IMMIGRATION
REFORM:
SELECTING
NEW AMERICANS
SYNOPSIS:
If one billion of the inhabitants of the planet Earth
would like to live in the United States of America,
only a small percentage of these will have this dream fulfilled.
Every country has the right to limit immigration.
How shall we in the USA choose new immigrants?
OUTLINE:
1. CORRECTING PRESENT LAWS AND PRACTICES
A. IMMIGRATION REFORM WILL KEEP FAMILIES
TOGETHER.
B. IMMIGRATION REFORM WILL REGISTER ALL
RESIDENTS OF
THE USA.
C. IMMIGRATION REFORM WILL SIMPLIFY THE RULES.
2. SELECTING NEW AMERICANS
3. NEW IMMIGRANTS CAN BECOME CITIZENS
AFTER
FIVE YEARS
IMMIGRATION
REFORM:
SELECTING
NEW AMERICANS
by
James Leonard Park
Is the USA the most desirable country on Earth?
If all borders were open, how many people would come here?
Where would these millions of immigrants live?
How would the USA adjust to such a population explosion?
Completely open immigration does not seem likely
to be the result of any immigration reform in the USA.
Accepting one billion new people would completely change the face of
America.
We are now about 300,000,000 people.
Adding 1,000,000,000 people would make our new total 1.3 billion.
The USA would have as many people as China.
That is just not going to
happen.
Long before the USA had the same population as China,
immigrants would stop coming because of overcrowding in America.
Under present immigration laws and practices,
the USA accepts about 500,000
authorized immigrants each year.
Any immigration reform is certain to start with this number.
Should we increase or
decrease the number of
new people permitted to settle in the USA?
In addition to this half a million immigrants
granted permission to come into the USA,
about an equal number enter without
permission.
In other words, a total of about one million people emigrate to the
USA each year.
Being and becoming a citizen of the United States of
America
is a privilege not a right.
And this fact is not likely to change under any immigration reform.
Does anyone seriously
advocate completely open borders?
So, if we are going to continue to control the movements of population,
what new laws and practices will we put into place?
1. CORRECTING PRESENT LAWS AND PRACTICES
The very idea of "immigration reform" means that we
begin with the present patterns.
Some of the most dramatic problems with our present practices
relate to how a rigid application of the rules
sometimes results in breaking up families.
When a family now living in the United States
is made up of some members who are U.S. citizens
and some members who are citizen
of other countries,
then sometimes the foreign nationals have been repatriated,
without regard to what this does to the actual family structure.
A. IMMIGRATION REFORM WILL KEEP FAMILIES
TOGETHER.
When a household consists of people who are citizens
of various countries,
then an immigration judge should determine the citizenship of each and
every member,
including their connections with other family members living in the USA
who do not live
under the same roof.
These immigration judges will be operating under
whatever new rules
we put into the revised immigration laws of the United States.
And, of course, the wishes of all persons involved will be considered.
Thus, the first step in deciding what should happen
to each family
is to create a list of all
family members with their citizenships noted.
And it will be relevant to know how each citizen of the USA
gained that citizenship—by
being born in the USA or by naturalization?
What citizenship does each member claim?
What proofs of citizenship
exist for each family member?
If some might be citizens of other countries,
do those other countries acknowledge them as citizens?
If there are several possible home countries,
how will these confusions be settled?
Once the complete family relationships have been
established,
including the legal citizenship of each member,
then the most appropriate country for them to live in
will be decided by the immigration judge,
following whatever new rules of family preservation exist at that time.
The most common form of family structure
consists of a father and mother and their dependent children.
But many other variations should also be taken into account.
Such new rules will have to be worked out in detail
as immigration reform is passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by the
President.
We certainly want to avoid tearing intact nuclear
families apart
just because one or more members is not a legal resident of the USA.
Here is one possibility not commonly mention in the
discussion of immigration reform:
Usually most of the legal residents of the USA want to stay in the
United States.
But it would be possible to keep the family together
by having them move as a
family group back to the country
where most of them
are legal residents or citizens.
