Issues

Comprehensive Reform

Position

Only the federal government can fix what's wrong with the immigration system - and any federal fix must include three indispensible elements.
  • Match visa supply with U.S. labor needs. Every year, economic need draws some 1.5 million foreign workers to the United States, but the government issues only approximately one million new immigrant visas. The result: a full third of the foreign workers we need to sustain the economy enter the country illegally.

    Unless demographic trends shift abruptly, U.S. labor needs will continue to attract foreign workers to our shores. Far better for Americans if these workers enter the country legally. An increased supply of worker visas must be the centerpiece of any immigration reform - effective immigration enforcement will be impossible without it.
  • Restore the rule of law through effective enforcement. The U.S. must regain control of who enters the country. The government must add manpower and technology on the border. It must create an accurate, reliable electronic employment verification system. And it must impose tough sanctions against employers who continue to hire unauthorized workers when an adequate supply of authorized workers becomes available.
  • Address workers already here. More than 20 years of unrealistic immigration quotas have produced a vast unauthorized population living amongst us and vital to the economy but beyond the rule of law. Amnesty is not an acceptable answer for this group, but neither is mass deportation or attrition through enforcement. We must deal realistically with these workers and their families - vet them for security purposes, bring them under the rule of law, require them to pay taxes and encourage them to participate in American society.
RESOURCES

Tamar Jacoby, "Not Another Generation," America’s Quarterly, Summer 2008

Tamar Jacoby, "Immigration Nation," Foreign Affairs, November/December 2006

National Immigration Forum, "Comprehensive Reform of Our Immigration Laws."

American Immigration Lawyers Association, "Comprehensive Immigration Reform," 2008.

Immigration Policy Center, "A Congressional Guide to Immigration."

Migration Policy Institute, "Immigration and America's Future: a New Chapter,"" 2006.

Dan Griswold, "Willing Workers: Fixing the Problem of Illegal Mexican Migration to the United States," Cato Institute, October 2002.

News

  • A window for immigration reform
    Sep 8, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    Also, the number of people apprehended at the border is down dramatically, and furthermore, an estimated 1 million illegal immigrants have left the country. Arizona, Colorado and Utah saw a combined decline of 130,000 illegal immigrants. Despite fewer arrivals, 11 million illegal immigrants remain in the United States, and reform is crucial.
  • Latino Republican walking a tightrope in Nevada race
    Sep 8, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    Several states, including Nevada, Colorado and Arizona, have grown more competitive in presidential elections as the Latino population swelled. A majority of Latinos initially supported the initiative. Latinos are about 12 percent of the electorate.Sandoval has taken to the Spanish-language airwaves to trumpet the historic nature of his candidacy.
  • Rival says Texas attorney general's Arizona stance shows shift in his beliefs
    Sep 8, 2010 — The Dallas Morning News
    Abbott's brief does not express support for the substance of Arizona's law but rather the state's right to enforce it.
  • 'Birth tourism' a tiny portion of immigrant babies
    Sep 3, 2010 — Associated Press Online
    Constitutional changes require approval by two-thirds majorities in both chambers of Congress, an impossibility now because Democrats have the majority in both houses and most oppose such a measure. In border cities like Nogales, women have been coming to the U.S. for decades to give birth, although the primary reason is better medical care, Santa Cruz County sheriff Tony Estrada said.
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