What do you do with 11 million people?
The staggering number simply dictates the immanent need of immigration reform. It is impossible to think that we could root out a population the size of Ohio and return them all to their originating countries without a massive, decades-long fiasco. A smart policy wonk describes our current situation as ‘defacto amnesty’.
In ideological land, opponents focus on the crime of illegal immigration and wish to mete out what they perceive to be “just punishment.” It’s not a very practical situation. Frankly these 11 million immigrants have built their lives and families in this country. No amount of public policy disincentive is going to scare an immigrant more than the alternatives of living in poverty in Guatemala, dying of dysentery in Haiti or getting shot by a Mexican drug lord.
What is not considered are the ill side effects of trying to deny illegal immigrants basic government services. It’s not that these policies won’t work; it’s that the policies will. Every immigrant denied the chance to receive an education or earn a legitimate job is another person living in homelessness and poverty. It’s another person at risk for resorting to crime, begging on the streets or joining gangs. It’s a drag on charities and social services like hospital ERs when you take away an individual’s ability to be self-supporting. Citizenship does not grant you an isolation bubble – these negative externalities like crime and poverty affect me and all other American citizens.
Extend this understanding to 11,000,000 illegal immigrants living in defacto amnesty, who will never have great enough incentives (or resources, if they are unemployed) to leave the country; and we’re facing a disaster at our own hands.
I don’t want to live in a country where the economic success of my country comes in spite of conservative policies focused on punishment rather than growth. American citizens deserve a path to citizenship offered to the millions of noncitizens that are living in our country. The bipartisan Senate bill was a great step forward. I hope that the House follows suit with its own legislation.
The staggering number simply dictates the immanent need of immigration reform. It is impossible to think that we could root out a population the size of Ohio and return them all to their originating countries without a massive, decades-long fiasco. A smart policy wonk describes our current situation as ‘defacto amnesty’.
In ideological land, opponents focus on the crime of illegal immigration and wish to mete out what they perceive to be “just punishment.” It’s not a very practical situation. Frankly these 11 million immigrants have built their lives and families in this country. No amount of public policy disincentive is going to scare an immigrant more than the alternatives of living in poverty in Guatemala, dying of dysentery in Haiti or getting shot by a Mexican drug lord.
What is not considered are the ill side effects of trying to deny illegal immigrants basic government services. It’s not that these policies won’t work; it’s that the policies will. Every immigrant denied the chance to receive an education or earn a legitimate job is another person living in homelessness and poverty. It’s another person at risk for resorting to crime, begging on the streets or joining gangs. It’s a drag on charities and social services like hospital ERs when you take away an individual’s ability to be self-supporting. Citizenship does not grant you an isolation bubble – these negative externalities like crime and poverty affect me and all other American citizens.
Extend this understanding to 11,000,000 illegal immigrants living in defacto amnesty, who will never have great enough incentives (or resources, if they are unemployed) to leave the country; and we’re facing a disaster at our own hands.
I don’t want to live in a country where the economic success of my country comes in spite of conservative policies focused on punishment rather than growth. American citizens deserve a path to citizenship offered to the millions of noncitizens that are living in our country. The bipartisan Senate bill was a great step forward. I hope that the House follows suit with its own legislation.