If (as if often the case), the children are U.S. citizens
by
birth,
they would not lose their rights as U.S. citizens
simply by moving back to the country where their parents are citizens.
When these children become adults, old enough to
live on their own
(which would have to be decided by each individual family),
then these new adults would be permitted to re-enter the USA
because of their well-established U.S. citizenship.
Or they could choose to continue to live in the country
where their parents are citizens.
They might apply to become naturalized citizens of their parents'
country.
Or they might seek dual citizenship.
And later, all could apply to emigrate to the USA
using the revised procedures then in place.
And this prospective immigrant family would include in their
applications
all the relevant facts such as the fact that the parents
now have adult
children who would like to live in the USA
and who have such a right because they are citizens of the United
States.
B. IMMIGRATION REFORM WILL REGISTER ALL
RESIDENTS OF
THE USA.
Many of the problems of current immigration law and
practice
result from a mass of people
living in the shadows.
Millions of people who are not citizens of the USA
but who are nevertheless living in the United States at least part of
each year
want to remain hidden from all authorities.
As a part of comprehensive identification of all
people living in the USA
(or as a step in the direction of creating a National Identity
File for each person),
everyone should be
registered with the U.S. government.
Such registration would include a picture of each and every person,
whether or not that person is a legal resident of the USA or a citizen.
This universal registration would explicitly include
all citizens of other
countries settled in the USA.
And it would include all relevant family relationships.
Such a registration would only be possible after
changes of our immigration laws
so that citizens of other countries settled in the USA
are not automatically
returned to their courtries-of-citizenship upon
being discovered.
In other words, such automatic
deportation
will have to be one of the first things changed when creating new laws
of immigration.
Instead of taking citizens of other countries into
custody
whenever they are discovered,
the new law would establish a temporary file in the National identity
Bureau
for each citizen of another country found to be living (even
temporarily) in the USA.
Such foreign nationals would be permitted to remain in the United
States,
continuing their everyday lives as before,
until a comprehensive decision is made about their whole family.
A reasonable time for completing such investigations might be twelve
months.
Further investigation of these family relationships
would result in additional persons being registered with the National
Identity Bureau.
Just the fact that such persons formerly living in
the shadows
have now been officially registered with local and national levels of
government
will allow them to live more openly without fear of automatic
deportation
if ever they seek medical care, register their children in the local
school,
require public assistance, or need to call the police.
Many problems for citizens of other countries
settled
in the USA
are created precisely by our current laws and practices.
For example, many foreign nationals are exploited by unscrupulous
employers
because the bosses can threaten the employees with deportation
if the foreign nationals complain about anything.
Some foreign nationals work in the underground
economy
because they cannot get regular jobs,
which would require them to be legal residents of the United States.
Universal registration of all people living in the USA
—including
where they are working if they hold jobs—
would bring much of the underground economy above ground.
When citizens of other countries are registered and
identified
without being automatically deported,
they will be able to leave
the underground economy.
They will come under all laws with regard to employment:
They will be paid at least the minimum wage.
They will be permitted to establish legitimate records with the Social
Security Administration,
which will allow them to collect social security benefits
when they reach retirement age.
Their working conditions will come under laws protecting workers
from unsafe and unhealthy conditions.
They will no longer be held in virtual slavery,
constantly under the threat of deportation
if they do not comply with the demands of the people who are keeping
them.
Complete registration of all citizens of other countries is explored
here:
"Register all Foreign Nationals: Carrots and Sticks":
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/CY-REG.html.
How to register foreign nationals without deporting
them is explored here:
"Registration without Deportation:
Bringing Millions of Foreign Nationals Out of the Shadows":
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/CY-REG-D.html
C. IMMIGRATION REFORM WILL SIMPLIFY THE RULES.
Under our current—very
complicated—immigration
rules,
a whole industry has grown up to help citizens of other countries to
'game the system'.
When immigration lawyers help citizen of other countries
to take advantage of small exceptions in the present U.S. laws of
immigration,
this is a sign of the need to change such provisions
so that everyone will be able to understand the new, simple principles
for entering the USA and for applying for citizenship.
Claiming family relationships that do not correspond
to the real family structures
is one area of immigration
fraud that should be prevented
by any revision of our immigration laws.
