Why AOC is right

I rarely agree with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her economic philosophies based in Marxist principles are antithetical to what I believe to be the better path to increasing wealth for all. Nonetheless, More Spock attempts to avoid the Halo-Horns effect. Meaning if a person you like is right about one thing, they are right about everything (Halo) and if a person you don’t like is wrong about one thing, they are wrong about everything (Horns). The old saying, “even Hitler loved dogs,” is one way of saying that even the worst people in history weren’t wrong about everything. An idea either has or doesn’t have merit independent of who suggests it.

Recently AOC along with some of her Democratic colleagues requested that the Biden administration find ways to shorten the cycle for immigrants who are seeking asylum to obtain work authorization that meets Department of Labor criteria. Currently asylum seekers must wait 150 days before they can even apply for a work permit, meaning it’s a full six months from the time they apply for asylum until they can legally work in the U.S. During that six months they become a burden to our social safety net and/or are exploited while working “off the books.” Larry Kudlow, someone I admire as a supply-side economist, berated AOC and others on his Fox News show. He had guests who argued that it was a new form of amnesty, focused on the fentanyl crisis and claimed that they would take American jobs. Sorry, Kudlow, no halo for you. AOC is right.

The U.S. currently has an approximate 4 million person gap between the number of job openings and the number of unemployed people. While that number is shrinking as the economy slows under the weight of increased interest rates, the larger demographic issue is not going to change without immigration reform. There are many more baby boomers and Gen Xers exiting the workforce than there are Gen Zers entering the workforce – a trend that is projected to last for a while as U.S. birthrates continue to remain low, and one that has the potential to negatively impact future economic growth.

The disconnect between Homeland Security policies and practices (catch and release) and the Department of Labor’s policies and practices (I-9 and e-verify work eligibility requirements) is a huge problem that neither party seems to want to address. Republicans want to significantly slow the stream of immigrants at the southern border, but don’t want to address immigration as a solution to our shrinking workforce challenge. George W. Bush floated a guest-worker program but it had lukewarm support even from his own party. It was branded as amnesty for illegals and the 2007 immigration bill was defeated. Since then, the parties have pretty much drawn lines that are each shortsighted. Trump chose to demonize immigrants while proposing his “beautiful wall.” Dems have been just as bad. Under eight years of Obama and nearly four under Biden, no meaningful ideas have been put forth to address the stress being placed on the nation by our current policies even as the volume of immigrants has increased significantly.

But the needle might be moving. I thought it was a brilliant move by Texas governor Greg Abbot when he started sending busloads of migrants to blue state sanctuary cities. When liberal elites are faced with the actual consequences of their virtue signaling, they sometimes change their tune. We saw that with Shivanthi Sathanandan, Vice Chairperson for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. She was a big “defund the police” advocate after George Floyd. But when she was left bloodied by a violent carjacking right in front of her kids, she has now decided she loves law enforcement. While liberal elites touted Trump’s immigration policies as racist and promoted open borders, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico were being overwhelmed by immigrants. Thanks to Abbot, those elites are now beginning to feel the effects. New York mayor Eric Adams and others are begging for help while experiencing a small fraction of the pressure that cities in border states have faced for years. I’m hopeful that this will lead to some common-sense policy changes.

Each of these statements is true: The U.S workforce needs an influx of immigrant labor. Most people immigrating from Mexico, Central and South America are good people looking to improve their lives. Our porous southern border makes it easy for criminals, terrorists and drugs to enter our country and cause harm.

In the context of these true statements, what might a common sense border policy look like? First, Trump’s wall was not a bad idea despite the person who floated it and the context in which he did (Halo/Horns again). Making it difficult to enter the U.S. except through well-staffed and managed points of entry would help control the flow, deter some of the bad stuff, and would be a big help to landowners at the border who are severely challenged by current policies. Second, we should provide immediate temporary work authorization (not a green card or citizenship), to each individual when they are approved to enter. That way their first stop is at an employment agency, not a government aid office. If they are applying for asylum or want to apply for some other path to citizenship, like Bush’s guest worker program, they are now in the system and can pursue those routes as defined. But they can work and file tax returns. If it is relatively easy to enter and become documented, there is little reason to attempt to swim the Rio Grande. Unless you’re carrying Fentanyl or are a Chinese spy. Hence the wall.

I’m certain that I am oversimplifying the problem a bit, but it’s clear that the current system isn’t working for anyone. And efforts to politicize the issue don’t really help. Republicans made immigration a huge issue in the 2022 mid-terms but the issue didn’t resonate with voters enough to lead to the anticipated red wave that never materialized. They’ll try again in 2024, but their solutions only deal with half the problem. Democrat solutions don’t deal with the problem at all. It would be nice to see some common sense in D.C. but it seems to be in short supply on both sides of the aisle.