The Krieble Immigration Plan is Worth a Look
Helen Krieble, founder and president of the Vernon E. Krieble Foundation, made a presentation at the esteemed Heritage Foundation of a very interesting immigration plan. This plan would clearly separate the issues of citizenship and work permits. It was initially presented in 2006 but was buried under the unthoughtful fervor of anti-immigration activists even though it actually is a program that encourages guest workers to return home and help their country of origin.
The current system of immigration and employment is overly costly, bureaucratic, and lengthy as noted in the Home Land Security Report 2007 by the Ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services. Currently “quotas” are set in an essentially arbitrary fashion for low skilled workers. An employer must advertise in the United States and document that jobs cannot be filled by American workers. Then a foreign agent recruits the workers (often for a high fee). This agent helps the workers get processed at American consulates before they come to the United States. The employer is responsible for providing transportation and housing for the workers.
The Krieble plan would be much different. Instead of arbitrary quotas the number of work permits would be determined by market demand. The system would be run by private employment agencies licensed by the government instead of government agencies. The path to citizenship would have nothing to do directly with the employment system. Each applicant would be screened by the their country for a criminal record before acceptance. The system is based on the applicant applying for a specific job it is not a blanket right to work in the United States.
The successful applicant and the employer would be charged a small percentage fee in addition to regular income tax to help pay the government’s expenses for the program. Workers would be required to maintain a special identity card provided by the employment agencies. They would not have to be housed and transported specifically by the employer. However, their ability to be in the United States is only based upon their employment to a specific job. Application for resident status would be a totally separate process.
Besides providing a pre-screening criminal background check the nation of origin would also have to agree to participate in training programs that would improve employment. The idea is that immigrants who come to the United States would learn business skills that would allow them to eventually return to their native country and start new businesses. The plan would further require for Mexico that they begin economic reforms to improve their economy such as breaking up monopolies and that they continue to cooperate aggressively in border security and fighting the drug cartels.
For those that are currently in the United States in an undocumented status and working they would have to return to Mexico for a short time to be processed. Their clearance to work should be rather quick if they have no criminal record but they would not be given any special consideration for resident alien status or being put on a path to citizenship.
In my opinion, those undocumented aliens who have American dependents should be allowed to apply for short waivers for their processing to be done in the United States. However in the future, realistically these workers should not be allowed to bring their families into the United States because it is very unlikely that adding this provision to the proposal would be politically acceptable.
There is clearly an economic need for a visiting work program in the United States. The current program is a complete failure. Our economy would suffer if we were to try to eliminate all foreign workers. At the same time we cannot have a system that is replete with corruption in the countries of origin, has overly long waiting periods, and confines visiting workers to concentration camp type conditions.
The countries of origin like Mexico must agree to improve their economies and cooperate in security concerns in return for allowing their citizens to work in the United States. The concept of using returning workers to improve the country of origin economy is a novel and valuable idea.
Unfortunately neither political party is saying much about immigration currently. This is a debate that needs to be heard and the Krieble plan is a good starting point.