At a time when lawmakers can't seem to agree on anything and average Americans are exasperated with the government's inability to take positive action, the House of Representatives has an opportunity to pass legislation that would not only restore the rule of law and greatly stimulate the U.S. economy, but that also enjoys widespread popularity among voters. That legislation is immigration reform and ratifying a reform plan could very well become the saving grace of the 113th Congress.
Having reviewed the principles recently set out by House Speaker John Boehner, I feel they are a good first step in the right direction. But the speaker, the House, and the country cannot let these principles gather dust. The House needs to turn these principles into a workable immigration policy that can be passed, so they can work out their differences with the Senate and send a bill to the White House. Every journey begins with that all important first step, and this is a journey which we cannot afford to let the House fail.
Our outdated immigration system creates a wide variety of serious problems for our nation. It keeps 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows, tacitly granted de facto amnesty by policies that give us no effective method of dealing with them.
It holds back job creation and the competitiveness of U.S. businesses by failing to provide adequate numbers of the immigrant workers our economy needs and by turning away the foreign-born entrepreneurs who have long been a major factor in our nation's economic growth.
Ineffective immigration statutes have created a porous border that allows a steady flow of illegal immigrants into our country, most of them just seeking honest employment but too often also including criminals, con artists, and even potential terrorists.
America desperately needs effective, forward-thinking, consensus-driven policies right now, and immigration reform can be one of them. It is one of the most extensively studied legislative plans in recent memory and the reams of data those studies have produced almost unfailingly find that proposed reform measures would do great things.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that a comprehensive immigration reform package, similar to that approved by the Senate, would increase real U.S. gross domestic product by $700 billion in 2023 and $1.4 trillion in 2033.
The CBO further predicts that reform measures would reduce the federal deficit — one of the root causes of many of the issues dividing Congress — by $850 billion over the next 20 years. Immigration reform would also bolster the Social Security system, adding $300 billion to program reserves and extending solvency by two full years.
Although U.S. high-tech companies suffer from a labor shortage — there are almost two job openings for every unemployed worker in science, technology, engineering, and math fields — our present visa system hands out only a fraction of the work permits needed to meet labor force demands. This year the entire allotment was exhausted in five days. Expanding visa allocations for foreign-born STEM graduates of U.S. colleges and universities would make American companies more competitive and support growth throughout the entire economy.
There is universal, bipartisan agreement on immigration — a collective acknowledgement that our present immigration system is woefully behind the times, unresponsive to the needs of our business community, and a dead weight holding down economic growth. Immigration reform is not a secondary issue but one that will have a direct impact on nearly every other issue facing America today. House members must make passing immigration reform a priority because our economic future depends on it.
Alfonse D'Amato is a former U.S. senator from New York.