Widen the immigration funnel: Current, limiting proposals in Congress don't make sense

The foreigner who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the foreigner as yourself.-- Leviticus 19:34

Thomas Kostigen, writing for Marketwatch's ethics column, has this to say.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- It's pretty clear that we need to let more immigrants into the U.S. and change our policies over who gets in, why and when.
At the same time, our thinking about immigration needs to break borders and become global, because the immigration debate here is really a global issue about the fate of the U.S. economy in the world and who is going to support it in the future.
Some states such as Texas and California are concerned about the loss of immigrant workers affecting their economies. But this is small potatoes compared to the competition being mounted to the U.S. as a whole from China and India.

Instead of scratching our heads about how high some stupid fence should be on the Mexican border we should be trying to figure out how we can better co-op a deal with Mexico for its work force now that the North American Free Trade Agreement is in shambles.

Still, there are already millions of immigrant workers in this country who have been here for years and who we can't just kick out without dire financial consequence to them and us. It's time to admit this, check them in, move them to the back of the customs and immigration lines and move on.

It's important to highlight the point of moving them to the "back of the line" because so many people have gone and done the right thing to get into this country legally. Many of these people are skilled workers. And as BusinessWeek recently pointed out in an article, many of these "waiting" are more educated and skilled. They are also more fed up with the immigration system and are moving elsewhere in the world to work.

The immigration funnel needs to become wider at both ends, and needs to take into account people at all levels of the economic spectrum. We as a country can afford to take on more people the right people with the right skill sets that will allow the U.S. to progress, innovate and prosper.

We are the richest nation on the planet by far. We consume more than anyone else, and waste more than anyone else, twice as much in fact. Our scraps are what some nations exist on.

Thinking like blockheads
The current proposals in Congress are weak propositions. Having people leave the country and re-enter and limiting the amount of time guest workers can stay before they must return home, again for a set period of time, are weird ideas and pretty bad ones at that.

Take the one where guest workers can stay for three years and then are mandated to go back to their home country for a year or more before being allowed to return to the U.S. I know there are studies that show most guest workers end up going back to their home countries. They come here to work, save money and then return to their native lands to live more prosperously.

I'm just not buying that this is the mindset of the typical immigrant worker in the U.S. And how much can one really save in just three years when he or she is making a few dollars an hour?

Once people get a taste of what they can earn, how they can live and prosper in this country, why oh why would they want to go back to wherever it is they were forced to leave originally?

This rationale is odd. We should be looking to encourage people to come here, grow and prosper. As it stands, our ethic is skewed: Come here, be nice, do a good job, make some money, then get the hell out. Huh? Or is it: Just don't come here at all? Or is it: If you are already here and we catch you, you're a goner maybe even a felon?

None of this creates incentives for anything good. It's about time we started creating a system based on rewards for people who want, really want, to come here and do the right thing rather than make policy based on consequence.

By the looks of it, no policy will be made at all. This is a shame. We have an opportunity to set a fresh direction and tone that can be shown and held out to the world with a new immigration policy. We should seize it and prove to the world just how great our country can be based on a will to do good for people.