The Economy And The GOP Will Suffer If We Don’t Fix The Immigration Crisis

The economy—and Republicans—will suffer if we don’t face up to the growing immigration crisis.

President Trump pulled off a miraculous achievement by shutting our once-open border within months of resuming office. So much for the Democrats’ whining that this problem would take years to resolve. And Trump has won wide praise in relentlessly pursuing and deporting gang members and other criminals who illegally entered our country.

But now comes a different, more difficult challenge: what to do about the millions who entered the U.S. illegally, not just those who came in during the Biden administration but also those who have resided here for years, even decades. Most have been law-abiding and have sunk roots here.

Then there are those—estimated to number 2.5 million—who were brought here as minors by their parents and are referred to as Dreamers.

The broader sweeps to catch and deport illegals who are not otherwise lawbreakers is starting to impact parts of the economy, most notably agriculture, construction and hospitality. The president has said he doesn’t want to harm our nation’s farmers. If crops and fruits are only partially harvested, food prices will go up. This makes for rotten politics.

The residential labor force, such as house cleaners, landscapers and aides for the elderly will also be increasingly affected. The public’s negative reaction to mass arrests of immigrants who have been law-abiding—other than entering the country illegally—is going to increase.

President Trump has the need—and credibility—to make several moves to deal with this situation. Concerning the Dreamers, he should push legislation to make them permanent residents and end the endless uncertainty. Many now are raising families and pursuing careers. They wouldn’t have the right to vote. Dealing positively with this particular issue has broad-based support.

Work programs should be enacted for agriculture, construction and, perhaps, various service industries whereby immigrants could legally come into the country and work in needed areas for periods of time.

The demand for skilled people is real. That’s why H1B visas for high-tech immigrants should be simplified and arbitrary caps removed. Let the numbers be decided by actual demand. We need to use a scalpel approach for determining would-be students from other nations, instead of current, blunderbuss methods. We don’t want to lose future talent to other countries. Almost half of our largest companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.

For the millions of current illegal residents, an approach should be devised where they could apply for at least a temporary residency by paying a fine and/or showing they have paid taxes, most particularly payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare. Of course, they couldn’t have a criminal record.

For the million or so people who, in the words of the administration, have self-deported, they could be allowed to apply to come to the U.S. through the legal process, like every other would-be resident.

All this, naturally, underscores the need to drastically simplify our current immigration system. People who play by the rules can find themselves in limbo for years.