Surprising Support for Biden’s New Immigration Program
– By Howard Sierer –
After virtually throwing open our southern border to all comers, Pres. Biden has shifted at least in part to a longstanding but seldom-used “humanitarian parole” law for refugees who have private sponsors in this country. Applying it on a larger scale than previous usage stretching back over decades, his new program has vocal detractors but surprising sources of support.
Humanitarian parole authority was granted by Congress to the executive branch in 1952. It was intended to admit refugees quickly who do not qualify under established immigration categories. The maximum parole duration is two years for any individual.
President Eisenhower used that authority to allow 15,000 refugees to enter the United States after the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Humanitarian parole was used to admit 690,000 Cubans following the Castro revolution and 360,000 refugees from Southeast Asia after the fall of Saigon. Facing the two-year deadline, Congress quickly granted citizenship to all these immigrants.
The Biden administration has offered to admit refugees from some of today’s political and war-torn hot spots. Over 300,000 Ukrainians have been admitted so far; over 360,000 refugees from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are expected by yearend 2023.
As summarized in a Pew Research report, this temporary humanitarian program will likely become the largest expansion of legal immigration in decades.
The usual suspects are unhappy about Biden’s expansive interpretation of the law. Twenty Republican-led states are suing in federal court and not without reason. They are facing costs for health care, education and law enforcement on top of costs already imposed on them by the millions of illegal immigrants that have entered the country during Biden’s term of office.
Alabama says its citizens are paying $324.9 million a year for the 73,000 illegals in the state. So-called “sanctuary city” New York expects to spend $4.3 billion housing and feeding the 90,000 illegal immigrants its self-imposed city ordinances require. The city isn’t a party to the states’ suit but has petitioned the federal government for financial aid.
The difference between humanitarian parole and illegal immigrants who show up at our southern border is, well, these folks are legal. And, contrary to state fears, they won’t show up in homeless shelters in El Paso, Montgomery, New York City or elsewhere. Provided they have a private sponsor to feed and house them, the administration will fly them to the United States and promptly issue work permits.
The program has attracted widespread business support in conservative states with worker shortages. FWD.us, a bipartisan pro-immigration group, estimates that about 450,000 humanitarian parole immigrants from Afghanistan, Ukraine and Latin American countries are filling jobs in industries facing critical labor shortages, including construction, food services, health care and manufacturing.
In conservative North Dakota, the oil industry has been struggling to hire roustabouts to operate rigs in the region’s notoriously punishing weather. The state’s Petroleum Council is recruiting people across the western prairie to act as sponsors for new Ukrainian immigrants who are familiar with winter and can be put to work immediately.
Utah already has a thriving Venezuelan community and an unemployment rate of 2.4%. Gov. Spencer Cox has called for states, not just private citizens and organizations, to be allowed to sponsor immigrants to meet their workforce needs.
Derek Miller, president of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, is “very supportive” of the parole program given the inability of Congress to open new pathways for legal immigration. “We have 100,000 jobs going unfilled. We embrace a process for those who want to contribute to be able to come.”
What may seem like short-term problems in North Dakota and Utah are, in fact, portents of labor shortages in the decades to come across the entire country.
The nation’s birth rate has been sliding for years. With Baby Boomers retiring and living longer as well, the Census Bureau tells us that more than 20% of our population will be over age 65 by 2030 compared with 13% in 2010. Instead of being an indicator of a welcome end to overpopulation, we’ll soon find ourselves in the same boat as Japan (29%) and Italy (24%) where the elderly are outstripping their economies’ ability to support them.
In a National Foundation for American Policy brief, Dr. Madeline Zavodny writes, “The working-age U.S. population has peaked absent additional immigration.” Analyzing data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, she says, “New international migrants are the only potential source of growth in the U.S. working-age population over the remainder of the next two decades.”
Many of you will be surprised that I actually support Biden’s actions in this case, a first for this middle-of-the-road conservative. Will wonders ever cease?
Here’s why he gets my support for this program. I’m a longtime advocate for increased legal immigration here and here. Humanitarian parole isn’t what I or many others had in mind but I can live with it since our Congress isn’t likely to embrace comprehensive immigration reform until after the shortage of working adults has reached crisis proportions.
Further, I’ll support citizenship for those Ukrainians, Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans who act responsibly during their two-year humanitarian parole. These folks are legitimate refugees fleeing war or political oppression from totalitarian governments.
It’s time that all of us recognized the positive benefits of legal immigration and urged Congress to do the same while expecting the Biden administration to secure our Southern border.
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