Disfunction Incarnate - Immigration policy

American immigration policy is nothing short of dysfunctional, and it has been for a very long time. As Congress, the President seek to embark on a path to putting as much of the country as is possible under direct or indirect control of the imperial federal government, a closer look at immigration might cause a few people along the way to stop and reconsider.

Over the last two decades we have essentially opened up our southern border and let 20 million people simply walk into the country. While many of those people obey our laws once they’ve arrived, a significant portion of them do not. One measure of this can be seen by the fact that according to the Government Accounting Office, Arizona, California, Nevada & New York together spend well over $10 billion a year housing criminal aliens in their prisons. Another billion dollars a year is spent by just five local governments housing criminal aliens in their jails: Maricopa County in Arizona, Los Angeles and Orange Counties in California; New York City and Harris County, Texas. Beyond simple crime issues, illegal immigrants cost cities and states billions of dollars a year in various areas such as education, hospitals and social services.

Given the above, it might sound strange that I am an enormous supporter of immigration. Not only that, I believe that many of the 20 million, mostly poor Hispanic, immigrants should be allowed to stay. At the same time, I feel we should build a rock solid brick wall across every inch of our 1700 mile southern border. And I think we should do it tomorrow.

Other things we should do include expelling all of the criminal illegal aliens and requiring those illegal aliens who wish to stay to pay a significant fine in order to be able to do so.

While the influx unskilled laborers from Mexico and Central America is the most talked about aspect of the dysfunctional American immigration policy, it is only half of the story. The other half involves a much different set of immigrants with different skills and from different parts of the world: Scientists, Doctors & High Tech Entrepreneurs.

In what is possibly the most ludicrous element of any immigration policy ever, not only do we allow, but even more, we invite the best and the brightest students from around the world to come to the United States to get their education at some of the finest universities on the planet. That’s not really the problem. The problem is… that as soon as our universities have equipped these students with the best training that money can buy, we force most of them to go home so that they can work for companies or start businesses that compete with us. Not that I’m against competition, because I’m not… quite the contrary actually. I think having competitors around results in a stronger America. My problem is that the vast majority of those students would rather put their new education and skills to work here in the United States, would rather live the American dream. And that’s the point. While I’m confident that having competition from a chip making plant in China or a software developer in India would indirectly make America a better competitor, the truth is, I’d rather America benefit directly by having those newly minted graduates start companies or develop revolutionary technologies here in the United States.


To put this in martial terms, this situation is like West Point and Annapolis training the best and the brightest servicemen from around the world – in the middle of a war – and then after graduation, rather than allowing them to join our Army or the Navy (or Marines) to help protect America, we force them to go home and lead the armies of our foes.

Another ridiculous aspect of our system is the H-1B program, which limits to 65,000 the number of high tech workers that can receive visas to come and work in the United States every year. In addition, because of the program’s draconian characteristics, those employees are virtually indentured servants to the company for which they work, which means that in order to stay in the US they must remain with the employer who brought them into the country in the first place in order to remain here. That 65,000 number is just a fraction of the millions of applications that are received each year. The argument that is always raised against these visas is that they are taking away jobs from Americans. That argument is spurious. Most H-1B visas are issued to high tech companies seeking employees with high tech degrees and skills. A significant reason why those companies seek employees from outside the US is because relatively few American students are equipped with knowledge, skills or education they are looking for in areas such as science, math or technology. The choice is not between hiring more American physicists or electrical engineers vs. hiring employees with H-1B visas. No, the choice companies often face is often between bringing in qualified H1-B employees who would work here in the United States, or simply building their facilities in the places where those qualified employees live, such as India, China or increasingly Eastern Europe.

Why does this even matter? Simple: Google, e-Bay, PayPal, Sun Microsystems and Yahoo! These and thousands of other American companies that were started by immigrants generate billions of dollars a year in revenue and employ hundreds of thousands of Americans.

To see just how strong the correlation is between immigration and economic success all we need to do is look at some numbers. According to a survey by the National Venture Capital Association, although less than 10% of US population is foreign born, 40% of publicly traded U.S. high tech venture-backed companies were started by immigrants. So basically, in one of the strongest growth industries of the world economy over the last three decades, approximately 40% of the companies were founded by immigrants at a time when we have been severely restricting their entrance into the United States. Imagine what the opportunities would be if we actually welcomed them rather than making them feel like the great unwashed who should beg us to deign to allow them to talk to us. Interestingly, most of the immigrants who started those companies did so after starting out working under the H-1B visa program or as students.

To tie this all together, our immigration situation is a mess. We have a virtual open door policy to immigrants who cost taxpayers billions of dollars a year yet for well educated professionals who seek to start businesses that hire Americans and contribute to making the US a success, we slam the door shut. Both are wrong and should be addressed. The ludicrous nature of this system has become increasingly clear at a time when unemployment is in double digits and taxpayer burdens are increasing at every level.

Immigrants of all sorts have historically been good for America, and now is no exception. By stopping the inflow across our southern border and forcing the illegal aliens who are here into some form of legal status, we will benefit from their hard work as they assimilate into the larger community rather than segregate themselves in a shadowy Spanish-only world where they feel comfortable and safe. At the same time, by opening our doors to those highly educated and trained entrepreneurs, doctors and scientists who seek to come here - or stay here, we may find that they have in their minds a seed that will grow into the next Google or the cure for cancer, but are simply waiting for the right soil into which to plant it. America is that soil and capitalism is the fertilizer. By allowing those seeds to be planted here and their fortunes to blossom, we will all benefit from a stronger and more vibrant economy and country. Now if we could only get President Obama and his minions to stop trying to take over our entire lives and focus on fixing the stuff they are responsible for, like… say, immigration, we'd probably all be a lot better off.