I have many friends across the political spectrum. I don’t know any who do not agree that our immigration policy needs fixing.
Fixing something that has been going awry for decades for many reasons requires understanding as well as determination. Otherwise, we may simply trade one set of problems for another. Have we thought through what could happen if a new immigration policy is not done well?
What will happen to inflation when half of our fresh produce production and one-quarter of our meat packing is done by workers living in the country illegally, who are to be removed? Without the millions of undocumented workers now doing our construction, repair and other labor-intensive jobs, will it become prohibitively expensive for the elderly to hire someone to take care of them and their yards? How would that affect living patterns in our communities and within our extended families?
How will our economy change if 10-20 million consumers are removed? Their purchases directly and indirectly sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs. How much sooner will the social security trust fund run dry without the $25.7 billion that undocumented workers contribute to it, even though they cannot collect benefits?
What will replace the $59.4 billion in taxes paid to the federal government (helping to reduce the national debt) by undocumented workers and the $37.3 billion paid to state and local governments they now use to provide our present level of public services? (There will be savings in some states that provide public assistance to undocumented migrants, but immigrants lacking permanent legal status get no federal welfare assistance.)
Undocumented workers, including criminals, are able to live and hide among us because of fake and shared identification. To confidently identify who should be here and who should not, will we need to implement a national biometric identity system (many countries have them)? Without such a system, will our immigration policy create a tattle-tale culture where millions live in fear of being fingered, justly or unjustly, by anyone around them?
National trends suggest that accounts of welfare cheating, violent crime and felony vote fraud by the undocumented are real but are actually quite rare. The best studies currently available show that crime rates among the undocumented are less than half as high as those of us who are here legally, probably reflecting intense pressure in most immigrant communities to stay below the police radar. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the better-behaved among us are the ones we move out?
The current anxiety about immigration is shared by many countries. Each feels that too much, too-rapid immigration can threaten existing cultures.
Not long ago, when my wife and I were in Thailand, we visited a family in need and received a little real-life tutorial in the making of refugees.
Majeed showed us the TikToks and photos uploaded over the past several months showing anti-Christian mobs destroying crosses, ransacking churches before setting them on fire, and throwing furniture out the windows of the apartments of church members. “Our Christian women and children ran to hide in the fields when this happened,” Majeed’s wife told us. “When they were found, they were raped.”
“This is why we cannot return to our home in Pakistan,” Majeed said, choking back tears.
Some years ago, after Pakistan had passed legislation designed to strengthen Islamic national identity, Majeed, a Christian, was repeatedly beaten by anti-Christian gangs who threatened his life. An oil and gas technician, he relocated several times to get away from the persecution, but eventually had to move with his wife and three daughters to Thailand, where there is a United Nations office that processes refugee applications. The family legally qualified for refugee status and an organization in Europe was willing to sponsor their immigration, but the family overstayed their visas in Thailand and now does not have legal status. The organization in Europe has been overwhelmed with Ukrainian refugee applications and has told Majeed to continue to wait in Thailand, where at least bombs are not falling.
“I check my email four times a day hoping for good news,” Majeed told us.
Thailand, like a growing number of countries around the world, wants to bolster its own national identity and is stepping up enforcement of its immigration laws. Majeed and his wife rarely venture outside their small concrete apartment. “We feel ashamed to have to live like this,” Majeed said. “But what choice do we have?” The only time the family goes out together is to attend church on Sunday mornings.
After the family had returned home the Sunday before we visited, a friendly Thai neighbor knocked on their door and warned them that a police sweep was underway. Majeed locked the door, turned out all the lights and huddled with his family in the bedroom. They watched through a slit in the window as undocumented Vietnamese and Burmese were handcuffed and put into the back of a truck before being taken away.
“We live in constant fear,” Majeed’s wife said. Though she smiles a lot, she has developed dangerously high blood pressure, no doubt stress-related. We cannot judge the actual circumstances in Pakistan, but her dread of return is very real.
There are thousands of people like Majeed and his family seeking refuge in our country as well, in addition to those who are here to escape dire poverty or simply seek a better life. I am proud that they feel that our country is a place where they believe their dreams can be realized. How would it change us if America were seen instead as a place where masses of people are rounded up and put into detention camps without due process? Might that effort change us into a more callous people, less caring than Majeed’s Thai neighbors?
I am in favor of new and enforceable immigration policy, including guest worker programs, that will continue to bring the economic benefits we have come to rely on by people eager to provide them. But let’s do this right and not ride roughshod over our values and sensibilities before we have developed a well-thought-out immigration policy we can be proud of.