Birthright
citizenship is probably the greatest such change we might enact.
We might decide not to grant
automatic citizenship
to children born to foreign nationals while they were in the United
States.
Such a change of citizenship-law would not affect the citizenship
of people already born under the old law.
But it would remove one significant means of 'gaming the system'.
[Click
this link: Born
in the USA for more discussion of birthright citizenship.]
Should we
eliminate national quotas?
Under present law and practice, each nation of the world
has a quota of permitted immigrants for each year.
What sense does this make?
Is there danger of such quotas for immigration being based on racism?
A more rational system of immigration
would publish each year a list
of the occupations most in need of new
people.
And this list would change from year to year,
depending on the changing situation in the United States.
When new immigrants are permitted to emigrate to the
USA,
it should be stated clearly in advance
exactly what family members (with their names and pictures)
will be permitted to emigrate with the parents.
This will permit each nuclear family to come to the USA as a unit.
The father, mother, & all dependent children will come as a family.
But they will not be permitted later to claim additional family members.
Persons granted permission to emigrate to the USA
could later become citizens according to the established procedures.
And then they might act as sponsors for more distant family members.
But these additional family members would have to be considered
according to the same
principles as apply
to all other applicants for emigration to the USA.
2. SELECTING NEW AMERICANS
As a democratic society based on the rule of law,
the United States of America has a right and a duty
to create new criteria for choosing who will be given permission to
come into the USA.
Our Congress and President will create a new laws
that reform our present immigration laws and practices.
Because so many millions of people would like to
come to the USA,
we can afford to be selective:
We can choose those individuals who would have the most to contribute
to our society.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
would establish criteria for the most desirable immigrants.
In the past, we have already had lists of occupations
that did not have enough people already living in the USA
to fill all of the positions available.
For example, sometimes there are not enough people
with the technical expertise that industry is looking for.
And there might be times in the future
when the USA would not have enough doctors or other health-care workers.
If and when such a shortage is documented
(by the fact that there are opening in such occupations
that are not being filled by legal residents of the USA),
then the State Department could tell all U.S. embassies around the world
exactly what kinds of people we are looking for to fill these
occupations.
The embassies are the locations where citizens of
other countries
apply for visas to come into the United States,
either temporarily as visitors, students, vacationers, seasonal
workers, etc.
or as permanent residents who would normally have a pathway to
citizenship.
Exactly what
the United States needs to make our society more complete
would be public information for everyone in the world.
And the mass media of all countries would inform their readers,
listeners, & viewers
whenever a new need is announced by the USA.
And the applications for immigration submitted to
our embassies
would include all of the appropriate information
explaining how the applicants would be able to fill the gaps already
identified.
Sometimes it would work from the other direction:
A U.S. company might already have identified a foreign national
they would like to hire for a specific position that is open.
And then the visa process should be even shorter and simpler:
This new immigrant already
has a job waiting for him or her in the USA.
When the proper paperwork has been completed,
that persons can be admitted immediately to the United States,
where he or she will establish residence in a known location
and move his or her whole nuclear family to that new place of
residence.
And the new employee can take up the open position
as soon as all of the arrangements can be completed.
If this selected immigrant has a spouse and/or
children,
these additional immigrants would also be admitted as a routine matter.
Unless there are definite reasons not to allow some specific person
to emigrate with the principal immigrant
(such as a member of the family being in prison for some crime),
then the whole family will come to the USA as a unit.
Probably more distant relatives will not
automatically be included.
But in their separate applications to emigrate to the USA,
they can include the facts about other family members
already given permission to emigrate.
The spouse and children of the principal immigrant
will not have to shows that they will contribute to the U.S. culture
in the same way, of course,
since some of them will be far too young to have shown
what they might have to offer.
Thus our system of immigration will take a chance with all such
dependents.
But this is not much different from taking the same chance
with all people who are merely born in the USA.
If all people born in the USA were required to show
that they would contribute
to the American culture rather than being a drag on society,
not all of us would pass the test.
This means that immigrants are being held to a
higher standard
than the people already Americans by birth.
