Immigration needs reform now

America is faced with a significant challenge concerning our broken immigration system, and any solution will require a bipartisan agreement by Congress. Good luck with that! The reluctant economic recovery, high unemployment, soaring deficits, health care gridlock and other Washington priorities doesn’t bode well for serious debate and resolution this year.

Issues involving immigration have been around a very long time and were a subject of negative debate before America became a country.

Even Ben Franklin in 1750 was moved to comment that the German immigrants should not be appointed to public office unless they could speak English properly, and contracts and legal documents be drawn up in English only. Franklin also endorsed a number of proposals to limit the German immigrants arriving in droves at that time. Does this have a familiar ring for 21st Century America?

As an economics instructor, I want to comment on just one aspect of the current immigration issue: the build-up of illegal immigrants that seems to be the major roadblock to serious debate by members of Congress. Population estimates range from a low of 12 million undocumented immigrants to a high of over 20 million currently.

Homeland Security believes about 60 percent of our illegal population simply packed a bag and entered the country by crossing our southern border while the remaining 40 percent came with legal visas, and simply overstayed their legal welcome. What options are available to us (I mean Congress) in order to avoid a negative economic impact in dealing with this issue?

The following Research is provided by the Center for American Progress, Immigration Policy Center January ’10:

1. Mass Deportation: Cumulative decrease in U.S. GDP over 10 years $2.627 trillion. Expel all unauthorized immigrants and secure the border under this option.

2. Develop a new temporary-worker program: Cumulative increase in U. S. GDP $792 billion.

Under this option a pathway to citizenship would not be possible.

3. Comprehensive immigration reform: Cumulative increase in U.S. GDP over 10 years $1.511 trillion. This option would offer a pathway to legal status for undocumented workers, and, furthermore, establish new, legal limits on permanent and temporary immigration that responds to changes in U. S. labor demand in the future.

I’ve made my choice and it is number 3 above!