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It is difficult to find an issue that more exemplifies the dysfunction of American government today than immigration.

In the past year, more than a million people have entered the United States through the southern border, overflowing shelters and straining public services. Most of the newcomers claim asylum, a status that allows them to be in the country legally but leaves them in limbo. They often must wait years for their cases to be heard, and it can be a lengthy process to obtain legal permission to work.

This nation has long drawn strength from immigration, and providing asylum is an important expression of Americas national values. But Congress has failed to provide the necessary resources to welcome those who are eligible and to turn away those who are not. Instead, overwhelmed immigration officials allow nearly everyone to stay temporarily, imposing enormous short-term costs on states and cities that the federal government hasnt done enough to mitigate.

Vice President Kamala Harris and others have correctly identified corruption and instability in Central and South America as reasons many people continue to flee their homes, and the United States should do what it can to help countries with these challenges. But that is not an answer to the disruption that this recent wave of people is causing in American communities right now.

The federal governments negligence is fueling anger against immigrants and stoking divisions. The question is whether Congress, mired in dysfunction, can stir itself to enact sensible changes so the nation can reap the benefits of immigration.

Neither party has come up with a solution that is both practical and compassionate. Many in the Republican Party want to return to the Trump-era policies of strictly curtailing refugee and asylum admissions and requiring many people to stay in Mexico while their asylum cases are heard. Some Republicans still embrace the fiction that building a huge wall would solve everything, despite abundant evidence that it would be ineffective in stopping people from coming to the border. On Thursday the Biden administration moved to expand that wall as well.

Some lawmakers on the left have tried to ignore or downplay the extent of this challenge. Illegal border crossings by families, while they are a small portion of the total number of people entering the United States, are rising. The consequences of allowing huge numbers of asylum seekers to enter without sufficiently providing for them are real. The result is not only relentless pressure on the immigration system at the border and elsewhere but also a devastating failure to protect people from smugglers, who have made sneaking people into the United States a big business, or from exploitation after they arrive.

Congress can raise the level of legal immigration by increasing the quotas for employment visas and other categories that allow people to come to the United States legally and have the chance to become permanent residents and then citizens. Those targets have been too low for too long, particularly for people who can fill gaps in the labor market. In July there were more than two million open positions, for example, in construction, hospitality and retail, and the current system keeps out many engineers, computer programmers and scientists. To change that, Congress would need to act and to establish new quotas that more accurately reflect the level of immigration that Americans want and can reasonably accept.

The country has already seen the consequences of keeping legal immigration artificially low. The Trump administration, even before the pandemic, dramatically decreased its annual quota for refugees and made many other forms of legal immigration much harder to get. Even worse, the administration removed children from their parents in a cruel attempt at deterrence. That inhumane policy also didnt work, as people continued to travel north to present themselves at the border to make asylum claims. Those numbers rose every year of Mr. Trumps presidency, with the exception of 2020, and the result was chaos.

While the Biden administration has mostly ended the policy of family separation, it has been slow in resettling refugees, has not pushed for raising quotas for most other forms of legal immigration and has offered no sustainable, long-term solution to the challenge of illegal immigration. Last year the administration ended the remain-in-Mexico policy and tried to make it easier for people to apply for asylum from their home countries. Nevertheless, the number of asylum seekers has continued to soar. The asylum program was never meant to be a vehicle for large-scale immigration and still needs an overhaul, as this board has argued.

Then there is the question of how to support those who have already arrived in the United States. Its also difficult to find political heroes here.

There were the cynical tactics deployed by Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and others who decided to transport thousands of immigrants to Democratic-led cities and states to see if they would maintain their longstanding posture of openness in the face of a sudden surge of newcomers. As despicable as this ploy was, it worked.

More than 145,000 people have traveled to New York State from the southern border over the past year, and the scale of this latest round of immigration has tested New Yorks fortitude and its historic embrace of newcomers; as of 2021, about one in three people in New York City was born in another country.

The current crisis has shown how difficult it can be to absorb waves of new people without adequate processes or the resources to back them up. Many of the new immigrants have come without family or other community ties, and the surge of people without a place to stay has strained the citys shelter system, when the New York region already was struggling with a shortage of affordable housing. A right-to-shelter mandate dating back four decades requires the city to provide a bed to anyone who needs one, and of the more than 115,200 people in city shelters, about half are asylum seekers.

