A Checklist for CIR (NPG Footnote)

• Lindsey Grant
• March 1, 1995
• Forum Papers
• Forum Paper
• 0 Comments

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A Checklist for CIR
An NPG Forum Paper
by Lindsey Grant
March 1995

I participated recently in a round table organized by the Commission on Immigration Reform and was asked to make a brief list of suggestions for its attention. Here is that list.

You have solicited round table members’ ideas as to topics and proposals the commission should consider. I have looked at your interim report and offer my congratulations for your courage in taking on many of the key problems. My comments will touch only briefly on what you have already done. I will focus instead on what I see as the toughest issues ahead.

LEGAL MIGRATION

How Many Americans? The critical issue in immigration policy is not how many immigrants there are, but how many Americans there will be. Immigration is the primary driver as population growth threatens to drive the nation to about a half billion people in the next century. The relationship of immigration to population growth — not secondary questions such as the costs to welfare programs — should guide national policy on immigration levels. I urge that you address the problems of jobs, education, housing, urban deterioration, energy, agriculture, and the environment, that you weigh the impact that population growth will have on those problems, and that you undertake to describe what immigration levels would best contribute to the solution of the problems we face.

What Categories of Immigrants? My own belief is that the nation’s future well-being depends on stopping population growth, and that would require immigration far lower than at present — probably something like the 200,000 annual flow that prevailed between the immigration acts of 1924 and 1965. Present law is largely based on “family reunification”, and its importance is reasserted in your man-date. It is a beguiling phrase, but dangerous because it leads to chain immigration. This policy in turn squeezes out valuable potential immigrants such as scientists, artists, writers, and technicians. Coupled with our refugee and asylum policy, and with the categories of immigrant already outside the quota, it means that total de facto migration levels are only very loosely constrained by the ostensible numerical limits. Something has to give. Although I recognize you must respond to the mandate, I suggest that the CIR consider recommending that immigrants’ families remain unified by bringing their nuclear families with them, within the quota, and that most quota numbers be reserved for “enrichment” migrants.

….Continue reading the full Forum paper by clicking here.