The Kingdom/Economic Case for Restitution Based Immigration Reform
by Andre Mann
Over the past decade, one of the topics that has consumed the American news cycle and political debate is what to do about immigration. Do we build a higher wall? Do we give amnesty to undocumented workers? Do we increase the number of temporary work visas? Do we reduce the number of refugees? Do we close all borders to keep out COVID?
Regardless of which side of each of these questions you are on, almost everyone agrees that the current system is broken. Thousands of unaccompanied minors stream across the border each month, placing themselves at the mercy of strangers along the way. Eleven million people without legal documentation live and work in the shadows of our society. Businesses in the tech space and farmers across America are unable to grow at the pace their customers would like or pick the fruit for domestic and foreign consumption because they cannot find sufficient workers, even in the economic downturn during the pandemic. Immigration judges delay seeing asylum cases for years because the number of judges is too low. All of this is unsustainable. The system can no longer ignore the fact that things are not working. The human and economic cost of doing nothing far outweighs the need to find a solution that protects our communities and reflects the values of our society.
In this paper, I will propose that there is both an economic and a spiritual reason to be pro-immigrant. Although I will not advocate for specific pieces of legislation, nor will I advocate for the solutions of one political party or another, I will highlight the work of the Evangelical Immigration Table and offer the solution of restitution-based immigration reform that is based on clear biblical principles, a respect for the rule of law, and a belief that the continued economic vibrancy of the country depends on a just immigration system with high walls and wide gates.
A Demographic and Economic Reckoning
The United States is facing a demographic reckoning. The birth rate has continued to decline, and the fertility rate has reached 1.6 children per woman, down from 2.1 children in 2008. This rate is below population replacement level, meaning the US population will decline if current trends persist. After remaining largely stable over the previous 20 years, in 2005, the old-age dependency ratio (the percent of people who are retired compared to the productive working age population) began to rise from 18% in 2005 to 25% in 2015.
This trend will continue to rise over the coming decades reaching 40% of the working age population by 2050. Why does this matter?
Tax revenue to cover annual expenses for Social Security entered into a deficit in 2016, meaning that at current trends, the Social Security Trust Fund will be depleted sometime between 2030 and 2040. (Scenarios II and III, below) We face the following three options: 1) Taxes will go up for people in the workforce, 2) Benefits will go down for retirees, or 3) We must increase the number of people in the workforce. The trends are dramatic enough that we will likely require action on all three fronts (Scenario I). But the bottom line is, our economy requires additional workers so that they can pay Social Security and income taxes in order to maintain the current productive, retirement infrastructure into the next generation.
Ali Noorani and Danilo Zak make a powerful economic and demographic argument for increased immigration in their February 2021 paper with the National Immigration Forum, titled Room to Grow: Setting Immigration Levels in a Changing America. They show that even a relatively modest increase in total legal immigration to 4.3 immigrants per 1000 people (in line with the historic average from 1820-2000; an increase of 340,000 people per year vs. current trends) would make a significantly positive impact to the demographic and economic future of the country.
In parallel, from a religious standpoint, immigrants bring fresh vibrancy to the church in the United States. At a time when church affiliation is declining precipitously (only 56% of millennials consider themselves Christian, down from over 70% just a few years ago), over 68% of immigrants call themselves Christian. Latinos are the largest immigrant group in the United States, and one fourth of them consider themselves Evangelical/Protestant. In New York City, there are over 150 African immigrant congregations, and 44% of all Asian Americans are Christian. The face of Christianity in America is changing, and one of the major reasons denomination after denomination continues to see new churches planted is thanks to immigrant communities. If it weren’t for these first and second-generation American Christians, one has to wonder what the future of the evangelical church would be in the United States.
Principles that Should Guide our Immigration Policies
So, what should the church attitude toward immigrants be? The Evangelical Immigration Table has outlined six principles that should guide our thinking on the topic.
Upholding the God-Given Dignity of Every Person. God made each person in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27). He further, in over 73 passages, instructed Israel to treat the foreigners in their midst with the same measure of justice as its own people. There is a recognition that foreigners are usually oppressed, but Israel should remember that they were once foreigners in Egypt. As such, Israel should treat refugees the same as the poor, widows, and orphans—with mercy and charity. Jesus acted quite counter-culturally when he related with foreigners in a way that upholds the dignity of the person, not only with the Samaritan woman (John 4) but also in numerous other examples (the centurion, the Canaanite woman, the Gerasene man).
