On Monday, March 22nd, Doris Meissner spoke at Aquinas College as part of the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan's "Great Decisions 2007 Foreign Policy Lecture Series." Meissner is currently a Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), an "independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank... dedicated to the study of the movement worldwide." At the Migration Policy Institute, Meissner serves as a director of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future and works on issues pertaining to the United States' immigration Policy. In addition to this post, Meissner served as Commissioner of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Her work at the INS was touted in the lecture program:
In 1993, President Clinton tapped her [Meissner] to serve as Commissioner of the INS, then a bureau in the US Department of Justice. She held the post through 2000. Her accomplishments included reforming the nation's asylum system; creating new strategies for managing US borders; improving naturalization and other services for immigrants; shaping new responses to migration and humanitarian emergencies; strengthening cooperation and joint initiatives with Mexico, Canada, and other countries; and managing the growth that double the agency's personnel and tripled its budget.
However, during the time that Meissner served as Commissioner of the INS, there were major changes in immigration policy, including harsh new legal measures as well as the physical militarization of the border. Writing in No One is Illegal, Mike Davis and Justin Akers Chacon argued that "the gravest consequences of border militarization" have occurred since then president Bill Clinton launched Operation Gate Keeper in 1994. Clinton bragged in 1996 of increasing "...increased our Border Patrol by over 35%; deployed underground sensors, infrared night scopes, and encrypted radios; built miles of new fences; and installed massive amounts of new lighting" as part of an effort designed to reduce immigration. While Meissner was Commissioner of the INS, Amnesty International found numerous "human rights concerns" ranging from degrading treatment of those detained by the INS to a lack of accountability by INS officials. Additionally, over 4,000 immigrants have been killed since the enactment of Operation Gate Keeper in 1994.
During Meissner's tenure as Commissioner of the INS, Congress passed and president Clinton signed two harsh immigration laws--the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). The two measures expand the grounds for deporting legal permanent residents who commit a crime deemed to be an aggravated felony by the INS, restricted the power of judges to suspend deportation, increased to ten years the period that an out-of-status individual had to live in the United States to claim relief from deportation, required individuals to prove that deportation with a permanent bar on reentry (ten-year bar in non-aggravated felony cases) would cause "exceptional and extremely unusual hardship" to a lawful permanent resident of the United States, and expanded the use of the prison system by immigration. According to the book Not a Dime's Worth of Difference, the 1996 Effective Death Penalty Act allowed the INS to deport immigrants without due process. The book cites Ira Glasser, head of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as saying that "When historians write the story of civil liberties in the 20th century...they will say that the Clinton administration adopted an agenda that has everything to do with weakening civil rights and nothing to do with combating terrorism."
Interestingly, the origins of the 1996 legislation are on the far right according to author Deepa Fernandes. In Targeted: Homeland Security and the Business of Immigration, Fernandes writes that the legislation originated with the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Fernandes cites Doris Meissner as saying that Cordia Strom, a woman who was part of an effort by FAIR to infiltrate the congressional debate on immigration, wrote the 1996 immigration law. This is particularly problematic because FAIR is a group that has ties to a variety of racist and far right groups. Its founder, John Tanton, is a resident of Michigan and is one of the major funders and original founders of the contemporary anti-immigrant movement. Tanton's organizations, including FAIR, US English, NumbersUSA, and a host of others have sought to push the debate on immigration to the right while making alliances with racist and white supremacist groups. For years, FAIR accepted money from the racist Pioneer Fund (which funded efforts to "prove" that African-Americans are genetically inferior to Caucasians) and has had staff members that have worked with the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens. Memos that came out in the 1980s showed Tanton's racism and contained numerous racist references to Latinos, while Tanton has published racist books and pamphlets through his Social Contract Press.
