Something We Should All Agree On

There are three big reasons in my mind that illegal immigration should be taken seriously by any citizen of the United States irrespective of your political allegiance.

Yes, I understand the empathy one should feel for any human being that wants to escape a bad situation and better themselves. However, as I wrote recently, there are literally millions and millions of people in the world who want to migrate to the United States.

The United States already has 4 times as many immigrants living within its borders as any other country in the world. We can't take everyone. Where do we cut it off? 5 times? 6 times? 10 times?
Who decides?

Let's look at three rational reasons to have immigration laws and secure borders. I have to believe that almost everyone would find something they agree on here if they looked at this issue rationally rather than emotionally--Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Liberal, Young or Old.

A Nation of Laws

First, we are a nation of laws. Society does not operate if we do not adhere to the laws that are written and are on the books. There may be those who do not like the laws. If that is the case, there is a constitutional process to change the law.

A society that functions is based on law and order. It does not work if everyone decides what the law should be and takes the law into their own hands. That brings chaos and, ultimately, anarchy.

Our laws should also be applied in such a way as to insure equal justice. Why should we let millions flood over our Southern Border or overstay temporary visas when there are millions waiting in line to come to this country legally? There is absolutely no justice in that.

Many opponents of the Border Wall claim it is racist. However, the fact is that there are 3.8 million people on the current waiting list to gain legal immigration status in this country due to family or employment reasons. Almost all are from what we would consider minority populations. A third of them are actually from Mexico.

However, current law only permits any one country from receiving more than 7% of the annual visa issuances for permanent legal immigrant residency annually. This is the case in order that any one country does not dominate the legal immigration process. Again, the law is about fairness and equal justice.

For 2019, the per country limit is estimated to be 25,620.

Divide the number of applicants by the per country limit and you will see that most of these people have a rather long wait ahead of them to gain admittance to the United States legally.

Are we supposed to just wink and tell those in Mexico, El Salvador or Honduras to not worry about our laws? Come ahead. There is nothing to stop you.

What about those in the Philippines, India, Vietnam, China and Bangladesh? How is this fair to them?

Sustainability

Second, there seems to be no recognition of the enormous sustainability issues regarding illegal immigration. This is especially surprising considering the importance of this issue with Democrat and younger voters in particular.

Too many immigrants puts too much strain on our resources. It puts unnecessary strain on everything in our society---our water, our sewer systems, our roads, our infrastructure and our environment. It contributes to congestion and urban sprawl.

Add to this what it does to increase the financial strain on our schools and our health system, not to mention our law enforcement and justice system.

As this report points out, there are 730,000 illegal immigrants currently imprisoned in the United States for crimes other than illegally entering the country. Illegals make up an estimated 3% of the population of the United States but account for 20% of federal prison inmates. 91% of criminal aliens are from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Colombia or Guatemala.

The financial and human cost is enormous and it is made more difficult when the flow of immigrants is not managed and controlled as it is supposed to be through our legal immigration system.

This says nothing of the challenge it presents to social order as masses of illegal immigrants find it hard to assimilate into a society and culture they are unfamiliar with. This inevitably results in problems as Europe as discovered to their regret.

Economics and Jobs

Third, there is the economic dimension. Has there been a need in the United States for the labor that many illegal immigrants provide? Absolutely. However, it has come at a significant cost to those American workers who are most vulnerable in the U.S. economy today---those with lower education or few skills.

The added supply of illegal immigrant workers has substantially reduced opportunities and wages for those Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder. It has simply been a question of supply and demand. The supply of workers coming here illegally has artificially suppressed incomes of those Americans who are most vulnerable economically.

What concerns me even more today is that we seem to be on the cusp of a technology and innovation revolution that will put even more pressure on low-skills jobs. This will further squeeze American citizens at the bottom of the economic rung. In addition, what are we to do with the millions and millions of illegal immigrants who are already here and yet may end up unemployable due to low education and skills?

I wrote previously about the recent Bain report that predicts that 40 million current jobs could be eliminated by automation in the United States by 2030. That is just over 10 years away.

It is a recipe for disaster that makes our current state of affiars look tame by comparison. And the current state is not that great.

Consider this recent report from several economists with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta entitled "Building A Skilled Workforce For A Strong Southern Economy."

The thesis of the article is that there is already a significant job skills gap in the South (where there are substantial numbers of illegal immigrants)  There are many more low skill workers than there are low skill jobs. The South also has more high skills workers than high skills jobs. However, most jobs today require middle skills (more than a high school education but less than a college degree).

We see the effects of this every day. Too many people with low education and skills that unemployable. In addition, many recent college graduates who are underemployed because they are overqualified for the available middle skills jobs.

Can you see the obvious problem of permitting millions of  low education and low skilled immigrants to flood across the southern border while we already have a skills gap and the gap is likely to get much larger in the year ahead?

Something We Can Agree On Somewhere?

It should not matter what your political persuasion is.

Law and order conservative. See Reason #1.

Far-left liberal environmentalist. See Reason #2.

Pragmatic independent who is most concerned about economic issues. See Reason #3.

Illegal immigration must cease.

Sensible immigration reform needs to be enacted.

There is simply no excuse that this issue has been allowed to fester for decades.

This is something we should all be able to agree on.