My Anger With Stalling Immigration Reform

President Obama’s last three years are likely to be rough, especially in the legislative department as he’s almost certainly going to get a republican House again this November. Immigration reform has obviously been one of the administration’s top priorities this year and likely will be for the next three years, as surely nothing’s going to happen anytime soon. But recently I’ve found that reading through newspaper articles on the issue really just gets me aggravated. Be it because of the use of the prevalent term “Illegal immigrants”, or the broad fact that there’s vast popular support for an overhaul, or even because of the refusal from the Speaker for the House to even hold a vote, I’m just entirely sick of the topic.

We’ll start with the simple popularity of immigration reform. This issue is the epitome of how entirely feeble America’s Congress is right now. By broad margins, Americans support the idea of immigration reform, easier pathways to citizenship, stronger border enforcement, and more. Unfortunately, because it’s an issue that people usually believe doesn’t affect them, why vote for candidates who have anything to do with it? Jobs, healthcare, the budget deficit, education, and security all rank higher than the only issue congress ACTUALLY has a semi-bipartisan proposal for. Congrats America.

Here’s what’s even more annoying. Immigration significantly affects almost each and every one of those issues. 62% of Americans believe that “illegal aliens” are a cost burden to US taxpayers, and they’re entirely correct, but perhaps not for the reasons you’d think.

The United States’ immigration policies are a massive hindrance to the 11 million undocumented immigrants already living here and to every US household economically. It’s estimated that immigration reform could add over $250 to the average American’s household income every year. An easier pathway to citizenship and legalization actually allows immigrants already living here (reminder, they’re definitely not leaving, so throw that out of your mind) to become far more productive members of the economy, and far more efficient workers. That ability for undocumented immigrants to become more productive would actually increase America’s GDP by around $700 Billion by 2023. Immigration also affects jobs. It’s estimated legalization and citizenship could produce between 120,000 and 203,000 new jobs. What? We’re going to attack another election issue as well? Immigration reform could also reduce the deficit by $1.2 Trillion over two decades. Still no reason for it to be a serious voting issue?

There are actually countless more benefits from social security savings, to increases in the housing market, and increases in average wages.

So there’s the economics of it, but what about the basic morals of it? I absolutely hate hearing “Illegal immigrants”. Who has dubbed them illegal? You and your newspaper? Well, glad to see a jury was convened and everything, nice judicial process you got there. Almost all of us descend from immigrants, so why are the current ones different? They just a little too late to the party?

Is it a crime that people wanted to come here? Almost half of the existing undocumented workers came here with work visas, tourist visas, or something of the sort and simply overstayed their legal welcome after settling down. And even those of you who say “Yes, it is”, your argument still doesn’t even remotely hold up. The proposed immigration reform would make it easier to earn citizenship, streamline legal immigration, and yes, strengthen the border. They want to make it easier for immigrants here, easier to immigrate legally, and make it harder to immigrate against US policy.

I think the day we start reserving the American dream for the people who were born here is the day we’ve completely lost faith in it. I think hundreds of thousands of people come here every year looking for a better life with the full understanding that they’re the ones who won’t be receiving it, but rather their children and their children’s children. The average immigrant will make $14,000 less yearly than a natural citizen, will have fewer children go off to college, about 60% won’t have health insurance, and 20% of adults and 33% of children will live in poverty. This isn’t an issue we throw back over the border as quickly as we can, it’s a major failure on the United States’ report card.

I recently had an interesting argument with a friend who was against a large portion of the proposed immigration reform bill. I find most people seem to simply dislike the fact that the immigrants supposedly broke the law. Well, I’d like to know what the proposed solution for that is? We can’t throw nearly 12 million people back over the border or put them all in prison. Yes, we can reduce immigration against federal policy in the future, but that requires one thing as well. Immigration reform.

I suppose you could impose financial penalties, as extremely difficult as that would be. But have we not punished them enough financial? Immigrants without citizenship have fewer opportunities, can’t vote, and experience a plethora of issues that average American doesn’t.

To me, this issue is simple. There’s a proposal on the floor that not only gives democrats the bonus of treating immigrants here better, but also the standard republican (and plenty of democrats) the bonus of strengthening the border.

Let’s all give a wonderful round of applause to the United States House of Representatives for continuing to proudly represent the opinions of the American people and for constantly propelling us to a brighter future.

PS: Sorry for not writing for a while, been away on vacation.