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How to Fix America’s Immigration Crisis
The system can be fixed to both benefit the country and provide order to the border.
To the Editor:
In “How to Fix America’s Immigration Crisis” (Opinion guest essay, Jan. 14), Steven Rattner and Maureen White argue: “We need to come to a national consensus on how many immigrants we want to accept and the bases for determining who is chosen. That includes balancing the two principal objectives of immigration policy: to meet our legal and moral humanitarian obligations to persecuted individuals and to bolster our work force.”
These two objectives need not be at odds. Pathways for displaced people who have skills needed by U.S. employers can benefit displaced people, employers and the communities that welcome new neighbors. The United States could adopt a program, modeled on Canada’s Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot, to address specific needs in states, cities and industries, while offering lasting refuge to displaced people.
In fact, the Biden administration could adopt many changes to facilitate displaced people’s access to employment opportunities without legislation.
But a humanitarian employment program should be additional to, and must not replace, systems of asylum and resettlement. Human rights are not a consideration to be balanced against economic considerations.
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