My New USA Today Article on How Biden Can Ease Border Problems by More Fully Implementing His Own Plans to Make Legal Immigration Easier (original) (raw)

USA Today has published my article (coauthored with Cato Institute immigration policy expert David Bier) on how Biden's border problems can be alleviated by expanding and more fully implementing the Administration's own plans to make legal migration easier:

In response to high border crossings, President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress appear ready to at least partially cave to demands to restrict asylum in negotiations on the contours of an ongoing deal.

This would be a grave mistake. It would hurt asylum-seekers but won't stop illegal migration. Biden already has the right plan for the border. He just hasn't fully implemented it.

The best way to reduce pressure on the border from illegal migration is to make legal entry easier, and Biden's 2023 immigration agenda included many of the necessary measures. Unfortunately, he hasn't made them available widely enough, and this failure is leading to people entering illegally…..

The primary initiative is parole sponsorship, under which immigrants sponsored by Americans could receive authorization to enter legally straight from their home country and live and work in the United States for at least two years….

Biden's plan achieved great initial success, simultaneously helping many thousands of people escape violence and repression and reducing disorder at the border…..

Even so, further progress was stymied because parole sponsorship was limited to migrants from just five countries: Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Participation from the Latin American nations (the "CHNV" countries) is capped at just 30,000 migrants a month from all four countries combined….

The backup option – applying for legal entry at the U.S.-Mexico border using the CBP One phone app – might have mitigated the fallout. But arbitrary caps and flawed agency procedures have ruined this option as well. Appointments are capped at 1,450 a day – though there were nearly 9,000 daily migrant encounters in September…..

The combination of horrific poverty and oppression in their home countries and labor shortages in the United States lead people seeking opportunity and freedom to enter illegally if there is no other way to do so…..

It's the same dynamic by which alcohol prohibition led people to illegally obtain smuggled booze from the likes of Al Capone. Barring legal markets in much-wanted goods or services predictably creates vast black markets to which millions of people seek access. When Prohibition was abolished, alcohol smuggling and associated organized crime greatly diminished. Legalizing migration would have similar effects on the black market in immigration….

Expanding legal migration would also save more people from violence, poverty and oppression – and bolster the U.S. economy. Immigrants disproportionately contribute to American innovation and entrepreneurship, thereby greatly enhancing economic freedom, wealth and opportunity for native-born Americans as well…..

Biden should order the agencies to eliminate the arbitrary country limitations and numerical caps on parole sponsorship and CBP One. He should also allow migrants to book CBP appointments in their home countries many weeks in advance.

These options would eliminate the vast majority of illegal immigration, restoring order to a chaotic border.

Biden shouldn't give up on his policies and give in to the demands from the other side. He has already implemented severe asylum restrictions for those who cross illegally, and illegal migration is as high as ever.

Now there are just more people here with no path to legalize their status….

Biden has already laid out a better path forward than imitating Trump. It is time to start following it.