The national myth we tell ourselves about what makes our country exceptional includes an understanding that many of the earliest settlers came fleeing persecution and that America was the land that offered the poorest, most desperate people an opportunity no other place on earth could offer. The wealthiest country that history has ever seen, with over 328MM people, was born out of the hard work of immigrants, who came together to build a society that welcomed others. Even as we recognize that tremendous injustices occurred along the way, with slavery and the expulsion of Native Americans from their lands, we can also recognize that our country would not be what it is if it had not welcomed immigrants the way it did. A large part of that welcoming was built on this understanding that, no matter where you are from, God has given each person inherent dignity, even if at certain points in time, we have failed to fully extend those privileges to everyone.Respect for the Rule of Law. God placed governing authorities to protect the members of the society and to be instruments of justice for everyone. Romans 13:1 states, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” A society that does not respect the rule of law becomes a land of lawless anarchy. Those who break the law must in some way pay restitution to society, whether through fines or jail time, depending on the severity of the infraction and any mitigating or aggravating factors such as motivation. Crossing the border without documentation is a misdemeanor, and while overstaying a visa is not a federal crime, it does break administrative rules. Restitution should match the level of offense committed.
Ensuring Fairness to Taxpayers. American workers and corporations pay taxes to cover the costs of government services both at the local level and at the national level. In exchange, our communities derive all kinds of benefits from governmental expenditure including streets and highways, national defense, public education (including state-funded university systems), crime prevention, social security, unemployment insurance, etc. Because of the way taxes are collected from each person’s paycheck, immigrants, whether legal or undocumented, also pay their share of taxes, but undocumented workers and their families do not receive many of the benefits citizens and legal immigrants do.
It is a common misconception that undocumented workers do not pay taxes. Statistically, about half are having taxes deducted from their paychecks, and many others are using their Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) to pay and file their taxes. On the net – taking into account federal, state and local taxes – immigrants (including those who are undocumented) contribute more in taxes than they receive in benefits. The National Immigration Forum’s study on Immigrants as Contributors, Immigrant Tax Contribution and Spending Power indicates that if our country were to expel undocumented immigrants, it would cause a tremendous negative economic shock to our economy that would hurt the rest of the country across the board.Protecting the Unity of the Family. Immigration policies should preserve the God-given institution of marriage. Since families are the basic building block of our society, we should preserve the unity of the family. This is compassionate, and it brings stability to communities. Because of this, family reunification should continue to be an important part of immigration policy.
Guarantee Secure National Borders. The first and foremost responsibility of the national government is to provide security to its citizens. An unguarded border not only allows for hostile countries to attack the country but also opens the country up to threats from criminal, non-state actors. Although our country has made great strides in securing the border, much remains to be done. Specifically, over half of undocumented workers in the US arrive by air with short-term visas that are allowed to expire. Currently, there is no system in place to track if/when any visitor to the US leaves the country since we are one of the few countries on earth that does not register departures. This lack of border enforcement, both at the actual border and through airports, is used by smuggling gangs to move people and drugs into the US and guns and illegally generated cash out of the US. This has fueled the regional instability in Mexico and Central America, creating a humanitarian disaster that fuels a mass migration northward as people seek safety for their families and opportunities to thrive without fear of kidnapping and extortion at the hands of the criminal gangs.
Further, because our asylum system is so underfunded, we create a perverse incentive for massive amounts of people to attempt to cross the border illegally. Since it can take years to be seen by an immigration judge, and many applicants are able to live in the US while they wait for their days in court, we create a magnet even for those with marginal asylum claims to use this system to illegally cross the border and then apply for asylum. Even if their asylum claim is eventually denied, they have been able to live and work in the US for many years. Unfortunately, by then, many have established roots in the country, have US-born children or spouses, have established careers, etc. We, then, find ourselves in a situation where it would be unjust to rip families apart and would be damaging to our economy to deport long-established workers.
A better system would allow for a strong border (including airports), documentation of departures, quick enforcement of immigration laws when someone overstays his/her visa, and an efficient and well-funded asylum process staffed with the right amounts of judges and support staff to adjudicate those cases with legitimate asylum claims in line with current laws and international treaties, while promptly deporting those who do not meet the criteria for asylum.
