Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia interviews Helen Krieble, founder and president of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation and author of the Red Card Solution, about her plan to alleviate illegal immigration by granting more work permits to immigrants. Reason: What is the red card solution and how will it work? Krieble: The red card divides […]
Last month the President announced that he would no longer enforce U.S. immigration law. Instead he would actively shield illegal immigrants from deportation and issue work authorizations for about 5 million now ineligible to hold jobs. During the first six years of his presidency, Mr. Obama made over a dozen statements noting that he simply […]
Comprehensive immigration reform — rarely has a catchphrase been so widely invoked and yet so little defined. Why? If proponents of so-called reform detailed exactly what they wanted, American voters would never support their self-interested agendas. Most Americans insist that existing federal immigration laws be enforced. They are adamant that the border be shut tight […]
First, if each new immigrant lowers living standards, new people also lower living standards. But without new people, America’s economy would lack the workers it needs to operate. This highlights an economic principle that economist Deidre McCloskey calls “human resourcefulness.” It is the idea popularized by the late Julian Simon that people are the “ultimate […]
Restrictions on immigration have created a black market in labor and movement. Currently, the U.S. government issues only 10,000 green cards to workers who lack higher education, special skills or family connections. These restrictions have incented (as opposed to “caused”) desperate workers from around the world to circumvent the legal process and enter or reside in […]