Remembering When National Interest Mattered in Immigration Policy
August 15, 2024
Although it’s hard to believe, America’s current political divide isn’t particularly unique. In 1791, Founding Fathers James Madison and Thomas Jefferson established the National Gazette in order to viciously besmirch political foes — President George Washington included — as disloyal and even treasonous. The crucible of the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 ripped our nation in half, while the civil rights battle and the war in Vietnam stirred deep emotions and sparked widespread unrest during the 1960s.
In reality, each decade in our nation’s history — including this one — has experienced divide, great or small. Thus, it may be hard to imagine there actually was a time when Washington lawmakers agreed on anything…let alone immigration policy.
Yet there was such a time, and it started when the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform was set up as a provision in the Immigration Act of 1990. In 1993 Barbara Jordan was selected by President Bill Clinton as chairwomen. Jordan was an African-American Texas congresswoman, civil rights activist, and a leading, iconic figure within the Democrat Party who presided over the commission made up of five Democrats and four Republicans. Their work over five years included 15 roundtables with experts and scholars, 18 research papers and impact studies, seven site visits and eight public hearings. Between 1994 and 1997 the Commission released their recommendations, all premised upon a principle espoused by Jordan and embraced with bipartisan consensus: “It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.
Unfortunately, most of their common-sense recommendations have never materialized:
https://www.fairus.org/blog/2024/08/15/remembering-when-national-interest-mattered-immigration-policy
