The Solutions to Deal with Illegal Immigrants

Introduction

Many people want to grant illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. That is a simple but false solution because it isn't supported by historical facts as well as what incentivized illegal immigrants to be here to begin with. First, let's review the historical facts. According to the Pew Research Center, in the 1990s, only 38% of legal immigrants became naturalized U.S. citizens. That number has gradually climbed since then. In 2011, 56% of legal immigrants in the U.S. became naturalized citizens, but the remaining 44% (9.7 million legal immigrants) chose not to become U.S. citizens even though they were eligible. “Hispanic immigrants made up the largest immigrant group, but their naturalization rate was only 46%, compared with 71% of all other legal immigrants” (Pew Research Center, 2011).

The Problem with Granting Citizenship

Legal immigrants from Mexico have the lowest naturalization rate of 36%. This data clearly shows that citizenship is not something that motivates many immigrants, legal or illegal. Past efforts to grant legal immigration status to illegal immigrants failed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. as promised. The clearest example was President Reagan's Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which offered three million illegal immigrants amnesty. Despite this, the number of illegal immigrants continued to increase after the law's passing. According to Pew Research, the unauthorized population grew by an average of half a million a year between 1990 and the mid-2000s and peaked in 2007 at around 12 million (Pew Research Center, 2013). It seems that citizenship isn't a motivating factor for many illegal immigrants, and thus, granting a path to citizenship is not a solution. Additionally, our legal immigration system already has an enormous backlog of applications. Imagine what would happen if we stuffed 11 million new applications into the pipeline. We cannot keep trying to help illegal immigrants by punishing legal immigrants.

Motivations of Illegal Immigrants

So, what motivates illegal immigrants? “Among the estimated 11.3 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., 8.5 million of them are in the labor force as of 2014” (Pew Research Center, 2014). On a percentage basis, illegal immigrants are about 3.5% of our nation’s population and about 5% of its labor force. It’s worth pointing out that illegal immigrants make up a larger share of the labor force than of the total population. Although close to 45% of illegal immigrants come from Mexico, Mexicans’ share of illegal immigrants peaked in 2007 and has been declining since. Ana Gonzalez-Barrera from the Pew Research Center estimated that there were 140,000 fewer Mexicans living in the U.S. in 2014 than in 2009, and that the net flow from Mexico to the U.S. is now negative (Gonzalez-Barrera, 2015). She credited the decline to the U.S.’s economic recession in 2008 and the improving Mexican economy at the same time. Obviously, many illegal immigrants are economic migrants who came here to find a better job and a better life, but not all of them want to stay in the U.S. for the rest of their lives. Many would not have brought their families here if they could travel back and forth between the U.S. and their home countries without worrying about being stopped at the border.

Historical Solutions

History shows that granting temporary work visas to economically oriented migrants is the best way to reduce the incentive and the numbers of illegal immigrants. When World War II created a labor shortage in the U.S., after many American men were drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces, the U.S. and Mexican governments created a temporary program to bring Mexican agricultural labor into the U.S. On August 4, 1942, the program was officially referred to as the Mexican Farm Labor Program, but most people know it as the Bracero Program (bracero in Spanish means “manual laborer”). The Bracero Program was not an immigration program. It allowed Mexicans to legally take temporary agricultural work and later, railroad work in the U.S. with nonimmigrant status. The program lasted until 1964. Between 1942 and 1964, over 4.6 million Bracero labor contracts were signed (Bracero History Archive, n.d.). During this period, the number of illegal immigrants was reduced by 90%. It’s not difficult to see why. There were no legal hurdles for Mexican workers to get a work visa, which greatly reduced the incentive to cross the border illegally. There were few compliance requirements for U.S. farmers, and with a guaranteed supply of legal workers, there was limited demand for illegal workers.

Proposed Solution

Therefore, the solution to illegal immigration in the U.S. can be as simple as three steps, and granting citizenship isn't one of them:

Step 1: Illegal immigrants who can prove that they are currently employed and have no criminal record should be granted temporary work visas after they pay a fine. A work visa will allow the visa holder to work legally in the U.S., paying income taxes and traveling in and out of the U.S. with no constraints. The visa holders will be considered non-resident aliens and therefore will not have access to federal means-tested welfare benefits. The work visa would be good for at least three years and can be renewed as long as the applicant is employed.

Step 2: If illegal immigrants brought their families with them, they must pay a fine for their families. Their immediate family members, excluding children who were born here, will get temporary visitor visas. The length of their visa should be the same as the working visa, and they can renew their visas as long as their primary family member’s work visa is valid and also not have access to federal aids. If any of these illegal immigrants want to become legal permanent residents, they will have to go through the same application process as other legal immigrants did.

Step 3: Any illegal immigrant who has a criminal record will be deported immediately and will not be eligible to apply for any U.S. visa for five years.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while the idea of granting illegal immigrants a path to citizenship might seem like a straightforward solution, historical evidence and current motivations suggest otherwise. By focusing on temporary work visas and addressing economic incentives, the U.S. can create a more effective and just immigration policy that benefits both immigrants and the nation as a whole.

References

• Bracero History Archive. (n.d.). Bracero Program. Retrieved from http://braceroarchive.org
• Gonzalez-Barrera, A. (2015). More Mexicans Leaving Than Coming to the U.S. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org
• Pew Research Center. (2011). Naturalization Trends in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org
• Pew Research Center. (2013). Unauthorized Immigrant Population Trends for States, Birth Countries and Regions. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org
• Pew Research Center. (2014). Unauthorized Immigrant Workforce in the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org