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August 16, 2017 By Staff / Baptist Standard

We lived in the Middle East as IMB missionaries for almost 30 years. During the civil war in Lebanon (1975-1991), many of our national friends came to the U.S. as refugees. Now there are millions more refugees from Syria and Iraq and many more people living in poverty in Central and South American who are desperate to come to the U.S. It should be obvious that we cannot accommodate all these people and millions more who want to fulfill their "American dream". As Christians we want to show love and compassion, but it has to be limited. We cannot throw our arms opened wide to the whole world. It would be much better for us to go to them and tell them about Jesus and teach them the Bible. Families ought to be kept together when possible, but when people come into the U.S. illegally, that is a privilege and not a right. Our system needs fixing but it cannot be unlimited no matter how compassionate we may be.

David King Marshall, Texas

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Letters: Immigration reform - Baptist Standard

Anjana Drukpa, a junior at Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa, arrived in the U.S. from the mountains of Nepal when she was only 7 years old. She movedwith her two sisters and her single mother. She wanted us to come here to have a better life, better housing, for safety and education, so we can learn, pursue our career and then get a job, says Drukpa, who is one of 13 high school students recording their immigrant stories for a podcast project at Drake University, also in Des Moines. Were just working really hard to make our mom proud for what she has done for us.

Drukpas story and those of her classmates have become part of the U.S. experience generations of immigrants and refugees landing in a new country from far away to discover opportunity and a better life. Many of us have friends, co-workers and neighbors with similar tales of how they integrated into the U.S. culture and economy. These connections make the recently proposed RAISE Act more personal and provocative than your typical policy reform.

Our sister publication Knowledge@Wharton recently sat down with Kent Smetters, a Wharton professor of business economics and public policy, to talk about the impact of proposed immigration reforms on the U.S. economy. KWHS gleaned a few of the essentials from that interview and other sources to help you start thinking about how the RAISE Act would impact your lives and communities.

The current immigrant situation in the U.S. About 800,000 legal immigrants (we are not talking about undocumented immigrants here) come into the United States every year, a quarter of a percent of the U.S. population, which is 325 million and counting. About 45% of those immigrantsare college-educated, and the rest are typically very unskilled. The way to think about immigration in America is to adopt a barbell approach: We have a lot of people who are very unskilled, and a lot of people who are college-educated.

RAISE and its impact. RAISE stands for Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy. Reintroduced by U.S. Republican Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue in early August and endorsed by President Donald Trump, the RAISE Act seeks to raise the bar for skill sets but also aims to reduce the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country by 50% over the next 10 years. It lowers the total amount of legal immigrants every year to roughly about 400,000. But it tries to change the skill mix such that instead of 45% of them being college-educated, it would be around 75%.

The motivation for these policy changes. According to its sponsors, the RAISE Act seeks to spur economic growth and raise American workers wages. For decades our immigration system has been completely divorced from the needs of our economy, and working Americans wages have suffered as a result. Our legislation will set things right, said Sen. Cotton in a statement.We will build an immigration system that raises working wages, creates jobs, and gives every American a fair shot at creating wealth, whether your family came over on the Mayflower or just took the oath of citizenship. Added Sen. Perdue: We want to welcome talented individuals from around the world who wish to come to the United States legally to work and make a better life for themselves. The RAISE Act will create a skills-based system that is more responsive to the needs of our economy and preserves the quality of jobs available to American workers.

A critical look at the numbers. Wharton research indicates that the RAISE Act could actually be a big negative for the nations gross domestic product (GDP) and employment. GDP is the most important economic indicator of the U.S. economy as well as economies around the world. GDP measures all goods and services that a country produces from cell phones and strawberries to the plumber who fixed your sink last week and it can be a kind of directional marker, giving clues about everything from your likelihood of getting a job, to the interest rateyou will pay on a car loan or other debt. It also tells economists when to start using the R word: A recession is often defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction in GDP. A steadily rising GDP typically means that the economy is humming, whereas a weak GDP means the economy is hurting.

What the heck is PWBM? PWBM is the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a simulator that helps analyze the potential impact of proposed policy changes. ThePWBM is non-partisan and worksat the intersection of business and policy to help policy makers, the public, and businesses make fact-based decisions. It is not meant to make policy recommendations. See the related links that accompany this article (in the toolbar to the right) to access the PWBM website.

What the numbers tell us. Smetters, who is faculty director of the PWBM, says the model tells us that between now and 2040 the proposed RAISE Act could shave two percentage points off GDP growth and cause a loss of more than four million jobs. However, in the short-term, reforms would have little negative impact on jobs and GDP, while wages would actually rise, although they would flatten out over time. Overall, the impact will be negative for both GDP and jobs. If there were no change in the number of visas issued, but all you did was to increase the skill mix, that would be positive for GDP, which would go up by about a third of one percent over time. But you will have a negative effect on GDP by reducing the total number of visas (those immigrants allowed into the country). The main points are that if you simply tilt the balance towards more skilled workers, thats a positive because skilled workers are going to be net producers for the economy, not just in terms of the taxes they pay but in terms of job creation. But if at the same time you reduce the total number of immigrants, the effect goes in the opposite direction.