But since only a tiny portion of the people who want to live in the USA
can be admitted,
don't we have a right to choose the best possible immigrants?
New immigrants can be expected to be above average.
Thus, the process of immigration will become a way
to enrich the culture
of the USA.
Every new immigrant family will be expected to contribute more than it
costs.
3. NEW IMMIGRANTS CAN BECOME
CITIZENS AFTER FIVE YEARS
If everything is fulfilled according to the original
plans
outlined in the first visa admitting this family,
they will also be able to apply for citizenship after five years.
During this probationary period, the Department of
Homeland Security
will be responsible to keep
track of this new family.
At least some part of their lives will be public information:
Those who are old enough to work will have their employment recorded.
They will pay taxes on their income.
Younger members of the family will be enrolled in schools or colleges.
(Some of them might also have jobs.)
If any of them are convicted of breaking any law,
that will be recorded in their National Identity Files
or in their individual files in the Department of Homeland Security.
Simple offenses will not be sufficient to deny
anyone citizenship.
And the positive things they achieve will be measured against the
negative.
For example, if one member of the family is an alcoholic,
who is convicted several times of drunk-driving,
this will be a factor against accepting that person as a citizen.
But the immigration judge who must ultimately decide
will also hear all of the facts that show what this person has
contributed to America.
In the past, sometime simple offenses,
which do not even warrant any time in prison,
have been used to exclude individuals from continuing to live in the
United States.
The immigration judge will also attempt to keep all
nuclear families together,
especially when there are dependent children.
But keeping the family together does not necessarily mean overlooking
offenses
that would result in returning the offender to his or her country of
citizenship
if that person was not a part of a nuclear family.
It could be that the immigration judge will decide to keep the whole
family together
by returning them as a group
to their country of citizenship.
A possible exception to this family-unity principle
might be a young adult who committed significant crimes while a
teen-ager.
The immigration judge could approve U.S. citizenship for the parents
while deciding that the criminal child will not be permitted to become
a U.S. citizen.
And that young adult would be returned to the country of his or her
citizenship.
Each such case would have to be decided on an individual basis,
with all appropriate means of appeal when the case does not obviously
fit
the criteria set forth by in the new law of immigration.
Immigration reform will change our basic concept of
"immigrant".
Because of the selection process,
new immigrants will be better
than average
rather than people who need a lot of help to fit into the American
culture.
We will select the most intelligent and best educated of the applicants.
We will look for the people who are most creative and committed.
The new immigrants will begin to contribute to America
as soon as they get settled and begin their new jobs.
The five-year waiting period will present no
problems
for the vast majority of foreign nationals who are approved for
immigration.
They will show that the process worked well in selecting
the best of the
millions people who want to live in the
USA.
AUTHOR:
James Park is himself an immigrant to the United
States.
He was a child when his whole family was admitted to the USA, in 1949.
So there was no way to know ahead of time what he might contribute.
But each family member has proven to be good for America.
Much more about James Park will be found on his website,
an Existential
Philosopher's Museum,
which now has more than 1,000 rooms.
Some of these rooms contain other essays about
immigration:
Earning
American Citizenship:
Be Above Average
IDEAL
IMMIGRANTS:
New Criteria for Selecting New Americans .
I am an
Immigrant
.
IMMIGRATION
REFORM:
Problems and Solutions:
Keeping the UU Debate Constructive .
IMMIGRATION
REFORM:
A Range of Options .
Expanding the
DREAM Act:
New Pathways to Citizenship .
Register all
Foreign Nationals:
Carrots and Sticks .
Registration
without Deportation:
Bringing
Millions of Foreign Nationals Out of the Shadows .
Twelve Million
Foreign Nationals in the USA:
How Many Will Stay?
Born in the USA:
The Easy Way to Become a U.S. Citizen
.
Comprehensive
Repatriation of Citizens of other Countries and their Families
.
National
Identity File:
Our National
Facebook .
created
November 20, 2010; Revised 11-21-2010; 11-22-2010; 12-1-2010;
12-15-2010; 1-15-2011; 5-11-2011; 10-1-2011;
5-20-2012; 6-21-2012