Issue brief: Immigration

SOLUTIONS

Comprehensive Reform

Only through a mix of enforcement and inducement will policy handle the number of immigrants in a sustainable and affordable way. Border security alone is too expensive and neglects the reality that U.S. business needs immigrant labor. Most comprehensive reform proposals contain four main elements: increased border security, a guest worker program to admit low- and high-skill immigrants, an employment verification regime with harsher penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and a path to citizenship for undocumented residents who meet certain criteria.

The last comprehensive bill to contain all four pillars, The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, was signed by then-President Ronald Reagan. More recently, a comprehensive bill was introduced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in 2005 but died amid charges that it offered "amnesty for lawbreakers." President Obama has offered an immigration proposal that largely mirrors previous comprehensive reform efforts.

The Challenge: How, in a polarized government on such a polarized issue, could anyone pass such a big piece of legislation?

DREAM Act

This policy would offer a path to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, brought to America by their parents, who agreed to serve in the military or earn a college degree. One study estimated that, under this proposal, 360,000 undocumented individuals between 18 and 24 years old would qualify immediately for conditional legal status, with an additional 715,000 individuals between 5 and 17 becoming eligible in the future. President Obama has said he would sign the DREAM Act, urging Congress to send him the bill. Mitt Romney has said he would veto the DREAM Act, but says he could support a yet to be defined GOP alternative.

The Challenge: The DREAM Act rewards law-breakers by allowing their children to have permanent status while those immigrants who play by the rules must wait in line.

Obama Executive Orders

In August 2011, the Department of Homeland Security announced they would prioritize the deportation of undocumented immigrants who had a criminal record, granting a degree of reprieve to those with unblemished records.

Play Video

Obama stops deportation of young illegal immigrants

Play Video

Immigrants line up to apply for deferral program

More recently, the administration announced they would no longer deport immigrants who would have been given a path to legality under the DREAM Act - those who completed college or served in the military. Both measures were justified under the executive branch's powers of prosecutorial discretion, which grants enforcement agencies latitude in deciding whether and how to indict an individual or group accused of a crime.

Mitt Romney has criticized the timing of the President's decision, calling it a politically motivated move that only inhibits a long-term solution. However, Romney has indicated that he would not overturn the executive orders, honoring the temporary visas granted to undocumented immigrants under the President's new policy. (Updated Oct. 2, 2:10 p.m.)

The Challenge: These are temporary administrative solutions to problems that can be resolved permanently only through legislation. Executive action at the margins of our immigration system may actually diminish the likelihood of comprehensive reform by masking the severity of the problem. Also, a subsequent president could simply rescind the executive actions taken by the Obama administration.

Easing Visa Restrictions on High-Skill Workers

A recent proposal from a bipartisan group of senators (known as the AGREE Act) would ease visa restrictions on high-skill immigrants, creating up to 50,000 new visas for foreign students graduating from American universities with an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, and 75,000 new visas for immigrant entrepreneurs in science and technology.

Both President Obama and Mitt Romney have voiced support for policies that attract and retain more high-skill immigrants. The President has advanced administrative measures that ease residency restrictions on highly-skilled workers and their spouses, and has pressed Congress to reform and expand the visa system for highly-skilled workers, embracing the idea of an "entrepreneur's visa." Romney's plan would ask Congress to raise the limit on visas for highly-skilled immigrants and grant permanent residency to any foreign student who obtains an advanced degree in a STEM field from an American university.

The Challenge: Easing visa restrictions on high-skill immigrants might take lucrative jobs from American workers. Easing high-skill visa restrictions could rob comprehensive reform proponents of a valuable bargaining chip - Democrats have traditionally used high-skill visas to incentivize Republicans to support less popular elements of a comprehensive reform proposal.

Build a Fence

Some politicians have demanded absolute border security as a precondition of broader reform initiatives, touting a plan to build a fence along the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

President Obama has supported plans to fence some sections of the U.S.-Mexico border but has noted that security could be achieved with better technology or more manpower, and that border security alone will not fix our immigration system. Mitt Romney has struck a more adamant tone, outflanking several rivals on immigration enforcement during the primary, but he has also signaled flexibility in his approach, highlighting technological solutions that may be more effective along some portions of the border.

Challenge: The cost of building a border fence would be steep: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has estimated the cost of such a fence at $7.5 million per mile. Seeking a more cost-effective alternative, some policymakers would sooner elect to use surveillance technology to monitor unfenced stretches of the border, but the largest such program was cancelled in 2011 due to ineffective results and cost overrun.

"Self-Deportation" Enforcing the laws

Some policymakers contend that we don't need new laws - we just need to enforce our existing laws. This approach, favored mostly by conservatives and security hawks, seeks an ironclad, impermeable border, a rigid enforcement of employment laws prohibiting the hiring of undocumented immigrants, and, in some cases, the mass deportation of those individuals and families living in America without proper documentation.

President Obama has said that an enforcement-only approach is not a sufficient answer to the problems with our immigration system.

Play Video

Romney: I won't "round up" illegal immigrants and deport them

Mitt Romney's proposal, while not "enforcement-only," could be called "enforcement heavy." He has proposed a policy of "self-deportation," which encourages undocumented immigrants to voluntarily return to their country of origin by statutorily and administratively creating an inhospitable economic climate for them in America.

The Challenge: Although the number of border agents and deportations are at a record high, and the number of border apprehensions is at a record low, the number of undocumented immigrants living and working in America has remained largely unchanged. A mass deportation campaign, by one estimate, would cost taxpayers $285 billion over five years.

