An America for Everyone

Lost amid the rancor of politics in Washington and the jaw-dropping inability of our politicians to do anything positive in most areas, the recent proposals on immigration reform coming out of Washington are nothing short of miraculous. And not only do actual policy proposals exist, they're pretty good ones! The American government kind of works, sort of, sometimes!

Immigration should be an easy fix, but then again so should most of our other problems. Sensible people know what needs to be done to tackle comprehensive immigration reform: tighter border security; programs to encourage high-skilled, highly-educated immigrants to stay in America and easier pathways for them to stay after getting a degree; and a pathways to citizenship for the 11 million or so illegal immigrants who are already here among other things.

In an unusual turn of events, it seems as though both parties have agreed on this framework, even Republicans have accepted that it is inhumane and expensive to deport 11 million people. Of course, they arrived at this conclusion due to political realities, not out of the goodness of their hearts, but it's still good news.

The case for immigration reform is easy to make. We are a nation of immigrants, not just from our beginnings, but on a continual basis. I live in New York City, and I can walk down the street and hear dozens of different languages being spoken. People from all over the world still want to come here in pursuit of freedom and opportunity, and many of them contribute nobly to our society by working, paying taxes, and creating jobs and opportunity. We should encourage them to keep coming and we should encourage them to stay. We should also try to stymie the tide of people flowing across our border illegally by beefing up border security, but we should not let this mindset affect our policies regarding the millions already here. Most of the 11 million illegal immigrants to the country came here looking for opportunity, and most are law abiding citizens who pay taxes and contribute to our economy and society. The immigration bills proposed recently address their path to citizenship while rightfully acknowledging that they should be in line behind those who started the process legally.

America needs to fix our immigration for both moral and economic reasons. We do ourselves a disservice when we pretend that our values do not apply to those born elsewhere. American values should be universal values. Furthermore, when we choose to deprive ourselves of talented individuals because those individuals were born elsewhere we deplete our talent pipeline and deny ourselves potential innovators, job creators, doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. We are and shall remain an America for everyone.

It's encouraging to see that our legislators are finally willing to work together in order to solve what is a pressing issue for our nation's future and a moral obligation to extend to millions the freedoms we cherish. It's a big problem, but one with clear solutions, and I certainly hope that the bipartisan attempt to address it can serve as a catalyst for other necessary legislation. If immigration reform isn't killed by the loony bin (read: the House of Representatives) then I will be hopeful we can tackle other problems as well. I'm glad to see that the President and a bipartisan group of Senators are proposing pragmatic, humane, and forward-looking solutions to immigration problems. That itself is encouraging.