Re-Thinking the Legal Immigration System
By Dan Cadman, January 3, 2017
Peter Spiliakos has written a piece for The Corner at National Review Online titled "Immigration Compromise".
His main argument can found in his first sentence: "It is easy to see the immigration common ground between populist, conservative Sen.Tom Cotton and liberal journalist Noah Smith. Keep legal-immigration levels stable, but strongly prioritize high-skill immigration and English-proficiency."
Spiliakos was no doubt moved to comment after a recent op-ed by Sen. Cotton appeared in the New York Times.
He clearly grasps that Sen. Cotton is endorsing a shift away from chain migration based almost exclusively on familial relationships that go far beyond the nuclear family and encompass both parents and children of family members who migrate before them. The latter category is so broad that it includes unmarried and married adults (with their sundry spouses and children) in some categories, whose right to migrate is founded simply on the fact that they happen to be the progeny of those who came earlier — a dubious basis, given that they are adults. Such chain migration feeds on itself and has become massive; the existing policy, which enshrines such migration in law, little serves the national interest. In fact, it can and does have a deleterious effect on already severely strained social safety nets, not to mention public education, health care, and jobs.
http://cis.org/cadman/re-thinking-legal-immigration-system
