Deporting Illegal Immigrants is Both Wrong and Counterproductive
March 6th 2010 00:23
It is often pointed out that illegal immigrants are less likely than U.S. natives to commit crimes. Conservatives like to respond that 100% of illegal immigrants are criminals, because they broke the law to enter the country. Technically, this is true, but to count that initial crime against them does nothing to advance the discussion toward a political solution. Matt Yglesias has an intelligent response to such an argument:
I completely agree. The policy discussion should really be starting from scratch and focusing on optimizing the policy. If we were designing America's immigration policy today, how many immigrants could we take on before the benefit of the next immigrant was negative, on net and considering the gains to the immigrant? The answer would clearly be a much larger number of legal immigrants than America currently admits. Yglesias' last line in the above excerpt perfectly captures the mentality Americans should have toward immigration. Unlike large-scale deportations, a more liberalized immigration policy would be both humane and economically beneficial.
Follow me on Twitter: @AGoldenDoor
Nobody favors “illegal immigration” but a response focused on large-scale deportations of undocumented migrants is both inhumane and economically destructive. It would be far smarter to put into place a system that lets people who’ve come here to work do so as long as they follow the law, pay the taxes they owe, and start the process of integrating themselves and their families into American society...The fact that lots of people from all around the world want to come here and add their skills and efforts to our own is one of America’s great strengths in the world—it’s something we should be taking advantage of, not fearing.
I completely agree. The policy discussion should really be starting from scratch and focusing on optimizing the policy. If we were designing America's immigration policy today, how many immigrants could we take on before the benefit of the next immigrant was negative, on net and considering the gains to the immigrant? The answer would clearly be a much larger number of legal immigrants than America currently admits. Yglesias' last line in the above excerpt perfectly captures the mentality Americans should have toward immigration. Unlike large-scale deportations, a more liberalized immigration policy would be both humane and economically beneficial.
Follow me on Twitter: @AGoldenDoor
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