However, Meissner did not address the immigration legislation passed while she was Commissioner of the INS and instead delivered a three-pronged talk containing what she views as the "key facts" of the debate, the idea that the immigration system is "broken," and the prospects for "fixing" the system. Meissner began by asserting that there is a "cautiously positive feeling that there will be "real progress" on immigration by passing a new immigration law. She attributed this to the fact that both President Bush and the new Democratic majorities want to pursue the issue of immigration reform.
However, this will still be difficult according to Meissner, as much of the debate is based on falsehoods and misinformed opinions. Meissner argued that the United States is currently in one of four periods of large-scale immigration in its history, with the other three being the "original peopling," the "westward expansion," and the rise of manufacturing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In all of these cases, the United States was undergoing a fundamental economic transformation and is at the present shifting from a manufacturing to knowledge-based economy. At the same time, Meissner argues that the United States is undergoing a major shift in demographics with society getting older at the same time the number of jobs produced by the economy is growing. According to Meissner, the economy is growing faster than the society is producing young workers and consequently foreign-born populations are necessary to fulfill the jobs. Along with the growth in jobs, there is a significant "skills gap" in the United States, with 11 out of the 15 fastest growing jobs requiring high school diplomas or less. Meissner argued that most native-born children in the United States have at least a high school diploma and are in college and are not aspiring to the "low-scale" jobs, which are currently being filled by foreign-born workers. A similar gap also exists with "high-scale" jobs, with the native-born population in the United States not entering high technology fields and foreign-born people stepping in to fill those gaps.
These economic conditions have changed the experience of the average American worker, and within the workforce in the United States there is "deep anxiety" about globalization, foreign competition, and immigration according to Meissner. However, she argues that research shows that immigration is not displacing American workers but is instead benefiting the economy. Nevertheless, it has become a "major flashpoint" in the public. "Illegal" immigration is seen primarily in terms of people crossing the United States-Mexico border when in reality around 40% of "illegal" immigrants were admitted legally and have overstayed their visas. Across the spectrum, the majority of employers pay taxes into social security and pay minimum wage, while the "predominate pattern is compliance with laws" and not "exploitation," said Meissner. Immigrants are also integrated into their local communities and in many cases are revitalizing decaying urban areas and saving rural areas. Immigration has expanded across the country as well, with immigration becoming a phenomenon that occurs across the United States.
Meissner argued that the current immigration system is "broken." She argued that "first and foremost" the term broken refers to the fact that there are 12 million people living "illegally" in the United States on a permanent basis. Immigration laws are currently setup in such a way that there are few legal options for immigrants to enter the country with the only exception being for those potential immigrants who already have family living within the United States. This system is problematic according to Meissner because, as she outlined earlier in her talk, immigrants are still needed to fill some jobs. Meissner asserted that when there was the last major change in these laws in 1990, the economy was "very different" and the number of slots for unskilled immigrants was lowered to 5,000 per year. Similarly, the "temporary" immigration system is broken with the current H1B visas being used improperly to as a way for high-skilled workers in high-tech industries to come in before adjusting to green card status. At the same time, Meissner points to a "vacuum at the federal level" in which the federal government has failed to act and has prompted local municipalities and states to pass highly punitive measures. The enforcement system is also broken, with money going towards policing the United States-Mexico border even though the "illegal" population has increased by three-fold while spending has increased five-fold. Employers are violating immigration laws as well because the laws are weak and unenforceable and because there are not enough legal workers to fill jobs.
To fix the system, Meissner proposes that an entirely new visa system be enacted. This is beyond the current scope of proposed immigration legislation that focuses primarily on illegal immigration. Instead, Meissner advocates legislation that would incorporate strong border enforcement, more serious and effective laws governing the actions of employers (ex: a database to allow employers to determine legal status), and provisions that will allow for a constant flow of legal immigrants to fuel economic growth. Meissner raised the issue of amnesty, arguing that while many undocumented immigrants have broken laws, they have broken laws that were broken. She also argued that the "English language is absolutely essential" and that new immigrants must also believe in civic values such as a belief in opportunity, the rule of law, and the work ethic.
