Immigration in the Presidential Campaign, Part 1
Article subtitle:
The chance of a political lifetime for real reform
Article publisher:
Center for Immigration Studies
Article date:
19 April 2016
Article category:
National News
Medium
Article Body:
A new series by the Center for Immigration Studies explores immigration in the presidential campaign and the post-election immigration system that may replace the present policies of non-enforcement and massive, record-breaking numbers of legal immigrants and illegal aliens. Part One examines the public's powerful voice that has risen to counter the establishment's conventional wisdom and finally led to a national debate and a once-in-a-political-lifetime opportunity to reform an immigration system which does not serve the national interest.
Stanley Renshon, author of the report and a Center fellow and professor of political science at the City University of New York Graduate Center, writes, "Three factors — Trump, trust, and national security — have created an unprecedented opening for questioning and discarding the narrowly framed and rigidly held narratives that have passed for 'reform' in the immigration debate."
The unprecedented number of immigrants and the challenges to the long held concept of a primary American identity and of the necessity of assimilation to that American identity concerns many Americans. This concern has moved immigration to a top-tier issue in the 2016 public campaign debate and allowed Americans to finally have the necessary national debate, which has been hampered by "a campaign of silencing and shaming with accusations of being anti-immigrant, racist, and worse has been mounted, somewhat successfully, to silence them."
The issues discussed in Renshon's series lead to valuable questions all the candidates should be asked:
- How many immigrants are a sustainable number?
- What kinds of immigrants should we seek?
- How can we best help new immigrants to become emotionally, and not just financially, attached to this country?
- And how can we keep illegal immigration from being a continuing source of civic distress?
The public seeks an immigration policy which works for the national interest and stands for the rule of law. Renshon asks the question, "Will they get it?"
In Part Two, Renshon will examine "The Collapse of Public Trust and the Chance for Real Immigration Reform."