Illegal Border Crossings Today:

Remembering When National Interest Mattered in Immigration Policy

an American flag waving

Although it’s hard to believe, America’s current political divide isn’t particularly unique. In 1791, Founding Fathers James Madison and Thomas Jefferson established the National Gazette in order to viciously besmirch political foes — President George Washington included — as disloyal and even treasonous. The crucible of the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 ripped our nation in half, while the civil rights battle and the war in Vietnam stirred deep emotions and sparked widespread unrest during the 1960s.

In reality, each decade in our nation’s history — including this one — has experienced divide, great or small. Thus, it may be hard to imagine there actually was a time when Washington lawmakers agreed on anything…let alone immigration policy.

Yet there was such a time, and it started when the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform was set up as a provision in the Immigration Act of 1990. In 1993 Barbara Jordan was selected by President Bill Clinton as chairwomen. Jordan was an African-American Texas congresswoman, civil rights activist, and a leading, iconic figure within the Democrat Party who presided over the commission made up of five Democrats and four Republicans. Their work over five years included 15 roundtables with experts and scholars, 18 research papers and impact studies, seven site visits and eight public hearings. Between 1994 and 1997 the Commission released their recommendations, all premised upon a principle espoused by Jordan and embraced with bipartisan consensus: “It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.

Unfortunately, most of their common-sense recommendations have never materialized:

  • Dry up the employment magnet. The Jordan Commission understood that while border security is vital, crossings will continue unless America stops the incentives to enter and vigorously enforces the laws on the interior. Thus, restricting employment opportunities for those who have no legal right to work was one of the Commission’s most important recommendations, yet three decades years later,  only four states require all public and private employers to use E-Verify, while only 16 other states require it for a portion of their workforce.
  • Ensure that illegal aliens do not receive public benefits except emergency medical care.  Jordan — now deceased — would be shocked at the honey pot of benefits illegal aliens enjoy. Illegal aliens are eligible for in-state college tuition in 25 states and the District of Columbia, and can receive driver’s licenses in 19 states plus the District of Columbia. Subsidized medical care, housing, and other welfare benefits for illegal aliens are expanding at the state level, as are efforts to grant the right for non-citizens to vote in local elections.
  • Expedite removal of criminal aliens and more vigorously use detainers so that deportation orders are made while criminal aliens are still in jail.  Eleven states and over 600 jurisdictions now define themselves as sanctuary havens. Many reject ICE detainers, prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE, and release criminal aliens back onto the street. The House Judiciary Committee estimates that more than half a million criminal aliens remain in American communities.
  • Reduce legal immigration by 30 percent to about 550,000 per year. The Commission not only called for curbs on illegal immigration, but advocated reductions in overall immigration to the U.S. Nevertheless, legal immigration still adds more than one million each year, in addition to hundreds of thousands of others the Biden-Harris administration is allowing into the country through the abuse of parole authority.
  • Emphasize skills based immigration and end chain migration by allowing immigrants to sponsor only spouses and minor children rather than extended families. The Jordan Commission recognized that chain migration isn’t a nuclear family program – it’s an intergenerational relocation program with no identifiable benefit for America. Currently, only about 6 percent of all annual immigrant admissions are skilled-based, while chain migration continues to be an exponential multiplier of population.

None of these recommendations has been fully implemented and it explains, in part, why the population of illegal aliens currently residing in the United States has grown to 16.8 million, antithetical to one of Jordan’s fundamental beliefs: “Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.”

Moreover, failure to implement the Commission’s recommendations explains why sustained high levels of legal and illegal immigration is a significant factor in surging America’s population from 258 million in 1993 to 336 million today.

It’s been decades since America has seen any credible, bipartisan attempt to identify immigration solutions based on a solid foundation of principles similar to the one upon which Barbara Jordon premised her commission’s work: “Immigration, like foreign policy, ought to be a place where the national interest comes first, last and always.” Instead, mass-immigration is now a tactic used to advance narrow political or economic interests.

Those in office, and those running for office, should refresh themselves with the Jordan Commission report because now, more than ever, its principles are the key to sound immigration public policy that best serves America’s interest.