Symposium calls for attention toward U.S. immigration policy
April 7A Tuesday night panel discussion in Barnum highlighted the need for the United States to rethink immigration policy in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. A three-member panel and its audience took a critical look at U.S. immigrants and the country's immigration policies at Tuesday night's symposium, "U.S. Immigration Policy for the 21st Century". With active participation from the audience, the panel discussed issues ranging from how the U.S. policy addresses illegal immigration and refugee migration, and the general economic impact of migrants. Panelists included retired Democratic congressman Romano "Ron" Mazzoli, immigration economist George Borjas, and Fletcher visiting Associate Professor Karen Jacobsen. Tufts economics professor Anna Hardman organized the day's events and moderated the evening panel. The panel discussion was held in a fashion similar to a presidential debate, with each panelist addressing the audience of about forty people regarding personal experiences, beliefs, potential and real conflicts of immigration policy. The ineffectiveness and shortcomings of immigration policy can be traced back to a problem of public apathy towards immigration policy, according to panelists Borjas and Mazzoli. "Most people don't want to address immigration policy," Borjas said. Mazzoli said that ambivalence from the public -- often divided and undecided about the costs and benefits from migration -- on the issues of immigration and refugee movement makes it difficult for the government to act properly. This ambivalence towards the issue of immigration may be due to a lack of truly definitive concepts of immigrants and Americans. "What does it mean to be an American? At one time, it was clear cut: it was someone who spoke English and who was from the North or the East," Mazzoli said. "Nowadays, we have to figure what America is. Is it someone who speaks English? Is it someone who speaks Spanish?" Even as the American identity has become more muddled, Jacobsen said that the definition of a refugee has become increasingly convoluted. The South African native said that the definition of "refugee" is constantly shifting along with the global political climate. "Before 1986, a refugee was a person who came from a communist country," she said. This changed after the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, Jacobsen said. According to Jacobsen, with these changes in immigrant/refugee criteria, asylum policies are becoming increasingly restrictive with specific policies regarding certain peoples. The Coast Guard, for example, deports Haitian refugees if they do not plead asylum at the time of interception. Jacobsen focuses heavily on issues of refugee and migration in her research. Mazzoli spearheaded and co-authored the Immigration Reform and Control Act. Recognising the necessity of migrant workers, the act gave amnesty to over three million illegal aliens. On the other hand, the act also aimed to control illegal immigration into the country by threatening sanctions against employers who knowingly hired illegal immigrants and by more strictly enforcing border controls. Speaking 18 years after the 1986 immigration reform was passed, Mazzoli admitted that the acted did not perform as well as hoped. Mazzoli said that his team had underestimated how difficult to be to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border when designing the act. He cited the lack of will to enforce the sanctions and a porous border to have been the main obstacles. "[Now] we know that when we have a 2,000-mile border, it can't be defended," Mazzoli said. "There will be seepage." Borjas said that the 1986 legislation can be improved upon even now, but warned that "it will cost a few billion dollars to control the battle [over illegal immigration]." The Bush administration's recent immigration proposal would once again grant amnesty to illegal workers currently in the country. The policy, which would give illegal immigrants the chance to gain legal status as temporary workers, elicited mixed responses from the panelists. "I am happy that the Bush administration is thinking of some way to set up a systematic way to deal with these issues," Mazzoli said. Borjas gives Bush credit for facing the inevitable issue of immigration, but said says that simply granting amnesty to illegal aliens currently in the United States fails to address the undocumented immigration in the long-run. "I don't think it is right to ignore the future problem to solve a past problem," he said. In regard to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, however, Mazzoli said he felt that American response was excessive. "Ironically enough, we will wake up one day and say 'Oh God, we made a great mistake'," Mazzoli said. The panel was the second portion of Tuesday's event on U.S. immigration. Earlier in the afternoon, Borjas gave a more economically-focused talk entitled "Legal and Illegal Immigration: An Economist's View."
