Fair, considered immigration reform is needed for Marin, beyond

It is 2021, at last. It is time for that annual rite of optimism and self-delusion known as New Year’s resolutions.

Naive hopes include teachers’ unions resolving to actively support the return to in-person learning, Gavin Newsom resolving to forego tony Napa restaurants and diversity hawks resolving to celebrate the record number of women elected to the House of Representatives — even though that record was driven by a dozen more GOP women.

This is also time for the pageant of wonders promoted by every new presidential administration. Racial justice, climate change, health care, immigration, gun control, opioid addiction, tax increases and infrastructure will all be progressively displayed. And this is just domestic policy.

If we were to pick one, which domestic policy improvement could best serve Marin? Comprehensive immigration reform gets my vote.

In the best of times, a new president needs to focus on just one or two major legislative initiatives. Former President Barack Obama’s first-term legislative priority was health care, President Donald Trump’s was tax reform. Legislative change is important because it is typically more durable than changes made by presidential fiat.

Beating the pandemic — establishing herd immunity, protecting the most vulnerable until that happens, quickly returning to in-person education and re-igniting the economy — will supersede all other issues. There is much for leaders and agencies at all levels of government to do on this front, but federal legislation should largely be limited to targeted economic relief.

Hopefully, Congress and the White House will resist the temptation to use the pandemic as cover for extraneous policy preferences. Examples include adopting a $15 national minimum wage, channeling more money to profligate states and cities and subsidizing “green” jobs. This would be the epitome of politicizing the recovery and would distract from Joe Biden’s top legislative goal, whatever that turns out to be. Let’s hope it’s immigration reform.

There are more than two million illegal residents in California, mostly Hispanic. Estimates for the number of undocumented people in Marin range around 16,000, or 6% of the county’s population. This modest percentage can have a disproportionate impact.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been approximately 8,000 COVID-19 cases in Marin. Hispanics, representing 16% of the county’s population, account for 57% of cases and 35% of hospitalizations. This outsized suffering reflects that Hispanics often are poorer, live in smaller homes with larger households and have jobs outside their residences.

The lack of coherent immigration policy worsens their economic plight and the aforementioned living conditions. Fear of legal entanglements discourages documented and undocumented Hispanics from COVID-19 testing or seeking timely treatment, fanning the pandemic.

Immigration policy should not be defined by COVID-19. These sad circumstances do not justify lesser standards for legal status or citizenship (though it is instructive to consider that “sanctuary” policies or practices that increased the number of undocumented people in Marin also intensified the disease here).

Principles for reform should include reserving paths to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program members and people who ultimately follow our immigration laws. Others here illegally could be eligible for a path to legal status — but not citizenship. These principles reward those who follow the rules, penalize those here illegally by denying them citizenship, but also benefit this latter group by bringing them out of the shadows.

Comprehensive immigration reform can also benefit Marin by expanding and stabilizing immigration of highly educated workers needed for our health care system and digital economy.

Additional dimensions of immigration will need to be addressed (border security and asylum standards, for example).

Still, unlike too many progressive ambitions, immigration reform should not be a budget-buster.

Most importantly, balanced immigration policy could be a badly needed societal palliative and a welcome complement to the end of the pandemic.

Happy New Year.

Legislative change is important because it is typically more durable than changes made by presidential fiat.