Mayor Eric Adams has responded to this challenge with increasingly sharp, ominous statements. This issue will destroy New York City, he said on Sept. 6. Every community in this city is going to be impacted, he continued. The city we knew, were about to lose. Demonizing populations of people is dangerous and will not help the city respond to their needs, even if the mayor is right to raise the alarm and insist on more federal aid.

President Biden announced on Sept. 20 that his administration will extend temporary work permits to nearly half a million Venezuelans, a concession to intense pressure from Mr. Adams and other state and city leaders from his own party who find their communities overwhelmed.

That will help some businesses that are desperate for more workers. But Mr. Bidens reluctance is understandable; expanding work authorization without addressing Americas broken immigration system will do little to deter people from trying to cross the U.S. border unlawfully or to seek asylum, and it gives Congress a pass.

Some Republican leaders have stepped up to offer help. Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and Gov. Eric Holcomb of Indiana wrote an essay in The Washington Post in February offering to sponsor immigrants, citing more than 300,000 job vacancies between the two states. In meaningful ways, every U.S. state shares a border with the rest of the world, and all of them need investment, markets and workers from abroad, they wrote. That border can remain an embarrassment, or it can become a big asset to us once again.

For that to happen, leaders in Congress will have to do their part. Its been a decade since Congress has seriously considered immigration reform. Both parties have missed opportunities to do so, the Democrats most recently at the end of 2022. The party had a narrow majority in Congress but failed to pursue a compromise bill that would have increased funding for border security as well as expanding capacity to hear and decide asylum claims quickly. The future of DACA, a program for those who were brought to the United States as children, is also in doubt, despite its broad public support.

The White House is limited in the actions it can take; Mr. Biden may have exhausted what he can do through his executive authority. Until Congress decides to take meaningful action, America will continue to pay a price.

Source photograph by Busara, via Getty Images.

See more here:
Opinion | The Cost of Inaction on Immigration - The New York Times

Periodically, American presidents have tried to release pressure from these systems by granting amnesty or temporary protection from deportation to large groups of migrants, as Biden recently did for Venezuelans. But these are short-term Band-Aids that do little to affect the ongoing causes of illegal immigration and still leave millions of workers vulnerable to abuse.

Congress, for its part, has proved itself incapable of passing the kind of legislation necessary to recalibrate the economic incentives. Though five major immigration reform bills have been brought to a vote since 2006, none of them made it through both the House and the Senate. To be fair, perhaps no single legislative act or executive order could ever change these dynamics. But some people have suggested targeted measures that could make unauthorized migration less chaotic, less exploitative and less profitable to unscrupulous actors.

The National Association of Immigration Judges has made a strong case for increasing the funding for immigration courts. There are now more than 2.5 million cases pending in these courts, and their average processing time is four years. To handle this backlog, the nation has fewer than 700 immigration-court judges. According to Mimi Tsankov, president of the association, this disparity between manpower and caseload is the primary reason many immigration cases, especially complex asylum cases, take years to resolve. To speed processing times, Tsankov explained, the courts need more judges but also more interpreters, legal assistants and law clerks. Improved efficiency would benefit those who merit asylum. Others say that it would also decrease the incentive to submit frivolous asylum claims in order to reside legally in the United States while waiting for an application to be denied.

Among academics, another idea keeps resurfacing: a deadline for deportations. Most crimes in America have a statute of limitations, Mae Ngai, a professor of history at Columbia University, noted in an opinion column for The Washington Post. The statute of limitations for noncapital terrorism offenses, for example, is eight years. Before the 1924 Immigration Act, Ngai wrote in her book about the history of immigration policy, the statute of limitations for deportations was at most five years. Returning to this general principle, at least for migrants who have no significant criminal record, would allow ICE officers and immigration judges to focus on the recent influx of unauthorized migrants. A deadline could also improve labor conditions for all Americans because, as Ngai wrote, it would go a long way toward stemming the accretion of a caste population that is easily exploitable and lives forever outside the polity.

