CAP Releases New Principles on Immigration Reform

America's Voice Blog

Posted 12/21/09 at 03:53pm

workers taxpayers citizens The Center For American Progress just released new guidelines today, which would present a strong foundation for a real immigration overhaul.

Before laying out their core principles for Immigration Reform (view pdf), however, authors Marshall Fitz and Angela Kelley outline why this kind of reform is so urgent:

Our broken immigration system undermines core national interests and must be reformed. The public demands it. Our security requires it. Global competitiveness and economic reality compel it. Our identity as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws depends on it.

[...] The failures of our immigration system stand in sharp contrast to the powerful contributions that immigrants have made to our country. Immigrants have become part of the American mainstream, and they are essential to our economic growth. They are the entrepreneurs on Main Street, U.S.A., and they have risen to the top of every segment of society along with their children, including the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. presidency.

They continue with a broad blueprint for reform that is both tough and practical:

We must develop a system that recognizes those contributions and treats immigration as a national resource to be managed and embraced. This requires that we develop strong enforcement mechanisms at the border and worksite that will expose future illegal border crossers and employers who seek to hire undocumented workers. It requires that we deal realistically with the fact that more than 5 percent of our national workforce is undocumented. It requires that we allow families that have been separated for years or decades to be united quickly. It requires that we create flexible immigration channels to enable foreign workers to enter the country without disadvantaging U.S. workers. And it requires that we provide immigrants with the tools they need to integrate into our communities.

Opponents of reform will continue to foment fear and cling to the status quo. But public opinion polling shows that voters expect their elected officials to solve tough problems with pragmatic policies while standing on principle. As the president and Congress begin work on this issue, the Center for American Progress offers the following framework of principles and solutions for comprehensive immigration reform.

Fitz and Kelley outline five core goals (and corresponding recommendations) which include 1) ensuring smart enforcement mechanisms, 2) creating a clear path to legal status for the estimated twelve million undocumented men, women, and children currently living and working in the U.S. without papers, 3 & 4) fixing the system to become more responsive to both worker protections and the labor needs of our economy and 5) providing a meaningful ways for newcomers to fully integrate into and strengthen the fabric of an inclusive, diverse America . Three of these goals to note:

Goal two: Resolve the status of those illegally present in the United States. Reform cannot restore the rule of law if it ignores the 12 million residing in the United States without legal status—to do so amounts to amnesty by inaction. It is unrealistic to suggest that the government pursue mass deportation for 12 million people; doing so would require a convoy of more than 200,000 buses that would stretch more than 1,800 miles. CAP research estimates that mass deportation would cost nearly $300 billion over five years. Recommendation: Create a tough but realistic program to register undocumented immigrants. The program must require undocumented immigrants to submit to background checks, pay taxes, learn English, and pay a fine in order to obtain legal status for themselves, their spouses, and minor children. The program must bar those convicted of serious crimes or who pose a security threat. But effectively solving this problem means that the program must be structured to register the greatest possible number of undocumented immigrants in as efficient and streamlined a way as possible. And the program must offer confidentiality in the application process as well as interim legal status with the eventual prospect of permanent status in order to ensure broad participation.

Goal three: Create legal channels that are flexible, serve the U.S. interest, and curtail illegal immigration. Current family and employment immigration channels are rigid, cumbersome, and outdated. [...] Recommendation: Enhance legal immigration channels by creating a discretionary pool of visas that can be allocated flexibly. [...]

Goal four: Protect U.S. workers from globalization’s destabilizing effects. Replacing undocumented immigration with regulated immigration is necessary but not sufficient to protect native U.S. workers and future immigrant workers from exploitation. Future immigrants must be afforded the full panoply of labor protections to prevent employers from playing native and foreign workers off against each other in a race to the bottom. Recommendation: Employ an array of measures to target bad actor employers and ensure an even playing field. [...]

Check out the full report (pdf) or download the executive summary (pdf).