News - Local News

POSTED: Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009

WWU forum: Immigration reform needs to balance security, economy

BELLINGHAM - Despite the failure of recent efforts at immigration reform, a new effort should be mounted in the interests of both national security and economic prosperity.

That was the message from Edward Alden and Margaret Stock, both of whom participated in a bipartisan task force that recently issued detailed immigration reform recommendations under the sponsorship of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The task force was co-chaired by Jeb Bush, former Republican governor of Florida and brother of former president George W. Bush, and Thomas McLarty, who served as chief of staff in the Bill Clinton White House.

Stock and Alden spoke Thursday, Nov. 12, at Western Washington University, sponsored by WWU's Border Policy Research Institute. Alden, a onetime Vancouver Sun reporter who wrote the report, described it as "hawkish" on immigration issues: It calls for aggressive efforts in the workplace to prevent the hiring of illegal workers. But the report recognizes that tougher enforcement is not the sole answer.

"If we see enforcement as the only solution to our immigration problems, we will not get to where we need to go, and there will be damaging consequences," Alden said.

Immigrants have always provided a source of economic vitality and innovation in the U.S. and other countries with a history of openness, Alden said. That is an edge he believes this country is on its way to losing, as security fears trump economic considerations.

While the U.S. keeps making it tougher for citizens of other countries to work or go to college here, other countries such as Canada are making it easier. Alden said the most visible immediate result of that is Microsoft's decision to launch a new research facility in British Columbia instead of Washington state - a decision based on Canadian immigration laws that make it easier for Microsoft to bring in technical experts from overseas.

Stock is a visiting fellow at WWU's border institute. She is also a lawyer, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army reserve, and a professor at West Point.

She said any new package of immigration reforms will likely need to be a "grand bargain" that combines tougher workplace enforcement with a workable system for enabling otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants to obtain legal residency.

As new reform legislation is hammered out in Washington, D.C., Stock warned that Washington state residents will need to be vigilant to try to avoid legislation that imposes new border restrictions on the Canadian border, because of concerns about Mexico.

"The one-size-fits-all policy for border security doesn't make sense," Stock said. "If we have a wall outside San Diego, it doesn't mean we should have one north of Bellingham on principle."

She also stressed that a vibrant economy is necessary to support robust homeland security, and too much border red tape is counterproductive if it undermines the economy.

"If you do things for security that kill your economy, you don't get either one," she said.