American policy on illegal immigrants is plagued by an inherent tension, bordering on schizophrenia. The right brain approves of them because they are immigrants and the US is a nation founded on immigration. The left brain disapproves of them because they are illegal and Americans are passionate about the rule of law.
Now, the subject is at the forefront of the 2012 presidential campaign, as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on a tough Arizona law that several other states are following. The well-worn debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney shows the near impossibility of agreeing a federal solution for the “undocumented” – as illegal immigrants are often called. Yet a solution may be within reach – based on competition between states for migrants’ labour.
Past attempts to reform the system through federal legislation have vacillated between the draconian and the benign. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 introduced sanctions on employers of illegal immigrants, at the insistence of unions – but left out any obligation to verify employees’ legal status, at the insistence of civil liberties lobbies, making it certain that the sanctions would be a paper tiger.
Other attempts at federal action have even been counterproductive. Democratic presidents seeking to placate the anti-immigration lobbies have taken drastic measures – Bill Clinton with military-style border enforcement, Mr Obama with unprecedented levels of deportations. But they have done little to contain, let alone reverse, the illegal influx. They have simply worsened the lives of the undocumented immigrants living in Americans’ midst.
Spearheaded by Mr Clinton, spending on border enforcement has risen from $326m in 1992 to more than $3bn in 2011. Fences and trenches were built. Illegal immigrants were forced from safer routes to attempt entry through the desert. Mr Obama, on the other hand, has shifted the focus to deporting those caught in raids that disrupt immigrants’ lives. In 2009-11, annual deportations averaged 390,000: in 2001 under George W. Bush, they averaged less than 120,000.
Read More: A bottom-up solution to America’s immigration dilemma
