Franke: Immigration
by Mark Franke
Political drama.
Sadly, this was the reluctant opinion of my Socratic discussion group after we took on the issue of immigration last month. Any workable long-term solution requires political sense in Washington DC and particularly in the halls of Congress. Expecting anything sensible from that dysfunctional bunch is drawing into extremely long odds.
Instead the issue has been hijacked by the two extremes needing to act out in public. Meanwhile those 535 elected public servants in Washington once again have proven themselves inept at responsible governance.
Perhaps I am being too hard on them. Their behavior simply mimics what we see everywhere else—everyone shouting, no one listening. But then, they volunteered to represent us in Congress for the good of our republic so we ought to hold them to a high standard.
Every month my discussion group has a prewritten provocation with a short reading list to be studied in advance of the meeting. Here is February’s:
America is a nation of immigrants. It should have open borders with only the most reasonable policy exceptions.
This might be surprising, coming as it is from a group of conservatives but note that our goal each month is to tackle a difficult and controversial public issue and develop a rational recommendation that can generate sufficient political support both in legislative bodies and in the public square.
One of our group suggested that our borders ought to be guarded by high walls but with a wide gate. In other words immigration should be available to many but within a carefully controlled system. There are good reasons to want to live in the United States and there are bad ones. The touchstone of any proposed system would be to differentiate between the two.
Putting aside all the excessive rhetoric coming from both sides of the issue, we looked for things that currently work and things that don’t. A special guest participant, an immigration attorney, pointed out that there remains a steady flow of legal immigrants despite the surge of illegal ones. The problem for them is that there are too many in the application queues thereby making the wait excessively long to be even remotely responsive.
Typical bureaucratic run-around or just a system built for another time and situation? Our system has its roots back in 1778, and the forerunner of INS was established in 1913. Like all government programs are wont to do, it has added complexity after complexity since then. For example currently there are 86 categories for temporary visas. No wonder it is collapsing under its own weight.
I recently watched the Hillsdale College on-line course on the colonization of America during the seventeenth century. Two themes were clear. The earliest settlers came either for religious freedom or for economic opportunity or for both. Both dreams were based on liberty, a liberty achievable in the new world but not in the old. Is that still true today? We may not think so, but certainly a majority of the millions trying to get into the US must.
One principle that has been forgotten in the political food fight is that of the American Dream. Over 40 million have entered the United States since to participate in that dream. When they did, they also contributed to what was known as the Melting Pot, into which each immigrant added something but took a lot out. Immigration was merely the first step toward assimilation and ultimately citizenship.
The American Dream and the Melting Pot have become politically incorrect in our postmodern world despite their proven value in building a unique American identity out of multiple nationalities. It wasn’t easy but our national character is better for the struggle.
That said, we asked ourselves if any sensible solution was even possible given our political drama? Our pessimism showed on that question. In answer one participant offered Elvis Pressley’s song “I’m caught in a trap. I can’t get out” as an unfortunately accurate description of our condition in America these days. Any common sense solution has little chance of being legislatively enacted, let alone being accepted by our warring factions. On that negative note our allotted two-hour limit ran out.
Though discouraged on my drive home I suddenly recalled those memorable words from Emma Lazarus’ poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
America was founded by its earliest European settlers on the idea of being free. As imperfect as our implementation of liberty has been, it still attracts those who don’t enjoy anything like it in their current countries. The words of the Declaration of Independence ring true in their ears. To them we are still Puritan John Winthrop’s city on a hill.
A high wall with a wide gate is an appropriate entry point to this city.
Mark Franke, M.B.A., an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review and its book reviewer, is formerly an associate vice-chancellor at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.
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