NAOC > Legislation > CIR Backgrounder

Introduction
Any look at the nation's immigration policy, regardless of the perspective of the viewer, reveals a system greatly in need of reform. The presence of large numbers of unauthorized immigrants in the nation's workforce is indisputable; their hard work is widely recognized to be an asset to the United States. However, current U.S. immigration policies and border enforcement strategies create a deadly paradox: economic opportunities are available within the United States, but there aren't sufficient legal ways for people to cross the border to fill them. Outdated policies also keep American families separated from loved ones in other countries, due to our backlogged family immigration system.

For more than a decade, American policy makers have taken the approach of spending ever greater sums of money, hiring more and more enforcement personnel, and creating new and harsher penalties in order to make our outdated laws fit current realities. It hasn't worked. The paradox still exists; there is still opportunity here, but a lack of legal means to take advantage of it. We need a new approach to managing migration, one that will make more of the immigration flow safe, orderly, and legal instead of deadly, chaotic, and operating outside the bounds of the law.

In a time in which Americans are especially concerned, for security reasons, about the integrity of the nation's borders, the rationale for reform grows more compelling. While there is no reason to fear migrants who come to the U.S. to work and share in the American dream, lawmakers enamored with policies that have failed us to date continue to call for even tougher measures aimed primarily at immigrant workers. However, our security needs are such that we can ill afford a system so at odds with economic realities that the promise of economic opportunity drives hundreds of thousands of immigrants to enter each year outside of the law.

The safety and security of migrants themselves must not be overlooked; more than one person dies each day attempting to enter the U.S. in search of a better life. In addition, the health and safety of the larger community are undermined by enforcement activities that discourage immigrants from contact with law enforcement officials and public health facilities. Simply put, Americans would be far better off with immigration policies that allow the nation to know who is here and who is entering, and provide safe avenues for lawful migration.

The Problem: Our Immigration Laws are Broken
Currently, there are estimated to be more than eight million immigrants here working without legal papers. Each year, an estimated 300,000 or more join that population. These people are coming here to work, to join family members, or both. Why don't they just apply to come legally? The impression many Americans gain from the public debate on unauthorized immigration is that good laws are being violated by bad, selfish, impatient people. That point of view, however, may come from the misunderstanding that legally immigrating to the United States is a relatively easy process. In fact, people trying to come here to work or join family find themselves caught in a hodge-podge of outdated immigration laws and a famously inept and unpredictable immigration bureaucracy.

In the dozen years since our immigration laws were last updated, the number of immigrant visas available has remained static, while the demand has grown-from immigrants coming to join their American family members and from American employers seeking workers. Waits can be as long as 20 years for some categories of immigrants in the family preference system. There are very few visas available for immigrants to come here and work, if they don't have particular skills. Faced with years or decades of waiting to reunite with family members, too many immigrants attempt to enter the U.S. illegally, use temporary visas for permanent immigration, or turn to smugglers. A father seeking work so he can make a better life for his family must choose to wait in a decades-long line or risk capture, humiliation, second-class status-or even his own life-in order to provide for his family. Many rational people are making the decision to risk being in the U.S. illegally in order to work and make money at abundantly available jobs in the U.S. These are not bad people violating good laws; they are rational people making difficult choices to improve their lives and assist their families.

The reality of today's labor market and the laws and quotas set by Congress in Washington are colliding, and reality is winning. America's economy and demographic shifts demand more workers, while our economic ties to Latin America and the rest of the world provide the economy with reserves of willing workers desiring nothing more than honest work and honest pay. However, our immigration policies still criminalize large segments of the labor force, with dire consequences for immigrants and the country as a whole. A black market for fake documents, smuggling cartels, under-the-table-payments, and the potential for unscrupulous employers to undercut the competition has sprung up because the supply of legal visas and authorized immigration channels is out-of-step with the demand for legal immigration and legal status by employers and employees.

Immigrants want to follow the rules and would choose to immigrate legally if that were a realistic option. The question for us then becomes, should we continue to restrict immigration ineffectively or should we embrace reality, update our laws, and manage immigration effectively? In the context of the threat of terrorism, how we answer this question will have enormous consequences for our ability to detect and deter terrorism. If our enforcement continues to focus primarily on immigrant workers, and our economy demands more workers than we allow in legally, our ability to detect and act against terrorists will be diminished.

Solution: Comprehensive Immigration Reform
We cannot solve our immigration problems through enforcement alone. We must step back and re-think our immigration system, and make the changes we need to make to effectively focus our enforcement resources on fighting terrorism and criminals, satisfy the needs of our economy for workers, and give American families the opportunity to be united with immigrant members in a timely manner.

Reform that will make our laws more realistic, so they can be effectively enforced, must adhere to the following principles:

Conclusion: We Can No Longer Afford the Failed Status Quo
Our immigration system will continue to be troubled until our laws more closely reflect reality. Unfortunately, policy makers in powerful positions, who have long advocated for a reduction in immigration, have cynically used our concern about terrorism to call for a redoubling of enforcement policies that have plainly failed us up to now. This is more than a distraction. It is increasingly costly and increasingly dangerous.

More rational voices are beginning to be heard. The President has repeatedly spoken out about the need for reform. Business groups worry about the ability of our economy to continue expanding without more worker visas to match up employers and willing workers in the future. Labor groups want workers to be brought out of the shadows so that they can enjoy the same labor protections as other workers. Religious and ethnic groups are calling for reform to speed the reunification of families. Border state politicians, seeing the death toll increase daily as immigrants try to cross into their states for a better life, are trying to craft solutions that will provide more opportunity for immigrants to come through legal channels. Security experts point out that our enforcement resources must be much more narrowly focused if we hope to be effective in preventing further acts of terrorism.

In the coming months, Congress will be debating competing approaches to reforming our immigration system. One approach would have us clamp down even further on immigrant workers. This approach has proven ineffective. A more thoughtful approach will modernize our laws and ultimately bring them into synch with the needs of our economy and of American families.