Immigration Policy

The biggest potential pitfall the Democrats could have in Congress is if they allow the protectionist wing to rule and approach bipartisanship as an opportunity to ally with the far-right protectionists to hurt immigrants and try to strip them of their rights. The danger here is that the bigotry and unintelligence of the anti-immigrant groups could be unintentionally strengthened by labor groups trying to reduce the wage impact of immigration.

Undoubtedly, there is a small but politically sensitive impact of immigration. However, the way to deal with this is not to rail against 'illegal immigrants taking our jobs' or 'freeloading immigrants steal our tax dollars' or 'illegal immigrants take our money and send it out of the country'. The approach is to recognize that immigrants, particularly from Mexico and the rest of Latin America, are coming to the country and we should welcome them with our minimum wage, relatively low tax burden and stringent working condition regulations, providing them with the carrot and save the carrot for business that violate these regulations.

Immigrants will not significantly affect employment or wages if they are properly documented and should not all be lumped as 'criminals' for breaking the overly strict immigration laws that only let in a fraction of those who want to come in. If we open the borders and keep track of those who enter (perhaps in exchange for some benefits such as possibility of citizenship or Unemployment Insurance or the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits), then the 'border enforcement' work will be focused on those with harmful intent.

The issue of remittances is silly (although I have heard suggestions that it is somehow 'robbing our country'). The money remitted to countries-of-origin is money earned by the workers and has proven to be a very efficient way to assist with development because there aren't the administrative costs associated with filtering through (sometimes corrupt) governments.

In the end, the U.S. has been successful despite occasional bouts of opposition to immigrants and the rise of hate groups relying on ignorance and flirtations with bigotry towards those who are difference. Immigrants are a huge part of this success and are one of the factors that separates us from Europe, which has committed itself at least in the short term to 'Fortress Europe' (Japan is even more xenophobic). Proper documentation for immigrants will allow them to accomplish their goals of helping themselves and their families without resorting to trying to keep them out or simply depriving them of services. The latter policy is one of ghettoization and is the most harmful and potentially beneficial to xenophobes and racists.