Gary Becker has an excellent post on American immigration policy. It’s refreshing to see a discussion on immigration that doesn’t focus exclusively on illegal immigration. Becker correctly notes that the United States should increase the number of legal immigrants accepted and that employers who exploit illegals should bear the brunt of the punishment, not the immigrants who, for the most part, came here to feed their families. America is a nation of immigrants and our policy ought to reflect that.

The case for expanded legal immigration recognizes the great benefits this country has received from immigrants throughout our history. …[T]his relatively unpopulated nation can readily and productively absorb many more immigrants. Skilled immigrants in particular should receive high priority- they do not under present policies- because they add highly valued skills that are well paid in the above ground sector, and they contribute much more in taxes than they receive in government benefits from Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and other government programs. In addition, skilled immigrants commit little crime, they have law-abiding and generally high achieving children, and they supply various services that otherwise might be outsourced to countries like India and China.

Becker also offers concrete suggestions for limiting illegal immigration that I think make a lot of sense.

I favor reducing the benefits available to illegal immigrants, which means denying them access to most health, education, and other benefits.
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It would be desirable to increase significantly the number of unskilled persons accepted each year, along with the greater increase in skilled individuals accepted, although neither group should be eligible for entitlement benefits for several years. This policy would reduce the number of unskilled persons who want to come here illegally, but it would not eliminate the problem.
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Although the 1986 immigration law barred employers from hiring illegal immigrants, it has not been much enforced because employers argued they were victims of forged social security cards, green cards, and other ID’s that would certify employees were in this country legally. An identity card that is hard to duplicate and that would have to be checked by employers at a central clearing house before hiring someone would be the only really effective method of reducing forgery to minor levels. That would have to be combined with sizeable monetary fines for employers who hired employees without the required documentation. These fines should rise with the number of illegal aliens hired, and with whether an employer was a repeat offender.

Reasonable people may disagree about the feasibiliy of these ideas but I challenge any would-be critic to comes up with better ones. In a political culture characterized by meaningless rhetoric and scare tactics, Becker’s post is a welcome change.