Civic Issues in Immigration
December 2020, 1:00-3:00 PM
Unless your ancestors were native to these shores, or forcibly enslaved and brought here as part of our original sin as a nation, most Americans can trace their family history back to a choice–a choice to leave behind everything that was familiar in search of new opportunities and a new life.” So begins Joe Biden’s Plan for Securing Our Values As A Nation of Immigrants. It continues, “It is a moral failing and a national shame when a father and his baby daughter drown seeking our shores. When children are locked away in overcrowded detention centers and the government seeks to keep them there indefinitely. When our government argues in court against giving those children toothbrushes and soap.” He goes on to note, “Generations of immigrants have come to this country with little more than the clothes on their backs, the hope in their heart, and a desire to claim their own piece of the American Dream. It’s the reason we have constantly been able to renew ourselves, to grow better and stronger as a nation, and to meet new challenges. Immigration is essential to who we are as a nation, our core values, and our aspirations for our future.”
Inspiring words, and a very different register than outgoing President Trump but how exactly SHOULD we approach immigration? One of the only things Democrats and Republicans can agree upon these days is that the immigration system is broken. Beyond that shared recognition, there are many different ways of understanding what is at stake and what matters most to us when we face difficult problems that don’t have perfect solutions. Left and right are deeply divided about what they perceive to be the problem and the solution(s)--divides that are compounded by media coverage of “illegal immigrants” committing acts of violence against innocent Americans and “stealing” American jobs on the right or the American government committing acts of cruelty against innocent immigrants and separating children at the border.
While both the left and the right tout their own curated facts, they rarely tell the whole story. How might we cultivate a considerate, nuanced, sensible approach to immigration in America that is both compassionate and pragmatic? Here are some facts that attempt to be non-politicized, curated by the Pew Research Center and The New Center.
Today, more than 44.8 million people living in the U.S. were born in another country, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s migrants.
Immigrants today account for 13.7% of the U.S. population, nearly triple the share (4.8%) in 1970. 77% of these immigrants are documented; almost a quarter are unauthorized.
More than 1 million immigrants arrive in the U.S. each year. In 2018, the top country of origin for new immigrants coming into the U.S. was China, with 149,000 people, followed by India (129,000), Mexico (120,000) and the Philippines (46,000).
The number of undocumented immigrants living in America has actually dropped since 2007. The number, however, quadrupled in the two decades prior (1987-2007.)
Immigrants and their descendants are projected to account for 88% of U.S. population growth through 2065, assuming current immigration trends continue.
Undocumented immigrants commit all categories of crime at lower rates than native-borns. But unauthorized immigrants are also much more likely to be involved in fatal car accidents due to their lack of driver’s licenses.
Legal immigration is generally good for the economy and for U.S. workers—but it isn’t good for all workers in all places, and the benefits accrue more for some (white-collar workers living in cities) than others (blue-collar workers who don’t).
Immigration tends to positively affect the federal budget but negatively impact state and local budgets in the short term. This helps explain why attitudes about immigration vary so much by region.
America is and always has been a nation that welcomes immigrants. But the share of foreign-born people living in the U.S. is now higher than at any point in almost a century.
It has been more than 30 years since the passage of the last comprehensive immigration reform bill with a legalization program, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). Since then, a gap between what the people want and what policymakers deliver has broadened. Although some common ground has been forged in Congress--bipartisan immigration bills cleared the Senate twice by large margins, once in 2006 and once in 2013--they didn’t make it through the House at that point, and many believe any progressive immigration reform wouldn’t make it through the Senate presently, if Republicans retain control.
So there is agreement that the U.S. needs a new approach to immigration--one that resolves the status of the unauthorized and creates a better process for selecting and tracking immigrant hopefuls--coupled with Washington’s inability to craft and approve one. The stagnation stems from both partisan gridlock and the failure of legislators to address key questions like:
Which policies will strengthen American communities?
How do we enforce immigration laws and what do we do about people already here?
What is the price to the public of admitting or deporting the unauthorized?
Given that entirely open borders aren’t realistic, what are our viable alternatives?
Where should we draw the lines?
How should we enforce border controls?
What is the least cruel way of cracking down?
How do we get various federal, state, and local entities working together instead of separately?
Although “illegal immigration” dominates the public debate, the shape of America’s system of legal immigration is just as consequential:
Should we welcome more newcomers to build a more vibrant and diverse society, or does this pose too great a threat to national unity?
How many people should and can realistically become American each year?
Should family-based immigration continue to be the prime criterion for entry into the U.S., or should we give more weight to other factors, like the potential contributions of new arrivals to our economy?
Should we accept more of the growing numbers of refugees from war-torn regions, or should we avoid the risk of allowing in people whose backgrounds may not have been fully checked?
What would an immigration system that makes sense for the times we live in look like--a system that provides security and strengthens our country?