One of the most curious aspects of American immigration politics is that Congress tends to invest heavily in immigration enforcement but not in the enforcement of labor laws that could dissuade businesses from exploiting unauthorized workers in the first place. Congress more than doubled the annual budgets for ICE and C.B.P. from 2006 to 2021. At the same time, it kept the budgets for the three federal agencies most responsible for preventing workplace abuse OSHA, the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board essentially flat. There are now only 750 Department of Labor investigators responsible for the countrys 11 million workplaces. As absurd as it sounds, the enforcement of labor standards is a very controversial thing to do in this country, David Weil, the former administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, told me earlier this year. The laws needed to protect the interests of workers are already on the books, he said; the Department of Labor just needs funding adequate to enforce them.

See more here:
Why Can't We Stop Unauthorized Immigration? Because It Works. - The New York Times

I am an invader.

Actually, the son of invaders. But with presidential hopefuls Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis having taken aim at the 14th Amendments explicit creation of birthright citizenship, its clear that invader by association is enough to lump me in.

Im the U.S.-born son of Mexican immigrants. My parents emigrated separately, met in this country, married and had three sons. They were undocumented until I was in grade school.

The Republicans invasion rhetoric is not new. It was a winner for Trump in 2016.

The opportunists who are stirring up hatred of immigrants recognize the enduring resonance of this alleged infestation as Trump has also called it among GOP primary voters.

Even if President Joe Biden wins reelection, scapegoating immigrants will continue.

Biden bested Trump in 2020 by more than 7 million votes and 306 Electoral College votes to Trumps 232. But many of us still had to reconcile ourselves to the fact that some 74 million Americans!!! voted for a visibly corrupt liar who demonstrated great affinity for racists, white nationalists, nativists and others who later attempted a coup at his urging.

Disheartening doesnt even begin to describe the feeling.

Anti-immigration bias has been with us for a while. Lets see, there was the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798; in the 1850s, the nativist Know-Nothing Party; the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882; the Immigration Act of 1924 with quota preferences for white immigrants; and, in 2015, Trump unleashed a broad vilification of Mexican immigrants. He then won the presidency.

Not all the targets of anti-immigrant bias in our history were Asians or brown people generally. The Irish, Italians, Jews and Eastern Europeans have all been cast as dangerous and unworthy to live among us.

A nation of immigrants? Sure, but our memories are so faulty on this score.

There is still an immigration divide. Republicans focus on the enforcement part of immigration policy the border and deportations and Democrats want comprehensive reform that includes a legal path to residency for those here without documents.

As a wave of asylum seekers strains social services in New York and Chicago, Biden has directed federal money to build more of Trumps border wall, succumbing to the political heat. We need Democrats and Republicans alike to work toward a real solution comprehensive immigration reform that acknowledges the hard-working undocumented immigrants who are essential to the U.S. economy and deals with the root causes that drive people to flee murderous repression and economic hardship in their countries of origins.

Instead, here we are again with presidential aspirants using immigrants as a punching bag.

The lack of self interest in our immigration policies simply stumps me.

Consider: There is underway a ballooning of the retiree population with fewer working-age adults left to, well, work and pay into Social Security.

Immigrants can fill this gap to the benefit of all.

But gaining legal entry under current policy is so arduous to the point of impossibility that many just come and take their chances on deportation. The lure: U.S. employers who are eager to hire them.

Of course, we could be just as hard on immigrant-hiring employers as we are on the immigrants they hire. Instead, we reserve our animus for undocumented immigrants.

These employers know what too many others dont immigrants have higher work participation rates than do the native born (and lower crime rates, too).

We could, out of simple self-interest, enact comprehensive immigration reform. But this is not likely to happen soon because of our never-ending culture war.

Ominously, immigrant-bashing has expanded to include a call for the end of birthright citizenship.

The libertarian CATO Institute notes a key benefit of birthright citizenship. It speeds up the assimilation of immigrants. I would add, we get Americans who are perhaps more grateful to be Americans than Americans born of American citizens.

Hence, me. A college educated, mucho taxpaying, birthright citizen, who is also a U.S. Navy veteran and has been working past age 70.

Invaders?

The title Americans suits us birthright citizens just fine.

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Confessions of a birthright citizen - Wisconsin Examiner

Schumer and Jeffries decision to backchannel with the White House for expanded work authorization and more federal emergency funds speaks to the politically volatile nature of the problem. The Senate majority leader and his House minority counterpart want to avoid inflaming a debate that Republicans are using to push moderates into their column on the 2024 ballot.

