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Perspectives on Immigration

Perspectives offers fresh ideas and alternative viewpoints on immigration policy from writers inside and outside the immigration debate.

The Top Ten Ways America Gets Immigration Wrong

The most striking thing about today’s immigration debate is how many times America has been here before—and how many times it has made the same mistakes. With respect to David Letterman, here is a list of the biggest errors that U.S. policymakers have made in designing immigration policy. As Congress wrestles to find the right mix of immigration enforcement and immigration reform, it should keep in mind what it has done wrong in the past so that it has a chance to get it right this time.

Published On: Tue, Aug 01, 2006 | Download File

Managing Immigration as a Resource

Benjamin Johnson, Director of the Immigration Policy Center, discusses the futility of an enforcement-only approach to immigration reform and the need for a more comprehensive strategy to deal with the problem of undocumented immigration. In this new "Perspective," he argues that immigration cannot be treated simply as a law-enforcement issue. Rather, the United States must begin managing immigration as a national resource.

Published On: Tue, Aug 01, 2006 | Download File

Immigration Adds Billions of Dollars to U.S. Economic Growth Every Year

IPC Research Fellow Dan Siciliano told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that immigration is directly responsible for billions of dollars annually in U.S. economic growth. Siciliano, who also is Executive Director of the Program in Law, Economics and Business at Stanford Law School, explained to the Committee that "if the United States were to reform the immigration system to better address the demand for foreign-born labor, the economic benefits of immigration could be even greater than what we have already experienced."

Published On: Sun, Apr 16, 2006 | Download File

Guest Workers Program with a Path to Legalization

We have demonized the undocumented, rather than seen them for what they are: human beings entering our country for a better life who have been manipulated by globalization, regional economies, and social structures that have operated for decades. The right thing to do is to develop a system to facilitate the flow to the United States of Mexican migrants who are seeking employment opportunities. Given the economic imbalance between the two nations, we know that the flow will continue-legally or otherwise.

Published On: Sat, Apr 01, 2006 | Download File