Jason Riley, a Wall Street Journal columnist, asserts that the U. S, border crisis is blocking needed reform of U.S. immigration law and procedures.[1] Here is a summary of that argument.
First, “porous borders compromise homeland security. The world is a dangerous place, as recent events have reminded us, and the government needs to know who’s entering the country. Increasingly, the southern border has become a portal not only for Central Americans but also for tens of thousands of foreign nationals from as far away as Asia and Africa. A large majority are economic migrants in search of employment and better living conditions. Still, the possibility that some small percentage is coming here to do us harm deserves more attention than it’s getting from the White House.”
“So long as the border problem persists at crisis levels, the debate over how to repair our immigration system for admitting people legally is going nowhere.”
“[D]espite heightened levels of undocumented immigration, the country still has far more job openings than job seekers. The real problem is a labor shortage that hasn’t gone away even as wages have risen. According to Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former head of the Congressional Budget Office, demographic trends are to blame, and more legal immigration should be part of any solution.”
A major reason for this labor shortage is “the retirement of the Baby Boom generation, [which] is swelling the ranks of retirees entering the large entitlement programs that rely on labor taxes for their funds, raising the specter of a future of smaller cohorts of workers paying higher taxes in a slower-growing economy,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin writes in a new paper. ‘The reform of employment-based immigration can address the near-term scarcity of labor, as well as the looming demographic crisis created by low fertility and the retiring Baby Boom generation.’”
As a result, “Mr. Holtz-Eakin calls for is a less-restrictive H-1B visa program for skilled workers. The number of visas, which often go to graduates of U.S. universities, has been capped at 85,000 since 2004, even though more than 480,000 people are currently seeking one. Visa holders aren’t permitted to switch jobs or start businesses. In addition to the low cap, no country may receive more than 7% of the annual allotment, a rule that stymies nationals from populous countries such as India. ‘The result is long wait times for skilled workers and an inflexible system for employers.’”
“Mr. Holtz-Eakin stresses that our inefficient migrant policies are noticed by other countries and have put us at a competitive disadvantage in the international competition for human capital. Earlier this year Canada announced that it was offering 10,000 work permits to foreigners residing in the U.S. on H-1B visas. Within 48 hours of the program’s launch, all the slots were taken. ‘At present,’ Mr. Holtz-Eakin writes, ‘the near-term outlook for labor is scarcity, the long-term trend is slowing population growth, and the United States’ global competitors are more successful in attracting high-skill immigrants.’”
Mr. Riley concludes, “You can support more legal immigration and better border security at the same time, and polling shows that most Americans do. They understand that allowing more people to come lawfully will help reduce unlawful entries. Moreover, there is agreement among Democratic and Republican lawmakers that the system is dysfunctional and outdated. There is no reason we can’t upgrade our policies in a way that accommodates the aspirations of migrants and satisfies the demands of a 21st-century economy. But don’t expect to see bipartisan appetite for constructive reform so long as illegal immigration rages unchecked.”
Conclusion
This blogger agrees that U.S. immigration law and procedures are “dysfunctional and outdated” and need to be changed to accommodate “the aspirations of migrants and [satisfy] the demands of a 21st-century economy.”
======================
[1] Riley, The Border Crisis Stymies Needed Immigration Reform, W.S.J. (Dec. 5, 2023)