“Give me your wealthy, your well-educated and your well-connected,” reads the inscription at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty. Okay—I made that up. But one could be forgiven thinking that, given the country’s current political discourse on immigration reform. The real inscription on Lady Liberty reads, in part, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.” That creed—part of Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus”—greeted more than 12 million immigrants who passed through Ellis Island on their way to a new life in America.
Last week, a bipartisan group of Senators proposed comprehensive immigration reform, which is now winding its way through Congress. The bill secures America’s borders, establishes a system to track visa holders to make sure they don’t overstay their visa and, more importantly, the bill provides a path to citizenship, over the course of 13 years, to the 11 million immigrants who entered the country illegally.
Five months ago, the Republican Party’s official position on immigration was a policy of self-deportation. This policy—an idea of former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.—recommended legislation to make it so hard for undocumented immigrants to live in the United States they would leave the U.S. to return to their native country. Oh how time—and elections—can change things! If there was a mandate from the presidential election last year, it was this: arithmetic matters. Seventy-one percent of Latino Americans voted for President Barack Obama in 2012, according to the Pew Research Hispanic Center. Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic group in America and Republicans are aware now more than ever that immigration reform is necessary and imminent.
The bill currently before Congress has as much bipartisan support as any legislation can have in this dysfunctional era, and for good reason. Since the 2012 presidential election, pundits on both sides of the aisle have talked about immigration reform as a “no-brainer” or “the easy problem,” because the incentives for both sides to work together are so high. Political analysts correctly talk about the economic benefits—not to mention the electoral ones—of immigration reform. For instance, David Brooks of The New York Times wrote, “every additional 100 foreign-born workers in science and technology fields is associated with 262 additional jobs for U.S. natives.” Immigrants or their children have started more than 40 percent of all Fortune 500 companies. All of the statistics tell the same story: Immigrants are more willing to take risks that end up paying off in a big way. They’re willing to work hard to make it in the United States. And immigrants are inspired by America to take risks, do big things and work for upward mobility.
However, when we reduce the argument for immigration reform down to the electoral and economic incentives, we’re cheapening what it means to be an American. At our core, we are a nation of immigrants. Yes, those incentives are good reasons for comprehensive immigration reform. Eleven million immigrants living here illegally want to live the American dream, but are instead living in the shadows because of a broken immigration system.
The path forward for immigration reform is promising. But America’s dialogue on reform should focus on the substantial reasons to reform immigration for those waiting, hoping and praying to become American citizens.
Michael is a freshman majoring in political science. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
