The Center for American Progress released a report detailing the actual cost of the only solution proposed by anti-immigration restrictionists–Mass Deportation. In “The Costs of Mass Deportation,”Marshal Fitz, Gebe Martinez and Madura Wijewardena have put together a realistic appraisal of the costs of the only option other than comprehensive immigration reform. It is not a pretty picture. With costs over 5 years of $285 BILLION dollars (money which most folks understand that we do not have), we are faced with what appears to be an easy choice.
One, bring 12 million people out of the shadow economy and into the light. Allow them to pay taxes. Allow them to drive without fear. Allow them to live with their families. Allow them to generate wealth in the greatest economic engine ever created by man, the U.S. economy. Change our legal immigration system to eliminate outrageous non-immigrant and immigrant visa delays and encourage the immigration to the U.S. of the best and the brightest.
Or, two, deport everyone who had the courage to try to make it in America, even without a visa or status. Keep legal immigration restricted and strangle the economy, innovation, and motivation. Create fear and panic in immigrant communities, both legal and undocumented. Unmotivate immigrant youth to excel in school. Do everything in your power to cause distrust of lawful enforcement authority in immigrant communities.
These are your choices Congress. These are your choices Mr. President. Which will you have the courage to pursue and change?
While it makes sense to bring an estimated 11 million people out of the shadows and into the light, it should be recognized that the general amnesty approach is inherently unfair- especially to Asians (who historically were excluded from immigration), Africans, and Eastern and Western Europeans: the United States has a “worldwide limit” to the number of immigrant visas (or green cards) each year. The worldwide total U.S. visas for family sponsored cases is about 226,000 a year, and for employment based cases it is about 140,000.
More people apply than there are yearly visas available. As a result there is a visa shortage and U.S. State Department will set up a waiting list of people. This list is in Priority Date order. The Priority Date is the date the immigration petition was received by the USCIS.
There are tens of thousands of law abiding people on the Priority Date list some waiting one or two decades to come.
Amnesty as proposed under the last McCain Feingold attempt (summer 2007) would not address these patient law abiding people- instead it gives preference to those who would not wait and turned a blind-eye to our laws.
A good example is the last amnesty known as Section 245(i) of the Immigration Act (see statistics: a provision primarily benefited Latin America) and as the visas were charged against the worldwide limit, it resulted “retrogression” –moving backward on the Priority Date list- for the patient law abiding people waiting in line.