HALF THE ANSWER IS UNDERSTANDING THE QUESTION

Introduction

The immigration debate is filled with assumptions and often lacks the right questions. Without framing the right questions, we will continue to talk past each other.

Unfortunately, to divert attention from the importance of immigrants to sustaining our good economy, Donald Trump and others have infused fear of undocumented immigrants in Americans and the shock of mass deportation in immigrants.

Misconceptions About Immigrants

Lying about immigrants is common in the debate. The southern border is often seen as the entire immigration system. But even if a border is the immigration system, we often just ignore the northern border. The debate loses its meaning if without the true facts.

Just over 52 million people of foreign origin live in the U.S. Of them, 24.5 million are naturalized citizens, 12.7 million have lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, and 15 million have no lawful status. The debate paints the picture of a majority of foreign born being undocumented immigrants when at most they are 29%.

The Perception of a Broken Immigration System

Socrates said that understanding the question is half the answer.

We often describe the immigration system as broken, implying it once worked effectively. Congress last overhauled the immigration policy in 1952. For 72 years, it has made no meaningful changes.

How to fix the immigration system requires deciding, first, if it is really broken; second, how broken it is; and third, the best way to fix it. If we focus only on the southern border and deporting undocumented immigrants, we have not understood the question.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR)

When immigration advocates talk about CIR, they are not defining ‘comprehensive’ as systemwide or ‘reform’ as changing to improve. They are talking about proposals like the 2005 McCain-Kennedy Senate bill which trades stronger borders and internal security for amnesty. This year’s popular Senate border bill does not even mention amnesty.

True reform is not about just borders and amnesty, but also about immigration policy which can satisfy our 21st century needs. In 1952, Congress focused on family reunification, and a little on the economy’s need for skilled and other workers.

For 72 years, we have kept favoring family unification expecting a different result for our economy’s weaknesses which immigration can solve.

Diverging Opinions on Immigration

There are two prevailing opinions in the debate about what to do: (1) focus on illegal entries and deportation, or (2) raise levels of legal immigration and amnesty. Both ignore shifts in the economy.

Because of the information revolution inspired by the personal computer, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand de-emphasized family immigration in favor of higher levels of employment immigration. JIT – just in time, a manufacturing adage about not stockpiling parts you may never use – dominates their policies.

For India, for workers with advanced degrees and those with degrees or skills equivalents, the November 2024 visa bulletin shows that the U.S. is processing green cards for beneficiaries of employer petitions filed 12 years ago. Those employers proved the need for those worker skills back then. Do they still need those workers?

Canada’s Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) readies candidates with language, education, work experience, and other skills by assigning points. Monthly, its federal government and provinces pick candidates with the qualifying points, and within six months needed foreign workers are working in Canada’s economy.

The Myth of the Immigration Line

The idea that anyone can go to the back of “the line” and wait there for a green card is misleading. Only 675,000 green cards are available annually for family members of citizens and LPRs (480,000), foreign workers (140,000), and diversity lottery winners (55,000).

If only beneficiaries of petitions of citizens and LPRs, employers, and winners of the visa lottery get green cards, why does it surprise us that those without a shot at a green card enter illegally?

The number probably includes failed attempts, but reports are that over 10 million made illegal entries during the Trump and Biden administrations by summer 2024. Those are probably not beneficiaries of green card petitions or the visa lottery.

Nobody has the right to enter this country if not a citizen. We should not create the belief that such a right of entry exists for all by talking about waiting in a line that does not exist.

Immigration and the Economy

Even if we shifted our view of immigration to acknowledging the interconnection between the economy and immigration, and increased employment visas, we would not have solved illegal immigration.

This, however, does not mean that we must jettison 15 million undocumented immigrants who work and pay taxes that reduce our own tax burden. We can only pay Social Security and Medicare benefits from payroll withholdings. If those dwindle, where will those benefits come from?

The problem is a disconnect from facts exacerbated by those who misrepresent their objectives and inflate their power in our constitutional framework.

The Framers’ Intentions

The Constitution’s framers design of checks and balances prevents dictatorship. Mr. Trump’s immigration policies rely on dictatorial use of executive power. Mass deportation that nabs undocumented immigrants for whom he has no order of deportation usurp Congress’s exclusive power to abolish the requirement of a deportation order.

That is not the same for those for whom he has a final deportation order. His mass deportation would be constitutional if it focused on those who did not depart after an order of deportation and those who departed under an order of deportation but returned without authorization.

Revoking birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants is another power grab. Congress begins the process to amend the Constitution under Article V with a two-thirds majority vote approving an amendment. At least 38 states must ratify the amendment. His Sharpie is neither of those things and is the kind of thing the framers feared developing among them after they sent King George III packing.

The Role of the Press in the Immigration Debate

The press is in the First Amendment for telling us what we must pay attention to that our leaders in government are doing. The media landscape has changed to prioritizing celebrity and ideology. Some media members just promote misinformation about immigrants.

The framers’ faith was that a more perfect Union would emerge if the press kept the electorate informed about and engaged with government. The media have lost us that faith.

Labor Force Challenges

The media could resume their proper role by showing, not telling about, the government’s failure to find a solution in immigration for the 7.7 million unfilled skilled positions in our labor force by mid-2024. They might add that 8.3 million undocumented immigrants leaving will make that worse.

They should highlight our declining birth rate as endangering our population’s stability, meaning insufficient replacement of workers departing from the labor force, and immigration as a solution.

At a minimum, the media must stop repeating the salacious accusations of those who know they will repeat them against immigrants. Those tell us nothing new, other than the derangement of those who make those charges and are not newsworthy.

Conclusion

We are stalled in debate because we are entrenched in our positions on both sides. Misconceptions and assumptions hinder the debate’s progress which will not change unless we frame a question likely to lead to answers that comprehensively address change in the economy and immigrants’ role in sustaining the economy.