Increasing immigration. Even if we didnt change the skill mix but we just increased the number of legal immigrants, it would have a very big positive impact on the economy. That is both in terms of total GDP and the number of jobs. Now, someone might say that this is obvious if you have more people. But it turns out that it even increases the amount of GDP per person, or how much money is available across everybody including native-born workers. The reason behind that is that immigrants tend to work pretty hard, and they tend to have a very high attachment rate to the labor force. They are less likely to be on unemployment insurance and things like that, and so they are really a net positive, even at a per-person level, not just at an overall level.

Playing with the PWBM. The Penn Wharton Budget Model is available online and free for use by the general public. You can go right to thePenn Wharton Budget Model website and play with the different simulators by just literally moving different dial controls to see what would happen, for example, to Social Security. There are many different options there of how we could fix Social Security, and you could move those dial controls accordingly. There are more than 4,096 combinations with Social Security alone. Because its a very deep model that does a lot of big data and a lot of complex theory, you dont have to wait a half-hour, or an hour for your results. We use cloud computing to pre-compute every single combination ahead of time so that you get instant results.

What is the RAISE Act and who does it affect?

Did you and your family immigrate to the U.S.? Share your story in the comment section of this article. How do you feel about the RAISE Act?

What is the Penn Wharton Budget Model and what does it tell us about the current proposals for immigration reform in the U.S.?

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Immigration Reform in America: The People, the Proposals and the Economics - Knowledge Wharton Highschool

Community Idea Stations

WCVE Forum: The Challenges of Immigration Reform Community Idea Stations While debate continues to swirl over the status of immigrants already in America and whether or not to build a wall, doesn't it make sense to start examining what our immigration process should look like going forward? In this presentation presented by ...

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WCVE Forum: The Challenges of Immigration Reform - Community Idea Stations

Republican says he hasn't seen a manufacturing plant that can hire enough workers

Tuesday, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson told the Rotary Club of Milwaukee that immigration reform is necessary for the U.S. to keep up with worker demand.

"As I've been on the job now as your U.S. Senator for the last 6.5 years, there's not one manufacturing plant that I've toured, that can hire enough people," Johnson said. "There's probably not one dairy farm that can find enough workers to milk their cows."

Johnson called for a common sense solution legal immigration reform.

"We need to recognize the reality of that situation," Johnson said. "We need a functioning, legal immigration system."

Johnson offered some guidelines for reform.

"It's gotta be based on facts. It's gotta be based on merit. It's gotta be based on compassion," he said. "All of those things, rolled together."

During the meeting, Johnson also suggested Illinois should help pay some of the cost for getting Taiwan-based manufacturer Foxconn to locate in Wisconsin and acknowledged the difficulties of getting the deal done.

"In the end, it's probably a risk worth taking," he said.

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Wisconsin Sen. Johnson calls for immigration reform, addresses Foxconn hurdles - La Crosse's NewsTalk 1410AM 92.3FM

Congress is bracing for several fights this fall over immigration and border security as the Trump administration struggles to make good on its campaign promises.

The battle could pit President Trump against moderates and senators up for reelection in 2018, who want a more comprehensive approach to both issues.

Lawmakers must pass legislation by the end of September to avoid a government shutdown. The White House appears poised to use that deadline as leverage to secure progress on its immigration agenda and particularly on funding for a border wall, Trumps most famous campaign promise.

The Trump administration is making a hard push for border wall funding as part of any agreement.

Marc Short, a top White House aide, recently pitched congressional staff on including some border wall funding that would be used for a double fence in exchange for more spending on domestic programs a top priority for Democrats, according to Politico.

Asked about the potential trade-off, two Senate Democratic aides said no official offer has been made but predicted any border wall funding wouldnt pass muster with Democrats as well as some Republicans.

If it were made, we expect this misguided wall would be opposed by Republicans as well as Democrats, said Jay Tilton, a spokesman for Sen. Patrick LeahyPatrick LeahyGrassley shouldn't allow Senate Democrats to block judicial nominees Trumps rhetoric and bluster could lose US an ally in Mexico Congress must act to protect data privacy before courts make surveillance even easier MORE (Vt), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The battle over the wall could also be pushed until later in the year if lawmakers pass a short-term continuing resolution that would put government funding on autopilot through December. That scenario is viewed as increasingly likely despite opposition from some Republicans.

Despite broad support in the GOP for increased border security, not everyone thinks the emphasis should be on building a wall.

Top lawmakers in the upper chamber, including Senate Majority Whip John CornynJohn CornynCongressional investigations not just special counsels strengthen our democracy Wrath of right falls on Google THE MEMO: Trump's basecheers attacks on McConnell MORE (R-Texas), are backing a years-long border security plan that would instead pay for fencing and increased technology.

