The Economic Stimulus of Immigration Reform

Immigration attorney Richard T. Herman and journalist Robert L. Smith write that tapping into the entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants and easing the naturalization process would offer great economic benefits for struggling parts of the country, like Rust Belt cities.

"The rancor over illegals, Herman and Smith argue, obscures the fact that legal immigrants make up the bulk of America's foreign-born population. Rather than agonize over youth scaling Mexican border walls, they'd have us focus on the thousands of would-be immigrants standing in consulate lines around the world–and often forced to wait years if not decades to enter the U.S. legally.

That queue of would-be legal migrants, they argue, encompasses 'brilliant engineers, high-technology specialists, investors and merchants almost certain to become entrepreneurs.' If our antiquated immigration laws didn't so often and needlessly exclude them, many more would be arriving to stoke economic activity 'in whatever part of America they land.'"