Why a Path to Citizenship

Prominent House Republicans, along with the Republican National Committee, have endorsed immigration reform, but without a path to citizenship for newly legalized aliens -- only a tenuous provisional status. This position is in sharp contrast with the bipartisan immigration bill passed in the Senate, which offers a minimal 13 year transition to citizenship contingent on learning English and civics, demonstrating economic self-support, staying on the right side of the law, and paying a fine. There are three important reasons why this arduous path is better than no path at all.

The first is pragmatic. It will likely be impossible to reach a deal on comprehensive immigration reform with either the Senate or the House minority without such a well-defined path to citizenship. And only with such an agreement can the full set of economic benefits of reform be realized. The conservative American Action Network estimates that the main provisions of the Senate immigration bill will produce a net gain of at least 200,000 jobs for New Jersey over 10 years.

The second reason is philosophical.  Immigrant integration is a cardinal principle of our American democracy. From the earliest days of the Republic, we have generally welcomed immigrants and encouraged them to become citizens in as short a period of time as possible. This “easy path” to citizenship, generally five years, has distinguished the American approach to immigration, ensuring that no group was stigmatized with second-class status and that divisions of nationality were not perpetuated into future generations. The U.S. has scored high in the metrics of immigrant integration in comparisons with other immigrant-receiving countries. We should aim to preserve this record of success.

One could argue that birthright citizenship, i.e. the automatic acquisition of citizenship by all people born in the U.S., would break any cycle of marginality for future generations, but we really don’t have any experience with this kind of social experimentation. Moreover, there is abundant research showing that parental undocumented status has adverse consequences for American-born children. Thus, it is not hard to infer that second-class status for parents could limit the prospects for future generations. One can also surmise that, from a national security standpoint, it would be unwise to brand people with such a potentially demeaning status. Without the ability to participate in the civic life of the community, immigrants might show weak loyalty to their new nation.

The third reason for supporting a path to citizenship is to take proper account of the people benefitting from legalization, and not to participate in their vilification. Most undocumented people provide valuable services to other Americans, services which could not have been provided otherwise because the current, half-century-old, immigration system sets strict limits on the legal migration of lower skilled workers, and because many native-born Americans are unwilling to do certain jobs, such as caring for our children and seniors, mowing our laws, cooking our food, washing our cars, or picking our crops.

In the past, the Republican Party has championed the importance of immigrant integration. It should hold fast to this tradition and support policies designed to help all newcomers achieve the American dream.

Addressing the Challenge of Immigrant Integration in the Senate Immigration Bill

Among the less publicized features of the Senate immigration reform legislation are its provisions on immigrant integration. As important as questions of admission numbers and criteria are, immigration policy isn’t the end of the story. The ability of immigrants and their children to adapt to life in the United States and fully contribute to our economy and society will greatly influence our course as a nation.  Getting through the door is one thing; having a seat at the table is another; and achieving one’s full potential as a human being is still another.

In recognition of this reality, the bill calls for the establishment of several bodies to monitor and support immigrant integration at federal, state and local levels. For the first time in recent history, the U.S. may be ready to move away from the laissez-faire policy, or some would say non-policy, that has been the general rule on the federal level. At the apex of this new structure will be the Office of Citizenship and New Americans (OCNA) within USCIS, which replaces the current Office of Citizenship. OCNA will have a broader mission under the Senate legislation encompassing not only the citizenship process (citizenship promotion, preparation, and testing) but also coordinating federal, state, and local efforts to integrate immigrants, developing benchmarks to measure integration efforts, and monitoring the effectiveness of these efforts.

Assisting OCNA in achieving its mission at the federal level will be a 13-member Task Force on New Americans (TFNA) to be fully functional 18 months after enactment of the bill. The Task Force will be comprised of the secretaries or their designees of eight cabinet-level departments, including health and human services, labor, and education, as well as the Directors of the Domestic Policy Council, National Economic Council, and the Office of Management and Budget.

The Bill also establishes a new public-private partnership called the United States Citizenship Foundation (USCF) to raise and disburse private funds in support of the work of the OCNA. USCF is empowered to disburse funds directly to eligible public or private non-profit organizations and state or local government.  It may also use funds to support the work of OCNA.  The USCF will also oversee the New Citizens Award Program, recognizing the contributions of ten naturalized citizens every year who have made “outstanding contributions to the United States” during the 10-year period after naturalization.

Assisting USCF will be a new 12-member Council of Directors consisting of the Secretary of USCIS, the head of OCNA, and representatives from 10 “national community-based organizations that promote and assist permanent residents with naturalization.”

The legislation authorizes $160 million in grant funding to support the objectives of the immigrant integration program. Of this amount, $10 million goes to support the OCNA through 2018. Another allocation ($100 million for the 5-year period ending on September 30, 2018) is earmarked for Initial Entry, Adjustment, and Citizenship Assistance (IEACA) grants to “eligible public or private, nonprofit organizations” to help with processing applicants for provisional immigrant status. The legislation, however, also stipulates that grants may also be used to help people advance to permanent residence and citizenship, including support for “civics-based English as a second language” instruction.  An additional $50 million from the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Trust Fund may also be used for integration-related work.

An important provision of the bill establishes a “pilot program to promote immigrant integration at state and local levels.”  State and local governments in areas of high immigrant concentration, or in areas that have experienced a large increase in immigrants, will be funded to establish New Immigrant Councils consisting of between 15 and 19 individuals representing a variety of constituencies, including business, nonprofit immigrant service organizations, philanthropic organizations, and key education stakeholders. These councils will “develop, implement, expand, or enhance a comprehensive plan to introduce and integrate new immigrants in the State” and may provide subgrants to other entities.

As Maurice Belanger of the National Immigration Forum has pointed out, the “wild card” in all this is the U.S. Citizenship Foundation. How much new funding will USCF bring into the system? As it stands, the increase in funding for integration purposes is quite modest. In recent years, the Office of Citizenship has allocated roughly $10 million annually for citizenship preparation and training. So new dollars for the 5-year period seem to be limited to $110 million. Given the need to fund community-based organizations to assist with the legalization process, the amount of new federal resources for broader integration purposes is quite limited.  And of course, it remains to be seen if the integration provisions of the legislation will be altered during the markup and reconciliation process.