Finally, the cost of deporting these immigrants would be incredibly steep: a report from the Center for American Progress, a progressive think-tank, pegged the cost of a mass-deportation campaign at $285 billion over five years. And the ripple effect on the U.S. economy could be even costlier: a report from the Perryman Group, an economic research firm, estimated that a complete elimination of the entire undocumented workforce would result in $1.7 trillion in annual lost spending, $651.511 billion in annual lost output, and 8.1 million lost jobs.

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[jeannutson]

The inability of the costs of services provided to undocumented immigrants to be canceled out by the tax revenues generated by these individuals clearly shows a loss to the nation and requires that either these individuals or groups of people put themselves to a more profitable use to the nation or they are repatriated in order to eliminate this extra, unnecessary cost and burden to the nation.

[lloyd025]

If our Country has laws for illegials, then they should be followed...they should be enforced just like all the other countries. Is there something about Illegial that our Government does not comprehend or understand??? A Visa should also be required to enter the United States and if violated, the person should be found and sent back to their own country!!!

[lloyd025]

Is it just me or is the Moderator for the Presidental Debate giving the President more time to answer questions? She cuts Romney off and keeps telling him to sit down.....just sayin'.

[randysanders]

Immigration is controlable only if the immigrants who wish to come here apply for visa's and citizenship. The illegal aliens, who are mostly from poor families have left their country because their country's leaders are not doing the best for it's own citizens.

[Bojax39]

randysanders says: "...their country's leaders are not doing the best for it's own citizens."

Neither are ours, but do you see us going south in droves?

[Azson]

We just had another Border Patrol Agent killed in the line of duty here in Arizona, on the border Napolitano stated was more secure then it ever was.
She is so afraid she would be accused of being wrong, here it is 2 days later and she has not offered her condolences to the family.

[wikafox]

the problem is many fold because there has been too long of a time allowed in letting people who come here to this country to stay. If someone has been here for many years, they should be classified as citizens and then have to do all that all citizens which is working and paying taxes. Most of these people who are undocumented would become taxpayers and citizens that would be contributing not adding to our nation's debt. I am the the second generation from my grand parents who came here as immigrants and became citizens working out livehoods in various fields. It should be mandatory that once a person crosses the border and plans to live here past a certain time limit (non-seasonal/short time) they become citizens and must get registered for a social security card and identification card (driver/id, etc) and pay taxes. Just like the identification process for a job. Since business already doing this, everyone becomes a citizen sooner than having to wait those ridiculous long waits to get those "green" cards. This way everyone is in the system documented.

[sickbirds]

Wika
I would agree with you on Legal Immigrants. They should be working and paying taxes.
But, illegal aliens is another story. Whether they have been here a day or a decade, they are not wanted in our country and their criminal actions should certainly not be rewarded with amnesty, citizenship, access to jobs, access to education, or access to public programs.

What we need is a reward for information leading to the capture and deportation of illegal aliens. The reward would be a small investment in cleaning up our country.

[SupportCitizens]

Enforce the laws against criminal invaders and employers that hire them with stiff fines or loss of business license including no govt payments or school to anyone in families that are headed by non citizens ---- no jobs no reason to stay. Also, eliminate anchor babies ----- no citizenship to new births that don't have at least one citizen parent!!! As far as high skilled needs ----- foreigners should get cards only when they can get a job and the businesses can prove that no suitable US candidate was available to fair advertizement of any job or any/all potential US candidates can sue the company who hires foreign students.

[sickbirds]

Securing the border will continue to be very difficult. What we need are mandatory punishments for being caught in the country illegally. I suggest we use the same one that we use for copying a DVD...$250,000 fine and 5 years in prison (then immediate deportation withing 24 hours)

Regarding bringing in foreign workers, might it not be a better idea to make sure American citizens have the education and training to fill any high tech job. Especially with our current unemployment rate, we certainly do not need more foreign hi tech workers.

As far as the 11.5 million illegal aliens (probably closer to 15 million) Romney is right, we need to enforce our laws and make it much more difficult to stay here. This should include no longer educating their foreign born children, eliminating free ER care, and eliminating Food Stamps for the children of illegal aliens.

We have a major problem, and the American people are likely sick of hearing that we have to provide amnesty and care for the criminal illegal aliens.

For a number of reasons they have to go and we have to stop more from coming in.

[robert1129]

A Lot to comment on but two below are enough:

Securing the border 100% - That can never happen. All we can do is to control it to some extent. If someone wants to enter illegally, she/he will find a way.

BTW: One big cure would be to give the ICE the resources to catch up on the immigration backlog and to keep current. That will never happen either.

Self Deportation - Romney does not know what he is talking about. Why should someone that paid big bucks to a coyote; who endured many trials and hardships to get here self deport himself/herself?

[robinked]

We do NOT need More Laws & we certainly do NOT need another amnesty...We need to 'grow some grapes' And Enforce our current Immigration Laws...cuz when the ILLEGALS can NO longer find a: J.O.B. they Will Self-DEPORT...cuz What do ya think brought them here in the 1st place....come On ya Libtard chumps...this Isn't Rocket Science...Grow a Brain, then Use it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[VirgoVince]

You're absolutely right, but that ain't gonna be easy for a bunch of eunichoids that NEVER should have allowed OUR situation to reach this point!!
Self-deporting isn't near as rapid as illegal entry and no one's even trying to stop them, either!!
ALL WE got is Enforcement of OUR current laws!!

[VirgoVince]

You're absolutely right, but that ain't gonna be easy for a bunch of eunichoids that NEVER should have allowed OUR situation to reach this point!!
Self-deporting isn't near as rapid as illegal entry and no one's even trying to stop them, either!!
ALL WE got is Enforcement of OUR current laws!!