Granting amnesty – and, eventually, U.S. citizenship – to almost 15 million illegal aliens will be a win-win for everybody, argue the policy’s cheerleaders. Former illegal aliens will “come out of the shadows,” and Americans will become a more compassionate and richer society, both economically and culturally. We are expected to believe that there will be no significant costs, losers, or trade-offs. That is a rosy vision indeed, but, unfortunately, amnesty is unlikely to lessen socio-economic inequality – a problem President Biden said he wants to remedy. It may, in fact, lead to increased class and ethnic tensions.
Few national policy issues have the long-term impact that immigration does. It determines our future: Quality of our schools, livability of our communities, solvency of our government, integrity of our civic culture, cohesion of our traditions and understandings, size of our carbon footprint, health of our infrastructure, equity in our labor force, the viability of the rule of law, and just about anything else of importance to the American people. Immigration levels determine whether we can achieve population stability, or race toward an unstoppable one billion by the end of the century.
From that iconic moment when he rode down the escalator at Trump Tower through the end of his one term as president, few deny that Donald Trump’s driving legacy as Commander-in-Chief was immigration reform. His promise to combat illegal immigration and “build the wall” rallied Americans and upset the balance of power centered around the political establishment in Washington.
Check out what RJ wrote in the Washington Examiner:
The bill is slated to be advanced through the little-known budget reconciliation process, which allows the party in power to pass legislation related to the budget with only a simple majority, bypassing the traditional 60-vote threshold. However, the budget reconciliation process has complex requirements, and it is not certain that the inclusion of immigration would pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian.