Immigration

How to Talk About the Issue

WE KNOW that it is impossible to arrest and deport some 12 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally. Yet, illegal immigration is a genuine problem and our fellow citizens demand a solution. So don’t defend the current failure. Frame the issue by agreeing with Americans that the system is out of control.

WE SHOULD SAY: Our immigration system is broken. Conservatives don’t have a realistic solution to this problem—they just want to divide and distract Americans. We need change. Let’s protect our borders, crack down on corporations that hire illegal workers for cheap labor, and require immigrants who are here to register and meet a series of strict requirements to earn citizenship.

The Facts

America’s immigration system is broken. There are over 12 million people living in the United States without authorization. About 500,000 more enter the U.S. every year. Approximately 40 percent of all illegal immigrants came to the U.S. while the Bush Administration was in charge of border security. [Pew Hispanic Center]

About half of illegal immigrants crossed the border legally. As many as 45 percent entered the U.S. with a legal visa and then stayed when the visa expired. A smaller number entered legally using a Border Crossing Card that allows short visits to the border region. [Pew Hispanic Center] So even if it were possible to build an impregnable wall along our nearly 2,000 mile long border with Mexico, it would have only a limited effect.

The idea that we can round up 12 million immigrants is absurd. Conservatives know perfectly well that it is impossible to arrest and deport 12 million people. That would be like rounding up every living soul in the states of Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico combined. That’s five times more than the number of inmates incarcerated in every prison and jail in the nation. [Washington Post]

Unauthorized immigrants pay taxes and contribute to our economy. It is estimated that unauthorized workers paid nearly $50 billion in federal taxes between 1996 and 2003, helping to finance important programs, especially Social Security. [Drum Major Institute] Even low estimates put undocumented immigrants’ contribution to the nation’s GDP at $428 billion a year. [Associated Press]

The Argument

Conservatives who rail against illegal immigration don’t have a solution. They are well aware that it is impossible to deport 12 million people. They have no realistic solution. Their goal is simply to distract and divide Americans. We need to solve this problem and that requires a practical plan.

To secure our borders, we must crack down on companies that recruit illegal workers. We need to enforce existing employment laws to remove incentives for employers to hire unauthorized workers. When corporations pay illegal workers low wages and force them to work under miserable conditions, all workers lose as wages come down and basic worker rights are lost. For most of his term in office, George Bush failed and refused to enforce the law in order to protect the companies that were benefiting from the cheap labor.

We need to turn illegal immigrants into taxpaying citizens. We need a common sense solution that reflects who we are as Americans, a strong but compassionate nation. It’s time to stop the mindless bickering in Washington and agree on a solution that protects our borders, stops companies from evading the law, and requires immigrants who are here to meet a series of strict requirements to become citizens.

Progressive Solutions

Work toward a truly comprehensive solution. Immigration reform that does not tackle the causes of immigration and the employers who encourage immigrants to enter the United States illegally will not bring the change America needs.

Bring America’s borders under control. A secure border does not have to be a closed border. Smart, targeted border monitoring will ensure that our borders remain open for legal exchange with our neighbors.

Enforce labor laws to stop employers from using undocumented workers as a source of cheap labor. Employers should pay all of their workers a fair wage and should take responsibility for ensuring that they employ legally-eligible workers.

Replace our inefficient, unbalanced immigration system with one that’s practical and fair. Immigrants who are willing to work hard and pay taxes should have a fair chance to become legal citizens.

Enact trade policies that lift living standards around the world. We should revise the trade deals that have devastated economies in Central and South America to address the miserable conditions that compelled people to leave their homes.

Polling

Most Americans still support comprehensive immigration reform, and reject “enforcement-only” proposals without a path to citizenship.

Polling from Lake Research Partners and The Tarrance Group finds:

64% of Americans prefer legislation that “provides for increased border security and tougher enforcement, and also includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, which some would call amnesty” over Congress passing “nothing.”
57% prefer a candidate who supports “a comprehensive solution” including “things like tighten border security and enforce current laws” as well as an “earned legalization program for illegal immigrants.”
Only 37% support a candidate who says “all we need to do” is “tighten security on our borders and have tougher enforcement of our current law.”

Stressing enforcement at the border and barring employers from exploiting immigrant workers are critical to gain credibility for a comprehensive solution.

Polling from Democracy Corps finds:

75% of voters are more likely to support a candidate who says, “we need to put an end to illegal immigration by cracking down on unscrupulous corporations who exploit illegal and legal workers. When corporations hire illegal workers, all workers lose, as wages come down, and basic worker rights are lost. We must prosecute corporations that hire illegal immigrants to protect the rights of all workers.”
77% support doubling the number of Border Patrol agents.

Mass deportation is supported by only about one-third of voters in most polls.

2007 polls by CBS News (28%), Fox News (39%), New York Times (33%), ABC/Washington Post (35%) and USA Today/Gallup (24%) found little support for deportation as a solution to illegal immigration, when matched against a plan with a pathway to citizenship.
Not even a majority of Republican voters (45%) supports deportation.

Anti-immigrant attacks from Republicans backfired in the 2006 congressional elections.

Comparing exit polls from 2004 and 2006 suggests an 11-point swing among Latino voters in favor of the Democrats. The swing among non-Latino white voters was 6%.
Close races in which Latinos made up 10% or more of the electorate produced a net gain of four seats for the Democrats.

Stories

Rep. Tom Tancredo is the loudest anti-immigrant zealot – except when it comes to his home. Undocumented immigrants helped remodel U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo's Littleton basement, two of the workers told the Denver Post.

The workers said they were among a crew of five or six people who labored for contractor Creative Drywall Design of Denver, creating a home theater with terraced seating, a billiards table and game area, and a bedroom for Tancredo, a Republican and one of the nation's most vocal immigration critics. All but one of the crew were undocumented immigrants from Latin America, according to two of the workers…Tancredo didn't break any laws, according to immigration lawyers briefed on the case. He never asked whether the workers – only two of whom spoke English – were in the country legally, said Eric Givan, project manager for the company…

… Tancredo "doesn't want us here, but he'll take advantage of our sweat and our labor," said one of the workers. "It's just not right." [Denver Post, September 19, 2002]

An immigration raid at a major North Carolina pork-packing plant provoked protests yesterday from union officials, who said the company, Smithfield Foods, had collaborated with the authorities searching for illegal immigrants to discourage its workers from organizing. 18 Mexicans and 3 Guatemalans whom the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers said were in this country illegally were deported. Gene Bruskin, an organizer for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said the company had started to cooperate closely with immigration authorities after a walkout by immigrant workers last summer. He said, “My concern is the company is using the immigration issue to manipulate this long fight over workers’ rights.” [New York Times, January 26, 2007]

Other Good Resources

AFL-CIO: Immigrant Workers

Ray Marshall, Getting Immigration Reform Right, EPI Briefing paper, March 2007

Pew Hispanic Center fact sheets

Democracy Corps: Winning The Immigration Issue