Immigration

 

Our immigration policy is like the movie Groundhog Day.  Border apprehensions go up; an administration panics and enacts harsher enforcement; apprehensions decline; the administration declares victory; border apprehensions go up again. The only consistent long-term policy is convincing immigrants not to come here at all, and that isn’t really working and is not in America’s best interest long term.

Immigrants come here for the same reasons our ancestors did, and many are well qualified to perform jobs our economy is desperate for, from harvesting lettuce, replacing roofs, and tons of basic service economy positions most of us don’t foresee our descendants striving for. We also need to accept that many determinants of migration are outside the control of the United States and beyond the reach of our policies. We should also realize that it is impossible to crisis-proof the border because no investment in and of itself — even a wall — will stop people from being able to set foot on U.S. soil. Politicians should stop throwing rocks blaming the other party; invest resources and money to upgrade the vetting process and improve humanitarian conditions for immigrants during that process.

Increase the capacity at ports of entry to conduct orderly asylum interviews rather than forcing people to use Customs and Border Protection’s notoriously buggy CBP One app in the hopes of setting up scarce appointments.

Establish a “peace core” center that can train recent college grads on the proper vetting process. Besides a starting salary another incentive could be a formula forgiving student loan debt based on training time and length of service.

Recruit new lawyers to practice immigration law for a specified time like we currently do for doctors to encourage them to spend time in rural areas.

Improve temporary housing for immigrants who qualify for future immigration hearings, so they have an incentive to show up instead of disappearing.

Beef up our court system with more judges—and attorneys—so matters get heard faster. BTW this could apply to our criminal justice system too.

Educate immigrants on what the vetting process is all about including giving them information on how they can help in providing information when the standard docs may not be available. If your house were on fire would you go back inside to get your birth certificate?