The Affront of Trump’s Merit-Based Immigration Reform

In his address to the joint chambers of Congress, Mr. Trump proclaimed that we needed to throw away our immigration system that focuses on low-skilled workers. In exchange, he says we should create a merit-based system that allows more computer scientists, engineers, and other skilled professionals into our country.

That statement alone shows how ignorant Mr. Trump is of the current way immigration laws work in our country and how clueless he is when it comes to fixing the complex issues of immigration.

As it stands now our immigration system offers two main avenues to enter our country for those looking for long-term presence. First is family reunification. If you are a US Citizen or a Legal Permanent Resident, you can petition for certain family members from other countries to come. In the process you have to prove that they will not be dependent on welfare and that you will personally pay for all their expenses if they are unable to work.

Doesn’t sound much like mooching off the system….

The second primary way to get here is through work visas. In order to get a work visa you must have an employer that is willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal and filing fees in order to get you into the United States. They have to show that your skill set is unique and that no one in the United States could/would fill that opening.

The only other way to get here is if you’re rich and can invest $1 million or more in US business or if you are a super talented athlete.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty merit-based.

And therein lies our problem. We have millions of undocumented individuals in our country because of the basic economic principle of supply and demand. There is a huge demand for low-cost labor from people who are highly skilled in what we consider low-skilled employment. The agriculture, construction, and hospitality industry depends on such labor, but there are practically zero ways to get those kind of workers here, and few United States citizens will do some of these kinds of jobs.

There is a report of a peach farm in the SC midlands that posted 670 jobs for peach harvesting. Seven US Citizens applied. Trumps very own vineyards rely on the kind of laborers he wants to keep out of our country. Other farm industries, such as dairy farming, can’t take advantage of current visa programs because they need year-round workers, not the seasonal work that current visas are geared towards.

As long as there is such a high demand for labor, there will be a supply of laborers. And as our current immigration system works, we have to get those laborers through human smuggling and unauthorized immigration. The waitlist for the temporary worker visas used by the seasonal farm industry is so long that you will probably die before your visa is processed and so few visas are awarded annually that many farms have to rely on unauthorized workers.

A more merit-based system will only make matters worse.

This goes without even entering into the realm of compassion for the less fortunate and our obligation to uphold and protect basic human rights. A nation like ours with such high ideals as those enshrined in our Declaration of Independence should have open arms for anyone seeking a better life. As it says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Do we really believe that?

Do we need an overhaul of our immigration system?

Yes.

Policy analysts on the right and the left have been in agreement for years over what that would basically look like.

• It would respect the law,
• It would create a path to legality for those already here,
• It would update our current visa system to address our real needs in immigration,
• It would honor the family and family unity,
• It would respect the tax-payer (both the citizen and the immigrant tax-payer)
• It would respect the dignity of every human being.

The way to fix the problem isn’t really in question. The reason it hasn’t been fixed yet is purely political.

So don’t be fooled if Mr. Trump starts offering what sounds like great immigration reform. Unless it addresses our real needs, respects human dignity, and establishes a path to legality for those who are already here, you can simply write it off as another useless proposal.