The legislation which pairs a crackdown on illegal immigration with increased border security would cost $15 billion over four years.

Asked about a potential shutdown fight over the border wall and if Republicans could say they made good on their promise to secure the border without the money, Cornyn told reporters that he didnt want to put the cart ahead of the horse. Still, he said, the funding should come following a plan, not the other way around.

What we're trying to do here is take that fight off the table, talk about a comprehensive plan that will actually work and accomplish the goals that the president has set out, Cornyn said.

Though Republicans began fast-tracking Cornyn's bill to the Senate calendar before leaving for the August recess, it could still be referred to a committee once lawmakers return.

A spokeswoman for Cornyn said on Monday that she didnt have any scheduling announcements.

Meanwhile, some GOP lawmakers are signaling they want to work with Democrats on broader immigration legislation.

Sen. John McCainJohn McCainMcCain defends McMaster from right-wing media attacks After ObamaCare repeal failure, look to the center Challengers super PAC accuses Flake of betraying voters in new ad MORE (R-Ariz.) wants to try to revive bipartisan comprehensive immigration talks with Senate Minority Leader Chuck SchumerCharles SchumerDemocrats urge Trump to condemn Charlottesville violence Melania Trump on Charlottesville protests: 'No good comes from violence' It's time for McConnell to fight with Trump instead of against him MORE (D-N.Y.). The two senators worked on a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013 that passed the Senate but died in the House.

But while a bipartisan deal would boost their chances of getting an immigration bill through the Senate, it would likely be a non-starter with House conservatives, who are focused on improving border security first.

Another X-factor in the immigration debate is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that allows undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children to remain here legally. Under DACA, nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants were given a work permit and protected from deportation.

Trump vowed to end the program during the campaign. Unless he halts the program by Sept. 5, DACA will be challenged in court and the administration has not said whether it will defend it. If the administration does not defend DACA, it will effectively be ending it.

Several lawmakers are pushing to ensure that DACA remains in place.

Sens. Dick DurbinDick Durbin'Dreamers' deadline looms for Trump Senators push federal prisons to expand compassionate release Immigration battle brewing in the GOP MORE (D-Ill.) and Lindsey GrahamLindsey GrahamTrump's Charlottesville comments push North Korea from spotlight 'Dreamers' deadline looms for Trump Graham: Trump must do more to distance himself from white supremacists MORE (R-S.C.) have teamed up on two bills aimed at allowing undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children to remain here legally, at least temporarily.

GOP Sens. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Dean Heller (Nev.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) have signed on to at least one of Grahams bills.

Even though the White House has rejected the DREAM Act, a bill establishing a path to permanent residency for undocumented minors, Democrats are continuing to push the proposal as a first step to getting comprehensive immigration through Congress.

I think there is some bipartisan support for solutions to this issue, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who is increasingly the subject of buzz about a presidential run in 2020, said on Monday. But we frankly need to get more Republicans on board.

Meanwhile, even as Republicans debate what to do about illegal immigration, Trump is publicly throwing his full support behind a bill from GOP Sens. Tom CottonTom CottonThe RAISE Act reveals what Trump really thinks about immigrants How Trump's legal immigration cuts could be a blessing to Dreamers Cut the budget caps: The US needs to properly fund our military MORE (Ark.) and David Perdue (Ga.) that would tighten legal immigration by creating a merit-based points system and limiting the number green cards awarded each year.

But that bill has generated opposition in both parties. Asked about the legislation, Sen. Marco RubioMarco RubioThe Memo: Trump tries to quiet race storm Trump tweets on trade, military, Alabama, but not Charlottesville Venezuelan leader put a hit on Marco Rubio: report MORE (R-Fla.) told a Florida CBS station, "I think the White House knows that you don't have 60 votes for that in the Senate."

The remarks got him quick pushback from conservatives, including members of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which asked whether GOP leadership was waving the white flag on real immigration reform.

Asked about criticism from his GOP colleagues, Cotton told KARK, an Arkansas-based TV station, that many of my colleagues are emotional and opinionated yet uninformed about his legislation and immigration more broadly.

Congress has tried and failed to pass big sweeping comprehensive reform for 11 years now at least. I just dont think thats the right approach anymore, the GOP senator saidin a separate interview.

Both Cotton and Perdue have said they are open to negotiating across the aisle. There are 10 Senate Democrats running for reelection in states Trump won in 2016, and those members could face pressure to support tougher immigration laws.

The Cotton-Perdue bill will need to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee which includes skeptics such as Graham, Flake and Democrats in order to move forward.

More likely ... well have to make some compromises with Democrats and their priorities, Cotton said. Even though its a bit of a novel approach to the problem, something that hasnt been debated a lot in Washington, our legislation is designed to address concerns that a lot of Democrats share.

This story was updated at 11:01 a.m.

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Immigration battlefield widens for Trump, GOP - The Hill (blog)