Herein lies the president’s immigration paradox: His constitutional role as chief enforcer of federal laws flies directly in the face of what he believes those laws should provide. The recently announced initiatives reflect an effort by the administration to minimize this incoherence between practice and principle, as do prior actions such as the courageous Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals directive, which used inherent executive authority to explicitly protect DREAM Act-eligible youth, undocumented immigrants who are Americans in every way but their papers, from deportation. Still, the senseless human toll and economic harm resulting from the continued expansion of immigration enforcement without a corresponding change in the laws cannot be corrected by administrative policy alone, and it can no longer be defended merely by reference to the rule of law. Here are three basic reasons why Congress must pass comprehensive reform. Families matter. Permanently separating family members simply because of a lack of immigration status—without, for example, an actual criminal conviction—is un-American. As Seth Freed Wessler has estimated, more than 200,000 parents of children who are U.S. citizens were deported between 2010 and 2012. This accounted for nearly 23 percent of all deportations. Of the roughly 400,000 people deported in 2011, more than half of them were not criminals. Workers matter. All workers suffer when an underground labor market is allowed to worsen wages and working conditions. Bringing undocumented workers off the economic sidelines and into the legal fold raises working standards and increases economic growth and productivity. This is reflected in a broad range of research from progressive and conservative think tanks, as well as from government agencies. Taxpayer dollars matter. Finally, it is fiscally counterproductive and irrational to spend literally billions of dollars attempting to deport people who have committed no crimes, who are otherwise contributing to America’s prosperity, and who would contribute more if provided legal status. The government, however, spent a total of $17.1 billion on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol, the two agencies charged with immigration enforcement, in FY 2012. The decision to draw a brighter line between federal authorities and local police officers in the enforcement of immigration law, coupled with the posting of a final rule that will help families comply with the law without unnecessary separation, shows that the Obama administration is trying to rationalize a rigid and flawed immigration system. But only a legislative overhaul that provides a pathway to legal status for the millions of undocumented immigrants—already Americans in everything but paperwork—can align our enforcement policies with our national economic and social interests. If Congress were to legalize these millions of individuals, it would grow the economy, promote family stability, and save taxpayer dollars.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 12:35:41 +0000
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