Enlaces News (January 2004)

Charting a New Course on Immigrants and Immigration Policy: Key Elements for Comprehensive and Lasting Policy Changes—A Heartland Alliance Perspective

As talk grows on the prospect of U.S. policy changes on immigrants and immigration policy, we have an unprecedented opportunity to develop a coordinated set of principles that would form the basis of a forward-looking, smart, and durable policy framework for migration.

Such a framework would depart from recognizing that immigrants form a vital part of the economic well being of the U.S., as well as being an invaluable asset to bring true economic opportunity and prosperity to their countries of origin. It would contain clear paths to permanent legal status, and would address current shortcomings in administrative procedures. Truly visionary migration policies would also take into account the international nature of migration. It is a phenomenon that can and must be managed in a way that responds to the needs and interests of both sending and receiving countries if we are to come to lasting solutions.

The following policy changes are offered as key elements for a new migration policy framework:

1. Legalize all undocumented immigrant workers and their family members who are now residing in the U.S. without immigration status. A new category for temporary legal immigration status would immediately allow beneficiaries the following:

a. To legally work in the U.S. Persons with this status would be issued a social security number and employment authorization.
b. Eligibility to basic social, economic, and political rights in the U.S. (using pre-1996 criteria).
c. To travel back and forth, legally, to their countries of origin.

All beneficiaries would have to meet basic health and security screening criteria. After a reasonable period of time (perhaps five years) under this status, and proven that a given beneficiary has maintained steady employment and good moral character; beneficiaries would be able to apply for legal permanent residence based on application requirements in place before the enactment of the 1996 Immigration Act. There must be no interruption of status from one to the other.

2. Revamp, from the bottom up, the current immigration services system; beginning with a prompt (twelve month) processing of all pending legal permanent residency applications. Extraordinary resources should be allocated to this critical task. Once backlogs are brought up to date, all immigration benefit applications should be finalized within six months. The unification of immigrant families, as well as our commitment to being a leader in humanitarian protection should be cornerstones of our immigration policy. This measure would ensure the permanent elimination of backlogs and the elimination of one of the chief reason for visitors’ visa overstays, as well as unauthorized entries.

3. Articulate a brand new immigrant integration policy intended to fast-track new immigrants’ social, economic, and political integration into U.S. society. It is not sufficient to provide legal status for immigrants. We must concern ourselves with providing opportunities for healthy integration into democratic, economic, and social processes in the U.S. To this end, a national immigrant integration summit should be organized, involving every state government, every federal government entity involved in any way with immigrant populations, as well as nonprofit organizations at the local and national levels. The goal of this summit would be to identify the chief premises of an innovative immigrant integration policy that would allow local, state, and federal governments to effectively cooperate and collaborate on how best to support the social, political, and economic integration of immigrant communities into U.S. society.

4. Articulate an international policy to wisely and humanely manage future migration flows. No one-time policy change (such as an amnesty) will solve migration problems over the long term. We must recognize that migration occurs in a regional and global economic context. A hemispheric migration summit should be organized with the purpose of articulating a realistic and economically smart policy to manage migration flows in the Western Hemisphere in a way that is also humane and of mutual convenience to sending and receiving countries. As a hemispheric-wide approach takes root, and lessons are learned, a similar global conference should also be held. The purpose of these summits would be to devise a multilateral policy to manage hemispheric and global migration flows in ways that respond to the labor force needs of the U.S. and other developed countries, as well as to migration pressures in developing countries. A multilaterally managed temporary worker program, with a clear option toward permanent settlement in the U.S., could be a way of putting this policy into effect.

5. Immediately introduce key economic policy reforms aimed at creating broad economic opportunity for people in developing countries. A newly appointed international economic policy task force should be created. Such a task force should design a new paradigm for economic integration and development in the Western Hemisphere and the rest of the developing world. The goal of the economic policy reform would be to arrive, within a reasonable but brief period of time, at a set of policies that will promote broad social and economic opportunity that would permit residents of developing countries to pursue their aspirations without leaving their home countries. Without this component, any immigration relief in the U.S. for undocumented immigrant populations will be short lived.

In tandem with the economic policy reform, U.S. assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean should be significantly increased and redesigned to support sustainable and equitable development. Given the fact that remittances sent by immigrants in the U.S. from Latin America and the Caribbean have become the chief source of foreign revenue to their respective national economies, it is imperative to include organized expressions of immigrant communities in both the economic policy reform task force and the re-design of foreign assistance. The task force should also involve government and civil society actors from Latin America and the Caribbean. Significantly improved standards of life by the majority of the citizens throughout the Western hemisphere will become the best antidote to migration pressures throughout this region.

All these tasks are viable if we have the will to carry them out. This policy shift would allow us a better, more humane approach on how to deal with migration as a key element in the ever more interdependent hemispheric and global economic system in which we live today. A policy and practice shift of this magnitude would also require drastic changes in the way resources are being allocated now at all levels of government in relationship to immigrants.