By: Ally Bolour, Esq. Bolour Immigration Group
Since business school and forever before that, I’ve been told, and do believe for the most part, that government regulations can be bad because they stifle competition, drag down industry, serve as a hidden tax, and are actually redundant since markets eventually self regulate. At the same time, my 22-year career as an immigration attorney has taught me that our representatives in DC charged with governing our capitalist form of government consistently disregard these simple truths in their entirety when dealing with immigration law and policy.
Most current immigration-related regulations do indeed stifle competition and drag down industry. Extremely talented people in the world are already going elsewhere to innovate, work, and ultimately pay taxes. According to Forbes, Indian tech workers for example are flocking to Canada (https://www.economist.com/business/2018/12/22/indian-technology-talent-is-flocking-to-canada.) A 2017 National Federation of Independent Business survey of small business owners said the greatest problem created by regulations is cost of compliance which according to the Small Business Administration can in the thousands of dollars per annum.
Also, markets do self regulate to a large degree. If our economy could not absorb new immigrants they’d simply go elsewhere – by themselves – without the need for our very expensive deportation machine. It’s no surprise then that despite the rhetoric from Washington regarding the (non-existence) national emergency at our southern border, net migration from Mexico is virtually zero to negative.
Over the past several decades, under both Democratic and Republican majorities, one of the simplest challenges of our time has turned into the most entrenched enigmas that none of of our successive governments have been able to solve. Immigration, the lifeline for America, a nation of immigrants, has turned into a political football that keeps getting thrown around – and somehow never reaches the end zone. Politicians rise and fall on its many promises and faux complexities. On a daily basis, acronyms and catch phrases like #kidsInCages, #NotOneMore, #NoWall, #DACA, and #TPS start trending on Twitter and other social media platforms before quickly flittering away. In the meantime, We The People and tax payers are still waiting for any measure of reform of our broken immigration laws.
With a new crop of legislators in place in Washington, I am looking forward to once again be traveling to Washington DC in April to continue advocating for reform of our immigration laws. If you can pay your own way, please join me and hundreds of other advocates for this important annual trip. If we persist, they will yield. That is what I’ve always believed.