On Ending Affirmative Action

Have you heard about the new comprehensive immigration reform bill that was just introduced in the U.S. Senate? There really isn't much newsworthy about it--more border security, a temporary worker program, and a path to legal residency after paying a $5000 fine.

For those who are quick to call this "amnesty," know that people are able to plead guilty to charges against them every day in order to receive a reduced sentence. Most Americans, for example, have opted for traffic school over paying the entire speeding fine. We don't call this amnesty, but rather, judicial discretion. I have still to be convinced that some "law and order" conservatives aren't crying wolf in order to cover up an unsubtle fear of foreigners. It was Mr. Border Security himself, Sen. Tom Tancredo, who compared Miami to a "third world country" and suggested that blowing up Mecca would be a "good deterrent" against terrorism.

The most interesting feature of the bill, in my opinion, is the introduction of a new merit-based immigration policy. Instead of allowing potential immigrants only to be sponsored by potential employers or family members, they will also be judged according to the number of merit "points" they accumulate. Fluency in English earns big points, along with skills in areas of high demand. Tech and research companies and universities would benefit immediately from the changes.

So who are the losers in this bill? Contrary to some popular rhetoric, legal immigrants will not be harmed. Why? Legal immigrants never had to worry about hiring a coyote or making a dangerous crossing because the law already provided everything they needed to get across. They had family or some other connection in the U.S. Most of those who cross the border illegally do so in order to establish the beachhead necessary for legal immigration. There is no way under the current system for most illegals to come legally. So now, under the new bill, holes in the border will be sealed, and the incentive to breach those holes will be reduced.

Those who have the most to lose from this legislation are unskilled workers and underperforming students in the U.S. Remember when 9/11 happened and all visas to the U.S. were put on hold? Many graduate programs in elite schools were on the verge of shutting down. Why? The majority of their students were foreign nationals and could not return to the country. Still today, U.S. students struggle to compete with their foreign counterparts in school and in the work force. More students around the world are mastering the English language with an aim to study in the West. All of a sudden, the competition just got harder.

Current immigration policy represents a subtle form of discrimination whose drawbacks are somewhat similar to affirmative action. Schools and employers are cheated out of the best possible candidates due to a bureaucratic technicality. Our global marketplace does not allow for the antiquated notion that quotas must be reserved for the children of U.S. taxpayers. Universities and companies want to succeed more than they want to discriminate.

Do you see the irony here? Grand ideals of hard work and progress propelled the U.S. to enrich itself beyond its wildest imaginations. Now the children of these self-made men and women have listened to the siren song of affluence just long enough to be bored with the rat race altogether. They've passed the baton to those who have the discipline to run. After all, why run when there are so many good shows on television to watch? Why work hard when the system has got your back? But the same system that coddles the affluent acts as a giant magnet attracting those who simply want to survive. And they know how to run well. For the rich, the handwriting is on the wall, but it will have to wait until the next commercial break.

But wait, isn't it unfair for immigrants to take our jobs? Yes, stealing is unfair. But there is no stealing happening here. White kids can't "steal" opportunities from minorities when they are accepted on merit alone. Neither can foreign students or immigrants "steal" opportunities from citizens if they are welcomed on the basis of merit and not nationality or having the right connections.

This logic is distinctly American, of course. Most other societies value who you know and where you've come from a lot more than what you can do. Those who seek to keep foreigners away have nothing to blame but the very system that made them so rich in the first place.