Legalize immigration

There's been much debate in recent weeks about immigration. Immigrants who enter through this country extralegally are either a gigantic drain on resources or they fill jobs that Americans won't do... depending on who you believe.

And since the main issue is immigrants coming from our southern neighbor, my solution to this issue is simple: remove almost all restrictions on immigration between Mexico, Canada and the United States and impose comparable environmental and labor laws between the three countries.

Warning: one thing I do not address in this essay is the fate of those folks who are already here extralegally. I will only address what should happen from now on.

At the beginning of 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect. It created a giant free trade zone between the US, Canada and Mexico. NAFTA was not without its critics, both in principle and in execution. But let's go with that for now.

One of the most intectually dishonest arguments is made by those who contend that free trade (the free movement of goods and services) is a wonderful thing that will raise poor people out of poverty but for some inexplicable reason, the free movement of labor (a service) should be exempted from this.

Simply put, there should be free movement of American, Mexican and Canadian citizens between the three NAFTA countries. The only restrictions should be on people with criminal records.

The Mexican government wants its citizens to be able to work in the US because the citizens send money home, which helps the Mexican economy. In exchange for removing most restrictions on migration, the Mexican government will accept US and Canadian help in ensuring its southern border is properly monitored. Human trafficking from Central America to the US via Mexico is a growing problem.

Additionally, the Mexican government should agree to revamp its environmental and labor laws to come more into line with American and Canadian standards. If the Mexican government wants this change, they should be prepared to give something up in return. If properly designed, and that's a big if, such changes would also address criticisms that NAFTA undermines worker protection and facilitates ecological destruction. After all, if the free movement of services allows American multinationals to enter Mexico, why shouldn't it allow American labor unions too?

Making virtually all immigration legal does some important things.

First, by making all immigrants legal, it brings them into the system. They will pay taxes, for example. It makes them feel a part of this country rather than apart from it. It makes them feel useful, rather than demonized. Removing them as a scapegoat reduces their understandable siege mentality (of both extralegal and sympathetic legal immigrants alike) and encourages their integration into American culture.

Furthermore, legalizing almost all immigration would end employer exploitation of immigrants who were previously here extralegally. Employers would no longer be able to pay slave wages. Employers would be forced to provide them decent working conditions. Essentially, employers would no longer be able to blackmail workers into accepting the unacceptable simply by threatening to report them to the authorities or to ship them back to Mexico.

As legal workers, the immigrants would be allowed to form unions. They would get workers' compensation if they got injured on the job. They would have legal recourse against employers who violated labor law. Businesses who pay slave wages to farm workers or who run sweatshops would lose their competitive advantage. It would help all workers in those industries as businesses would no longer be pressured to engage in a race to the bottom.

Such a zone is hardly unprecedented. Any citizen of a European Union country can work in any other EU state. Any citizen of ECOWAS, the West African economic community, can work in any other ECOWAS state. Why shouldn't this apply to NAFTA as well?

Either the United States believes in free trade or it doesn't. If it does, then it must apply basic rules of free trade to labor, to immigrants.