The incoming Trump administration has repeatedly indicated its intent to deport large numbers of immigrants in the country illegally. The president-elect considers mass deportation to be a cornerstone of his electoral mandate, and all indications are that he intends to follow through on this commitment.
One would expect mass deportation to be successful in dramatically reducing the numbers of immigrants living in the United States illegally. But if past is prologue, this seeming victory will be short-lived. Over time, public sentiment concerning illegal immigration will soften, the politics will change and the rate of illegal immigration will increase once again.
Ultimately, addressing illegal immigration with mass deportation will likely be as ineffective as using mass incarceration to fight the drug epidemic. For as long as there is a demand for labor, there will be a need for laborers. And that need will result in more illegal immigration.
For many years, across multiple administrations, the de facto laws governing immigration have differed from the de jure language of the law. Those arriving illegally are fully cognizant of the de jure prohibition, but they come in response to the de facto invitation. America beckons them with the promise of a better life for themselves and their families, all the while blustering about border security with a nod and a wink.
Yes, those here illegally have broken the law. But this nation has consistently invited them to do so.
To achieve a long-term solution to illegal immigration, it is necessary to repent this national hypocrisy and reinstitute the rule of law. This will only happen when American businesses and foreign laborers deem adherence to the law preferable to disregarding it. Immigration policy must be altered such that it addresses both the demand for foreign labor and the conditions whereby foreign labor is regulated. That is, what is required is a robust guest-worker policy.
In recent years, there have been several efforts in Congress to pass guest worker legislation. The most recent of these was the so-called Gang of 8 bill of 2013. This legislation failed, in large part because of the blinkered insistence of its promoters to include a path to citizenship.
Any discussion of citizenship in immigration legislation is a nonstarter for large swathes of the American electorate. They simply will not countenance citizenship as a reward for breaking the law. One may object to this intransigence, but to deny its existence is to guarantee failure.
For this reason, guest worker legislation should be entirely separate from any consideration of citizenship. It should be exclusively focused on developing an efficient system whereby employers can hire laborers, and those laborers can have legal status to work.
The system should be designed to incentivize laborers to establish their homes and raise their families in their own countries, rather than in the United States. This policy would benefit both the United States and the nations of origin for these workers. All things being equal, conditions in these countries would likely improve as more of their citizens become invested in them.
If these general principles are implemented in conjunction with strict border enforcement, the incentives for illegal immigration will be dramatically diminished.
President-elect Trump and the incoming Congress have an historic opportunity to address illegal immigration. They have a choice before them.
One option is to enforce the border and deport massive numbers of immigrants here illegally. This will be disruptive to business, traumatic for immigrant families and will endure only as long as the American public has the stomach for it.
The other option is to enforce the border and reform the guest worker policy. This will be a realignment for business, an adjustment for immigrant families (with many choosing to relocate their homes to their countries of origin), and will endure for as long as the American public prefers a lawful immigration system to a lawless one.
The second option is a win. The first is a pyrrhic victory.
Gary L. Brown is a civil engineer. He lives in Jackson, Miss.
