NY Times: Why We Can't Stop Illegal Immigration? Because It Works! (No paywall)
Migrants, employers and government all conspire to evade harsh immigration laws. Because America needs the workers!
"There is one more reason the problem of unauthorized immigration has become so intractable. Over the past 20 years, incendiary rhetoric about migrants has become a powerful and popular political tool, and many elected officials now or recently in office have built their careers by wooing voters with such rhetoric. This path to power makes it difficult for them to compromise on any issue related to immigration, no matter how rational such flexibility might be given the facts of global migration and the demands of American businesses and consumers. For many of these politicians, blocking all or nearly all immigration to the United States is a top priority.
And though the Biden administration and congressional Democrats have cast themselves as more realistic on matters of global migration, they are also unlikely to spearhead much significant reform. Over the past three years, they have prioritized objectives that affect a larger portion of the electorate, like infrastructure and education bills. This also makes sense. Most voters, even Latino voters, rank immigration below the economy, education, gun policy and health care as a top concern. By definition, voters are already citizens. For most of them, rationalizing our immigration system is not a bread-and-butter issue.
Democrats like to blame Republicans for their own inaction on reform, but that’s only part of the story. The day Biden took the oath of office, his administration introduced a plan for comprehensive immigration reform, one designed to secure the borders, keep communities safe and “better manage migration across the Hemisphere.” Legislation based on that plan was introduced in the House weeks later as the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, with 80 co-sponsors. The Oval Office, the Senate and the House were all under Democratic control. But the act died in subcommittee, along with several more modest immigration bills.
The only immigration policies that Congress can bring itself to enact, it seems, are funding more border security and ICE raids. But these actions alone will never fix America’s immigration problems. No matter what anyone says on Capitol Hill, migrants know that if they can just make it inside the United States, they will find relative safety — and plenty of work."
Why Can’t We Stop Unauthorized Immigration? Because It Works. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/magazine/economy-illegal-immigration.html?unlocked_article_code=_uG3S7KdEI3XI_bfTJ5LJCbdHgsEJSMFgl71tS4wxFh2Yb5WwIRSCN5YMcYCuQmjk7cKpBYvJ4gSIe8E41CA3L6pz9az2U2q06i1zRR8UUCxFTk04mYh7OQ-bjdj0KGtZ6TukoxxVu2i_GMzILbQrYSQFz74oNn9wPnV5U96dwdBtGXFiyCh1VHbqYhhmlmxQe8BqzA8Lfwmx_x8n5GcVlRTSNjfmW-UcVjzqtQiqdmDkqLtZuLxF0btlcbv23iJfaw9LuyeesSGw3KMSnzN7SAN7I5HF4kGHTCYi0uvSvz-XuSfGH_vDnKw5mRZd3h9JysYUDj-SDC7NJML0j9_jAckeQSX6Q&smid=nytcore-android-share
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