Action on immigration comes just in time for Thanksgiving

Since Thanksgiving celebrates the arrival of European immigrants to America and the welcome given by the Indians who had lived here for centuries, I just can’t resist. So many tasty metaphors come to mind, that talk at Thanksgiving this year must turn for a few minutes to President Obama’s speech and executive action on immigration reform this week. Please pass the mashed potatoes and let the debate begin.

Gathered around the holiday table with grandparents, cousins, parents, aunts, uncles and friends, we don’t operate on the basis of “first come, first served and the latecomers can go hungry.” It’s that time of year when many families invite lonely strangers and the town’s newcomers to the table, and serve them along with family, right down to the pumpkin pie. Equanimity and generosity reign.

So, it’s fitting that the President chose this time to invite some 4 million undocumented immigrants to the American table, protecting from deportation those who have been here for five or more years and who have children in the U.S. with citizenship or legal permanent status. They will also be considered for work permits. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) rules will be expanded to eliminate the age cut-off and 2010 eligibility cut-off for young arrivals facing deportation.

America keeps asking itself, how big-hearted can the country be and still have enough to go around? What happens to the economy when immigrants come here?

Some of the benefits are profound. The Washington Post reports: “About a tenth of the U.S. population is foreign-born. More than a quarter of U.S. technology and engineering businesses started from 1995 to 2005 had a foreign-born owner. In Silicon Valley, half of all tech startups had a foreign-born founder. One-quarter of all U.S.-based Nobel laureates of the past 50 years were foreign born. Right now, about half of the PhDs working in science and technology are foreign born.” It’s in America’s interest to make the best and brightest welcome as America competes in the international pursuit of talent.

Further, our low birth rate and the retirement of baby boomers worries economists. New, young healthy workers raising families would be a plus. And the addition of those employees would significantly contribute to the number of working Americans paying into Social Security and Medicare as retiring baby boomers begin collecting benefits. While the ratio of working Americans to retirees is currently 5 to 1, without an influx of new people paying into the system, it is expected to fall to 3 to 1 by 2050.

While some worry that the President’s plan will strain the federal budget, the Congressional Budget Office reports that enhancing the path to legalization for unauthorized immigrants will have a positive financial impact for America. It estimates that the action would increase federal revenues by $48 billion at a cost of $23 billion for public services, showing a surplus of $25 billion.

Helen Chavez, widow of American labor leader and civil right activist Cesar Chavez, wrote recently that the President promised her at her husband’s gravesite in 2012 that he would work for immigration reform. Many who take care of America’s children, toil in agriculture, clean homes, staff hotels and work in construction and manufacturing plants have been waiting for reform for years, even decades.

“I’ve known farm workers all my life,” Chavez said. “Like other immigrants they take jobs most other Americans won’t take, for pay most other Americans won’t accept, and under conditions most other Americans won’t tolerate. Big parts of our economy can’t survive without immigrants.” Those jobs and skills are often complementary to that of U.S. workers, and make it unlikely that Americans will compete for the same jobs.

The President references the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform bill that passed in June of last year on a vote of 68-32, challenging the House of Representatives to act on it or craft a different bill if it wishes to move on the issue.

He also notes that 11 former presidents of both Republican and Democratic persuasions have used executive authority to effect immigration. In 1986, a major bill legalizing 3 million immigrants was signed by President Ronald Reagan, who by executive action the following year, stopped deportations that would cause families to split. For the same reason, in 1990, President George H.W. Bush stopped, by executive privilege, the deportation of as many as 1.5 million illegal immigrants.

In perhaps his most persuasive speech in six years, President Obama reminded us that, “We were strangers once too,” and invited 4 million illegal immigrants to the table. “You can step out of the shadows,” he said.

This most sweeping revolution to America’s immigration system in decades says it all. We are a big-hearted country. There is enough to go around. It’s Thanksgiving for all of us. Pass the pie, please.