Public Agenda Issue Guide: Immigration

Citizens

are confronted with serious issues every minute of the day. Grasping the underlying issues from the headlines is a difficult task. Give us ten minutes a day and we will help bring clarity to the chaos of the news, policy and issues.

ON THE AGENDA

School's Out, But Should it Be?

Scott Bittle
Jul 2, 2009

Despite some direct prodding – and funding – from the federal government, summer school programs are being cut back across the country. Alice Cooper may well approve, but where does this leave American parents?

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Too Many Students, Too Little Money?

Scott Bittle
Jul 2, 2009

Community colleges around the country are facing tough choices on how many students they can actually serve – choices that Public Agenda's research shows are running right into the public's biggest concerns about higher education.

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FACING UP TO THE
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ISSUE GUIDE: Immigration

OVERVIEW

Immigration

Americans have always been ambivalent about immigration, with realistic concerns bumping into altruistic, even romantic notions. The romance is summed up in the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, erected in 1886, proclaiming the famous lines ''give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'' The ambivalence was expressed a mere four years earlier, when Congress enacted the first immigration restrictions, specifically excluding "paupers, ex-convicts, mental defectives and Chinese." That was at the beginning of the greatest wave of immigration in American history, which brought in 18 million new citizens, diversified U.S. society and gave us the enduring analogy of the ''melting pot.''

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CONSIDER THE CHOICES

Honoring our commitment to newcomers

Cutting back to preserve our security and culture

Cutting back in response to economic realities

The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we've never had cause to regret that. It's part of what makes us different from so many more narrow, authoritarian societies, and it's what makes us strong. So we have a special obligation to welcome newcomers. U. S. immigration policy must reflect our ideals, our humanitarian concern and our commitment to the plight of refugees worldwide. Besides, the United States benefits from immigration. Hard-working immigrants start businesses, create jobs, and help the economy grow. Culturally, immigrants enrich America with their arts, traditions, and languages. The U.S. has always gained more by immigration than we've lost and there's no reason to think that will change.
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We need to control immigration to secure our borders and protect our unity. September 11th showed how our immigration policies have failed to keep criminals and terrorists out of the country. Millions of people have evaded our immigration laws and the government has no idea whether any of them pose a threat to us. In addition, the recent wave of immigration has brought increasing pressure to accommodate immigrants by accepting bilingualism. We should honor diversity, but not at the cost of breaking the bonds of cohesion: common ideals, a common language, and common political institutions that hold the nation together.
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The first concern should be theeconomic cost imposed by the huge influx of immigrants and their effects on wages and jobs. The fact is that we need to educateand employ the people already here before we can worry about paying for the education, welfare,and health care of hundreds of thousands of newcomers each year. Plus, the burden isn't spread evenly; most immigrants settle in big cities and Sun Belt states. We should restrict the number of newcomers and look more closely at how their arrival affects us. The immigrants we do accept should either have jobs waiting here or have the skills to support themselves.The nations first obligation is to protect the welfare and well being of those who are already American citizens.
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