Their quiet cajoling contrasts with how Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, fellow Democrats, have used their bully pulpits to demand help from Washington. The response also raises concerns among Democrats in suburban swing districts to feel theyve been left alone to assume political risks in a state thats key to retaking the House.

Getting federal assistance would be a lot easier if the two most powerful Democrats in Congress were out front fighting for their home state, said a Democratic adviser familiar with the dynamics. The adviser was granted anonymity to reveal the internal party discussions.

A few weeks after Schumer was visiting the fair in Syracuse, Jeffries was missing from a congressional delegation tour of a migrant center in Manhattan.

His congressional colleagues defended his absence.

Oh, he is a part of this! Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman insisted at the September event. He was with me in Washington, when we met with [Homeland Security] Secretary Mayorkas and Mayor Adams to push the administration for more resources. So the leader is an essential part of this.

Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries are battling Republicans in Washington and trying to address a surge in migrants in New York. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo

Recent polls are an indication of why events like the Manhattan tour werent on Jeffries schedule. A Siena College Research Institute survey found more New Yorkers view migrants as a burden than a benefit.

Republicans are well aware of those voter sentiments. The migrant crisis will be a top line of attack for them heading into next years elections. Theyre eager to link Jeffries to the problem as hes leading efforts to help Democrats win back House seats.

Hakeem Jeffries and extreme House Democrats caused New Yorks migrant crisis, National Republican Campaign Committee spokesperson Savannah Viar charged in a statement. His refusal to offer any actual solutions, other than hiding behind his lackeys screeching inaudibly at press conferences, is why theyre destined for doom on the ballot.

Schumer and Jeffries have had success by quietly brokering meetings and lobbying those close to the president, according to five people familiar with the efforts. And it comes as they are dealing with threats of a government shutdown and House GOP leadership turmoil.

In mid-September, Biden expanded temporary protected status, or TPS, for Venezuelans. The designation made nearly 10,000 migrants in New York City eligible to apply for work permits.

Schumer called the TPS change welcome news in Senate floor remarks after the announcement.

I wrote to Secretaries Blinken and Mayorkas in July that country conditions in Venezuela clearly met the criteria for TPS, so this is a good step forward, he said.

In addition, the senior senator had multiple conversations with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients on TPS, noting that Venezuelan nationals make up the bulk of the new arrivals to the city, according to one of the people familiar with the talks.

Schumer also helped set up the meeting that he, Jeffries, Adams and other New York representatives held in late July in Washington with Mayorkas, according to two people familiar with the planning.

Jeffries played a key role as well, with the closed-door gathering taking place in his Capitol Hill office.

Schumers representatives highlighted that achievement.

The record is very clear that Senator Schumer has been working at the highest levels, delivering funds for New York, securing the significant Biden administration decision on TPS for Venezuelans and fighting for more, his spokesperson Angelo Roefaro said in a statement.

And do not forget, it was Senator Schumer who already passed bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate with wide bipartisan support, only to see it die in a GOP House, Roefaro added of the effort 10 years ago.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, while at odds at times over the response to the migrant crisis, have both pressed Washington to do more to help the state with the influx of more than 100,000 migrants over the past year. | Darren McGee/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul

A spokesperson for Jeffries said the congressmembers remarks which put a kitchen table spin on work authorization speak for themselves.

Whats most important is that we successfully implement the opportunity for individuals to temporarily work while their asylum applications are being processed, because that will benefit the American taxpayer, Jeffries told Capitol Hill reporters after the TPS announcement.

Still, some allies of the mayor are angry that Schumer and Jeffries havent been more forceful with the Biden administration.

Obviously, its politically thorny, but youd hope theyd step up some more. Theyve been totally absent, said a Democratic city official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.

The only thing were getting is the lions share of asylum-seekers; were not getting the lions share of funding, the official added, calling the $140 million in federal funding allocated for New Yorks support of migrants pennies in a crisis Adams has estimated will cost $12 billion.

Hochul and Adams have publicly commended Schumer and Jeffries, despite some behind-the-scenes frustrations with their approach.

Adams technique ripping the White House and the leader of his party for destroying the city by not providing enough migrant aid has hurt his relationship with Washington leaders.

The mayor, who once called himself the Biden of Brooklyn, now has a deeply broken relationship with the president.

But Biden has also done more in recent days as Adams traveled to Latin and South America to press his case for fewer migrants and more federal help. On Thursday, the Biden administration announced the United States will again start deporting migrants to Venezuela and will resume construction in Texas of the Trump administrations proposed border wall.