With a new presidential administration coming to power, these questions are more salient than others. We look forward to grappling with them together within our Civic Forum on Immigration on Sunday, Dec 13. We will be joined in doing so by Felipe de la Hoz, an investigative and explanatory reporter focusing on immigration in the United States, cofounder of the weekly immigration policy newsletter Border/Lines, and a Lecturer at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY. Felipe is a former reporter for the investigative site Documented, and has written for The Intercept, The Appeal, The New Republic, The Baffler, The Daily Beast, WNYC, The Village Voice, and other outlets. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, has worked in Brazil, Colombia, and the United States, and is an alumnus of the Dow Jones News Fund's data journalism program, The New York Times Student Journalism Institute, and New York University. Felipe is a fan of data and skeptical of conventional wisdom.
Background Resources--please choose 3-4 in each category (more are better!)
Issues facing the Biden administration
Biden Administration Plans Immigration Reform Bill in First 100 Days (Bloomberg QuickTake, Dec 9, 2020)--commentary on newly named head of Dept of Homeland Services (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas
Immigration problems our president will face in 2021 (The Hill, Sept 6, 2020) AND/OR The challenges Biden will face on immigration reform (PBS Newshour, Dec 2, 2020) AND/OR Immigrant advocates to Biden: Be better than Obama (Politico, Nov 25, 2020)
A Biden Immigration Policy: New Hope For Immigrants And Businesses (Forbes, Nov 8, 2020)
Factbox: Here are six things Joe Biden will likely do on immigration (Reuters, Nov 7, 2020)
Biden might need years to reverse Trump's immigration policies on DACA, asylum, family separation, ICE raids, private detention and more (USA Today, Nov 12, 2020)
Joe Biden’s immigration plan, explained (Vox, Dec 2019)
Immigration is no longer a winning issue for Trump by Nicole Narea (Vox, Nov 2, 2020)
A federal court just blocked the Trump administration from expelling unaccompanied migrant children by Nicole Narea (Vox, Nov 18, 2020)
Biden Promises Bill Providing Pathway to Citizenship for 11 Million Illegal Immigrants in First 100 Days by Zachary Evans (National Review, Nov 25, 2020)
Trump Got What He Wanted at the Border. Would Biden Undo It? by Dara Lind (ProPublica, Oct 28, 2020)
What’s the Situation and How Did We Get Here?
Visualizing Two Centuries of U.S. Immigration by Nick Routley (Visual Capitalist, May 18, 2018) (2 min)
U.S. Immigration: Let’s Talk by Tom Gjelten (NPR, May 2018) (3.5 min)
Watch how immigration has changed over the last 200 years by Alvin Chang (Vox, Aug 3, 2017) OR watch a 2.5 min version of it here
Trump Got His Wall After All by Rachel Morris (Huffington Post, Nov 24, 2019)
The U.S. Immigration System May Have Reached a Breaking Point by Michael D. Shear, Miriam Jordan and Manny Fernandez (New York Times, April 10, 2019)
A Functional Immigration System Would Look Nothing Like America's by Krishnadev Calamur (The Atlantic, Nov 19, 2018)
The Immigration Debate Is Everything That’s Wrong With Modern America: It’s time to make America honest again by D.A. Kirk (ARC, July 23, 2018)
“Horror Stories: The sensationalist turn in liberal immigration discourse” by Felipe De La Hoz (The Baffler, Sept 28, 2020)
27 min Podcast: The US as a Place of Refuge (The Daily (NY Times), Nov 27, 2018)
27 min podcast: Inside Trump’s Immigration Crackdown (The Daily (NYTimes), Sept 14, 2020)
“Immigration Compromises Always Fall Short” by Robert Verbruggen (National Review, Nov 15, 2018)
“The Democrats Have an Immigration Problem” by Robert Draper (New York Times Magazine, Oct 10, 2018)
“The Lesser Cruelty on Immigration,” by Ross Douthat, New York Times, June 16, 2018)
16 min Video: Can Trump Supporters And Immigrants See Eye To Eye? (Jubilee, Mar 4, 2018)
Should birthright citizenship be abolished? Room for Debate (NY Times, Aug 23, 2015)
What Can Be Done (and What It Will Take)
The Biden Plan for Securing Our Values As A Nation of Immigrants --scroll down to read President-Elect Biden’s immigration proposal for the first 100 days.
How Washington blew its best chance to fix immigration reform by Alec McGillis (Pro Publica, Sept 15, 2016)
90 min Podcast: “Reihan Salam makes the case against open borders,” (The Ezra Klein Show, Oct 11, 2018) Related Articles if preferred to podcast: Immigration in Multigenerational Terms: Talking to Reihan Salam by Andy Fitch (LA Review of Books, Feb 1, 2019) and/or “Where Americans Agree on Immigration” (National Review, Nov 28, 2018)
“An Unexpected Solution to the Migrant Crisis” Reihan Salam (The Atlantic, Nov 2018)
Rep. Tom Cotton warns against Biden's 'amnesty' agenda by Seth McLaughlin (Washington Times, Nov 25, 2020)
This Simple Change Could Legalize Millions of Immigrants by Felipe De La Hoz (The Nation, Sept 1, 2020)