Residentsof the nation’s capital know that our immigration system needs fixing. Up to 30,000 undocumented persons live in Washington, D.C., today. One in 13 employees in the District are now undocumented. Before Memorial Day, U.S. senators will get another chance to fix this by strengthening the border, creating a guest worker program and providing a way for many undocumented employees already contributing to America to earn full membership in our society.
Much is at stake, most of all America’s national security. Current immigration policy undermines this by providing every incentive for the undocumented to remain in the shadows, where the Department of Homeland Security is unable to screen them.
Our broken immigration system also compromises our borders. Lacking the immigration opportunities open to most of our ancestors, half a million undocumented persons arrive here annually. Congress now spends five times as much on border security compared to 20 years ago and employs three times as many border personnel yet has failed to reduce this flow at all.
The result is that immigration should be safe, orderly and legal costs countless lives, tramples on the rights of property owners, enriches organized crime and is “policed” by human traffickers rather than U.S. officials. Worse, scarce border security resources that would be better deployed in the war against terror are wasted.
Sadly, our immigration laws have corroded American values along with America’s security. More than 7 million hardworking, taxpaying employees work long hours in one or more frequently physically demanding jobs without the basic labor protections that guarantee fairness in the American workplace. Exposed to exploitation, these employees also lack the bargaining power that comes with being able to leave one’s job for better opportunities. Employers who do the right thing are also penalized by this unfairness, which places them at a competitive disadvantage to unscrupulous competitors.
America’s economy is undermined by this divided labor market every bit as much as American fairness. My industry and others, including health care and construction, are growing faster than the nation’s economy and are creating entry-level positions faster than Americans’ desire to fill them. Yet while our economy added more than 5 million jobs in the last two and a half years, only 10,000 green cards are available to service industry workers annually. No wonder one in 20 employees in America are undocumented.
Aware that undocumented workers have become a sizeable part of America’s labor force, immigration foes reply: Enforce the law. Such thinking led the House to pass a bill that would make America’s undocumented employees “aggravated felons” — along with murderers, rapists and drug dealers — making them forever ineligible for a temporary work visa. They even voted to fine community diners in my industry up to $25,000 for immigration paperwork errors.
Hard experience shows that, far from encouraging the undocumented to quit the jobs that feed their families and abandon their homes and communities, harsher penalties only serve to push them further into society’s shadows.
Instead of trying to enforce the unenforceable, our laws should recognize that we all benefit when someone takes a job that others spurn. Research out of the University of California demonstrates that immigration has led to higher wages for American-born employees, including those without high school diplomas, and cities with the highest immigration rates are recording the biggest wage increases.
In a restaurant, fewer kitchen hands and busboys mean fewer restaurant managers, chefs and servers. Child sitters enable professional parents to go to work. Roofers make it possible for architects to serve their clients and also allow building site managers to help get the job done.
Understanding this important truth, Senate Republicans and Democrats backed a compromise earlier this month addressing two of the thorniest issues in the current immigration debate: the undocumented here currently and future flows of legal immigrants. Rejecting amnesty and punishing wrongdoing, their compromise requires most undocumented employees to pay $2,000 in fines, undergo a criminal background check, pay back taxes and learn English. Qualified applicants could then apply for a temporary work visa. Following a six-year probationary period, they would then be eligible to go to the back of the line and apply for a green card while working their jobs in the U.S.
To be sure, significant issues remain, such as creating a workable system for employers to determine the work authorization of employees. However, senators from both parties are now coming together to support a workable compromise, similar to the original Senate Judiciary Committee Plan, that addresses the workers America needs now and will need in the future, while also strengthening our security and our values. We cannot afford for them to fail.
Steven C. Anderson is president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association.
