Giving migrants work visas would reduce costs to states and cities
Removing barriers to immigration will solve a lot of our problems. Take, for example, our nationally declining population and its implications for our economy and social safety nets.
Due to our low birthrate and thus, a declining workforce, funding for Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare is projected to be unsustainable for future generations.
Instead of phasing out these essential programs, requiring people to work longer into their golden years, and forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies to increase the “homegrown” workforce, why don’t we provide the influx of migrants at the border with work visas? Immediately.
I’m not trying to be provocative by citing the idea that we’d rather force women to give birth than let more Brown people into the country. …
We’re exploiting U.S. citizens rather than removing barriers to immigration. Give migrants work visas, now.
Giving migrants work visas will save taxpayer money. There is an influx of migrants and asylum-seekers at the southern border, causing a massive disruption to the folks living in those border cities and draining tax money to detain people at the border, increase the militarization of border towns, and provide health care and other human resources to a population who just want a better life.
Migrants are now being bussed to cities like Chicago, New York, and Denver, among others, and this is creating problems of homelessness across the nation and once again draining tax money to provide the basic needs of any human being: food, shelter, water.
If we allowed migrants to work, they could afford their own basic needs and reduce the need for cities to financially take on a population barred from working.
You may be thinking, “but the federal government oversees immigration policy. What can states and cities really do?”
Well, Texas and SCOTUS may have provided a path forward. Recently, SCOTUS ruled that Texas could impose its own policies on immigration by allowing the police in Texas to arrest migrants suspected of being undocumented — a duty once relegated to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency.
If we’re heading in the direction of “states’ rights” for pretty much everything, we can join folks like the mayor of Denver who are advocating for work permits for migrants and asylum-seekers. Let’s see what SCOTUS has to say about that, given their propensity to let states govern outside federal mandates.
In addition to helping the economy and reducing financial stress on tax monies, we’d be doing the right thing. This is a nation of immigrants. Our global community needs our help, and we need theirs. It’s a pragmatic solution to a practically manufactured social crisis.