Part of your case for keeping a lid on immigration from Haiti is the claim that “Haiti’s survival depends on encouraging its best and brightest to remain and work on its revival” (“Help Haitians, but don’t throw open U.S. borders,” Jan. 29).


An odd argument, especially coming from for you.

In 1963 Al Neuharth left his job at the Detroit Free Press because he felt that prospects for his advancement at that newspaper were dim. He moved to Gannett, your parent company, where he later founded USA Today. That is, Mr. Neuharth migrated to a place that allowed him to put his talents to better use. Both he and the public gained by his migration.

Why should Haitians be denied the same opportunity to move to where their talents can be better used? Why should these real flesh-and-blood individuals be sacrificed to something called “Haiti”? Why should they be confined to working in an economy with a long, sorry history of smothering markets and suppressing the very talents that these people wish to put to use in a freer economy?

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux

“The fact is that illegal immigrants take jobs from American workers, particularly poor and disadvantaged citizens and legal immigrants. The best outcome for low-skilled citizen and legal immigrant workers is the removal of the illegal immigrant population. The very jobs that illegal immigrants occupy rightfully belong to out of work citizens and legal immigrants," Ranking Member Smith added. “With 15 million Americans out of work, we need to enforce immigration laws and oppose amnesty for 12 million illegal immigrants. We must stand up for citizens and legal immigrants.”

politically opportunistic, financially wasteful, and predictably ineffective.

We do know, however, why many individual Haitians are poor. For a large number, there is a clear reason: Many have been willing and able to leave Haiti for American shores, but armed agents of the U.S. government have forcibly stopped them or deterred them from trying. If they had not been stopped, virtually none of them would have been as poor and vulnerable as they were on Jan. 12.

Recent discussions of economic inequality, marked by a lack of clarity and care, have confused the public about the meaning and moral significance of rising income inequality... Many thinkers mistake national populations for "society" and thereby obscure the real story about the effects of trade and immigration on welfare, equality, and justice. There is little evidence that high levels of income inequality lead down a slippery slope to the destruction of democracy and rule by the rich. The unequal political voice of the poor can be addressed only through policies that actually work to fight poverty and improve education. Income inequality is a dangerous distraction from the real problems: poverty, lack of economic opportunity, and systemic injustice.

This study uses the U.S. Applied General Equilibrium model that has been developed for the U.S. International Trade Commission and other U.S. government agencies to estimate the welfare impact of seven different scenarios, which include increased enforcement at the border and in the workplace, and several different legalization options, including a visa program that allows more low-skilled workers to enter the U.S. workforce legally.

The earthquake two weeks ago hit Haiti hard because Haiti is poor. The rich U.S. had similar earthquakes with far less carnage. So, what would do the most to lift Haitians out of poverty?