WASHINGTON – Less talk, more action is needed to end the stalemate over immigration reform, according to a group of immigration experts that proposes such actions as tilting legal immigration toward skilled workers, tightening workplace verification and improving temporary worker programs.
Peter Skerry explains the immigration reform recommendations included in a new Brookings Institution report that he co-authored. (Michelle Minkoff/MNS)
A report released Tuesday by the Brookings Institution and Duke University’s Kenan Institute for Ethics, the result of a year of study by the panel of 20 experts, recommended changes in six key areas:
- Link legalization and workplace verification. The report proposed stricter government oversight of verifying workers’ legal status, requiring undocumented workers who have been in the country five years or more to pay fines, have jobs and pass a background check.
- Increase cooperation between United States and Mexican law enforcement to help control the border.
- Increase the number of visas for skilled immigrants and reduce family-sponsored visas to include only the nuclear family.
- Improve oversight of temporary worker programs. The group proposed replacing temporary work visas with nonrenewable, five-year provisional visas and making temporary or provisional visas portable across employers.
- Establishing a standing commission on immigration to make recommendations to Congress.
- Create more educational and cultural opportunities to help immigrants assimilate into American society.
Noah Pickus, director of the Kenan Institute and co-author of the report, said combining workplace verification and legalization would help streamline both processes.
“We need them to work together in a way that gets us to ‘Yes’ sooner,” he said.
But Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy and advocacy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said she didn’t agree. She was among three commentators brought in by Brookings to critique the report.
“It’s a good sound bite, but I don’t think it’s sound policy,” said Kelley.
Other elements of the plan included improving programs for temporary workers and encouraging Congress to establish a standing committee on immigration to address long-term reform goals.
University of Maryland government professor James Gimpel, another commentator invited to the report release by Brookings, supported many aspects of the report, but said not to expect immediate results.
“It often takes several Congresses to get legislation through,” he said. “The fact that we have an economic downturn right now, that doesn’t mean something can’t be introduced. But keep in mind, that it may take a long time to pass.”
The goal of the report was to push immigration reform back onto the national agenda. President Barack Obama has said he didn’t expect Congress to take up the issue until next year because of health care debates and efforts to regulate the financial system. Comprehensive reform efforts have failed twice in the last three years despite the support of then-President George W. Bush.
In fact, one of the recommendations – a commission appointed by the president to give advice to Congress – was aimed specifically at smoothing over political disputes.
“We see it as a way to bring inherently political questions in a somewhat different that would be less heat-intensive, and bring more light to the process,” said Peter Skerry, co-author of the report and a political science professor at Boston College.
“We hope it would help us escape an adversarial culture that policy has suffered from in the last few years.”