Today, a low-skilled Mexican worker would need to wait 11 years to get a green card and then another five to apply for citizenship—and that’s assuming no bureaucratic holdups. There is no good reason for such a long wait. The issuance of green cards should be expedited, with only criminals and suspected terrorists screened out.
America’s immigration services should focus all of their energy and resources on weeding out real threats to national security, rather than trying to fruitlessly manipulate labor markets. Foreign workers, whether in the form of low skilled manual laborers or computer engineers, create economic opportunities, not security threats.
Forcing immigrants underground creates an enormous black market where terrorist activities and serious crimes can continue undetected. If legal immigration were much easier, the American government would know who was entering the country and do a better job in screening out criminals and suspected terrorists.
America has a huge immigration black market. Millions of undocumented workers enter and leave the United States every year without regard for legal channels. Legalizing future immigration along with amnesty will destroy much of the black market.
Liberalization, not control, will make us safer by allowing the government to shift its focus from checking permits at fast-food restaurants to legitimate threats like the twenty-three suspected Islamist militants trying to break into the U.S.