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We Need Legalization for Practical, Ethical, Economic, and National Security Reasons

Posted July 28, 2009 by Patrick Young, Esq.

Two weeks ago, a Council on Foreign Relations Task Force chaired by Jeb Bush released a report on immigration policy. This if the fourth part of our series on this important report. Today’s installment looks at the Task Force’s recommendation that Congress place the highest priority on legalizing the undocumented population in the United States.
The Task Force says that while most Americans support legalizing the undocumented, immigration reform was lost in 2007 when anti-immigrant activists were able to portray the Bush administration’s reform proposal, wrongly, as an “Amnesty”. An amnesty is a broad forgiveness by the government of a large group of people. It essentially wipes the slate clean for those covered. What was proposed in 2007, and what we expect the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill to contain when it is finished in September, is not an Amnesty. The proposals, instead, are earned legalizations involving penalties and a number of requirements to be met by applicants over a period of years.
As the report points out: “In each of these proposals, the starting point was not whether the United States would wipe the record clean and treat illegal migrants as though they arrived here legally, but whether the country should provide a path to allow them to earn the right to remain in the United States. “
The report’s authors recognize that even an earned legalization might just provide a temporary hiatus in illegal immigration, to be followed by new waves of migrants and a similar call for legalizations twenty years from now. But not providing an earned path to citizenship will not halt illegal immigration. That can only be done by addressing the future flow of migratory labor, a topic we’ll return to in the final installment of this series.
Weighed against the anti-legalization arguments are stronger practical, ethical, economic, and national security arguments for comprehensive reform.
The practical argument is simple: We can’t continue to have 12 million undocumented living in the U.S., and we can’t deport them all. Even the massively expanded immigration enforcement program of the last four years has not driven down the number of undocumented immigrants living here.
The ethical argument focuses on our history as a country of second chances. Hardworking, otherwise law abiding people shouldn’t have to live in the shadows their entire lives because they entered the United States illegally. Their American-born children should not suffer because of this “original sin”. We need to provide a way for them to make amends and to earn their way into the American community.
Economically, having 5% of our workforce in an underground economy deprives honest employers of needed workers while rewarding employers willing to break the law. It depresses labor conditions and makes union organizing extremely difficult.
The security argument is obvious; the government needs to know who is living here. “Efforts at deportation will only drive [the undocumented] further underground”. Legalization will bring them to the surface.
Here is the reports recommendations concerning legalization:
[T]he Task Force has concluded that earned legalization is necessary and warranted for many illegal immigrants
living in the United States. The current situation is dangerous for American security, corrodes respect for the rule of law, makes those immigrants vulnerable to exploitation, and creates unfair competition for American workers that erodes labor standards. But the Task Force is opposed to amnesty; instead, we favor a scheme that allows many illegal immigrants to earn the right to live in this country lawfully and to start on the path to permanent residence and citizenship. Creating that scheme, of course, is an enormous challenge facing Congress. The conditions for legalization must be demanding enough that they bar individuals who are either a threat to this country or are unwilling to make the commitments required for full membership in American society. On the other hand, if the conditions are too onerous it may be impossible to bring many illegal migrants into the legal system.
The DREAM Act is no amnesty. It offers to young people who had no responsibility for their parents’ initial decision to bring them into the United States the opportunity to earn their way to remain here. As such, the Task Force supports passage of the DREAM Act, and believes that it provides a good framework for a broader legalization scheme.
Extending such a scheme to adults who were fully responsible for their decision to come to the United States, and are already working here, produces an extra layer of complexity. Such individuals cannot be expected to earn their legal residency through schooling or military service. But Congress has already considered a number of sound alternatives.
The McCain-Kennedy legislation, for instance, would have required applicants to show a history of employment in the United States, to prove that they had paid taxes, to be in the process of studying English and learning about U.S. history and government, to pass criminal and security background checks, and to pay significant fines
along with the application fee. Like the DREAM Act, it would have established a six-year probationary period before a green-card application were possible.
What is central to these approaches is that they require those seeking legalization to show a history of contribution to the United States through work and taxes, a commitment to remaining by learning English and adopting U.S. democratic values, and a willingness to pay some restitution. These are not the ingredients of an amnesty. The Task Force recommends that Congress approve a program of earned legalization for illegal migrants in the United States, subject to appropriate penalties, waiting periods, background checks, evidence of moral character, and a commitment to full participation in American society by learning English and embracing American values.
Read Part 3-America’s Brain Gain from Immigration
A copy of the Task Force report is available here in PDF.