And the fact that the Schumer and Jeffries have been spared Adams wrath is proof that they are indeed advocating for the city if only through back doors and with the gridlock in Washington over funding.

Theyre 100 percent supporting the city, Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York business group, said in an interview. But they are not in a position to deliver the kind of funding that the situation requires because theres not a budget provision to cover billions of dollars for a humanitarian crisis as opposed to a natural disaster.

While Republican City Council Member Joe Borelli slammed Schumer for not bringing a House bill on border security to the Senate floor, he acknowledged the political realities the leader faces on funding.

He has no leverage on appropriations because he doesnt have the votes in the Senate, Borelli added.

Link:
Schumer, Jeffries are laying low on the migrant crisis. Here's why. - POLITICO

Few things are certain in life, but one thing I do know for sure: Oscar is going to show up for his check-in at U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement every six months, regardless of the personal peril to which he is exposing himself. I know, because I go with him to offer whatever support I can to this hardworking father of two proud American citizens, his beautiful daughters.

Oscar faithfully shows up for his immigration check-ins for the same reason he goes to church and has paid his taxes in the U.S. for more than 20 years it is what he is supposed to do. Oscar came to the U.S. as a teenager and has been doing what he is supposed to do ever since. He is an example every American would do well to follow, except for one detail: Oscar is living in the U.S. without permanent legal status.

With 1 in 5 Chicagoans being of Mexican ancestry, this situation may be more common than you think. People like Oscar and his family are your friends and neighbors. They go to the same schools and churches you go to. They are the backbone of our economy and the very fabric of our community. How long must they wait to be treated fairly?

I am far beyond the point of frustration when it comes to the decadeslong inaction surrounding this issue. There is a solution that could be implemented today, and the good news is that momentum is building to help the Oscars of our nation.

With a stroke of the pen, President Joe Biden could change the lives of millions.

Biden could provide Oscar and other long-term immigrants who are in the U.S. without authorization with the dignity of a work permit through the existing federal parole program as he has done for nearly 1 million new migrants. The already legal and existing parole programs give limited lawful presence and work permits to immigrants already in the U.S.

[Susan Gzesh: Asylum-seekers should be allowed to work in Chicago]

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Read the latest editorials and commentary curated by the Tribune Opinion team.

The temporary protected status just granted to Venezuelans and the parole and legal status granted to now more than 1 million Venezuelans, Cubans, Afghans and Ukrainians are important and timely, but they do nothing to help the long-term immigrant contributors, including Mexican immigrants and their U.S. citizen families.

The good news is that bipartisan momentum is building. Given congressional gridlock and raging inflation, business leaders and employers; faith, labor and advocacy organizations, including immigration groups; Democratic and Republican governors; U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the majority whip, and U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez and Rep. Jess Chuy Garca, along with nearly the entire Illinois delegation; House Minority Whip Veronica Escobar of Texas and other members of Congress; and state attorneys general are supporting work permits for long-term immigrant contributors. That is so people like Oscar can work and grow the economy, reduce inflation and keep families together.

As a proud daughter of a Mexican American union member, I know how important it is to give people the long, overdue opportunity to come out of the shadows and legally work and thrive. Work permits protect immigrants from exploitation and abuse and facilitate participation in a union. Furthermore, work permits enable our economy to tap into this huge pool of talented, skilled and underemployed workers to help get our economy back on track and reduce the inflation hurting us all.

As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce noted in a September report, If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have 3.5 million open jobs. This proposal would fill critical labor needs and reduce costs for Americans. More than 70% of Americans agree that it is fair for the recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, farm workers, mixed status families and long-term contributors to be granted a work permit. In fact, immigrants in Illinois paid an estimated $945.5 million in federal taxes and $708.9 million in state and local taxes a year.

I implore Biden to provide work permits for Oscar and the 11 million immigrants in the U.S. without authorization. Until Congress gets serious about passing immigration reform that fixes the broken system, Biden can take existing administrative action to grant work permits for long-term immigrants, for the good of our communities, for the good of Chicago and for the good of the United States of America.

Anna Valencia is the city clerk of Chicago.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.

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Op-ed: Biden should give immigrants the dignity of a work permit - Chicago Tribune