Immigration expert offers basic solutions for fixing both broken system, public angst

Vail’s construction industry relies heavily on immigrant labor (David O. Williams photo).

Immigration to the United States is an asset, not a crisis, said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, in a speech Monday in Steamboat Springs. Yet, Selee acknowledged that there is a crisis in the public’s perception of immigration issues on the nation’s southern border.

Selee, whose nonpartisan organization advocates for improved immigration policies, opened his talk by noting that immigration is “embedded in society” and has touched the lives of every human in the United States and Western Hemisphere. Everyone is descended from an immigrant – even Native Americans who crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia, to settle the Americas thousands of years ago.

“Immigrants made this country,” he noted and then asked if anyone in the audience was an immigrant from another country, had married an immigrant, was the child of an immigrant, worked with, purchased goods or services from an immigrant, or employed immigrants. By the time he was done, there were lots of hands raised among the crowd at the Steamboat Springs Springs Pavilion.

Former President Donald Trump has made unauthorized immigration the “centerpiece of his political campaign,” said Selee, “making it the most polarizing issue in the country.”

And yet, Selee noted, the polarization is most clearly seen and heard among politicians, not the general public. According to numerous polls, the public is in favor of immigration in theory, but worry about how it does or does not work in practice.

“Most people see there are positive aspects about immigrants coming to America,” said Selee. “They just want people to come in an orderly way.”

“Immigration is the secret sauce that makes America work,” said Selee, “but it is putting a great deal of pressure on local and state governments” that are struggling to accommodate an influx of unauthorized immigrants.

So what is going on?

Selee asked the audience to keep four factors in mind.

First, the United States is going through demographic changes, he said. Families are having fewer children for a wide range of reasons, which means the work force is getting older and smaller as people retire and there are fewer young people in the pipeline to replace them.

This means there are jobs in the U.S. economy that go unfilled by locals, but immigrants – authorized or unauthorized – are happy to fill those jobs in construction, agriculture, restaurants, and hotels.

Secondly, the factors that push immigrants out of their native countries, said Selee, has been changing and becoming more complex and complicated. The economies in nations like Haiti and Venezuela are collapsing and people are fleeing – often to neighboring states that offer more stability and most importantly, jobs. Climate change is also a factor, said Selee, but immigrants don’t think about it like that. “What they see is more flooding and more drought,” he said. That prompts people to move, he said.

Third, said Selee, is changing technology and transportation, which have a strong impact on how and where people move.

He pulled out his own cell phone and said, “This is a vital tool for migrants.” The cell phone, which is becoming ubiquitous in poor towns and villages, enables the owner to get real-time information about geography, weather, and nearby sources of food, water, shelter, and health care. A cell phone enables migrants to share information, tips, and warnings, that facilitate trips.

This is most clearly seen in the Darien Gap, 60 miles of jungle, mountains, and no roads, that links southern Panama with northern Columbia. Before the widespread use of cell phones, said Selee, the Darien Gap was all but impossible to cross. Latin American migrants were blocked, leaving Mexicans and to a lesser degree, Central Americans, to migrate up to the southern border of the United States, for jobs and a new life.

Today, cell phones make it possible for larger numbers of people to cross the Darien Gap, for example, which means more Latin Americans are able to reach our southern border.

And the growth in airline flights between countries means that migrants from China, Africa, and Southeast Asia, can fly to Brazil and head north. 

“We’re seeing more Chinese at our southern border and the Border Patrol learned it didn’t have any Chinese speakers on staff,” said Selee.

“Fourth is the world of immigration policy,” Selee said. Current immigration policies were designed for different economic and political conditions. Fifteen years ago, Mexican men were the big immigrant population. Today, there’s 140 different countries that want to go to the United States, said Selee.

“There’s a real niche in our economy,” said Selee, like construction or seasonal workers. What’s needed is a better match between supply and demand, he added.

He praised immigrants for starting new businesses and ability to invent new products and techniques. Usually arriving with little or nothing, immigrants rise faster economically and socially than our native poor, he said. 

“They might not recapture old careers as doctors, lawyers, or other professionals, but they advance,” Selee said.

As for bringing crime to the United States, repeated research shows they are less likely to commit crimes, bringing lower crime rates to neighborhoods where they gather.

“And they pay taxes, more than they’ll ever collect in benefits,” he said.

The fly in the ointment, regarding unauthorized immigrants, is the strain they put on public schools, housing, and health care, before the immigrants find jobs and start standing on their own feet.

Recommendations

Selee made concise recommendations to get away from the crisis mode we’re in:

• Fix the system so available jobs that go begging, get workers.
• Establish a path to citizenship for undocumented migrants who’ve raised families, married U.S. citizens, built businesses and have had kids born here for 10 years or more.
• Help other countries help their immigrant populations so they can stay there, rather than come here.
• Reform visa policies so we get the immigrants we need, when we need them.
• Encourage political parties to go old school and use compromise and negotiation to get policies that work for everyone.
• Recognize that immigrants most often compliment our native labor force, rather than compete with it. 
• Avoid a draconian crackdown that would drive immigrants underground and create huge labor shortages.
• Recognize that most drug smuggling is through ports of entry in vehicles with hidden compartments, not immigrants struggling across deserts.

Selee’s talk was hosted by Seminars at Steamboat, a 22-year-long series of free, nonpartisan discussions about public policy. It was the second of five seminars this summer, following a July 8 focus on climate change. More information about the seminars is available at seminarsatsteamboat.com.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on the Colorado Times Recorder website.