may keep to their language and customs, their children, and especially their grandchildren will be Americans. 

I'm certainly for creating an immigration law that is somewhat inflexible (barring some exceptions), so long as it is a clear law and that the process for immigration is more user-friendly. And that the process treats immigrants respectfully as human beings and not just as statistics, vermin, or worse. I think conservatives might get a win on this just by changing their rhetoric to diffuse liberal opposition. Something as simple as changing "Illegal Alien" to "Undocumented immigrants" in their daily word choice would diffuse a lot of heat. 

I think in the end, both liberals and conservatives want laws that work, so a lot of what needs to be done is sort of making small agreements on little things like terminology. 

Anyway, I'm just rambling. I'm curious what we come up with. 

[DakotaHale]

I for one would be in favor of a wall

[vcczar]

1 hour ago, DakotaHale said:

I for one would be in favor of a wall

I'd like to avoid it for many reasons, but I'll see what else we get in this package first. I won't say it's off the table. I'm just strongly against it for now.

[Rezi]

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breath free!

[WVProgressive]

• What could be done with the immigration process to better decrease undocumented immigration or better document immigrants? What incentivizes immigrating people to break immigration laws? What can be done to weaken or eradicate these incentives? The Cato Institute has a great list of reasons which I'll link at the end. I think overall the solution is to relax our immigration laws. To get specific I would support:

1. Increasing the number of 'genius/artists' visas and visas for immigrants without college degrees;
2. Creating a new visa category for entrepreneurs and a temporary visa category for year round workers without college degrees
3. Allowing immigrants to apply for citizenship without needing a sponsor;
4. Getting rid of the 21 cutoff age for children of temporary workers being eligible to obtain permanent residence;
5. Allowing the spouses and children of temporary residents to work;
6. Making it easier for temporary workers to change jobs;
7. Banning non-citizens from accessing federal welfare programs;
8. Creating a way for immigrants to appeal visa denials.

We also need to streamline the process, decrease our backlog, and work towards a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who haven't commit a crime with a preference for those who have been here longer, and those employed in critical industries.

• What ways could we strictly enforce the law while also treating immigrating people humanely? What inhuman rhetoric, language, or actions regarding immigration could be altered or eradicated? The best way to reduce migration from our southern neighbors is to encourage Stability, Democracy, and Liberalism in Central, and South America. Many of these migrants are fleeing states on the brink of collapsing under the weight of their own corruption, and mired in economic struggles that make the Great Recession look mild. The majority of immigrants, illegal or otherwise, are simply people looking for hope, looking to pursue the American dream, and our rhetoric should reflect that, while also being mindful of the potential impact they could have on our culture (such as we saw in Hamtramck, Michigan recently where Muslim immigrants refused to adapt to our culture, took political power, and are now imposing third world/Republican values on everyone). The later issue is mainly a problem with Arab/Desi immigrants though, which make up a rather small percentage of total immigration, the vast majority of them legally too so tougher enforcement won't solve the problem. Back to the topic at hand, we should balance punishing noncompliance with compliance assistance. I'm not opposed to migrant detention in theory, though I do believe the facilities, and procedure can, and should be handled in a much more humane way.
• What requirements of naturalization and immigration should be changed? See my first response.

 

https://www.cato.org/blog/why-legal-immigration-system-broken-short-list-problems