Establishing a Path Toward Legal Status. Currently, there are approximately 11 million people living in the US without legal documentation. Some of them, such as asylum seekers and individuals with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), are legally allowed to be here until their situations are resolved. Dreamers are young people who were brought here illegally as children (and hence, as minors, had no legal competence to decide to break the law or not regarding their legal status—many didn’t find out they weren’t American until they turned 18 and couldn’t go to college). For most of them, the United States is the only home they have ever known. Others, who came as adults, have long-ago established deep roots in the community. Sixty-six percent of undocumented immigrants have been in the US for over 10 years. They have paid their taxes; many have married and had children. Some have started businesses that employ many others.
The idea of a mass deportation of 11 million people is unfathomable. Firstly, a police state would need to be established to check documents of all Americans. (To avoid racial profiling, anyone could be asked for documentation at any time.) Large scale raids at workplaces, farms, and processing plants would create chaos for businesses. Criminal gangs would prosper since undocumented workers would come to depend on their powerful infrastructure to keep their families from being caught up in immigration raids. Massive concentration camps would be required to hold the hundreds of thousands of people scheduled for deportation, and thousands of judges would be needed to sift through cases, as wrongly detained Americans press their cases to not be deported. According to the conservative advocacy group, American Action Forum, it would cost $400-600 billion and take two decades, shrinking US GDP by 6% over that period of time, versus not deporting the undocumented workers. For perspective, the US economy shrank by 3.5% in 2020 due to COVID, the largest decline in 74 years. Mass deportation is not only disruptive for the millions of families who have undocumented members (who, by the way, are overwhelmingly Christian), but it would also be devastating economically for the country as a whole.
Mass amnesty has the advantage of regularizing the legal status for millions of people living in the shadows. They would be able to apply for driver’s licenses, get car and home insurance, apply for mortgages, and save for retirement. This benefits all of us, since they would no longer fear drawing attention to themselves when they report crime, would actually have insurance if they get into a car accident, and would not burden hospitals with unpaid bills since they would have access to health insurance.
On the other hand, an amnesty like this would ignore that laws were broken and would violate the biblical principle of respect for the rule of law. It may create an incentive for further waves of undocumented workers to continue crossing the border, in the hope that they too will benefit from periodic amnesties. Criminal gangs would be strengthened as increasing numbers of immigrants would rely on their human smuggling operations in order to position themselves for future amnesties. Amnesty would be unjust to the millions of refugees worldwide who are fleeing persecution yet who have to wait in line until they are able to resettle in a safe place. Amnesty may solve the issue immediately at hand of figuring out how to deal with 11 million people currently without documentation, but it actually creates a bigger future problem as the US draws even more people outside the legal migratory system.
Restitution-Based Immigration Reform
The solution is Restitution-Based Immigration Reform. God delights in redemption. But in a legal system, redemption first requires admission of guilt and restitution. In the case of the undocumented, restitution by those seeking to remain permanently in the U.S. could, among other appropriate requirements, show that they have not committed any serious crimes, require that they pay a significant fine as a penalty for having overstayed their visa or crossed into the U.S. unlawfully, and demonstrate that they have paid all their taxes. This, combined with a system that increases the number of legal visas available so that families can be reunified legally and so that the US economy can have access to a growing, productive workforce, allows the US government to take control over immigration from the criminal gangs that control significant parts of the process now.
We need to pass a series of laws to reform completely our immigration system. We should start with Dreamers—74% of Americans support legal status for immigrants brought to the US illegally as children. Then, increasing protections at the border and other ports of entry, requiring all employers to e-verify immigration status, and funding the needed infrastructure for processing asylum seekers can all easily pass on a bipartisan basis. Subsequently, Congress can tackle Temporary Protected Status, simplifying and reforming the process for farmworkers, skilled workers, and children separated from their families through bipartisan negotiations, to build a just and fair immigration system.
This revised immigration system will result in swift, efficient, and just adjudication of asylum claims, strong border protections, and visa solutions to meet the farm, tech, and skilled worker needs of the US economy. Coupled with a generous refugee policy that brings in a significant number of the most vulnerable people fleeing conflict and persecution, the US can set itself up for economic growth into the next generation. A high wall with a wide gate is the best path forward for the vibrancy of our country both from an economic standpoint as well as from a Kingdom mindset.
Article originally hosted and shared with permission by The Christian Economic Forum, a global network of leaders who join together to collaborate and introduce strategic ideas for the spread of God’s economic principles and the goodness of Jesus Christ. This article was from a collection of White Papers compiled for attendees of the CEF’s Global Event.